I am pleased to announce the final program for the 2015 AX Anime and Manga Studies Symposium, the Anime Expo 2015 Academic Program. AX 2015 will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center (Los Angeles, California), from July 2 to July 5, and the Symposium will be spread out over all four days.

The Symposium will feature a keynote address by a leading scholar and teacher, three special guest lectures/presentations, 13 individual talks on a wide range of topics related to Japanese animation and comics, organized into several topical panels, and a roundtable discussion on major issues in teaching about Japanese popular culture and using anime and manga in the classroom. Its main goal remains to highlight new critical approaches to Japanese popular visual culture, but the Symposium also serves a major educational function. It introduces AX’s attendees to the ideas and practices of the academic study of anime and manga, while giving speakers a unique opportunity to present their work to a general audience.

Keynote Address: The Importance of Anime at Film School: Tales from USC

Ellen SeiterEllen Seiter
Professor of Critical Studies
Stephen K. Nenno Chair of Television Studies
University of Southern California

Prof. Seiter teaches courses on television and new media history, theory and criticism, as well as the new new Japanese Anime class, in the in the Critical Studies Division of the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Books she has written include The Creative Artist’s Legal Guide:Copyright, Trademark and Contracts in Film and Digital Media Production (2012), The Internet Playground: Children’s Access, Entertainment and Mis-Education (2005), Television and New Media Audiences (1999), Sold Separately: Children and Parents in Consumer Culture (1993) and Remote Control; Television, Audiences and Cultural Power (1989).

Special Presentation:

Manga and Anime Go to Hollywood
Northrop Davis (University of South Carolina)

Special Guest Lectures:

The Products vs. the Production – New Directions in the Japanese Animation Industry
Renato Rivera Rusca (Meiji University)

The Structure of the Japanese Animation Business – Where it is, and Where it is Heading
Mariko Koizumi (Kyoto Seika University)

Roundtable Discussion:
Anime and Manga in the Classroom: Teaching Students, and Teaching Teachers

Chair: Brent Allison (University of North Georgia)

Kathryn Hemmann (George Mason University)
Alex Leavitt (University of Southern California)
Andrew John Smith (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)

Panel Sessions:

Critical Approaches to Japanese Animation and Comics

  • The Beautiful End of the World: Eschatologies of the Bishojo
    Kathryn Hemmann (George Mason University)
  • Remixing Theories of Narrative Consumption for Fate/Zero and Fate/stay night
    Sarah Ansley Colclough (University of Texas at Austin)
  • Stories in Shades of Black and White: Use of Color in CLAMP’s Manga
    Mia Lewis (Stanford University)

Remixes and Responses in Japanese Popular Culture

  • Straight Outta Compton, and Into Tokyo: Hip-Hop, Street Culture, and Japanese Manga
    Andrew John Smith (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)
  • Characters as Music Makers in Neon Genesis Evangelion
    Heike Hoffer (The Ohio State University)
  • On the Impossibility of Revolution”: Responses to Modern Japanese Literature and the Student Movement in Neon Genesis Evangelion
    Michael Copestake

Japanese Popular Culture’s Reflections of Japan’s Urban Landscape

  • Mapping and Mimesis in the Electric City: Steins;Gate and the Spatial Practices of Anime and Video Games
    Forrest Greenwood (Indiana University Bloomington)
  • Flaneurs and Urbanization: Japan’s Cities and their Residents in Manga
    Maxime Boyer-Degoul (Universite Libre de Bruxelles)
  • Katsuhiro Otomu’s Exploding Cities: The Intersection of Class and City in Domu, Akira, and Metropolis
    Sebastian Klausner (University of Vienna)

Anime’s Approaches to Religion and Spirituality

  • The Power of Religion in Anime: Hayao Miyazaki’s Methods of Persuasion in My Neighbor Totoro
    Yuxin Jiang (University of Pittsburgh)
  • Super Saiyan Savior: Dragon Ball Z and the Bible
    Christopher Davis (Sam Houston State University)
  • Humanity and Nature: The parable of Pokemon
    Patrick Wauters (University of Arkansas at Little Rock)

The Creative Process in Japanese Popular Culture

  • “That’s My Name, Isn’t It?”: Work, Friendship, and the Discovery of Identity in Spirited Away and Porco Rosso
    Jenn Koiter
  • Producing Hatsune Miku: Concerts, Commercialization, and the Politics of Peer Production
    Alex Leavitt (University of Southern California)

The exact dates and times for the sessions are still being confirmed, and will be announced in the coming weeks, This program is also available as a separate page. Updates, including additional details about the speakers and their talks, will be reflected on that page only.

If you have any questions about the Symposium, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

– Mikhail Koulikov
Producer, AX Anime and Manga Studies Symposium
Anime Expo 2015

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *