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The Power Of Anime: Artistic Power, Social Consciousness, And Cultural Impact, Natalie Ortez-Arevalo
The Power Of Anime: Artistic Power, Social Consciousness, And Cultural Impact, Natalie Ortez-Arevalo
Master's Projects and Capstones
This project explores the widespread popularity and impact of anime on Japanese culture. In my research, I demonstrate how the integration of anime into Japan’s culture creates big splashes—like stones being thrown into a lake—that, at the same time, ripple out in various directions and reverberate on multiple levels. First and foremost, this research centers around an important concept: that anime contains well-crafted storytelling and powerful imagery that demonstrates wider historical, cultural, and social issues—both the positive and negative. In anime films and shows, symbolism plays an important part as it can be found throughout the imagery and the storylines …
Erotic Grotesque Nonsense: Veiled Criticism Through Extreme Entertainment, Thoby Jeanty
Erotic Grotesque Nonsense: Veiled Criticism Through Extreme Entertainment, Thoby Jeanty
Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)
This thesis examines the writings of Meiji novelists living during a time of transition. Their writings became known as part of a genre called Erotic Grotesque Nonsense. The genre became defined as engaging in extremes to entertain an audience captivated by the eroticism, grotesque, or even the nonsensical nature of the stories being told. The thesis discovers there is a pressing social commentary on the tumultuous transition to modernity hidden within these works. The traditions established during the Tokugawa era starting from 1603 and lasting until 1867 came under pressure with the start of the Meiji era in 1868. Each …
The Costs Of Lolicon: Japan’S Pedophilia Trade, Megan Sluzhevsky
The Costs Of Lolicon: Japan’S Pedophilia Trade, Megan Sluzhevsky
Senior Theses
This thesis investigates Japan’s normalization of pedophilia via the proliferation of popular culture and media. This analysis will begin by looking at historical examples of pedophilia, specifically focusing on chigo in Medieval Japanese Buddhism, wakashu in Edo Period pleasure quarters, and the spread of soft power diplomacy after World War II. This phenomenon will also be viewed in the modern context by discussing lolicon in Japanese media and advertising, idol culture in the Japanese music industry, the JK business, and “real” child pornography. The ways that Japan benefits from this culture economically and politically will also be investigated. Finally, this …
Of Spies And Assassins, Haddon Smead
Of Spies And Assassins, Haddon Smead
Honors Theses
This thesis explores the possibility of a connection between the Shinobi of Japan and the Order of Assassins from the Middle East. There is evidence that these two secret societies of antiquity are related and that there might have been some level of interaction and/or connection between them. The aligning methodologies, the geopolitical circumstances, the transmission of culture, and the other organizations resembling these two groups establish a frightening level of similarity between them and support the existence of a historical connection. It is hoped that additional study will be undertaken with regards to this subject, and the author of …
Aesthetics & Politics: A Brief History Of Japan & The Us’S 20th Century, Ricky Brown
Aesthetics & Politics: A Brief History Of Japan & The Us’S 20th Century, Ricky Brown
Theatre Thesis - Written Thesis
This paper is a look at the combination of aesthetics and politics and how that combination effected the lives of black Americans, Japanese women and the people of Korea under Japanese occupation during the early 1900s.
Xbox In Japan? Understanding The Distinctions Of The Japanese Video Game Market To Increase Microsoft's Competitive Advantage, Sekani Adebimpe
Xbox In Japan? Understanding The Distinctions Of The Japanese Video Game Market To Increase Microsoft's Competitive Advantage, Sekani Adebimpe
Senior Theses
Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony remain the biggest players in the video game console space. While all three companies have achieved worldwide success, Microsoft’s performance with the Xbox brand in Japan is an outlier for its historically poor sales numbers dating back to its 2001 debut. The purpose of this thesis is to unearth the various cultural distinctions inherent to the Japanese gaming industry that Microsoft must consider to gain a stronger foothold in the country, as well as diagnose the biggest issues facing Xbox with Japanese consumers. To accomplish this, several cultural frameworks were used to assess the differences between …
Live As Fireflies: The Narration Of Traumas In Two Films, Tucker Obrien
Live As Fireflies: The Narration Of Traumas In Two Films, Tucker Obrien
Senior Theses and Projects
The films To Live, directed by Zhang Yimou 1994 in China, and Grave of the Fireflies, directed by Isao Takahata in Japan, tell the stories of two families’ daily life as they endure the aftermath of historical tragedies in the 20th century. Affected by the histories of China and Japan in the twentieth century, the actions and thoughts of the characters embody different forms of their traumas. I argue that these two films depict traumatic expressions of the Chinese and Japanese people to their respective historical tragedies, through the abnormal behaviors and uncanny psychologies of the characters. The visualized …
Anti-Art In Postwar Korea And Japan, Emma Patterson
Anti-Art In Postwar Korea And Japan, Emma Patterson
MA Projects
Emerging from the traumatic devastation of World War II and the economic upheaval that followed, artists in Japan and South Korea adopted similar creative strategies and addressed parallel themes in their artistic responses to the postwar period. Anti-Art in Postwar Korea and Japan brings together artists from the two nations—which share a complex socio-political history—to introduce a new lens through which to understand contemporary East Asian art. Seung-taek Lee, Ha Chong-Hyun, Kim Tschang-Yeul, Lee Ufan, and Nobuo Sekine were few of a number of Korean and Japanese artists who developed comparable practices across the media of painting, sculpture, installation, and …
Land, Language, And Liberation: The Politics Of Ainu Self-Representations, Kevin James Cohen
Land, Language, And Liberation: The Politics Of Ainu Self-Representations, Kevin James Cohen
Senior Projects Spring 2022
Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.
Nintendo Is Coming To China: The Struggles And Hopes Of Chinese Popular Culture, Qiaohui Amy Wang
Nintendo Is Coming To China: The Struggles And Hopes Of Chinese Popular Culture, Qiaohui Amy Wang
Senior Projects Spring 2022
Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College. Games are an important component in modern popular culture. Games are a form of entertainment that people all around the world enjoy. They allow people to overcome the limitations created by physical society. Before the Reform era in 1980s, China was a society that lived only under collective interests. When Deng Xiaoping ended the Cultural Revolution and brought China to the world, global giants are coming to China and introduce entertainments to this society. This study takes Nintendo as an example to analyze how oversea entertainments would …
Imagined Realities: The Rise Of New Wave Cinema In Post-War Japan, Asia Miro Smudde Tom
Imagined Realities: The Rise Of New Wave Cinema In Post-War Japan, Asia Miro Smudde Tom
Senior Projects Spring 2022
Project Submitted to the Division of Social Studies of Bard College.
My thesis explores cinematic representation in post-war Japan leading up the the New Wave movement. I examine the work of Yasujiro Ozu and Sun Tribe youth films and their relationship with conventions of cinema to bring awareness to narrative constructions of historical periods.
Women In Post-War Japan: Bodies Of The Avant Garde, Cassidy P. Boulanger
Women In Post-War Japan: Bodies Of The Avant Garde, Cassidy P. Boulanger
Honors Undergraduate Theses
From 1945 onward, post-war artists in Japan encountered two interrelated challenges: to both adjust to the war’s aftermath, and also to create a new visual language which expressed new ideas and emotions. For women artists in Japan, this time of distinct culture change allowed for a re-defining of their role in the art community as well as society. However, there were strict boundaries surrounding the institutional and academic realm of art, one that was not inviting to women, or one that allowed opportunity or growth. Nevertheless, many women artists sought to explore gender roles, the idea of womanhood, sexuality, and …
In Search Of Unicorns: An Analysis Of Japan's Startup Ecosystem, Kaito Komoriya
In Search Of Unicorns: An Analysis Of Japan's Startup Ecosystem, Kaito Komoriya
CMC Senior Theses
While Japan previously dominated global consumer markets in innovative electronic products, the economy has failed to live up to this performance since the burst of the asset price bubble in 1992 and the subsequent lost decades. In the modern economy, startup companies have become synonymous with innovation. Most of these companies have emerged from Silicon Valley, as well as other startup hubs around the globe. However, critics have criticized Japan for the limited number of notable startup companies from the country.
My thesis seeks to answer the two following questions: First, what is the current state of Japan’s startup ecosystem? …