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.