Assignment:
We have considered the performance of gender and the representation of community membership (or exclusion from membership) in many kinds of popular culture of Japan, such as in manga. Discuss how otaku and other consumer subcultures might be thought to either rebel against conventional forms of mainstream social memberships and identities, or conform to conventional capitalist systems. Support your point of view with specific references to our 3 texts this week: the Akihabara documentary, the manga "Insufficient Direction" and the chapter "Bad Girls Go Shopping" by Bardsley and Hirakawa. Be sure to cite page numbers and video time stamps.
Feel free to involve other works of popular culture in your discussion that you might be familiar with. Have you been to Akihabara? Feel free to share your first-hand observations!
Compose a spell-checked, grammatically correct 200 word response (excluding quoted material.) The readings on otaku and consumer subcultures should help you to articulate your point, and you should make references to them, but be sure to note that direct quotations will NOT be included in the minimum word count for this exercise.
Readings:
1. Insufficient Direction
By Moyoco Anno
2. Branded: Bad Girls Go Shopping
By Jan Bardsley and Hiroko Hirakawa