The Annals of AP Research

Only 7 more weeks of AP Research. Man, it’s almost over. I can’t believe that we are already finished collecting and analyzing our data. My research has yielded results that I did not see coming, and I have noticed connections between my themes that I had never even thought of before. But I guess, that is the whole point of my research. I found 6 overarching thematic differences between Americanized and Japanese anime and around 15 different sub themes. I am excited to write my results section, however, with so much data/details it is difficult to find a format to effectively present the themes. Therefore, I have looked through pages and pages of JStor and my Google Drive folder to come up with the following three sources to guide me:

I have thoroughly scoured the annals to find the best sources to use for my results section.

The first source that I will be using is the thematic guide by Dr. Braun and Dr. Clarke. This was the same paper that I used in my methods to layout my thematic analysis. Braun and Clarke also outline how to present the results of a thematic analysis. Having said that, Braun and Clarke’s paper does not go into detail about a specific format for the themes that I have found, rather they give general guidelines on what the results  and discussion sections should include. Perhaps the biggest advice they give is to use “vivid examples, or extracts” that demonstrate the essence of the theme “without unnecessary complexity” (23).

The next source I looked at was Ralph Donald’s “Anti-War Themes in Narrative War Films.” Donald conducted a thematic analysis on around 20 different films. In his results section, Donald follows a very simple, yet effective structure. Each theme is given its own section. Then, within each section, Donald uses different examples from his analysis to portray the theme in action. Donald only found three overarching anti-war themes but for each he gave an example from each of the 20 films he watched.

The final source is John Weakland’s “Themes in Chinese Communist Films.” Within his results section, Weakland first gave a list of all the themes he found followed by a brief description of the essence of the theme. After that list, Weakland talked about all of the themes as a whole. He looked at the connections between the themes, how the themes are related, how they contradict, and so on. However, unlike the previous two sources, Weakland did not provide any specific examples of each theme.

I am aiming to make my results section Ralph Donald’s results sections. I believe that Weakland will be more useful for my discussion section. First, I will devote a small subsection to each theme, I have 6 in total. Within each subsection, I will talk about the different manifestations of the themes and give examples for each manifestation. My only worry right now is going over the word count or leaving the reader confused, but I know it will all work out at the end (hopefully).

Word Count: 491

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(Sorry, I just couldn’t think of a good title for this blogpost.)

It is scary to think that after next week, we will already be nearly ⅓ of our way done with our research project. At the beginning of the year, I thought I could take it slow and take my time doing my research during the third trimester, but boy was I wrong. This past week has been hella (sorry) busy. Not only did I finish my analysis of the rest of Cowboy Bebop and Spirited Away, I also managed to organize and categorize all of my data in a manner that makes it a lot easier to understand and interpret. On top of that, I redid my methods and changed the way I show the academic gap in my literature review. I really did not have a clear picture of what I was doing when I wrote my methods, however, now that I know exactly what I did, I can hopefully articulate me methods a lot more clearly.

Finished coding all the episodes of Cowboy Bebop. It's a good show, I recommend that you watch it (even if you are not into anime.)

Unfortunately, there is no school Monday, so my regular weekly, Monday morning, meeting with Mrs. Haag had to be postponed until Thursday. So I will take this opportunity to discuss my data analysis. Originally, when I had planned out my methods, I assumed my raw data collection would be me simply noting down the changes between the dubbed and subtitled versions of the anime. Then, I had planned on my analysis being me assigning codes and then categorizing my codes into themes as my data analysis. However, due to Mrs. Haag’s brilliance, I have already finished the latter part when I did it alongside my data collection.

I know it may be a little hard to read, but this is just a quick overview of some parts of my thematic categorization. Each color represents a general theme, and each column is a sub-theme. The data points below are the examples that represent each theme.

Therefore, my data analysis will be me trying to finalize my list of themes. I have found all my themes and sub-themes through the categorization of my data, however the list is not final since I still need to refine the themes’ names, give them definitions, find compelling examples of them, and determine their validity. The biggest part is determining the intra-reader validity of the themes. I am planning on re-coding 5 random episodes of both Dragon Ball Z and Cowboy Bebop as well as all of Spirited Away. I am thinking that I will follow the exact same steps for the re-coding and compare the resulting themes from the second coding to the original themes. Right now, I don’t know how I will reevaluate my themes based on my validity check, so only once I get all of my themes from the validity check will I be able to actually able to determine that.

Word Count: 432

Almost There

This past week I finished noting down the changes in the first 26 episodes of Dragon Ball Z and the first 16 episodes of Cowboy Bebop. Now all that remains are ten more episodes of Cowboy Bebop  and Spirited Away. However, I have to admit that I have not given my Literature Review and my Methods section much attention, so I really need to step that up.

But, my meeting with Mrs. Haag last time really helped me. Originally, I had planned on writing down all the changes before going back to individually code the changes for their themes. However, Mrs. Haag recommended that I should be coding while I am identifying the changes. I think that has been the best move I have made so far, as the research has become much more efficient and I feel a lot more confident about my research. As I have been identifying the thematic changes that happen, I have been noticing a few recurring patterns, so I think it would be most appropriate if I devote this blogpost to discussing these patterns.

The largest—and perhaps the most obvious—change that happens is that Japanese collectivist characteristics are individualized in the American anime. There are different facets that contribute to this overall pattern, from how a character interacts with his family to how a character responds to a certain event. I know that all of this sounds vague, but they will be much more clear and specific once I have gone around to actually naming the themes. Besides individualism and culturalism, I have found a pattern where time is seen as a much more precious commodity in the American version than the Japanese version. Another interesting theme is the perception of the environment. In the American versions, the environment is appreciated more for how it can be used by humans, whereas in the Japanese version, the environment is appreciated for itself.

But, the most interesting pattern I have found is around specificity and ambiguity. I have noticed that the American version is much more ambiguous than the Japanese version when talking about the future. For example:

The titles to the Dragon Ball Z episodes in Japanese reveal a lot of information about the plot of the upcoming episode... 

...while the American title is much more vague. 

However, on the other hand, when talking about the present or past, the Japanese version is more ambiguous than the American version. For example:

In the very first scene of Dragon Ball Z, the English narrator speaks in great detail on the events leading up to the story, while the Japanese narrator talks only broadly about the same events.

We are rapidly approaching our Feb. 19th deadline. I am feeling much more confident about my research, and my methods have become a lot clearer. Hopefully I will be able to find more interesting results!

Word Count: 478

All Alone (ಥ_ಥ)

Hello 6th period research peeps, welcome to my humble abode (blog). Since you may have no idea about what I am doing for my research, let me just get you caught up on what my research is all about. Here’s the jist of it: when anime is broadcast in America it is edited to make it seem more American, so I am identifying the changes that happen when an anime is edited and then conducting a thematic analysis on those changes to see what common themes come up. I am hoping these themes can tell us a little bit more about the interaction between America and foreign culture. Right now, I am in the stage of identifying the changes. To do so, I watch the American version of the anime next to the original version (which has subtitles) and look for any visual, plot or dialogue changes. My samples are: Dragon Ball Z (1st season), Spirited Away, and Cowboy Bebop.

Although it may sound weird, the largest pitfall right now for me is not knowing what pitfalls I might face. My research question is exploratory, meaning I have no idea what my thematic analysis will yield. On top of that, the thematic analysis is almost all subjective. So, this means that it will be difficult to see what obstacles I might face, and that is scary because then I can’t plan or think ahead about any of the obstacles. And being alone for the first time, if I come across any obstacle—which I most likely will—I will not have as much support from Mrs. Haag and my peers as I did during the previous two trimesters. Obviously, I will try to make the best of my weekly meetings with Mrs. Haag to resolve any problems, but this independence is still quite frightening.

Independence felt so great...

...for a small period of time.

In terms of data collection, I am almost done with Dragon Ball Z. I already have nearly 150 different changes. I am predicting that I will have around 400-500 changes by the end of it all. I currently have all my data on a spreadsheet and I need to make sure that I keep all my data organized and clear. If I don’t, not only will it will be extremely difficult to clearly articulate my data, it will also make the thematic analysis much harder. Regarding my schedule, if I keep up my current pace, I will be done with my data collection by the end of this week. I am hoping to start my thematic analysis on the changes that I find by the start of next week. While I have been collecting my data, I have found a few interesting patterns. First is that the amount of changes within each episode vary very greatly. Some episodes have over twenty different changes within them, while others have only one or two. Another interesting thing is that almost every single change I have found is in the dialogue. I have not found a plot change and have only found one visual change. Overall, I have not come across any obstacles, but then again, I haven’t gotten to the hard part yet.

Word Count: 523