JAPAN

Studies in Japanese Popular Media: Manga and Anime

Program

Courses

Faculty

Housing

Cost

Calendar

Eligibility

Application Deadline

PROGRAM

Studies in Japanese Popular Media: Manga and Anime is a six-week, six-credit program based at Temple University, Japan Campus (TUJ). Designed for undergraduates, the program explores manga and anime, and their relation to Japanese and global culture. In addition to lectures and class discussions, the program also includes fieldtrips to art and anime exhibitions, and to studios to see how anime and manga are made at their site of production.

Students have an opportunity to interact, in both academic and social settings, with Japanese and international students studying at TUJ, both in the regular undergraduate university, and those who are participating in TUJ’s other summer study abroad programs. Students also have the opportunity to participate in university-organized field trips and excursions that are of general interest to students of Japanese culture.

TUJ is home to the Institute of Contemporary Japanese Studies (ICJS), which sponsors special programs devoted to Japanese contemporary culture and language, as well as a lecture series. Guest lecturers have included Ian Condry, Associate Professor at M.I.T. specializing in media, popular culture, and globalization; and Frederik Schodt, author of Manga, Manga, Manga and Dreamland Japan.

COURSES

Undergraduate students enroll in two Asian Studies Special Topics courses for a total of six credits.

Asian Studies 2000: Special Topics in Asian Studies I: Japanese Popular Culture: Manga (3 cr)

This interdisciplinary course offers a thematic study of manga as texts of Japanese pop culture, drawing from the fields of history, art history, anthropology, sociology, literature, and film. During each class, a new issue from within the history of manga is examined to give valuable insight into key aspects of Japanese culture.

Topics include the art historical origins of manga; shojo manga and the transformation of gender roles; the comics and rebellion of the 1960s, and the birth of the otaku subculture; the relation of manga to computer games; contemporary Japanese art and manga; and monsters in Japanese popular culture.

Works considered include Ace! by Sumika Yamamoto, Sailor Moon, Cutie Honey, Nana, the works of Takahashi Rumiko, and Takashi Murakami’s Superflat exhibition.

Asian Studies 3000: Special Topics in Asian Studies II: Comparative Studies in Japanese Anime (3 cr)
The rich and varied world of Japanese anime has produced some of the most important cultural products to appear in Japan in the post war period, and has established itself as a part of global popular culture. The course includes analyses of works by Tezuka Osamu, Hayao Miyazaki, Katsuhiro Otomo, Anno Hideaki, Mamoro Oshii, and Reiji Matsumoto. Each class is based on close readings of specific anime, supported by texts, lectures, interviews with directors, and background documentaries.

As part of the course, students also visit exhibitions and production studios at various sites including the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka; the Toei Animation Gallery, Tokyo; and the Tokyo Anime Center.

PROGRAM DIRECTOR

The program director, Dr. Paul Sutcliffe, is an art historian whose research in anime and manga has included interviews with notable Japanese artists such as Murakami Takashi, Aida Makoto, and Mori Mariko - a group of 'Pop' artists who use manga and anime imagery. These artists' work includes reference to the subculture of otaku within the broader context of the global marketplace of Japanese youth style
cultures, mass media, and popular culture.

Dr. Paul Sutcliffe has taught Japanese pop culture and manga in Japan and England. He has lectured and participated in international symposia on Japanese manga, and is an authority on Japanese art and visual culture. Dr. Sutcliffe received a BA (Honors) from Queen Mary College, University of London; an MA in the History of Art from Goldsmith’s College, University of London; and a PhD in Contemporary Art in Japan from the University of the Arts London.

HOUSING

Students may choose to take advantage of housing arranged by Temple University or to make their own housing arrangements. More detailed housing information describing the housing facilities and amenities is provided to all students in one of the predeparture mailings.

PROGRAM FEES AND COSTS

*Please note that this fee is based on last year's costs and will be updated

The Japan fee includes housing and orientation activities. In addition, students need to budget money for personal expenses including meals, health insurance, local travel in and around Tokyo, any personal travel outside of Tokyo that students wish to undertake, the International Student Identity Card (currently $22), and transpacific travel to/from Tokyo. More information will be provided in one of the pre-departure web postings, but meals, personal expenses and local Tokyo travel are estimated at about $400 a week.

2008 CALENDAR (Summer I)

Dates are tentative and subject to change

ELIGIBILITY & APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

Please see General Summer Information for program eligibility and application requirements that apply to all programs.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 15

For more information, contact Temple University International Programs, 200 Tuttleman Learning Center, 1809 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122; Phone: 215-204-0720; Fax: 215-204-0729; E-mail: study.abroad@temple.edu.