Manga/anime, media mix: scholarship in a post-modern, global community

Advances in telecommunication technologies have massively altered the landscapes within which human relationships and self perspectives are enacted. Electronically transmitted, inter-linked spaces (e.g., via Internet, mobile phones and DVDs) are now part of our daily lives, fusing the virtual and the real, and revealing our fragile identity and stability as individuals. Manga (Japanese cartoons) and anime (animated manga) represent some of the most popular media circulating through global communities today, offering vast, imaginary sites for shielding people’s injured, suppressed and shaken individuality which has intensified from the pressures of continuous social competitions and conformity. This paper discusses how the study of manga/anime as visually crafted experiences can reflect the fluid and hybrid complexity of contemporary society through rich narratives as well as kaleidoscopic representations. Treating these representations as scholarly “objects” therefore involves linking diverse disciplinary fields such as literature, education, psychology, cultural studies, religious studies, history, anthropology, politics and consumerism. Most manga/anime are story-driven and are able to deal with “nearly every imaginable subject” (Schodt, 1996). Their readerships range from infants to mature men/women while their contents and styles differ widely. They have also evolved with and are linked to other communication media, such as electronic games, the Internet, and mobile phones. Manga/anime are therefore situated as pivotal points for inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural research into not only contemporary Japan but also post-modern society in general.