Manga & Anime Audience Research
Manga & Anime Audience Research I am a professor with the Information and Communication Studies Program at the University of New Brunswick, Saint John (New Brunswick, Canada). The research that I've been conducting with Manga Readers and Anime viewers is ongoing. I am also a fan and an avid reader of manga (in translation) myself.
I am continuing work on a cross-cultural study of manga readers in both Japan and North America. I have poor abilities when it comes to speaking Japanese (though I have been trying to learn) so I can only work with participants who are fluent in English.
I have interviewed readers of English translated manga in Canada (in 2009) and some Japanese manga readers in the San Francisco bay area (in2011).
I worked on a joint project with my colleague Akiko Sugawa-Shimada in Japan. We conducted an online survey for readers of manga and viewers of anime. I conducted online interviews with a sample of the survey participants during the summer of 2015.
This research received funding from the Midori Suzuki Media Literacy Foundation.
Some publications and conference papers on manga and anime industry and fans:
"Transnational
fandom in translation: manga readers and anime viewers outside of Japan." April
15, 2017 at Popular Culture Association of America, San Diego, CA.
"Transnational spreadable media culture: manga readers and anime viewers outside
of Japan." July 23, 2016 at Comic Arts Conference, San Diego, CA.
"Transnational
convergence culture: grassroots and corporate convergence in the conflict over
amateur English-translated manga," Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics,
Vol.
6, No. 4, Oct 2015. [DOI:10.1080/21504857.2015.1060617]
"Holy Transmedia, Batman! The impact of 21st century
intellectual property rights on cultural production in Japan and America."
Co-presented with Dann Downes, April 1, 2015 at Popular Culture Association of
America, New Orleans, LA.
"Popular culture in translation: manga readers and anime viewers outside of Japan," May 23, 2014 at Oceanic Popular Culture Association, Honolulu, Hawaii.
"Trans-cultural conviviality, conflict and transition: reader responses to the crackdown on manga scanlation by American licensees and Japanese publishers." May 25, 2013 at Asian Conference on Cultural Studies, Osaka, Japan.
"Globalization and Popular Culture: Surveying manga readers and anime viewers outside of Japan." Presented July 20, 2013 at The Comic Arts Conference, San Diego, CA.
"Girly Girls and Pretty Boys: gender and audience reception of English-translated manga," December 2010. Conference Proceedings (peer reviewed), Queen City Comics: Astonishing Tales in Academia [http://ourspace.uregina.ca/handle/10294/3092]
"Transnational Transformations: A Gender Analysis of Japanese Manga Featuring Unexpected bodily Transformations," The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 45, No. 4, 2012 pp789-806.