An Ancient History of British Weebery - Minamicon 26

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!

Slides are available here if anyone wants them!

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.

Check out Carlo Bernhardi's Anime Nostalgia Facility UK here.

Back to the Future Part III © Robert Zemeckis/Amblin Entertainment/Universal Pictures, 1990
Topsy-Turvy © Mike Leigh/Thin Man Films, 1999
Clips used under fair dealing for the purpose of non-commercial research or study.

Manga-lled by the Media: Misrepresentations of Anime and Manga in the British Press - Minamicon 25

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!

Eurotrash © Rapido TV 1993-2004
Anime! © Sci-FI Channel 1997
Clips used under fair dealing for the purpose of non-commercial research or study.

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Fascinating Fandom: The Detailed Demographics of UK Anime Fans - Minamicon 24 (2018)

The next panel I ran after FSN2017 was at Minamicon 24, in March 2018. It presents a lot of the same data as was given in the FSN paper, but expands upon it to make the most of the time slot. As with my previous Minamicon panel, this ran on Sunday morning to another packed room but with markedly fewer hungover people and me feeling a lot less sick with nerves! It's just as informal and irreverent as the previous year though!

There are subtitles on this video but after the first 20 minutes or so they revert to Youtube's automatically generated ones, which aren't the best things ever due to audience participation and my own bizarre accent. I'm in the process of updating them to be more accurate but I haven't had a lot of time recently! I'll post an update when they're ready.

The State of Anime Fandom in the UK - Minamicon 23 (2017)

Continuing my updates of panels and talks that I've run in the past few years is "The State of Anime Fandom in the UK", a panel I ran at Minamicon 23 in March 2017. It was the first panel I ran following the closure of my quantitative research into anime fandom in the UK - from March 2016 until February 2017, I ran an online questionnaire that was designed to give me a snapshot of UK anime fandom, looking at fan demographics, preferences, entry points into fandom, and what other aspects of Japanese culture fans were interested in.

The panel presents my results in very broad terms as I didn't have time to show a full meta-analysis, but there were some interesting results nonetheless. The tone is also very informal, as it was held on the Sunday morning of the con when many people were a bit hungover and I was feeling a bit unwell due to nerves!

Many thanks to Batale for filming the panel and putting it up online.