Pop Genres 2020

Week 4 – Anime

Is anime a high or low cultural medium, according to Susan Napier (2005) and what are some of its subgenres?

Many scholars would place anime as a ‘low’ cultural medium for its reputation of being about superficial topics and having an art style that resembles western children’s cartoons. This often leads people to believe that anime is only watched by children or Japanese people. Anime is a global phenomenon that is watched by millions of people in many different countries. It has gone from being a niche interest to having its own subculture.

On the topic of whether anime fits into the ‘high’ or ‘low’ cultural medium standard, Napier (2005) discusses how it ticks many boxes for being a ‘high’ cultural medium. There are many influences from Japanese traditional arts, such as Kabuki and woodblock print, but it also borrows from artistic traditions seen in twentieth century cinema and photography.

It often also includes many complex themes and issues that are explored in ‘high’ culture texts, from Japan and worldwide. From Akria’s themes of corruption and loss of humanity to Sailor Moon‘s themes of female empowerment and friendship, the messages are very familiar to scholars.

As it is an umbrella term for all animation made in Japan and aired for a Japanese audience, there are many subgenres of anime. However, anime will often blend many genres into one show, even when those genres are usually not seen together. Denison (2015) uses Cowboy Bebop as an example of this as the show falls into the space opera subgenre with western and film noir stylistics as well as the occasional trip into horror territory. Akira is another example of this blend of many genres as a cyberpunk, post-apocalyptic anime with elements from fantasy (the presence of people with supernatural abilities) as well as action and thriller. There are also many genres that are exclusive to anime, such as the maho shojo (magical girl) genre. This genre is predominantly about a young girl who discovers she can use some form of magic and uses it to protect the world from evil sources.

Anime as a cultural medium is so complex and diverse it would be difficult to place it in either the category of ‘low’ or ‘high’. Instead, it likely sits in the middle or could fit into either depending on which specific anime show is being referenced.

Reference List:

Denison, R. (2015). Anime: A Critical Introduction. Bloomsbury.

Napier, S. (2005). Anime: From Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle. Hampshire: Palgrave/Macmillan.

Otomo, K (dir). (1988). Akira. Japan: Toho

Week 8: Cosplay Analogous to Citation

Cosplay is an act of dressed up and performed as characters of all types of popular media texts, “roots in the mid to late twentieth century cross-pollination between American and Japanese popular culture” (Mountfort et al., 2018). These popular media texts include comics (manga for japanese) animation, games, live action films, televisions, even music videos etc. The aim for cosplayer is to portray a character’s looks, a step further by adding the character’s personality and behaviour, (Mckay, 2019). It is a global phenomenon within the 21st century media convergence, reflecting the contemporary fandom’s unmatched modes of the mass or pop culture engagement for both online and offline. Although it is a global thing it is still commonly believed to begin in Japan, mostly because of how the term ‘cosplay’ was coined in Japan around the 1983 (Mountfort et al., 2018).

As cosplay are about dressed up and performed as characters from a popular media text, it can be seen as commonly a way of citation. Citation is a practices form of reference, when mentioning and referring, to a source of information.

According toMountfort et al. (2018), cosplay analogous to citation, in ways that they are referencing to their chosen source texts by involving performing unlimited ‘citational acts’, including how they act or behavior and the way their dress. The act is “theatricalism, including pose and gesture” (Mountfort et al., 2018), their costume and props are also a part of referencing characters they chosen. Cosplay are different to dramatic theatre and screen performance, and it can be differentiated from how cosplay are not about realising the whole original script in going through a sustained performance. But are more about a “smaller or ‘parcellized’ portions of an original” script and story (Mountfort et al., 2018). The people who cosplay cite and refer to their source of information through between texture and performance, but are more of performance-orientated symbolic metaphor. It is common that they use terms such as “modelling, textual performance, translation, transportation, actualization, identification, intertextual or transmedial process and, indeed, ‘embodied citational acts.’” (Mountfort et al., 2018).

Cosplay citation is actually essential in the cosplayers’ decisions and subsequent appropriation of the original source material. As soon as a cosplayer decided to dress up with intention of a specific character, it means that the citation of that particular media texts has taken place. (Mountfort et al., 2018).

References:

Mckay, R. (2019, December 6). Cosplay 101: Everything You Need To Know About It. Who. https://www.who.com.au/what-is-cosplay

Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet cosplay: Costume play, identity and global fandom. Intellect.

Week 7: Horror Elements

“It is not the physical or mental aberration in itself which horrifies us…but rather the lack of order which these situations seem to imply” (King, 2010).

Horror is a genre of story and film, an entertainment category that the audience read or watch to get scare and frighten. This genre comprises of things that are mysterious, creepy, gruesome, and shocking, both in the story form and imagery form, able to make their audience react physically. According to Stephen King (2010), horror appeals to people because it representing many things that people are afraid to say out loud and allowing them to experience emotions that people are not usually familiar with in normal society. Horror genre “begins to coalesce between the last half of the eighteenth century and the first quarter of the nineteenth” (Carroll, 2003). In the 1930s, horror was popular during that period, as people when through the Depression days, and decided to let go of their anxieties with horror. This period was also “the rise of the so-called ‘Shudder Pulps’, which encompassed everything from Weird Talesto Black Mask.”(King, 2010).

According to King (2010), Horror can be defined with three basic elements which are‘Revulsion, Horror and Terror’. These three things are the layered elements which made the horror genre works, keeping the audience on edge and interest in the story.

First, the ‘Revulsion’, this are the moments that created the feeling of disgust for the audience. Can be clearly seen in horror films because of the imagery, an example is the american horror movies franchise, Saw. This movies franchise has many disgusting and gruesome moments, such as in Saw II where the character has to get the key by digging into their eye socket or have his head squashed by helmet with spike.

Second, the ‘Horror’, this are about the “graphic portray of the unbelievable” (King, 2010). These are moments when audience are face with something that are not natural, abnormality or implausible, as facing with something that are difficult to understand often spark sense of fear in people. For example, the supernatural like aliens, vampires and ghost, these things created sense of fear in people.

Lastly, the Terror, this are when fear is stimulating by imagination, somethings that are unknown can sock the audience into terror. For example, in the 2019 film ‘Colour out of Space’, the characters experienced and faced with an unknown being which can control them into behaving weirdly.

For myself, a horror story I’ve watched that makes use of all three of these elements are the action/science-fiction horror movies franchise, ‘Alien’. The story has all three elements, the Revulsion, Horror and Terror. Revulsion are for scenes in which we see the aliens comes out from its eggs and attaching itself to a human’s face to later burst out from the character’s chest. Or when human and alien fight and kill each other. Horror as the characters are fighting with extraterrestrial species creatures which are really ugly. Lastly Terror as they are fighting with creatures that they do not have any information on and was not yet understood.

References:

Carroll, N. (2003). The philosophy of horror: Or, paradoxes of the heart. The Nature of Horror. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Fandor. (2017, September 12). 3 levels of Horror According to Stephen King [Video]. YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-EC0DoaaCY

King, S. (2010). Danse Macabre. USA. Retrieved from https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/bbcswebdav/pid-5320793-dt-content-rid-12699647_4/xid-12699647_4

W8

1. Referring to Mountfort et al. (2018), in what ways is cosplay analogous to citation.

Cosplay is people who wear their costumes inspired by fiction characters (Lamerichs, 2011). They will reference follow four elements: “a narrative, a set of clothing, a play or performance before spectators, and a subject or player” (Lamerichs, 2011). These references can be used as an analysis of cosplay (Lamerichs, 2011). People choose who they want to be as a source that they can dress up and imitate their character as references. Cosplay is a source of citation for people who use this source to transform their body into the characters from popular media texts (Mountfort et al., 2019).

Cosplay is a fan-based, who performed a character in a manga, or anime character in a parodic performance by Mari Kotani in Japan in 1978 (Lunning, 2012). Western imitates Cosplay from Japan with their popular culture sources such as mange, anime, otaku and idol culture but in Western and it is quite common source texts with mix and mashup their influence (Mountfort et al., 2019). Cosplay is considering as a form of citation, which cosplayers will dress themselves follow a source of citation called “citation acts” (Mountfort et al., 2019). Cosplayers dress into a character in manga or anime or movie that they want to be. The manga or anime is their source use of references to change themselves into a character in theirs. When others dress up as a character in anime or mange, people are implicitly known as a citation in a source text that cosplayers use in their costumes (Mountfort et al., 2019). The costumes do not only imitate the character’s look but including pose and gesture (Mountfort et al., 2019). For the references or citation help the audience know what the character that cosplayers dress up and acting out (Mountfort et al., 2019) is. The fan not only wears and make up the same as the characters but they try to use the source text or story world to get closer to the audiences. Cosplayers not only play around with the character but use the source for “parody, pastiche, satire, burlesque, and caricature” (Mountfort et al., 2019). Cosplay is not only cited materials from the source but they change it more creative or change to a new version with their citation. They not only simple imitate to become a character or just only for acting out but they are mixing and mashing practices for fanfiction or anime music videos.

Cosplay reference can be seen as a source text of translation and adaptation where people use their body to “embodied translation” to citational act (Mountfort et al., 2019). Cosplay is not only imitated but they try their best to look as much as the same character as possible. That will make them successful in cosplay their characters. People also follow their gender and race to dress and imitate their character in cosplay. Still, many people dress differently from their gender; for example, a woman dressed up like a Spiderman or a superhero who is opposite her gender.

Cosplay likes an entertainment game or a way for others want to dress in a character that they love in an anime or manga. They use their favourite anime or mange as their citation to dress same as a character in the story.

Reference:

Lamerichs, N. (2011). Stranger than fiction: Fan identity in cosplay. Transformative Works and Cultures, 7(3), 56-72.

Lunning, F. (2012). Cosplay and the Performance of Identity. Retrieved from http://www. quodlibetica. com/cosplay-and-the-performance-of-identity/(tarkastettu: maaliskuu 2016).

Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2019). Planet Cosplay: Costume Play, Identity and Global Fandom. Intellect Books.

Week 7 Question

King describes horror as being defined through three basic elements. Explain, using references, what these three elements are. Think of a horror story you’ve read/watched/heard that makes use of all three of these elements and show how King’s definition is at play in that narrative.

Renowned American author Stephen King describes the horror genre as being defined through three central elements. These three elements are as follows, “terror on top, horror below it, and lowest of all, the gag reflex of revulsion” (King, 1981, p.37). A perfect example of a film that utilises all three elements of horror is John Carpenter’s “The Thing” (1982).

Firstly, terror. King (1981) states that genuine terror is the “unpleasant speculation called to mind” (p.34). Terror focuses less on the visual and more on the psychological aspects of horror by allowing the audience’s imagination to speculate the true dread. King (1981) elaborates that terror is “what, the mind wonders, might have been” (p.34). In “The Thing” (Carpenter, 1982), the alien’s true form is never actually revealed to the audience. Instead, the alien manifests and transforms itself into numerous distinct forms. This adds to the psychological terror of the film, as we are never able to gain a concrete understanding of the alien. Additionally, its ability to perfectly shapeshift into camp members instils the audience with a prolonged sense of paranoia throughout the film.

King (1981) states that horror is “that emotion of fear that underlies terror…because it is not entirely of mind. Horror also invites a physical reaction by showing us something which is physically wrong” (p.35). In “The Thing” (Carpenter, 1982), the physically wrong is presented though the alien and its numerous forms. The alien is often presented as exceptionally abnormal and frightful with tentacles and slime. Even when it assimilates to an animal or human host, it often deforms the host’s appearance when assaulting the camp inhabitants. For example, the character Bennings is taken over by the alien, eventually forming mutilated and visceral features.

Revulsion can be defined as the grotesque, unnatural and “gross-out” (King, 1981, p. 37) imagery commonly associated with the horror genre. King (1981) defines revulsion through the example of “Foul Play”, in which the baseball diamond is comprised of human viscera. In “The Thing” (Carpenter, 1982), the alien’s many forms are exceedingly visceral and slimy, closely resembling human flesh and intestines. Combined with acclaimed practical effects, the alien becomes truly disgusting and revolting in appearance.

By utilising all three of King’s (1981) elements of horror, “The Thing” (Carpenter, 1982) succeeds in horrifying audiences, cementing itself into horror history.

References.

Carpenter, J. (1982). The Thing.

King, S. (1981). Danse Macabre.

WEEK 8 COSPLAY

In what ways can cosplay be understood in terms of notions such as affect, transportation, transubstantiation and mediated fantasy?

The word “cosplay” was coined in the eighties to describe the activity of “costume role-play” (Mountfort et al, 2018). On its most basic level, this involves dressing up as a character then pretending to be them.

Although cosplaying began in America at sci-fi conventions, it was in Japan where it really took off and developed into a major subculture. It is no surprise many costumes worn by cosplayers are from Japanese characters, most notably from anime, manga and video games (Mountfort et al, 2018).

Once a cosplayer dons their costume, they adopt the personalities of the characters they are portraying. In this way they are actors, they are performers, and when a camera is pointed at them, they are models. Those who make their own costumes could be regarded as fashion designers, tailors, painters or even sculptors.

Cosplayers commonly reference their chosen source texts, regarded as a form of citation which can be either ‘direct imitation’ and ‘textual transformations.’ The former a faithful representation of the parent text and the latter is a contrast, fidelity (Mountfort et al, 2018).

Beyond the social dimension of meeting new people and making friends, cosplayers who don a costume can forget about their regular lives and become someone else, if only for a day. They can transform into someone powerful and exciting, sexy and alluring or just cute and quirky. No matter what the attributes of the character they are playing, the process of adopting an alter-ego is described as mediated fantasy.

The translation of such archetypal figures onto actual bodies becomes a kind of transubstantiation, in that Domsch suggests that ‘the “thing” that can be transported from one medium to another’ is the ‘mental construct that we call a narrative storyworld and its existents (Mountfort et al, 2018).

This transportation of a particular sense of attaching intensities of feeling to fictional characters, leading to a desire to transcend mere reading and watching, can be described as an affect, the term referring here not just to the feelings provoked by cosplay but an intense corporeal response (Mountfort et al, 2018).

Those who are shy can tap into the strength of their character and completely come out of their shell. The simple act of wearing a costume can infuse the cosplayer with a level of energy and confidence which is greatly empowering.

Plenty of cosplayers are not shy, extraverted and cosplay gives them the perfect excuse to let their true selves come to the surface. Although they may be confident and charismatic before they don their costume, cosplaying allows them the freedom to take their passions to a greater level of self-expression.

Cosplaying can also make a person feel special. Dressing up in a stunning costume and having crowds of admirers showering them with compliments has obvious appeal. The encircling photographers and eager fans can make cosplayers feel like celebrities.

REFERENCES

Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet cosplay: Costume play, identity and global fandom. Intellect Bristol,UK/Chicago, USA

WEEK 8 COSPLAY

In what ways can cosplay be understood in terms of notions such as affect, transportation, transubstantiation and mediated fantasy?

The translation of such archetypal figures onto actual bodies becomes a kind of

transubstantiation, in that Domsch suggests that ‘the “thing” that can be transported from one medium to another’ is the ‘mental construct that we call a narrative storyworld and its existents (Mountfort et al, 2018).

REFERENCES

Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet cosplay: Costume play, identity and global fandom. Intellect Bristol,UK/Chicago, USA

Week 8 Questions

2. What does the terms détournement mean and how is it applicable to cosplay?

“Détournement can be defined as a variation on previous work, in which the newly created work has a meaning that is antagonistic or antithetical to the original”(Wikipedia, n.d). The term is also similar to a satirical parody, but rather than creating a new work that strongly implies only the original; it employs direct reuse of the authentic or faithful imitations. On the other side, Mountfort(2018) explains “Détournement literally means ‘to reroute’ or ‘to ‘hijack’ and for the Situationists was linked to the ‘ludic,’ or purposive play.” The term is linked with the Paris-based social revolutionary group of intellectuals and artists of the 1950s, which is still used today in the theory of criticism and includes pranks designed to encompass subversive beyond more mischief and undermine authority, social hierarchy and political views, thereby creating a good resonance with cosplay.

First of all, Detournement is useful in making cosplay a critical practice, not just a form of fandom. While familiarity with the story world of the character that the course player imitates to immerse himself as well as the audience in the fandom is a factor to enter the community, material and social concerns such as the player’s body shape, clothing costs, and their cooperation within the cosplay group may be important to them. According to Mountfort(2018), Cosplayers use parody, pastiche, satire, burlesque, and caricature through citation rather than using the source material. They also creates re-contextualization of sources consistent with other mixing and mashing practices, such as fan fiction and animation music video production, rather than merely dressing up or acting in a particular bypass form of cosplay. “Fan fiction and parodies, cosplay is part of the feedback loop that allows fans to enter into a text and transform it, turning readers into authors and blurring the distinction between fan and critic, as well as reader and text”(Mountfort,2018) The cosplayer gives a three-dimensional presence in the story world by activating the character through the understanding of the narrative and interpreting or reconstructing the character in various ways by becoming the character, not the usual self, in such a detournement.

Cosplay also often overturns gender as a ‘cross-play,’ where cosplayers also express race in a fluid manner. For example, “Tim Curry’s character Dr Frank N. Furter rapidly becoming an iconic instance of drag and establishing an early genetic link between cosplay and the gender-bending practice of crossplay.”(Mountfort,2018)

Like this, Detournement applies in various ways to cosplay. It induces cosplay to be viewed as a form of creative or destructive citations by quoting not only data from sources but also as a critical practice as well as fan-based consumerism by destroying existing media materials in a very special way.

References

Détournement. (2020, July 27). Retrieved September 27, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9tournement

Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet cosplay: Costume play, identity and global fandom. Intellect.

Week 7 Question

Horror as a genre has its origins dating back to the Spanish inquisition in the 13^th century. The genre revolved around religion and its components were used as a propaganda to evoke submission from the general public (Jones, 2020). Known as pre-modern horror until the 19^th century, stories usually comprised of acts that were deemed scandalous and gruesome, which were later on defined through characters such as vampires and witches in Gothic horror (Jones, 2020). Modern horror, as from late 19^th century, gradually begin to revolve around local incidents and economic instabilities, such as local crime and post war adversity (Jones, 2020). From late 20th century to current era, horror novelist Stephen King has made exceptional strides in both horror literature and film industry. King (2011) describes three basic elements of horror that prove success in appeal to audiences.

King (2011) asserts that the horror genre presses on issues relevant to the decade such as economic instabilities; for example, the 70s experienced high inflation and high interest rates, buying a house was a huge accomplishment if achieved, and so horror films like The Amityville Horror, King’s The Shining were classics that were box office hits (Hendrix, 2017). In King’s explanation (2011), the three basic elements are revulsion or the ‘gross-out’, horror, and terror. The first tier of fear known as the ‘gross-out’ is a method of physically revolting the audience with something extremely graphic (Regal, 2019). As a classic example, The Shining (1980) begins with the revulsion factor by the backstory of the Overlook Hotel, where the previous owner Grady brutally murdered his entire family (Bracken, 2020). The specific details of all the murders cause physical recoil in the audience.

The second tier of fear is horror. This element is basically the graphical portrayal of ‘the unimaginable’, wherein something is visually beyond comprehension to the extent that it evokes fear and audiences would struggle to put the pieces of the story together (Regal, 2019). In The Shining, this element is displayed through a number of scenes; Danny is encountered with disturbing apparitions, ghastly figures, the vision “REDRUM” of murder spelt backwards is seen repeatedly, and a hose that chases Danny down the hallway (Bracken, 2020). The element is further fuelled with the fact that Danny’s parents are reluctant to believe in his visions, ghostly encounters, his bruise from being strangled and ultimately when Jack, the current caretaker, and Danny have several encounters upon Grady’s ghost’s persuasion to kill the family.

The final element and top of the tier is terror, which is the kind of fear induced through imagination (Regal, 2019). The audience is given specific unknowns towards the end of the story/film that they will explain it to themselves with a number of possible scenarios built in imagination (Regal, 2019). The element of terror could also be in the form of realisations that characters have about themselves, their lives, or possibly about the environment they are in. towards the end of the film, a picture is shown of guests in a ballroom which dates back to 1921. Upon closer look, viewers realise that Jack is in the picture, up front and centred. This leaves the audience with terrifying thoughts and possibilities about Jack and possibly his past life.

References

Bracken, H. (2020). The Shining. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Shining-novel-by-King

Hendrix, G. (2017). Paperbacks from hell: The twisted history of ‘70s and ‘80s horror fiction. Quirk Books.

Jones, N. (2020). A history of modern Horror Video Lecture. Retrieved from AUT Blackboard.

King, S. (2011). Danse macabre. Simon and Schuster.

Neilan, D. (2017) Stephen King breaks down the different levels of horror. Retrieved from https://www.avclub.com/stephen-king-breaks-down-the-different-levels-of-horror-1806112160

Regal (2019). Stephen King’s 3 levels of horror. Retrieved from https://www.regmovies.com/static/en/us/blog/stephen-king-3-levels-of-horror

Week 8 Cosplay

Rija Faisal

Referring to Mountfort et al. (2018), in what ways is cosplay analogous to citation?

‘Cosplay’ refers to the act of dressing up in a costume in order to recreate the appearance of a character from a work of fiction. Popular forms of cosplay involve dressing oneself in the outfits of characters from video games, comic books, popular anime series, animated and/or live action films, etc. Cosplay can also include dressing in non-character specific costumes, such as a maid or in a school uniform.

Cosplay is considered to be a form of performance art. Through the use of costumes and accessories, gestures, behaviour, and attitude, an individual ‘cosplaying’ a character attempts to morph his/her persona into that of the character he/she is dressed as. The idea is to inhibit the role of the character whom one is dressed as as skillfully as can be done.

Cosplay in the twenty-first-century is a form of mass cultural engagement. Mountfort et al. (2018). It can be found both online as well as offline, and especially in large events such as manga and anime conventions, comic con, and within its own fan-based cosplay communities.

A distinguishing feature of cosplay which separates it from other forms of costuming performances ( such as circus and carnival performances, or theatre performances), is that cosplay depends largely on texts from popular forms of media. A source or a reference text is required, and this is where the main inspiration for a cosplay is derived from.

Another feature which distinguishes cosplay from theatre and/or screen performances is the length of performance itself. A cosplayer does not recreate/act out the entire script/plot of their chosen text. Rather, they only perform what can be called ‘chunks’ or ‘portions’ of the original source text, ones which the cosplayer himself/herself filters out as being significant to the actual performance.

On the subject of citation, cosplay can be regarded as a form of citation as cosplayers commonly reference their chosen text, and perform a multitude of citational acts. Mountfort et al. (2018). In a cosplay performance, it is the cosplayer’s own costumed body which then acts as the text or as a ‘site’ referencing a text – in the case of cosplay, this would be the specific media source which is chosen by the cosplayer to be performed.

Props (such as weapons) alongside the costume also act as citation links, as they help in linking the cosplay back to its source text.

Citation in cosplay can also be seen being as similar to referencing. In a cosplay performance, a familiarity with the original narrative of the cosplay is important, as this is what allows the cosplay audience to recall the source of the original narrative. The cosplay audience play a crucial part. Without them, a cosplay performance simply would not be successful or be as powerful if say, it were performed for an audience that was unfamiliar with the original narrative. These three elements- the text, the cosplayer and the cosplay audience – together make up the citational qualities of cosplay.

References

Mountfort, P. Pierson, Smith, A. Geczy, A. (2018) Planet Cosplay Intellect Books.