Remember that your local anime clubs and conventions can be a great way to meet like-minded people. You can even meet others who might have done a similar campaign in their hometown. The internet likewise serves as a place to meet others and find out how they’ve changed things. Since many companies are national, you might find someone else who dealt with the same company in a different part of the country.

The above example also holds true for most contact with a store, TV channel, etc. Many of the places you interact with in your daily life are owned by a larger corporation or have their distribution determined by someone else. Still, the local people do have some say, and making your opinion known to them is crucial, because they’re interacting with the parent companies as well.

As soon as you make a difference, get that anime viewing at the local theater or convince the cable company to carry a new channel, make sure you throw your own promotion efforts into it as well. Tell all your friends, all the local high schools and colleges, and make sure that everyone who might be interested shows up. The more money you can make for that company, the more interested they will be in bringing more of the same kind of thing into the area.

Image by Bee
Starting a revolution can involve a lot of time on the phone.

good marketing move, Britney Spears has decided to do her latest video in an anime style.

Whether or not you like Britney, I do think she was once very good at marketing herself and

her image (until the last few years of constant dumb moves) and this could be what she needs to

reconnect with her core demographic, teen/tween girls. This also disconnect her with the music a

little, which could help with parents who don’t like the rolemodel she’s been setting

lately.

I don’t really care for the song, but I think the video is far more entertaining

than most. It does a good job of telling a short story.




Originally found this on jossip.com

Oddly enough as I type up this post, I can hear

CNN in the other room talking about this very video. Of course, they are mostly talking about her messy

court case and custody battles.

most underrated skills online, in my opinion, is that of giving effective feedback. Critique vs.

criticism, feedback vs. “you suck.” Anyone who’s ever put their creative works and heart and soul out

there on the internet or in real life probably has a few stories about bad experiences with a less than

helpful reviewer. So this week I’m going to focus on feedback. Now, I’m talking about it in the sense

of giving conventions and corporations feedback about the products and events that you like or that you

think can be improved. Still, these pointers apply to artists, writers, or co-workers, and remember,

when you talk to conventions and corporations, there are real people on the other end who are getting

your feedback.

Giving Effective Feedback
Feedback can be a very

effective tool, when given in a coherent and comprehensive manner. Sometimes by being the first one to

speak up, you can encourage others with the same opinions to speak up as well. Many conventions host

wrap-up panels at the convention itself as well as posting a comments thread on their message board.

Use these venues to let the convention know what you thought. Just make sure what you’re telling them

is productive and useful. Also, scan through the previous comments to see what others have said;

someone may have touched on the subject already. Which isn’t to say you shouldn’t add your opinion,

but by building off of their comment, you encourage that person to keep posting as well as unify the

fact that multiple people were upset. We’ll talk a little more about what’s useful to complain about

and what will be ignored later on when we talk more about conventions.

src="http://otakusurvivalguide.com/theotaku/badcritique.jpg" height="442" width="426" border="0"

/>
By Bee
For example, critiquing like

that will may cause the person to never try again. At the very least, it will most likely make them so

angry they don ‘t want to consider anything you say, even if you might have some valid points.

or post their e-mail address. There’s some argument among letter writers about whether it’s more

effective to send an e-mail or a letter. An e-mail can promote a dialogue between you and the

representative as well as be a quicker read, but it runs the risk of being overlooked or not taken

seriously. A letter these days can be seen as overly formal to some, but it does give you the

appearance of being more serious about the matter, since it takes more energy to write out a letter,

print, and mail it than to simply send off an e-mail. Either format can be effective, though if you’ve

got an actual petition I personally think a hardcopy with signatures looks more formal and imposing

that just an e-mailed list. Also, don’t overlook the value of a phone call in some cases.

When dealing with corporations, you will most likely have to write many letters and make

phone calls when you can. The first step will be tracking down the chain of command and figuring out

who actually has the power to make the changes you want. If your trying to get more anime into your

local theater or more manga into the bookstore, you may very well find out that their order decisions

are limited by those above them. Still, making your concerns known to the local people is a good step,

as you might find that some of them are sympathetic to your cause and willing to join in your fight.

For example, most of the bookstores I’ve been to that had excellent and well-stocked manga selections

had those because there was a staff member who liked manga. It works for any genre or product, that if

there is a staff member that appreciates it, they will make sure the section is the best it can be.

Even the staff at your local Barnes and Noble does have a limited amount of control over what goes on

to their shelves. It’s far more limited than that of someone at an independent store, but they do have

some power.

One thing you should always remember when giving feedback is to start with

something positive. There must be something you like about the event/company, or else you wouldn’t be

bothering to try to improve them. Saying something like “I admire the quality of anime programming that

you are bringing to movie theaters across the country and would like to see more titles offered to my

local theaters.” Is a much better way to start out than just saying “Why aren’t we getting any anime

in my small town?” By starting on a positive note, you immediately let them know that they are doing

things that you really like, and therefore it makes them more receptive to your criticism. People tend

to get defensive if they just hear a complaint and are much more likely to disregard your comments as

just you not understanding their vision or intent.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s

discussion and that it will be useful in your daily life, as we all end up in situations where giving

feedback is necessary and useful. Next week I’ll be covering how conventions are run for the fans and

hopefully giving you a bit of insight into the workings of your local convention. Feel free to leave

questions here.

a paper I wrote a few years ago for a class on Women in Pop Culture. I wrote about the depiction of

women in anime, done as a magazine with multiple articles. Here is the full pdf -

href="http://otakusurvivalguide.com/genreproject.pdf

">http://otakusurvivalguide.com/genreproject.pdf- and below is an exceprt of my section on

sterotypes. I wrote this a few years ago, so don’t judge me on my design skills… or writig for that

matter. But the info is still good.

Anime Women:
Common Role Models and

Sterotypes

Anime was once seen as a boy’s past time. An anime convention

consisted of a bunch of guys getting together to watch anime and not shower for a weekend. These days

though, girls have taken over the anime scene. Women have always been a crucial part of anime itself,

shojo making up a large percentage of manga sales in Japan, but over the last ten years in America, the

female otaku has come to dominate the marketplace.

With this influx of female viewers, it�

�s important to look at the women on the screen, the women that young otakus are seeing and relating

to. Are the women of anime only the hentai school girls that are being raped by tentacle monsters? The

ditzy bimbos who follow a guy around to fulfill his every wish? No. The women of anime are much more

than that; they represent a broad spectrum of women and types, from the smart best friend, the ditzy

but world saving magical girl, to the head of a vampire hunting organization. Women in today’s anime

are taking a dominate role in their stories, both in anime aimed at women, and that aimed at

men.

When looking at the women of anime, we see a variety of types. There is the passive

girl who only lives for a guy. This type of girl most usually shows up in shounen anime, usually as a

member of the main boy’s harem. A few shoujo mangas might get close to this though, with a main girl

who seems incapable of doing anything without the males help. In a shoujo manga though, the main girl

will usually learn to stand on her own by the end. In the same stereotype of shounen harem girls, we

have the aggressive girl who goes after the boy and won’t let anything stand in her way. Ryoko from

Tenchi Muyo is like that, and as shown on our reader survey, women have a very mixed opinion about her

for this. Some respected her for the way she goes after Tenchi, while others thought her love for him

made her weak. Because of her multi-facets though, she is a good role model for girls. Many of these

women can be either a positive or negative role model, and it’s up to women to know *why* they like

or dislike a chosen girl. Through analyzing our responses, we come learn a lot about

ourselves.

Because of the many different types of anime, shoujo and shounen, we will stick

to some of the basic groups below, and some of the stereotypes of women that appear in

them.


Shounen Harem
Centered on a nice guy who is a klutz

around girls, some circumstance always conspires to surround him with women. These can be action

series like Tenchi Muyo where there is a galactic sub-plot or high school dramas like Oh! My Goddess

and Love Hina but the central plot is the relationship between the guy and the girls. Here we mostly

either see the very passive girl who gets shy and quiet around the main guy and the aggressive girl who

either pursues the guy or gets violent when (often accidentally) pursued by the boy. Misunderstandings

are often major plot devices and the other girls around the guy and main girl(s) tend to push the main

pairings together, while getting crushes on the guy.

Shoujo

Harem
Somehow or another, the main girl finds her self forced into saving the world. And

along the way, she needs the help of some incredible hot guys. Like the shounen harem, usually at least

one of the guys is aggressive in pursuing the main girl, and the girl is always forced to choose from

at least two guys. Typically, this choice is between the rouge and the prince. One who she feels

passion for and the other who she knows will treat her like a queen. Fushigi Yuugi is a central example

of this, with Miaka the priest being protected by her seven male guardians. Her rival and best friend

Yui has some females in her guardian group, but Miaka only has males, two of whom actively pursue her

and a third that seems intent on doing so also, until circumstances get in the way. Miaka’s downfall

is that she tends to be rather weak with out her male protectors, as is usually the problem for girls

in these anime. At the end, they always get themselves together when the lives of their friends are on

the lines though, but these women are often seen as weak and helpless by the fans. This isn’t helped

in America by the fact that the dubbing is usually done by very high pitched girls, one of the quickest

ways to turn fans off of a female character.

Another less offensive girl is Himeno from

Pretear. She is better role model because she takes a larger part in her own role, refusing to just be

slated as the new Pretear. A retelling of Snow White magical girl style, her seven dwarfs are replaced

by seven hot guys (well, three are adorable kids). As a magical girl, she actually has power, thought

it is reliant on “merging” with one of the guys, to create a more ultimate form of his elemental

power. Still, she is an active participant in her destiny, unlike Miaka who only exists to be the

priestess and let the guys do her work.

Magical Girls
The above shoujo

harem series can also be seen as magical girl series, in which an ordinary girl finds out she is the

inheritor of great power, or sometimes she makes it for her self. Sailor Moon is the most classic

example, being extremely popular around the world and the first female oriented show brought to

America. In this, Serena finds out that she is the Moon Princess, and along with her four sailor

scouts she must protect the world from the evil of the Negaverse. Spanning around 200 episodes, it is

a tale of love and friendship. Serena resonates with a lot of teenage girls because she has flaws; she

is clumsy and scared, yet willing to stand up for her friends and do the job when it’s needed. She

doesn’t get the hang of things right away, but has to learn how to take over her new role. For girls

just entering the new world of high school, she and other magical girls are great role models for how

to take on the scary aspects of life.

Along with the main girl, if the anime contains a

group of magical girls, then we have another set of stereotypes. Someone always has a fiery temper,

while another is boy crazy, and yet another can’t be dragged away from her books and actually reads

the instruction manual before trying out a new magical item. This is another reason why the magical

girl genre connects with so many girls, because there is usually a character for everyone to connect

with.

High School Drama
Just like American high school drama books, the

manga and anime ones deal with the trails and tribulations of being a girl or guy in high school.

Filled with tests and love, friends and betrayal, these women must struggle with growing up while still

being treated like a kid by their parents. The typical shoujo high school drama centers on either a

“normal” girl or a very shy girl. If she is a shy girl, she typically ends up falling in love with

the school bad boy, who of course has a heart of gold, and he transforms her into a self confident

woman. This can be both a negative and positive role model, since she needs the man to help her make

the transition, but at the same time she accepts the transition and finishes it herself, the man

usually is only the instigator. The other kind usually involves an average high school girl, who like

in shoujo harem anime, must choose between two guys. It’s usually pretty easy to tell who she will

choose, but some books are very good at keeping the reader in suspense. These are popular with women

readers because they tend to be the most similar to their lives, and many high school girls like to

read an idealized romance.

Adventure
Adventure anime and manga tend to

cross gender lines more than anything else. Shows like InuYasha, Slayers, and Fullmetal Alchemist blur

the line between shounen and shoujo, but the closest way to tell is to look at the gender of the main

character. Even then, these shows are enjoyed by males and females a like and usually contain many

strong women.

Every adventurer needs a best friend or traveling companion of the opposite

gender. This person usually works to be their love interest, though the adventure genre doesn’t

usually spend a lot of time pairing them up. Shows like InuYasha are more obvious that by the end the

couples will be together, but other shows like Slayers require the fans to read between the lines.

This is why fan fiction is so popular for these types of show, the fans want to finish the romances

since the authors won’t finish them before the series is over. And these series can run for

years.

The strong and wise female is another stereotype, typically not traveling with the

group but necessary to give them advice and courage. Often a teacher like Izumi from Fullmetal

Alchemist she can serve as a surrogate mother since adventures seem to rarely have living parents.

The strong sidekick woman is another necessity, like Sango in InuYasha or Amelia in Slayers

she is there to help with the fight and fulfill the role that the main girl can’t cover. She can be a

fighter like Sango or a healer like Amelia, but she usually has talents that are opposite to the main

girl. These women are usually strong, like most of the women in adventure anime, and while they might

face some trials, they will get through them better than ever. Family trauma tends to follow them,

with lots of reasons to angst and feel sorry for themselves, yet they battle through and don’t spend

nearly as much time as they could justify on angsting.

There are many other anime styles,

mecha, apocalyptic, horror, etc, but most of those women fall under the styles listed above, especially

within adventure. Most of the women in anime begin in these models, but break out of them with careful

characterization and carry-through by the authors. Overall, anime is an excellent place for young women

to see female role models and learn to respect their characteristics.

you who like fan fiction, fan art, and other fan pursuits, I think the J.K. Rowling lawsuit against the

Harry Potter Lexicon book will be an interesting case to watch.

I think some people might

just see it as her trying to protect her money, but really it’s about protecting the copyright. By

giving fans a free reign online, it encourages fandom. Even the unauthorized “what’s going to

happen next” books aren’t exactly competition and not paid attention to too much by the publishers.

But a book like the Lexicon does use her characters and her world as its entire basis. So the question

becomes, because it’s a reference book, will the courts allow it?

Honestly, I don’t

know. But if they are allowed to publish, it will make fans a lot braver about publishing things that

might be copyright infringement, like other reference books or even fan art. Of course, it all depends

on why exactly the court would say they are allowed to publish the book. But the author would lose some

control over who published what using their name and world. The reason Rowling is fighting this isn’t

so much against the Lexicon, but the precedence it could set for other who want to take her work and

make money off of it. And many of those people would not be doing it with the fans best interests in

mind, but instead to make money. So it becomes an issue of she can’t let one person do it, because

that sets the precedent.

Anyways, for fans of all kinds of works, I think this case will set

some new standards and question old fan accepted copyright rules.

The Leaky Cauldron has a

wonderful article discusing all the copyright elements in play with this case. Link.

href="http://legionseagle.livejournal.com/28285.html?view=700797#t700797">Top Ten Hints For Stopping An

Awkward Situation Turning Into an Multi-Part Farce- A great look at the hole RDR keeps digging

themselves into.

Here is an interesting case study comparing the court cases of a Seinfeld

trivia book and a parody book, The Wind Done Gone.

href="http://www.ivanhoffman.com/seinfeld.html">http://www.ivanhoffman.com/seinfeld.html

otakus don’t know how vital they are in determining the current fate of the otaku world. Or at the

very least, they don’t know how to go about making a change. So, I’m going to talk about what you

can do, no matter what age you are, to try to influence conventions and companies.

Otakus *can* change the world (or at least the anime world)
Anime in

America has always been fan driven. It was the original geeks in their basements, watching bad video

quality fansubs, who originally started a national interest. Corporations have stepped in, releasing

new shows and manga series, but it’s still in response to what fans are in favor of. Without fan

support, anime would have never become the mainstream phenomenon that it is today, and it would still

be regulated to flipped manga and a limited shelf at Best Buy.

Likewise, conventions are

run by the fans and for the fans. Even as anime conventions thrive throughout the country, they pride

themselves on being run for the fans.

That’s why I want to talk today about what you can

do to help shape the coming anime world and make your opinion known. Who knows how far your campaign

for change will get; it all depends on how much energy you throw into it and what strategies you take.

Age doesn’t matter when making a change–it’s just something to take into account and factor in.

Maybe it means you can’t drive as far (unless you’ve got a parent on your side), but sometimes you

can get more media attention because you’re young and society finds it novel that you’re taking a

stand. There is no sure-fire way to bring about change, but there are a lot of ways to try.

/>
Art by Cinnie
Only you can prevent low

attendance numbers!

Matter
It’s very easy today to simply download what you want to watch when it comes to

anime. There is a certain seduction to getting something for no cost, to be able to watch it before

it’s even released in America, and without taking a trip to the store. Keep in mind, though, that for

every show or manga that you download instead of buy, that’s an opinion that’s not being heard.

Somebody has probably told you to vote with your dollar before, but these days there’s

also the conflicting idea of freedom of information, of freeware software versus Microsoft and Apple.

Well, as much as you like not having to pay, keep in mind that anime costs money to make. Every show

you download is a show that doesn’t see your money as profit.

“But I don’t like the dub!”

you might say, as a justification for just getting the fansub. Well, the Japanese companies that made

the original project are still counting on the money they get from licensing the title. The money you

spend on a US licensed title does get back to the creators in a roundabout way. By making money on this

project, the US companies are encouraged to buy more licenses. So while maybe downloading Death Note

instead of buying it won’t hurt the makers of Death Note, because a US company already bought it, it

might hurt the next creator trying to sell to the US company that lost money on Death Note due to

downloaders.

Yes, fansubs and scanlations serve a role in the anime life cycle. It

allows Americans to see shows and mangas that haven’t made it over here yet. But if you want to see

more of those titles, American fans also have to buy what comes out over here. In fact, in some cases,

a title can be more popular in America, leading to more episodes in Japan (Big O is the classic

example).

So, what I’m getting at is if you want to see more of something, you need to buy

what’s already out. That’s not to say that you should buy anything just to support anime, but you

should buy what you like. Try it out and get introduced to the show/manga however you like, but if you

want more, support it with your dollars.

This goes for local stores as well. If you

want to see a larger selection close to home, then make whatever purchases you can at a local place.

Complaining that your home town store doesn’t carry anime doesn’t do anything, even if you complain

directly to the store. On the other hand, going to the store and special ordering it will show the

store owners that there is an economic benefit to carrying the product.

Again, don’t

overspend just to get things locally, but when you can, support the places. Personally, I have a five

dollar rule. I will pay five dollars over what I would pay to buy a title online (including S&H) in

order to buy a title locally and have it immediately in hand.

Well, next week I’ll

talk about giving feedback in a way that will be listened to, and in the coming weeks I’ll deal with

corporations and conventions.

popularity of sites like YouTube has unexpectedly turned Flash Video (FLV) into one of the de facto

standards for Internet video. The proliferation of sites using FLV has been a boon for remix culture,

as creators made their own versions of posted videos. And thus far there has been no widespread DRM

standard for Flash or Flash Video formats; indeed, most sites that use these formats simply serve

standalone, unencrypted files via ordinary web servers.

Now Adobe, which controls Flash and

Flash Video, is trying to change that with the introduction of DRM restrictions in version 9 of its

Flash Player and version 3 of its Flash Media Server software. Instead of an ordinary web download,

these programs can use a proprietary, secret Adobe protocol to talk to each other, encrypting the

communication and locking out non-Adobe software players and video tools. We imagine that Adobe has no

illusions that this will stop copyright infringement — any more than dozens of other DRM systems have

done so — but the introduction of encryption does give Adobe and its customers a powerful new legal

weapon against competitors and ordinary users through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

(DMCA).”
Electronic Frontier

Foundation

This will definitely have some implications for AMV creators and those making

smash up videos for YouTube. Many AMV producers use an Adobe product, so I wonder what this might mean

for Adobe Premier?

For those of you who haven’t heard about DRM, its “”digital rights

management,” or DRM (aka content or copy protection), to lock up your digital media. These DRM

technologies do nothing to stop copyright pirates, but instead end up interfering with fans’ lawful

use of music, movies, and other copyrighted works. DRM can prevent you from making back ups of your

DVDs and music downloaded from online stores, recording your favorite TV programs, using the portable

media player of your choice, remixing clips of movies into your own home movies, and much more.” -

href="http://www.eff.org/issues/drm">Electronic Frontier Foundation

src="http://otakusurvivalguide.com/images/mariotabletop.bmp" alt="" />

Courtesy of

href="http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/22/mario-mosaic-coffeet.html">Boing Boing, it makes me

realize that old school video games would translate very nicely into mosaic form. It’s a wonder we

don’t see more of this in artist alleys/art shows.