Oh noes anime essay!

[minakichan]

Normally I wouldn't ask help on this, but I'm kind of reaching the "zomg screwed" threshold.

So I have to write this 7-8 page final research paper for my anime class.

Normally this would be full of yays for me, but I've got a really bad case of writer's block. I kind of just don't know what to write about. It's a research paper and our prof's an anthropologist, so I can't really write a narrative analysis (God knows I'd just do Monster or Death Note in such a case, har har). We have some topics to choose from:

Gender and Desire
Collaborative Creativity
Technology, Mecha and Worldview
Globan Japan and Anime

But I feel like these are very broad and it's hard to kind of pinpoint something worthwhile to talk about. I've been juggling some ideas-- the one I've started writing on is about the transnational exchange of anime and how international industry, creators, and fans react to and create based on Japanese anime (e.g. Taiwanese dramas, OEL manga, dubbing adaption, w/e), but I don't think I can really present anything new on this topic that hasn't been said before or isn't simple commentary on examples of this phenomenon. Other ideas I've juggled with include gender and gender role transformation in anime and fan creative culture, but I feel like there's already a lot of scholastic material on these issues....

Ideas? They = muchly appreciated! D: My lit review (and therefore my topic) is due next Tuesday.

[Lady Kenshin]

Ranma 1/2 would be good for gender issues and roles.

They have anime classes? What school do you go to?

[Raiden no Kishi]

What do you want to do? Do that, regardless of whether or not someone else has written about it. No one has done it from your perspective.

.rai//

[minakichan]

They have anime classes? What school do you go to?

I know that University of Texas, Tufts, Northwestern, Wellesley and MIT have anime classes. There are actually a lot more, but I can't think of them ATM.

What do you want to do? Do that, regardless of whether or not someone else has written about it. No one has done it from your perspective.

I think the problem is more like I don't think I have anything to contribute in a lot of these fields. For example, the one that I was thinking of writing about would most likely just involve me presenting examples of transnational anime and giving commentary about how they AREN'T REALLY JAPANESE LOL, and I just don't think I'm saying anything that people haven't heard before. I just don't have any new ideas on it. The only difference I'd be providing is the set of examples, and that bugs me.

For example, I've read a ton of articles and books about doujinshi and yaoi. They come from a wide range of sources, and their authors' perspectives vary widely, but most of them seem to say the same things. I think it's more because of the topic than anything else... or rather, all these authors seem to have similar experiences on this subject...

[ADXC]

Man that's nice, having an anime class. Id take it.

What does she mean by Collaborative Creativity anyway? Like how many people it takes to make the anime that you see before you? Or collaborative creativity seen in anime?

And what about Gender and Desire? Does that mean if you a specific gender your desires may vary from the ones of the opposite gender? Well you could do Death Note. I mean just think about Misa and Light if that's the case. Yeah, Im not a college student so that is my superficial "high school" thought.

Don't know about the other ones.

[MasterDias]

Yeah, I'm pretty vague on what "Gender and Desire" and "Collaborative Creativity" is supposed to mean here too...
Those crazy college professors...

I don't think you need to find something "new" per se. You just need to formulate a decent argument/make good points/etc. That's my strategy for getting A's and B's. That might sound unorginal and I don't know your professor, but I'd think it would be sort of unfair of him to expect something truly mindblowing of his students. You aren't writing a book or doing a dissertation or anything(At least, I assume you aren't )

As an aside, if it was me, I would probably do the technology/mecha one.

[Raiden no Kishi]

I think the problem is more like I don't think I have anything to contribute in a lot of these fields. For example, the one that I was thinking of writing about would most likely just involve me presenting examples of transnational anime and giving commentary about how they AREN'T REALLY JAPANESE LOL, and I just don't think I'm saying anything that people haven't heard before. I just don't have any new ideas on it. The only difference I'd be providing is the set of examples, and that bugs me.

For example, I've read a ton of articles and books about doujinshi and yaoi. They come from a wide range of sources, and their authors' perspectives vary widely, but most of them seem to say the same things. I think it's more because of the topic than anything else... or rather, all these authors seem to have similar experiences on this subject...

99.999999999% of college research papers are this. Don't worry about it. Generally, what professors look for in research papers are that you can think critically about a subject and do proper research. You're not expected to be on the bleeding edge of academia.

.rai//

[minakichan]

Protip: my prof is a guy XD

A) Gender and Desire: What role can anime play in showing us new ways of understanding gender and desire? In a variety of the readings and films, the issues of men and women (boys and girls) and their desires has become a flashpoint for thinking about the impact of anime. For example, what do you make of “moe”? What about gender-bending characters in anime, or in fan practices such as cosplay? How do you react to theories discussed in the readings? For example, is Hosoda right that the younger generation has a different way of thinking about the future, and what motivates people (see “Future Anime” in my book) or does Azuma’s thinking about “database” society alter

B) Collaborative Creativity: If anime is more than what happens on screen, how can we best understand the collaborative creativity that spreads across media forms and types of creators, from animators, to manga artists, to toy makers, to con and club organizers, to fans, and beyond? What does it really mean to say “creativity is collaborative” and how might this influence our understanding of the workings of the economy, or culture, or both? Does collaborative creativity mean we need to reconsider the proper place of copyright, pricing, and distribution rights in media, and if so, what are the principles that should guide this future system?

It goes on, but I kind of didn't want to copy the entire contents of the assignment up ^^

I don't think you need to find something "new" per se. You just need to formulate a decent argument/make good points/etc. That's my strategy for getting A's and B's. That might sound unorginal and I don't know your professor, but I'd think it would be sort of unfair of him to expect something truly mindblowing of his students. You aren't writing a book or doing a dissertation or anything(At least, I assume you aren't )

Yeaaaaaah I know. Honestly... IIIII go to a tech school and engineers can't write papers LOLOLOL (>_>), so the profs here pretty much grade papers even easier than they did in my HS. I'm not worried about the grade. The thing is, my professor is like, 150% made of awesome and I really love the class, so I don't want to just do the minimum required to get an A. With what I have so far, I could write a decent paper anyway, but I kind of want to write something really fascinating that hasn't been discussed academically much because I want to make people think; I don't want to write an unoriginal paper that doesn't present anything new.

For example, the last paper I wrote for another class was on the commercialization of anime fanart in the United States. There's a bit of published academic research on doujinshi, but pretty much none on stuff like this in the US. I had a total blast doing the research and writing that because of this, but it was hard to think of a topic!

Well, I guess it's a tall order to ask random people on the internet to help on something like this...

[Raiden no Kishi]

Well, I guess it's a tall order to ask random people on the internet to help on something like this...

Ouch?

Why don't you talk to your professor about it?

.rai//

[Lochaber Axe]

[quote="minakichan (post: 1271254)"]Protip: my prof is a guy XD



It goes on, but I kind of didn't want to copy the entire contents of the assignment up ^^



Yeaaaaaah I know. Honestly... IIIII go to a tech school and engineers can't write papers LOLOLOL (>_>), so the profs here pretty much grade papers even easier than they did in my HS. I'm not worried about the grade. The thing is, my professor is like, 150%]

Forgive me but this just makes me laugh. I write a research paper on Renaissance Necromancy and you get the chance to write one with elements of "Moe" in it.

What's the professors name by the way? I might pick up a book from him then.

I searched around with "Anime Studies" which seems to be what the emergent academic field is and I got some information.

http://www.corneredangel.com/amwess/
http://www.cjas.org/~leng/amrc.htm

You might already have these from him but every little helps.

EDIT: Oh and here is Duke University.

http://library.duke.edu/research/subject/guides/japan/index.html

Has more bibliographies about Anime and Manga but also general Japanese studies as well.