Japanese Popular Culture

Catalog description

Today, Japanese manga, anime, J-pop, and film have a global audience. But these exports can only be truly understood in light of longstanding domestic anxieties about sex, violence, gender, and "the kids these days." More recent concerns about the country's declining birthrate, weakening geopolitical position, and vulnerability to natural and anthropogenic disaster also deeply influence Japanese media products. This course explores some of these anxieties through critical examinations of manga, anime, video games, television, music, and fashion in Japan. Film screenings include work by directors Kon Satoshi, Otomo Katsuhiro, Takahata Isao, Miyazaki Hayao; Itami Juzo, and Takita Yojiro; manga excerpts include work by Tezuka Osamu, Urasawa Naoki, and Yazawa Ai. Secondary readings include scholarship in anthropology, history, sociology, literature, film studies and religious studies.