Final Project Final Project Final Project

I am definitely interested in my topic (transmedia in Japanese pop culture), and certainly invested in the research.

But, boy, is researching it hard...


I've found one article on transmedia...only one!  I've found several on manga and anime alone, but no others about how the two relate, nor any on how video games relate to manga and anime.

In fact, the article about transmedia on Japan actually cites Jenkin's :D

I've found plenty of other topics, though, that I can easily use as transitions for my many examples.

To list a few examples I plan on using:

Kingdom Hearts and transmedia between video games and manga
Final Fantasy (it's mentioned in a book I found in the library about how there's a lot of anime on it too, but only briefly...there's also manga)

Fullmetal Alchemist (it has two anime series, one related to the manga, one kind of goes off in its own direction)

When They Cry (higurashi no naku koro ni) (it started off as a DS game, then adapted into an anime, then a manga.  One of my articles talks about how transmedia often deepens characters and their relationships with readers, and this one is a fine example.  The manga has elements in it that the anime doesn't have)

Hayao Miyazaki and his Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind movie (produced in 1984).  An excerpt from a book in Google Scholar (yes, I looked there...I was desperate for more sources!) talked about the original manga version, and how he drew it so complicated so no one could animate it


It's great to be a manga/anime/Japan enthusiast.  Half the stuff I'll use for this project is stuff I've found out by reading a lot of manga....

Decline in Newspapers

I never really thought I'd care for the decline in newspapers and print media...until today.

Way back when I actually got the newspaper (until my parents cancelled it because they would just find their news online), all I would read were the Sunday comics.

And now, I've developed a passion for comics and have been drawing my own for several years now.

And with the decline in papers, that means less comics in print publications.

And I won't be able to publish comics in printed newspapers, nor will any avid cartoonist.

It's a sad day for us all.

L

Transmedia in Japanese Pop-culture

Many popular anime in Japan usually has at least 3 other parts to it:  manga, video games, and eventually (if it's really popular) a novel (or series of novels).

For example:

1)  Kingdom Hearts (produced by Square Enix) started out as a console game.  There are two console games: Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II.  However, there is a Gameboy game (I believe SP) that happens between the first and second console games timeline: Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.  If you haven't played, or heard about its story line, you won't know what the second game is talking about.  However, not only is Chain of Memories a game, but it also was published as a manga.

Then there's another DS game: Kingdom Hearts: 365 days/2 (365 days over 2).  This one has also been recently published as a manga.  This story tells the story from another characters' point of view (who first appeared in Kingdom Hearts II).

2) Fullmetal Alchemist started off as a manga, then was serialized and created as an anime.  However, the anime eventually caught up with the manga (which was not finished at the time), and then just kept going (creating an alternate timeline from the manga).  The manga wasn't finished until after the anime.  Then, they created a second anime series; Fullmetal Alchemist:  Brotherhood.  This one tells the story line of the manga.

It also has various video games and several movies (that also stem off of the first anime series), and is one of the most popular stories to ever be created (the complete box set of the first series was first released for over $600 dollars.  Not even kidding.  I was actually in Japan when they released it, and I was shocked when I saw the advertisement).

Several manga and anime have the same counterparts, some start as an anime, some start as a video game, etc.

The Internet and Copyright in Japanese Pop-culture

Manga is a piece of Japan's heart.  I'm not even kidding.  It's practically referenced everywhere.  It's a part of Japan's history, present, and future.

And in recent years, Japanese pop-culture has come to America.  Animations and graphic novels made in America use the manga or anime style.

But then you have the stuff that originated in Japan, and the large numbers of people reading Japanese-born manga online.

Since most of Japan's manga have not been published in America, and most avid readers can't read Japanese, readers have gathered to form multiple communities for the sole purpose of translating manga into (for the most part) English.

These groups of people involve translators and editors (people who are skilled in photoshop and can remove Japanese text, edit the coloring to make it look like the original printed version, and place the English translation into speech bubbles).  Manga online is often referred to as "scanlations".

What these communities are doing is technically illegal, but no one really tries to stop them until a Japanese manga has been serialized and about to be published in America.

Now if American publishers were to shut down these sites, thousands of readers would be pissed (myself included).  Manga in America is over a year behind it's original Japanese counterpart.  Whereas, online scanlations edit, translate, and release chapters the day after it has been released in Japan.  Much, much faster.

Therefore, many scanlator communities and publishers have reached an agreement: once a new volume has been published in America, the scanlators take down the related chapters in that volume from their site.

CD's to MP3's

The article "Music in the Age of Free Distribution:  MP3 and Society" also mentioned that CD's reproduce sound using bumps and grooves, but the MP3 is purely digital.  That means the CD had both bumps and grooves and the ability to reproduce sound digitally even before the MP3 player was invented.

Unless the world had a secret MP3 we didn't even know about when the walkman and CD's came out.

Could've been a business tactic.  Make people buy the walkman, but have the MP3 player stored in mass security, then release it so people buy that too.

Bumps and grooves from music boxes to CD's

CD's according to the article we read for today, "Music in the Age of Free Distribution:  MP3 and Society", mentioned that CD's and older formats of music reproduction produced sound using bumps and grooves.

The first thing I thought of was something not mentioned in the article that used this method:  music boxes. My mom is a fan of antique's, and she once showed me how music boxes produced sound.  There are little holes in music boxes placed at increments that would produce sound.  The closer the holes are to each other, the more sound that is produced faster (like eighth or sixteenth notes).

Magic keyboards that play music on its own when you put a coin in also uses this method.

DRM of iTunes

I did some research on DRM (Digital Rights Management) in iTunes songs.  I managed to find the iTunes terms of agreement and found the part about DRM.

It made sense for a while, but now I'm all confused again....I read something about iTunes downloaded songs being allowed on 5 computers and 20 devices, then there was something else about unlimited amount of devices and 5 computers...damn iTunes make up your mind!


Then I asked my sister what she thought it was, and she said it was that you can only have your account on a certain number of computers...

So is DRM linked to accounts or songs? :[


Look here if you wanna try to figure it out.

What I learned about Disney

Disney is great and all, but it's really starting to get a bit grabby.

1) Disney succeeded in increasing the copyright law to life of the author plus 70 years (to protect Mickey Mouse and Co. from falling into the public domain in '05).  How do we know they won't do it again in 2025?  They're gonna keep increasing the copyright law and making it harder for the creation of derivative works of every single thing under copyright.

2) Disney has started buying out everything...they've bought the muppets...Marvel....I remember when they bought Marvel...Marvel fans were freaking out that all their favorite comic movies will become frilly and cute...good thing that hasn't happened yet.


At some point you've got to think, Disney, don't you have enough?  I love you and all, but your acting like a 2 year old in the "mine" phase...

Copyright over the years

I wrote a whole paper on copyright for my English class last term.  So I did a fair amount of research over copyright throughout history.

If anyone has noticed, the copyright term has increased drastically over the last few decades.  Disney, in fact, started before copyright.  He created Steamboat Willie off of Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr.  And that is how Mickey Mouse was born, and, in fact, the whole Disney corporation.  What Disney did at the time was not illegal, because there was no copyright law.

Now, the copyright law can last the life expectancy of the author and 70 years.  So that could very well be over 100 years until something is in the public domain (and by then it could just fall off the face of the earth).  If you wanted to use works under copyright, you'd have to ask permission (good luck with that!)

Thankfully, the rise of the Internet also brought about an addition to copyright, called Creative Commons.  Someone can put the CC license on their works, making their works copyrighted, but also allows for someone to use content from it as long as they give credit.

Blog Prompt #4: Internet Filters, Yeah or Neah?

I remember when I was in high school, and a lot of students loathed the Internet filters.  They couldn't do what they went, go on social communities, surf the net, etc.

Looking back on it, however, I feel that filters are necessary in a school environment.  You don't want a student to be on a disturbing site, because everyone else around them is exposed to the site.  It also keeps students from being distracted in class.  They are forced to pay attention because Facebook is blocked.

Also, parents don't have to worry about their child using the Internet for unapproved purposes.  Since every student is under the same filter, all parents are appeased that their child will be safe from the dangers of the web in school (parents can just personalize their own computers' filters to protect their child at home).

Therefore, I approve of filters on school computers.  Kids can just keep complaining about it; nothing's gonna change! >:D

The file-sharing religion

I read Prof. Macek's blog about Sweden's new religion, file-sharing....why isn't it a religion here?


That must mean their Government can't get involved (but I'm assuming, and I don't know anything about Swedish Government, so take what I say with a grain of salt)...and here's ours, creating all these new laws to interfere with free information...

So if Pirate Bay disappears, then you're interfering with Sweden's new religion.

This makes me sad...

L

How much privacy can the government take away from us?

So I read Prof. Macek's entry on another legislation that infringes our privacy and our freedom to use the Internet however we wish...it's called H.R. 1981, and would require Internet providers to record your I.P. address and search histories, and to give all that to the Government whenever they ask...

Didn't the Government hand over the Internet to private companies YEARS ago?  So why does it look like they're trying to take it back?


Thank you Government for trying to ruin the Internet AGAIN...how long is this going to happen?  We, as American's, have a right to privacy....this new law is about to infringe on just that....

The Age of Competency in Internet Media

One of the readings in the "Generation Digital" book discussed the rise of Internet laws, and what age children are to be competent enough to distribute their private information and sign contracts online.  Since kids younger than adults (18 and over) use the Internet, the government thought they should make the legal age 13.

But is that really wise?


The government says that 13 year old teens legally can understand and sign stuff, but 13 year olds are really just kids stuck in a pubescent body.  They don't magically understand everything there is to know about legal proceedings, etc. the day they turn 13.  They act just like 12 year olds! Bratty and THINK they know everything.

13 year olds want to grow up too fast, so they end up making themselves looking ridiculous.  How can you say a 13 year old is legally competent when they go around online spelling in slang?

They're not cool.

They're not adults.

And they're not legally competent.

13 year olds are just kids making stupid decisions because they want to act grown-up.  And the government says that, legally, 13 year olds are bound by the same laws as their parents.

Blog Promt #3: Facebook, kids, and honesty in profile creation

I actually don't mind that kids under the age of 13 are creating facebooks (since most of the time, their parents are the ones who set it up for them).  What bothers me is that facebook thought they should make a law in their terms and agreements.  Obviously, most people don't read those, and therefore are unaware that they are breaking the law....if facebook is going to do that, they might as well enforce it.

For facebooks on dogs, fictional characters, etc.  I don't mind that either.  I mean, my dad had one for our dog, and it was kind of funny to see it.  Friends actually thought it was me in disguise and tried to friend me.  That didn't work!