A Plan for Action

My anime sample size is the following three anime: One Piece, Dragon Ball Z, and Spirited Away. For One Piece and Dragon Ball Z, due to time restrictions I will be watching only the first season of each. There are 43 dubbed episodes of One Piece in its first season, and in Dragon Ball Z, there are 28 dubbed episodes in the first season. Finally, Spirited Away is a 2 hour and 5 minutes long movie.

During my initial viewing period, I found that it was best if I used played both the subtitled and dubbed on a split screen and compared them scene by scene. From the initial viewing period, I found that I needed about one hour per episode to accurately transcribe all of the changes in the anime. So judging by that number, I expect to spend around 43 hours on One Piece, 28 hours on Dragon Ball Z, and around 4-5 hours on Spirited Away. Based on these numbers, there will be a minimum of at least 76 hours of research that I will need to conduct, but most likely I will be conducting somewhere around 80-100 hours of research.

Spirited Away is the only Japanese animated film to win an Oscar.

In order to space it out, I will start collecting data on December 23rd. Starting from December 23rd to January 7th, I will be spending at least 2 hours every day on my research, including the weekends. Starting from January 8th to February 3rd, I will step up my game and start spending 3 hours every day. This should give me enough time to finish my data collection. From this, I will accumulate 30 hours from the first period (Dec. 23rd-Jan. 7th), and another 81 hours from the second period (Jan. 8th-Feb. 3rd). This gives me a total of 111 hours of research time, enough time to collect my data. From February 4th to the end of February 28th, I will analyze my data. 

To analyze my data, I will follow the guidelines of a thematic analysis laid out by Professor Virginia Braun of the University of Auckland and Professor Victoria Clarke of the University of West England. The five basic steps are: 1) collect the data, 2) generate initial codes from the data, 3) separate the codes into different general themes and sub themes, 4) evaluate the validity of the general themes, and refine the themes, 5) name the themes and sub themes. There are a lot of smaller steps along the process, but this is the basic outline of the process when I evaluate my data.

Once I finish, I envision my results to be a list of themes. Hopefully, I will be able to take the changes I find and make two different lists of themes. One list will represent the Japanese version of the anime, and the other list will represent the American version of the anime. I will aim to make two contradicting themes between each list, so say if the Japanese list has a theme of collectivism, then the American list will have a theme of individualism. This way I can show what themes are being changed as the anime shows are Americanized. 

Word Count: Enough

Video Blogs

If only I had his skills.

Cringe and enjoy this crappy rip-off of Casey Neistat. 

The Research

There are two different ways to approach my methods: through a thematic analysis, or through a content analysis. Now a thematic analysis is qualitative, whereas a content analysis is quantitative. I decided that the best way to use mixed methods, combining both a content analysis and a thematic analysis. Collecting my data for my thematic analysis would consist of me taking detailed notes on plot, dialogue and character changes between dubbed and subbed versions of an anime. The next part of the thematic analysis would be me using the data I collected to come up with themes and changes in complexity of the anime. In the content analysis, I would code for the number of the changes and the trends in what types of changes are most common when an anime is Americanized. 

 I am certain that I am going to use the thematic analysis in my methods. However, I am not so certain on whether or not I should use a content analysis. First of all, since I am doing more of an exploratory research project, I can not code for the themes that are changed, until after I do my thematic analysis. This could take up a lot of time, so to make it feasible I would have to limit the number of anime episodes I could analyze.

 However, there are also a lot of benefits to a content analysis. The biggest problem with a thematic analysis is that it is all based on the author’s credibility and is very subjective. So if I conducted a content analysis to code for the themes that I create, and the content analysis shows the prevalence of these particular themes, then it would boost my credibility and by extension my thematic analysis’s credibility.

Doing some seriously deep thinking.

 Whether I should include a content analysis in my paper is the largest part of my paper that I am iffy on. What I am most confident about is on how to conduct and format my thematic analysis. I found a detailed guide on conducting a thematic analysis, as well as several sources that conduct a thematic analysis, including one source that pertains to anime. I found that the general trend when conducting a thematic analysis is that contradictions are important to talk about and that is something that I know I will be including in my research. Overall, I feel pretty confident about my methods, all that is left is clarifying the content analysis part of my research and ironing out the small details of my methods. 

Word Count: 420

Looking Back (Over My Shoulder)

 We have come a far ways. One-third of our project is done (or nearly done) after we turned in our literature review. My only concern is that since I revamped my entire literature review, that new problems will have arisen. I am a little concerned about how I introduce my research gap in my literature review, so I still need to keep working on my literature review, even as we move onto the methods section. Overall, I feel confident in my literature review, and I can’t wait to get moving with the research part.

It's a pretty good song.

 For the future, the largest parts of my paper that remain are my methods and my research. My methods will most likely be qualitative, because I will be looking for thematic differences. How I am expecting to go about this is by watching the dubbed version and subbed versions of the anime episode and comparing the side by side. I can then note the specific differences between then and from there make my qualitative inferences from what those themes are. I have one source, Brian Ruh, that used a similar method to the one I am planning on using. For a part of his study, Ruh compared the Americanized version of an anime movie to the original anime, and stated major differences and how they changed the complexity and themes of the original anime. This is his passage: 

For example, at one point Zandra (Nausicaa in the Japanese) says to Selena (Kushana) that she doesn't believe Selena is evil, to which Selena replies, "Oh, but I am." Later, when advised that it s too soon to revive the ultimate weapon she has planned, Selena scoffs, "Its never too soon to rule the world." Such utterances work against the complexity of the world Miyazaki tried to create in the original Nausicaa film, which was never supposed to present two opposing sides in such stark terms. 

 Although this passage was the only part of Ruh’s paper that used such a comparative-thematic analysis, I am thinking of expanding on this example and making it the base for my methods sections. I have tried looking for other sources, although I have not come up with any that use a similar method, I have found a few sources that use thematic analysis in their methods. Most of these sources though use thematic analysis for  texts, and I have yet to find one for movies, but I’m sure there are some out there, I just need to look harder. Overall, I am excited for the project, proud of myself and everyone else who has made it this far, and I can’t wait to get going with my research. 

 Word Count: 400 or something like that

Emotions

The hardest part about my research so far has been really finding the right sources and making the explicit questions between the sources and my premises. But talking with Mrs. Haag and going through the outline really helped alleviate a lot of the fear and stress. So, right now the biggest fear I have is about my research method. 

This is a little too early, and that this is reserved for the methods, but I have no clue on how I will go about and conduct my research project. I know that I will be comparing both dubbed and subbed shows, but I do not really know how I can take the human error out of the research process. I will be looking for themes, yet I am still uncertain on how I will systematically define these themes, and distinguish between them when watching the anime shows. I really need to dig deep to find sources that can both identify these themes and define them. Then I will need to create a really objective and systematic approach to finding these themes in the anime, so I can present the least biased and easily repeatable results to my reader. 

So many emotions at once.

The aspect of my project that I kind of feel iffy on is how I will incorporate culture into my research question. I do not know how I can incorporate the importance of American and Japanese culture into my research question. I am confident that I can show the importance of my research to culture. I have sources that show how anime relates to culture and I make it explicit throughout my literature review. I just don’t know whether, or how, I should explicitly state the importance of culture into my research question. Should I include culture into my research question? Or, should I just leave it to be addressed in the significance and my literature review? 

Now to what I feel completely confident about. There is not a lot to be completely confident about, since this is still relatively early in the research process. What I am most excited and happy about this research project about is that it is a project that I am really enjoying and I just love this topic. Also, I am confident about some parts of my literature review. I did a lot of research on the anime industry in America and the American anime fan. That part of my literature review has a lot of interaction between different sources, and I believe that it is the most refined and strongest part of my literature review. 

Word Count: 430

The Question

What are the thematic differences in [X anime(s)] when analyzing the subtitled versus the dubbed version for an American audience? 

Obviously, there are still some parts of the question that are missing, and it still needs some work. Currently, I feel pretty confident about this being the basic structure of my question. 

Scope: Narrowing my scope has not been very hard. The fact that I am comparing the subbed and dubbed version of different anime really limits the scope of my question. But, I also limited my scope by narrowing down my question to only specific anime shows. The fact that most of these anime shows have around than 25 episodes, each less than 30 minutes long, along with the almost three months we have to research, means that I have plenty of time to conduct my research, and even add more anime series. 

Key Terms: The first term I need to define is “thematic difference.” I need to define what a theme is and then show my method of deterring the differences in these themes. The other two terms that I also need to adress are what a subtitled version of an anime is and what a dubbed version of an anime is. I have already found research papers that define and describe subtitled versions of anime and dubbed versions of anime. To define these two terms, I will be showing the process of how an anime is subtitled versus the process of how an anime is dubbed. 

Assumptions: The largest assumption this question has is that there actually a thematic difference between a subtitled and dubbed version of an anime. This is where my literature review comes in. In my literature review, I will be spending lots of my time trying to show and prove that there is actually a thematic difference in subtitled and dubbed anime. The academic gap is that there is no clear indication or research of what these thematic differences actually are. 

Variables: There are several variables here at play. The two broader variables at play here are the American and Japanese cultures. The more specific variables are the audience in America, the subtitled version of anime, and the dubbed version of anime. 

Researchability: I know that I will be conducting my research by watching both the subbed and dubbed versions of anime. However, I need to find a way to systematically approach this so I can eliminate as much bias as I can to compare the two versions. In the end, I am hoping that I can have a detailed account of the most common themes that are changed in anime when they are dubbed, and see how they are changed. 

Gap/Significance: This question is filling a pretty big gap in the research on anime. Many articles and research papers I have read, have all acknowledged that there are certain themes that are being changed when an anime is brought over to America. Some even hint at what these themes are. However, there is no in-depth research paper or study done that focuses specifically on what these themes are and what their broader implications are regarding American culture. This is where I hope to come in, by specifically looking for the changes in these themes, while also seeing how these themes are changed and what this can tell us about American culture. 

Did you know there's a superhero named The Question?

Word Count: More than 400

Mapping Out Our Destiny

The outline is at this link. Enjoy!

Word Count: 1883

This is a map of a videogame called destiny.

8 Mile

The following is the academic conversation between three of my sources. Annie Manion is a Japanese animation expert from USC, Brian Ruh has a PhD in Communications and Culture, specializing in anime and Japanese culture, from Indiana University. Finally Eri Izawa is from MIT and he conducted an interview with an anime producer, writer, and editor. 

I chose these sources because they play around the issue of how fan's prefer dubbed anime over subbed anime. They do not necessarily contradict, rather they all touch upon the problem of dubbing anime, in there own unique ways. 

Annie Manion talks about otaku, who are die-hard American anime fans. Brian Ruh looks at a heavily changed and dubbed anime called Warriors of the Wind, and why it was not successful in America. He compares Warriors of the Wind to two other heavily changed anime, Voltron and Robotron, both of which were very successful in America. Finally, Eri Izawa conducted an interview with anime heavyweight Toshio Okada, where they discuss various topics regarding anime, including dubbing anime in America and the themes of anime. 

To Eminem's Lose Yourself:

Lose Yourself in Anime

[Annie Manion]

Yo, 

It's on and ready, plugged in, palms are sweating

There's ramen in his bowl already, poor man's spaghetti

He's nervous, can't decide between Pokémon and One Piece

To stop dubs, because he keeps on subbin'

He's got Japanese down, the whole tape is edited now

He's an otaku, how, part of the subculture wow,

The sub is perfect now, lines drawn, over, blaow!

Snap out of reality, oh back into fantasy,

Oh, here goes everything, he's stoked

He's so bad, but he won't give up that easy? No

He won't have it, he knows his whole cosplay's broke

It don't matter, he's dope, he knows that, but he's choked

He so sad that he knows, when he goes back to the forum home, that's when its

Back to the thread again yo, this fake galaxy

He better go re-watch this moment and hope he don’t fall asleep

You better lose yourself in the illusion, the enjoyment

You’re an otaku, yo, let reality go

You only watch sub, don’t watch a dubbed show

This subculture is fan ready, so you better,

You better lose yourself in the illusion, the enjoyment

You’re an otaku, yo, let reality go

You only watch sub, don’t watch a dubbed show

This subculture is fan ready, so you better,

 [Brian Ruh]

The TV’s taping, watching the anime that is playing

This fantasy world is his for the taking

Make him king, as we move toward a, new social order

American culture’s borin’, but anime kingdoms just complete awesome 

It only grows faster, only spreads quicker

It blows up all over these shows is all on them

Coast to coast subs, he’s known as the fansubber 

Breaking laws, that don’t matter, he’s grown tired of dubs now, he’s no loser

He watch anime, Warriors of the Wind is a laughing matter,

But hold your nose ‘cause here goes the cold water

The fans don’t want it no mo, it’s bad product,

The company cut out the scene that shows, how it’s simplified for regular Joes

So the entire show is told and unfolds, I suppose it's bad partna, because the dubs go 

Da da dumb da dumb da da

You better lose yourself in the illusion, the enjoyment

You’re an otaku, yo, let reality go

You only watch sub, don’t watch a dubbed show

This subculture is fan ready, so you better,

You better lose yourself in the illusion, the enjoyment

You’re an otaku, yo, let reality go

You only watch sub, don’t watch a dubbed show

This subculture is fan ready, so you better,

[Eri Izawa]

It so lame, they’re gonna change everything in rage

Tear this mother loving anime apart like two dogs caged

It was better in beginning, the themes all changed

It has been rewrote and sanitized and forced to change

But the fan’s keep subbin’ and translatin’ the next cipher

Best believe they’re trying to keep the themes hyper

All the pain and complexity in the

Original that can’t be changed to

Make the dub and simplified it,

Anime is full of complexity, these themes of racism and poverty

And its no movies, there’s no easy equality 

This is the original and they have worked so hard

And it’s getting even harder tryin’ to draw and write these, plus

See dishonor done to them by a corp. and an Americana

No one wanna that drama on and too much

For them to watch to stay in one spot, another failure or not

Has gotten them to the point, they hate a dub, its rot

To formulate a plot before the genre ends up a fail or wrought

Subtitles are the only mother loving option, dub is not

Anime, we love you, but this trait has got to go, we cannot grow old in dubbed plot

So here we go this is our only shot

Computer fail me not ‘cause this maybe the only subbed copy that I got

You better lose yourself in the illusion, the enjoyment

You’re an otaku, yo, let reality go

You only watch sub, don’t watch a dubbed show

This subculture is fan ready, so you better,

You better lose yourself in the illusion, the enjoyment

You’re an otaku, yo, let reality go

You only watch sub, don’t watch a dubbed show

This subculture is fan ready, so you better,

You can record anything you set your dvr to, man.

Drop the mic.

(Word Count: 925)

PHAROS

"Set the game ablaze, I'm an arcade fire”

-Childish Gambino

The literature review is an integral part of paper, it gives the reader a picture of not only what you will be talking about, but also, what the academic conversation surrounding your topic is. For my paper, specifically, I will be looking to use my subtopics to contextualize the spread of Japanese culture/anime to America as a part of the much larger globalization of culture (specifically regarding to America). The reader can then understand the importance of my paper. Beyond showing my topic’s importance, I will need to establish the academic conversation behind my topic. This is what the subtopics are responsible for. I will be using the subtopics I mentioned last week to show the important facets of Japanese animation in America, and the localization of anime in America. My goal for the literature review, and most likely a goal for basically every other literature review, is that by the end the reader will come to the same question that I will be answering in my paper. 

A paper that will be instrumental in my research, a tier one resource is "Celebrating Two Decades of Unlawful Progress: Fan Distribution, Proselytization Commons, and the Explosive Growth of Japanese Animation.”  This research paper, written by Professor Sean Leonard of MIT in 2005, looks specifically at the copyright infringement behind the rise of fansubbed anime in America. Fansubbed anime is anime that is illegally downloaded, translated by fans (via. subtitles), and distributed across anime fan communities throughout America. This paper conducts a very in-depth review of the actual history of fansubbing and anime in America. The paper also compares the rise of animation in America and Japan. It is nearly 80 pages and contains a lot of useful information for me to use in my literature review. 

In short, what this paper found was that the fansubbing did not infringe on any copyright laws, since it helped and profited the anime industry in America, rather than hurt it. Fans in America, from the 1950’s to 1990’s, craved original Japanese animation, not the heavily “sanitized” dubbed versions legally distributed by companies in America. Since fansubbers were the only ones that were able to provide translated, original anime shows from Japan, the rise of fansubbers really lead to the increased American consumption and consumer interest in anime. This is the main argument of the paper, however there is still a lot more information I will be able to use to put into my literature review. 

For next week, I looking forward to continuing the John Oliver project. Outside of class, I am still aiming to add at least one paper to my resource list. I feel like this is really coming along and I can already (somewhat) see what my research question will delve into. 

Gambino's new project.

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Singing in the Rain

Anime is a multibillion dollar industry in America. The anime fan culture in America is one of the largest subcultures in the country. Anime has definitely become a multicultural phenomenon that shows how globalization has affected the spread of media and culture around the globe.

When looking at anime editing from its original Japanese version to the new American version, it is important to look at not just anime, but the broader ideas that surround it. The subtopics to form my literature review need to encompass the general theme: America’s interpretation of foreign culture. At the same time, my subtopics will also adress the more specific theme regarding the difference between American and Japanese culture, through the editing of anime. 

With this in mind, I decided to come up with the following nine subtopics: globalization of culture, assimilation of foreign culture in America, American culture, Japanese culture, anime fans and culture in America, anime audience, subtitling anime, the influence of anime in America, editing and dubbing of anime in America. These are the most pertinent subtopics, that I believe I will need to adress in my paper. However, that does not mean that this list will not change, as there still is lots of uncharted territory to explore. 

Happy that I'm getting somewhere.

Of these subtopics, globalization of culture, and the assimilation of foreign culture in America adress the more broader theme of the digestion of foreign culture in America. These are important in giving the reader a sense of what the importance of my whole paper will be. Globalization and assimilation will give me material to use for contextualizing the purpose of my paper. 

Looking at how American culture absorbs Japanese culture requires that we first define what either are. Therefore, the subtopics that look to define American and Japanese culture are essential to my literature. Further, before I look at how anime is edited, I need to look at anime fans and culture in America in general. This could be a more specific subtopic under the overall American culture subtopic. Also, going with the fans and culture, I will have to compare the audience of anime in Japan and America. Moreover, looking at the influence of anime in America, and the most influential anime in America will help point me in the right direction regarding which anime series to study in my methods.

The last subtopic is the most specific and relevant one. Before I go and compare how dubbing of anime changes the themes in anime, I need to understand how this dubbing process actually work. It is also important that my reader has a clear picture of how the dubbing and localization process works regarding an anime.

In this past week, I have been able to read and put four sources on my document. All of them have given me interesting material to work with—although I have yet not found an article that I can call my foundational source. But, there is still plenty of time and, surprisingly, hundreds of research papers, even books, on anime. 

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Call Me Ishmael

Captain’s Log. Week 2.

Days Adrift: 14

Ship: Holding well against the storm.

Crew: Cook fell ill. First Mate now temporary cook. 

Davy Jones: Hasn’t taken anyone yet. 

Rescues: Found a drifter. Called himself Dobie Gray. Said he got lost in rock-n-roll. 

Research: Sea below.

After scouring the articles in the depths of the JStor, I finally came to a decision: I would pursue my research in anime, not glaucoma. I found that it would be very difficult for me to find a feasible topic on glaucoma that introduces something new to the academic conversation—especially since so much research is being devoted to glaucoma. On the other hand, I found that there was a significant academic conversation surrounding anime, but at the same time, there was also a unique niche that I could pursue for my research.

Currently I have refined my search to the following topic: the localization of Japanese anime in America. In the class discussion on Thursday, I found that it would be too difficult for me to look at anime as a whole, instead I should focus on specifically one genre of anime. I decided to then focus specifically on the action genre of anime, since this genre is the most popular in America. However, on Friday, when presenting in front of the class, I realized that focusing on the action-genre was still too much. 

I decided to follow in the footsteps of the research papers I had read. Many of the research papers on anime did case studies on a specific anime series or movie. To narrow my broad topic, I decided that I should focus on one or two specific anime series—conducting a case study of each and extrapolating those findings to a broader spectrum. However, I still have lots of work to do in terms of narrowing down my focus. I still need to do considerable research to find the most suitable anime(s) to focus on. 

Still hunting.

Moving forward, this week, I am planning to read more sources from JStor to get a better look at the academic conversation. From what I have read in the past week, much of the academic conversation regarding anime surrounds the anime fan. Many of the research papers focus on profiling the anime fan and looking for reasons as to why anime has become so popular in America. I found only one article that addressed localization of anime in America—however it only focused on the success of a specific localized anime in America. My goal is to dig deeper to find more specific sources so that I can start molding a research question. This coming week will be directed towards finding more relevant sources that I can use to compile my literature review and build my research question. But, in the end, I am really happy that I chose to look into anime, and I know that I will be able to take this topic to great places by the end of the year. 

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Winter Is Coming

Just to kick it off, here is a haiku:

Senior year is here.

Life is getting easier.

Is it really? 

So much action packed into one week. A new building. Another delightful year of school. An even larger number of little ones running around in the hallways. A brand new year to do research. YAY!! 

In the realms of A.P. Research, over the week I have progressed pretty far from where I was on Monday. I am currently divided between two completely different topics: Japanese anime in America and glaucoma. Both these topics have a large influence in our society. Japanese Anime has become a pop cultural phenomenon in America. From Pokémon to Dragon Ball Z, anime has taken a deep-rooted cultural seat in America. On the other hand, glaucoma affects millions of people around the world, and is the leading cause of blindness in seniors in America. Both these topics have lots of questions to be answered and studies to still be done. Currently, I am leaning more towards anime, as I have had more success with finding topics to research in anime, than glaucoma.

I have found a few research papers that focus on the prevalence of Japanese anime in America. However one pointed out the importance of fan-made English subtitles in the proliferation of anime in America. This piqued my interest, and I decided to delve a little deeper into the translation of anime to English. It turns out, that there is a huge controversy surrounding this: dub or sub?

English subtitles (sub), that are inserted into anime, stick very closely to the original Japanese version of the anime. Nothing about the anime, story line or characters is changed from the original Japanese version. On the other hand, there is dub localization or dub. Large distribution companies buy the rights to an anime in America and have voice-over actors replace the original Japanese dialogue with English dialogue. But these dubbing companies are notorious for “Americanizing” the anime. They edit the Japanese anime to make it more suitable for American audiences and more similar to American culture. 

What I can do with this topic is look at the differences in the original Japanese anime and its English dubbed version. Through this, I can look for the changes that occurred and look for a cultural trend. This, I could then relate to a unique interpretation of how American society digests or interprets foreign cultures.

On the other hand, I can look at glaucoma. There are several different forms of glaucoma, but the core problem that causes glaucoma is the same. Glaucoma is caused by an abnormal Intraocular Pressure in the eye, which can damage optic nerve endings—leading to loss of vision in most patients. What I am currently looking into is the actual process of diagnosing and treating glaucoma. I read an article in the Indian Journal of Ophthalmology, where the authors argued that glaucoma has two major problems: under-diagnosis and over-treatment. This sparked my interest and really narrowed my focus. 

However, what scares me in terms of taking this topic forward is how I will be able to conduct research in this field or contribute something new to the academic conversation of glaucoma. I have found various credible studies that have already looked at the areas that I am interested in. So I will have to look for something more nuanced as my topic, and something more accessible, if I am to pursue my research in glaucoma. 

In the end, I am definitely looking more into anime, than glaucoma. In the coming week, I will explore more sources regarding both anime and glaucoma. But I will definitely focus more on anime, and unless I hit a definite dead end in anime, I am hoping that, by Friday, I will have a definitive topic in anime. 

Even Jon Snow knows. Winter is coming.

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