While posting my most recent Minamicon video I realised that I hadn't posted the paper I presented at the FSN conference last year! In part this was because the sound level was so low I didn't want to post it without having some decent subtitles on it, but also just because I had a very busy end to the year with the eventual completion and submission of my thesis plus a job change, and it just slipped between the cracks unfortunately!
FSN2019 was held at the University of Portsmouth in June 2019. I took part in a panel about fandom archiving and my paper was about the motivations for and process of setting up a fandom archive, including the questions that arise in the process and about one's competing responsibilities as both an academic and a fan.
Minamicon 26 took place this past weekend, and as ever I hosted a panel that explored a facet of my research. This time I thought it would be fun to look back at the ways British people responded to Japanese art and culture from the mid-1800s, following the end of Japan's isolation from the rest of the world, and consider whether the people we call "weebs" today are really all that new a phenomenon.
I had a smaller room this year but it didn't seem to discourage anyone - the room was packed once again and all the feedback so far has been good! It was quite a fun topic both for me to present and for people to listen to, though advance warning on the video below: there are quite a few bits that are quite cringey.
Unfortunately our camera's memory ran out before the end so I don't have the full Q&A, but the rest of the material works well by itself!
With special thanks to Alistair Jacklin for providing me with extra information about early cinema screenings that filled in some more of the UK anime fandom timeline.
Minamicon has been and gone for another year, and it was a great weekend as ever. I was presenting a panel once again, and this time, rather than go through my demographic research again, I decided to look at a different aspect of UK anime fandom history - the British press, its handling of anime and manga since organised anime fandom emerged in the UK in the '90s, and how the wider culture in the UK at the time shaped UK anime fandom.
There was an unfortunate clash in the timetable and I was up against a very popular event (one which I'd have liked to have gone to myself, in fact!), but the room was still packed, the audience was responsive, and the feedback has been really good!
For the first time ever, I've had to include content warnings, which I'll replicate here: material in the presentation includes racism, sexual content, violence, horror, and abduction/murder, including that of a child. None of these are dealt with in great or unnecessary detail, but they are important features.
If you want to see more of the videos used during the "cat breaks", check out Cream Heroes on YouTube!
Slides are available here for anyone who wants them!
A bit of a shameless plug here (albeit an indirectly shameless one)! Last week the latest Manga UK Podcast went live and featured plenty of interesting discussion, most notably (from my perspective) about the ways in which Manga Entertainment and anime fandom - and anime itself - have changed over the years. Here's the shameless plug: I get a name check for the paper I presented at the Contemporary Japanese Media Cultures symposium at UEA a couple of weeks ago. Hooray!
Go check the podcast out, for it is quite excellent.
A video of my paper from UEA should hopefully be online soon.
