FLOW ANALYSIS (10%–due October 23)

Students should select a twenty minute chunk of television, including the last ten minutes of one half hour block and the first ten minutes of a second half hour. One of the 10 minute chunks must feature Japanese animation, and the other anything else. You should identify each segment of that "flow" of broadcast materials (commercials, public service announcements, news updates, credits, continuity, etc.) and write a short analysis of your discoveries. What percentage of the total is constituted by programming? What themes or subjects cut across multiple classes of program segments. Your analysis should be 3-4 pages in addition to the program segmentation.

PAPER ASSIGNMENT (10%–due November 6)

A key feature of any episode of Sailor Moon is transformation. Choose one morphing scene from any episode or film version of Sailor Moon. Describe in concrete terms how the animators render this transformation in time and space. Be specific and use the tools we've developed in class. Analyze how this scene fit into the larger narrative, and speculate what audience (or audiences) enjoys these narratives and how the artists use the tools of their trade to engage their desires and pleasures.

You may use any episode of the series, which is currently being broadcast on cable tv every week. It is also readily available at video stores, and the Program in Film and Video's library on the second floor of the Frieze Building has a DVD of a movie version. We want to emphasize that there is no necessarily correct answer for this topic; the success of your paper will lie in its specificity in analyzing the work of the animators, and the argument you mount---no matter how speculative---concerning the relationship of the animation and its probable viewers. Length should be 3-4 pages, double spaced.

RESEARCH PAPER ON POACHING AND FANDOM (20%–due Dec. 4)

Select a film, program or program genre (i.e. mecha, shojo anime, cyborg anime, etc.) which has a substantial following within the U of M community or in anime fandom at large. Your task will be to offer some provisional arguments about the place that these materials play in the lives of the people who consume and enjoy them. How do fans watch? What other sorts of activities do fans partake in besides watching films and video tapes? Are you looking at a physically present community or a virtual one? What sorts of pleasures and politics are involved? What is your own relationship to both the object at hand and the community surrounding it.

Think hard about what kinds of research methods are available to you. Do not be content at lurking on web sites or bulletin boards. Participate–either as a fellow fan or as an outsider asking questions. Interview people. Post to a bulletin board. View or read and analyze the creations of that community. Visit Animania showings. Interview your next door neighbor’s child about Pokemon. Analyze fan fiction. Conduct a survey. Talk to non-fans about anime fandom. The possibilities are endless. Be creative.

Your essay should be well-researched and reasoned, more than a simple description. The course is giving you many tools for your analysis, and all are available to you. This might also be an opportunity to reflect on those readings in light of your discoveries "in the field." Length should be between 6 and 8 pages.