In a new paper just published in Theory, Culture & Society, Sharon Kinsella makes the point that “Japan and neighbouring Asian states are now conjoined in a transregional visual cultural symbolic language, with relatable though not identical cultural symbolic meanings, based around animation characters and computer games”
I would argue that over the last two or so decades, the discussion around Japanese popular culture in general has similarly shifted to where even something like Japanese animation is commonly addressed as a “transnational industry“. In fact, when the journal Mechademia originally launched in 2006, it had the specific – and perhaps somewhat narrow – subtitle “An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga and Fan Arts”. This subtitle was retained through the journal’s first ten volumes, but when Mechademiareturned from a two-year hiatus in 2018, the focus was expanded to “the study of East Asian popular cultures, broadly conceived”.
And this expanded focus is now also what is behind the announcement for the Call for Papers for the 2026 Mechademia Conference – the first to be held in a specifically East Asian location!
Mechademia 2026 Traversing Trans-Asian Imaginaries: Anime, Manga, and Media Cultures National University of Singapore May 29-30, 2026
The main question around which the 2026 conference will be organized is “what does it mean to study anime, manga, and their associated media forms within and across Asian contexts?” To approach this question, Mechademia is now accepting papers, panels, and creative works on topic that relate to or involve Southeast Asia in general – and is welcoming submissions from scholars, graduate students, and industry professionals/practitioners.
All presentations must be in English, and unlike in previous years, there will not be a remote or online component. The keynote speaker for this year will be NUS Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Anthropology and Singapore Management University School of Social Sciences Visiting Fellow Dr. Beng Huat Chua.
Some potential areas to consider exploring for the conference can include:
Trans-Asian flows and circulations of anime, manga, and games
Comparative studies: Japanese, Korean, Chinese, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and global contexts
Anime and manga continue to grow in popularity and reach worldwide. And, in the process, anime and manga – and their audiences – can be the subject of certain particular and very specific kinds of publications that now exists alongside both scholarly monographs and articles on one hand and coverage in magazines, newspapers, and the online popular press on the other.
These publications take the form and format of research reports that treat anime first and foremost as an market and an industry, although some are increasingly focusing on specifically how audiences are approaching, consuming, and perceiving anime. These are generally produced by independent research companies, although some may be developed in cooperation with media outlets. Many are available free of charge, while others are accessible only through a subscription or as a one-off purchase. They can then both drive media conversation, and serve as important sources for actual scholarship. However, some, such as as those produced by Jefferies and Bernstein Research – and referenced in newspaper articles like Anime is Japan’s Next Global Champion (Wall Street Journal, October 20, 2024) and As Anime Streaming Market Booms, Netflix and Crunchyroll Dominate (Variety VIP+, March 17, 2025), are not available to outside/public users at all.
This is not a comprehensive listing of these kinds of reports, but it can serve to highlight the range of them, as well as several that have recently received significant attention.
“The findings in this global report on anime reflect data collected between October 2024 and March 2025 with 8,600 consumers across 10 countries (US, UK, Poland, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, China, Indonesia & Thailand)”
“This report provides fundamental information on the Japanese anime industry. Next to a general overview of the market, it includes detailed data on broadcasting, movies, streaming and videograms, as well as other segments, such as merchandising and cosplay.”
Statista reports are generally available for purchase at a cost of several hundred dollars, but may be accessible through both academic and public libraries.
“This report explores how anime fans watch shows, listen to music, play games, and create content as a means of deepening engagement with the franchises they love. It sets out to help entertainment companies and brands devise strategies for reaching younger consumers via anime.
Key data and insights in this report:
Anime fan penetration by age, Q4 2024, global
Anime fan and consumer average weekly hours spent performing consumer activities, Q4 2024, global
Types of anime fandom purchasing by anime fans, Q4 2024, global
A conceptual graphic of the different anime genre types
A conceptual graphic of the different types of anime fan creators”
Comparison of Otaku by Category (31 Categories) (Comparison by gender, age, occupation, annual income, marriage status, number of years for being otaku, annual consumption amount, hours spent per week on otaku activity, relationship between hours spent on otaku activities and consumption by value, daily hours spent online, most frequently watched VOD/video streaming, most frequently used social media, lifestyle/personal characteristics, and “oshi-katsu” status)
Relation between Otaku Activities and Annual Amount Spent (9 patterns)
“So what makes anime so distinct—and so magnetic? And where does the genre go from here?
To find out, Crunchyroll, the global anime brand, commissioned National Research Group (NRG), a leading global insights agency, to conduct a study exploring the values, identity markers, and fandom behaviors that set anime apart.
The results were striking. Among Gen Z, anime fandom now rivals that of major music stars and sports franchises, providing fans with a powerful sense of community and cultural connection. The message is clear: anime is no longer on the sidelines of pop culture. It’s leading the charge.
“Our latest report, Anime, Ascendant, explores the recent rise of the genre and its capacity for further growth. Drawing on insights from a study of 1,012 anime viewers aged 13-54 across the US and Japan, and leveraging data from NRG’s Franchise IQ product—a weekly tracker that measures the health of franchises across a wide variety of entertainment categories—this report offers actionable guidance for those looking to tap into the anime wave.
In this paper, you’ll find:
Cultural Exchange: How anime is bridging the gap between Eastern and Western storytelling
Representation and Diversity: The growing demand for more inclusive and diverse characters in anime
Innovative Opportunities: New ways for studios and brands to engage with anime’s passionate fan base”
“To better understand just how vast anime culture has become, Polygon surveyed more than 4,000 Americans over the age of 18 about their anime consumption habits. Working with Vox Media’s Insights and Research team and market research group The Circus, our results show that not only is anime’s popularity growing significantly with each generation, but that — among younger audiences — it’s even surpassing cultural touchstones like the NFL.
So anime is big. But how big, and in what ways? Let’s dig in.”
[Vox Media also published a separate summary of this survey]
“The anime industry has recently been growing at a high rate, reaching a market size of 2,742.2 billion JPY in 2021. It is now truly a massive industry by any measure.
Dentsu conducted a survey in July 2022 on the topics of the popularity of anime in the US and the characteristics of anime consumption especially in Gen Z, targeting Americans aged 18 to 54″
These two additional documents are published specifically as industry analyst reports, and priced to be sold accordingly – at several thousand dollars.
“The anime market is forecasted to grow by USD 21.92 billion during 2024-2029, accelerating at a CAGR of 9.4% during the forecast period. The report on the anime market provides a holistic analysis, market size and forecast, trends, growth drivers, and challenges, as well as vendor analysis covering around 25 vendors.
The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, the latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. The market is driven by high speed internet expansion fuels surge in anime video game popularity, rising penetration of smartphones, and rising popularity of media shows and growth in spending on online shows and video.
The study was conducted using an objective combination of primary and secondary information including inputs from key participants in the industry. The report contains a comprehensive market size data, segment with regional analysis and vendor landscape in addition to an analysis of the key companies. Reports have historic and forecast data.”
The global anime market size was estimated at USD 34,256.2 million in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 60,272.2 million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 9.8% from 2025 to 2030. The market is primarily driven by the rise of social media platforms, which has fostered community building among fans, allowing for greater interaction and engagement.
InTO.MANGA – Critical Paths in Manga Studies Torino, Italy January 22-24, 2026
This fall, with two leading university presses each publishing a major new scholarly monograph (Manga: A New History of Japanese Comics by Eike Exner from Yale University Press and Manga’s First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905–1989 by Andrea Horbinski from University of California Press), it’s clear that manga studies as an academic field is continuing its rapid growth and development. And now, a different university has announced plans for what going may very well become a global center for the study of Japanese comics.
And now, the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and Modern Cultures at the University of Torino (Italy) has announced that in January, it will host the inaugural symposium InTO.MANGA – Critical Paths in Manga Studies, with a stated goal of establishing a forum for debate and discussion on manga as a “form” with particular narrative, visual, and cultural dimensions. The symposium will specifically recognize manga as complex objects, and will specifically welcome multidisciplinary approaches and perspectives grounded in fields such as:
posthuman studies
medical humanities
translation studies
narrative theory
platform studies (including interplays between manga and other kinds of media)
Participants are invited to submit proposals for individuals presentations of approximately 20 minutes in length (300 words) or complete panels with up to 4 speakers to info.intomanga@gmail.com.
The deadline for submissions is September 15, and speakers will be notified by September 30.
InTO.MANGA – Critical Paths in Manga Studies is partly funded by the Japan Foundation. The symposium organizing committee is composed of Dr. Jaqueline Berndt (Stockholm University, editor of last year’s The Cambridge Companion to Manga and Anime), Marta Fanasca (University of Bologna), Paolo La Marca (University of Catania), and Gianluca Coci, Edouardo Occhionero, Asuka Ozumi, and Anna Speccio (all University of Torino).
The full Call for Papers, with additional details, follows:
When we think about how scholars typically approach Japanese animation, the approaches that come to mind right away are those that use anime as a text to analyze. Just some noteworthy recent examples include journal articles such as Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008): A cli-fi reading of Japanese anime, in Japanese Studies, and Monstrous and uncanny ecologies: The politics of anamnesis in Ergo Proxy, in Configurations, and chapters in edited essay collections like Reaffirming Japanese identity through the multiverse: A response to post-3.11 uncertainties from Your Name, in the essay collection Entering the Multiverse: Perspectives on Alternate Universes and Parallel Worlds. These kinds of approaches usually also imply connecting particular anime texts to particular critical theories – this is what Christopher Bolton does when he highlights several different such approaches in the monograph Interpreting Anime (2018). Of course, these are also the kinds of approaches that Thomas Lamarre, one of the field’s leading scholars, has called out as examples of “analysis [that is] relegated to re-presenting anime narratives, almost in the manner of book reports or movie reviews” – while at the same time failing to engage with what he terms “the materiality of animation”.
Granted, increasingly, scholars are also viewing anime as an educational tool – with the warning, that Sally McLaren and Alvin Spies present, in their chapter on “Risk and Potential: Establishing Critical Pedagogy in Japanese Popular Culture Courses”, in the Association for Asian Studies handbook Teaching Japanese Popular Culture, that “[s]tudents studying popular culture use Japan to explain the text, rather than using the text to explain Japan.” But, even beyond these, there are other ways to talk about Japanese animation that may not be immediately obvious. And one such way is to consider how anime can be used as a tool in professional psychotherapy and counseling.
This idea is actually not brand-new – already in 2008, Lawrence C. Rubin contributed a Big heroes on the small screen: Naruto and the struggle within chapter to an essay collection on popular culture in counseling, psychotherapy, and play-based interventions. And now, Francheska M. Gonzalez Castro is exploring this topic further – in a Doctor of Education dissertation that she just recently completed at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus.
Manga is the general term used for all comic strips, comics, or graphic novels created in Japan (Brenner, 2007; García, 2019; Nakaya, 2022) yet characterized for having a visual narrative with a recognizable sensibility (Johnson-Woods, 2010). Anime, on many occasions, evolves from Japanese manga or comics, but they are not synonymous (Johnson-Woods, 2010). Nakaya (2022) defines anime as Japanese animation or animated Japanese visual media. Manga or anime-related themes are new within research in Counseling and human development areas (Migliorino-Reyes, 2020). There is a lack of research related to these media (Zhao, 2019). González (2020) explains that its efficacy, significance, or potential as supporting tools (i.e., bibliotherapy or cinematherapy) in help professions is unknown.
This research was conducted using Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory. Bandura postulated that social learning theory addresses the explanation of human behavior regarding a continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental determinants (Bandura,1977). Qualitative methodology with a focus group design was used. Information on the characteristics of this sample was also gathered through a demographic questionnaire. Data was analyzed through content analysis. The purposes of this research were to find out the opinions of Professional Counselors in Puerto Rico regarding the relevance of manga and anime in Professional Counseling practices and interventions, and to establish their knowledge of manga and anime.
This research provided findings that confirm the relevance of manga and anime in Professional Counseling. Findings that must be underscored are that there is a lack of knowledge of manga and anime, that these media are a natural connection that facilitates the therapeutic relationship, and that their integration in therapeutic interventions could have positive effects. Additionally, the imperative need to develop these subjects and educate these professionals, specifically, was identified. Above all, it was established that having knowledge of manga and anime is relevant and necessary for the profession.
And I am now pleased to have the opportunity to have a conversation with the author and find out more about her research, and especially, the process of preparing and submitting this dissertation.
MK: To start, can you quickly summarize the research question that you explored in your dissertations?
Francheska M. Gonzalez Castro: To be able to understand the Opinion of professional counselors regarding the relevance of manga and anime in professional counseling I had four research questions: (1) What knowledge do Professional Counselors in Puerto Rico have about manga?, (2) What knowledge do Professional Counselors in Puerto Rico have about anime?, (3) What do Professional Counselors in Puerto Rico think about the relevance of manga in the practice of Professional Counseling? and (4) What do Professional Counselors in Puerto Rico think about the relevance of anime in the practice of Professional Counseling? Two questions for each, manga and anime.
English-language scholarly writing on Japanese comics is not something that just started last year – or five years ago – or ten. Fred Schodt’s Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga, the first book on the topic from a U.S. publisher, appeared in 1996 – and more than a decade earlier, he had already written Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics for Kodansha International. For that matter, already in the late 1970’s, The Journal of Popular Culture had published a paper about “Salaryman comics in Japan“, and the journal Youth & Society featured an article entitled Contemporary Japanese youth: Mass media communication that opened with the statement that “[C]omic books are both endemic and ubiquitous to contemporary Japanese society”.
It is also not an understatement to say that in the last several years years, English-language scholarly writing on Japanese comics has been booming. In 2022, Comics and the Origins of Manga: A Revisionist History became the first book on Japanese comics to receive the Best Academic/Scholarly Work Eisner Award. This was followed by the publication of a comprehensive – and much-needed Manga: A Critical Guide – in my review, I called it a “the go-to book for anyone interested in the medium”. Then, last year, Cambridge University Press felt that it was time to add a Companion to Manga and Anime to the series of volumes of what it calls “authoritative guides, written by leading experts, offering lively, accessible introductions to major writers, artists, philosophers, topics, and periods”. For that matter, later this year, two more major academic publishers are each bringing out a monograph – Yale University Press, with Manga: A New History of Japanese Comics, by Comics and the Origins of Manga author Eike Exner, and the University of California Press, with Manga’s First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905–1989, by historian and manga scholar Andrea Horbinski.
And beyond those, there is one more to look forward to. Mechademia: Second Arc, the premier scholarly journal with a focus on “studying objects and practices that have developed around media forms associated with Japan”, is now accepting submissions for a Graphic Narratives issue – scheduled for a Summer 2027 publication. Submissions for the issue are accepted through July 1. Its main goal will be to expand the range of scholarship of graphic narratives from Japan – as well as from other Asian countries/areas/regions – to emphasize attention to form and style, as well as “purpose”, rather than content alone.
In three weeks, starting on July 3, Anime Expo, the largest Japanese animation and comics convention in the U.S., will once again return to the Los Angeles Convention Center. The AX 2025 schedule is packed with dozens of talks, presentations, premieres, guest appearances, company announcement sessions, and other live events. And, as it has for fifteen years now, though with some breaks (including for when AX itself was cancelled due to COVID), the Anime Expo live programming schedule will include a full Academic Program track – a unique opportunity for anyone who will be at the convention to sit in on one or more scholarly lectures and panel discussions on different aspects of anime and manga. This year, AX itself is organized around an “Academia” theme, and “Academics” is also the general topic for the Academic Program. When the Call for Papers for it was distributed earlier this year, some of the possible suggested topics that speakers were invited to consider included:
ways that anime and manga present or interpret knowledge and education, as well as classroom settings
specific educational/instructional uses of anime and manga
tools, techniques, methodologies, and trends in anime/manga research.
For 2025, the Academic Program is officially known as JAMS@AX Symposium, presented as a partnership between Anime Expo and the Journal of Anime and Manga Studies.
The full program for JAMS@AX Symposium 2025 consists of:
Thursday, July 3
10:00 a.m. Keynote Address – Anime Goes to College Emilie Waggoner (University of Colorado)
Emilie Waggoner is the Director of First Year Student Experiences at the University of Colorado Denver, where she teaches the unique course “Anime Goes To College: Analyzing Anime Characters Through a Sociological Lens”, as well as several others. She recently published Isekai as a Reflection of College Student Transition Theory (Popular Culture Review, Fall 2024), and is completing a EdD program in Leadership for Educational Equity.
11:30 a.m. Performing Girlhood: Princesses, Cosplay, and Identity in Anime
Magical Girl Operation: Costume & Cosplay in Witch Hat Atelier
Azumanga Daioh and “Nichijou”: Absurdity and the Japanese Schoolgirl
The functional view in the constructed family: Animation as a Tool to Redefine the Concept of Family in Spy x Family
Floating Castles, Staged Narratives: Genre Conventions and Gender in Revolutionary Girl Utena
With the release of the new Summer 2025 Methodologies issue, Mechademia: Second Arc, the major “forum for studying objects and practices that have developed around media forms associated with Japan” is now approaching its twentieth anniversary (although publication was paused in 2016 and 2017). The twenty-three issues that have appeared since the journal first launched, in 2006, originally as Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga and Fan Arts, have hosted some of the most important scholarly writing on these topics that have appeared in English over this period – as well as translations of important Japanese scholarship, and even some original non-scholarly work. Mechademia can reasonably be considered the leading journal for the developing field of Japanese popular culture studies – and in fact, is becoming increasingly important as a venue for research on Asian popular culture more broadly.
The journal’s publication schedule is currently set through at least the Summer 2028 issue. As has been the practice so far, each issue is organized around a common general theme, whether somewhat specific or fairly abstract, and the themes for the next six are, in order:
Death and Other Endings (Winter 2025)
Studio Ghibli (Summer 2026)
Semiosis/Symbiosis (Winter 2026)
Graphic Narratives (Summer 2027)
Game Studies (Winter 2027)
Erotic Bodies – Hentai, BL, and Beyond (summer 2028)
The Death and Other Endings and Studio Ghibli issues are already in preparation. And the calls for papers for the next two – Semiosis/Symbiosis and Graphic Narratives – are currently open, with submissions accepted until July 1.
Call for Papers Mechademia: Second Arc, Volume 19, Number 1 (Winter 2026) Guest Editor: Vincenzo Idone Cassone (Tampere University)
This volume of Mechademia: Second Arc seeks essays that address how new meaning-making worldviews emerge out of the interaction between different forms of life, and how indeed, even popular media themselves are entangled and propagate these dynamics.
Everybody loves an awards ceremony. And if movies can have the Oscars, Broadway theater can have the Tonys, and comics can have, uh, the Eisner Awards, why should manga feel left out! And, later this summer, the organizers of New York City’s Anime NYC convention will be holding a gala awards ceremony for the English-speaking manga community. The American Manga Awards was launched last year, and for 2025, the awards will be presented in seven different categories for titles, along with potentially several individuals selected for induction into a Manga Publishing Hall of Fame.
What is particularly noteworthy especially from the perspective of manga studies is who will actually be deciding on the winning titles. Yes, the judges are journalists, publishing and comics industry professionals, translators, and essentially, media personalities. But, one is very possibly currently the leading academic expert on Japanese comics currently working and teaching in the U.S., and another, a school librarian (and Queens College School of Library and Information Science adjunct professor), who just recently steered the publication of a guide to introducing manga in school settings for the American Association of School Librarians.
Dr. Shige (CJ) Suzuki is currently an associate professor in the department of modern languages and comparative literature at Baruch College (City University of New York). His latest publication is the chapter Comics at the intersection of womanhood and disability: Essay manga, affect, and community, in the essay collection Women’s Voices in Manga: Japanese Cultural and Historical Perspectives, and he also recently contributed a Gekiga, or Japanese alternative comics chapter to the new second edition of the textbook Introducing Japanese Popular Culture. In 2023, Prof. Suzuki co-authored the Bloomsbury Comics Studies monograph Manga: A Critical Guide – currently the major comprehensive overview of Japanese comics that is available in English. He speaks frequently at various academic conferences around the U.S. and in Japan, and is currently working on a full-length book on Japanese alternative comics.
Yes, the American Manga Awards are one single, specific, and unique event. But, nonetheless, I would like to think that the organizers’ decision to invite Prof. Suzuki to serve as one of the judges is a great example of how the contributions that scholars are making to the public reception of Japanese comics around the world is being recognized and acknowledged.
First announced at the end of 2023, and running successfully in April of last year, the online symposium Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures represents a major and exciting new stage in the development of Japanese popular culture studies as a vibrant academic field. The 2024 program brought together speakers from academic institutions in the U.S., Japan, Canada, Australia, UK, and several EU countries – and the event was free and open to all interested participants. Following up on the successful first year, this past February, its organizers launched the Call for Papers for the 2025 Symposium, and now, are able to present this year’s program!
The Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures Symposium 2025 will run from Monday, May 19 to Wednesday, May 21. It will be held primarily online, with details for one public lecture to be announced. The program is set to feature keynote addresses and public lectures from some of the leading scholars currently working in the field, as well as up to 20 individual presentations – once again representing a truly wide range of global approaches, methodologies, and viewpoints, addressing anime and manga (as well as anime/manga fan cultures), video games, uses of and interactions with social media, and popular culture more broadly. The Symposium is FREE, but registration is required. Before the Symposium starts, you will receive a link to view the actual speeches and presentations.
You can direct any questions about the Symposium to the organizers at popculturesjapan (at) gmail (dot) com. Support for the Symposium is provided by the Media, Gender, and Sexualities Group (University of Tokyo) and the Platform Lab (Concordia University).
And for my part, I would like to thank the organizers of the Symposium for their dedication and hard work, and wish them and every one of the participants in this year’s event the best of luck!
===
Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures Symposium 2025
What is the stereotype of Japanese animation? Inevitably, and even now too frequently, it is still “Japanese pornographic animation” – the phrasing Susan Napier used for the title of her chapter as far back as 2000, in the essay collection Word and Image in Japanese Cinema.
Thinking about this “locally situated transcultural media form” (using the term Jaqueline Berndt suggests in the introduction to the new Cambridge Companion to Manga and Anime) and the structures that are built around it can involve many approaches and methods. And a particularly interesting approach is the one that Aurélie Petit takes in the new paper The hentai streaming platform wars – just recently published in the journal Porn Studies.
