Engaging with Anime and Manga: A Phenomenological Study
Gracia, Refanisa Sola (olagracia@[Link])*, Dimyati, Dindin ([Link]@[Link])**
*)President University, Jababeka Education Park, Jl. Ki Hajar Dewantara, Kota Jababeka, Cikarang Baru, Bekasi 17550, Indonesia
**)President University, Jababeka Education Park, Jl. Ki Hajar Dewantara, Kota Jababeka, Cikarang Baru, Bekasi 17550, Indonesia
Abstract
The popularity of Japanese popular culture in Indonesia, especially anime and manga, has made
the growth of anime and manga fans increase. Despite the fact that Indonesia and Japan share
differences in language, cultural and geographical aspects, but people who become fans of
anime and manga keeps amplifying. This research, therefore, was aimed to study fans of anime
and manga in terms of seeking aspects that make people become fans and changes they have
experienced as fans of anime and manga. This research was developed by using
phenomenological approach of qualitative research method. Observation and in-depth
interviews were conducted to get the data and information from informants regarding their
experiences and opinion toward anime and manga. This study has revealed that media and
technology trigger the increasing numbers of anime and manga fans, but there are other aspects
triggering people to become anime and manga fans: 1) their social environments, 2) the
characteristics of anime and manga, 3) the access to get anime and manga and 4) preferences to
fulfill their certain needs. The fans have experienced some changes and their changes have
pervaded in almost all aspects of their life.
© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of i-COME’14.
Key words: Anime; Cultural studies; Fan studies; Japan; Manga; Popular Culture
I. INTRODUCTION
What is fan? Semantically the word ‘fan(s)’ is multi perspective. It means that there is no such
an exact meaning for ‘fan(s)’ depending on contexts and who defines it. The term itself has
been used since the 19th century. At that time, an understanding of a fan was associated with a
person who had deviant behaviour, was psychologically ill and a victim of pop culture industry.
1877-0428 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of i-COME’16.
2 Author name / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2016) 000–000
As the time goes by, the meaning has shifted because there have been massive developments or
changes in technology, social and cultural aspects. In this research context, generally, ‘fan’ is
known as a person who is engaged and holds deep interest with various objects of popular
culture. Fans also tend to create or reconstruct sites or artefacts that they think important to their
particular interest of fandom and often led them to create amateur historical work which later
contributes to popular culture history (Reagin& Rubenstein, 2011; Siuda, 2010).
The word ‘fans’ was used to describe the fans sports-club team, therefore in the past time,
‘fans’ were usually used to define a person who appreciated and was an enthusiast/devotee of
sports, but then because of development of popular culture and digital technology, it has
expanded to other fields of interests such as music, film, literature and so on (Littlejohn & Foss,
2009). Development of technology creates changes on culture and media, and also makes the
fan culture spread in almost every part of the world, including Indonesia.
In Indonesia the existence of popular culture seems obvious. The popular culture varies from
western to eastern one such as hip hop music from western, Turkey soap opera, kawaii fashion
from Japan, and so forth. Japanese pop culture or J-Pop Culture (Japanese Popular Culture)
recently is one of the most popular and influential towards people in Indonesia and throughout
the world. Their products like harajuku fashion styles, music, movies, video games, anime and
manga have influenced society massively. For instance, there are many events to gather the
fans and enthusiasm of Japanese Pop culture such as Ennichisai, Sakura Matsuri, Jak-Japan
and so on. Mostly in such events, besides showing traditional culture of Japan like tea
ceremony (Chanoyu/Sado or simply Ocha in Japanese), kimono, traditional music(gagaku) and
traditional dances [Link] Odori, they also show modern sides or popular culture of Japan.
Certainly the event usually becomes an opportunity to expand and to promote Japanese popular
culture such as Jpop Music,Anime, Manga and Harajuku.
If we talk about Japanese popular culture, it cannot be separated from anime and manga
because of their popularity all over the world and currently they are ‘huge’ industries, even in
the United States (Chambers, 2012). There are quite a lot of people who are not the fans of
anime and manga are also familiar these popular cultural products due to the fans’ loyality
spread by advanced technology. In addition to this, fans act as “the distributor agents” by
introducing as well as distributing the translated anime and manga version for those residing
outside Japan and they do not understand Japanese (since the original version is on Japanese).
This distribution of translated anime and manga is a key of global successJapanese sweep on its
popular culture (Bryce, 2010).
Cultural differences and languages between Japan and Indonesia do not disband their fans of
being more familiar with manga and anime. These differences even create an increasing
understanding and passion among their fans e.g. annual Japan Pop culture festivals such as
AFA ID (Anime Festival Asia Indonesia), Sakura Matsuri in Cikarang, Ennichisai in Jakarta,
Cosplay Live Action Show: Hybrid in Bandung, Mangafest. Many local events relating to
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Japanese culture held in some local schools and universities in Indonesia have contributed
extensively to the growth of manga and anime in the country.
Activities like watching anime and/or reading manga frequently, writing fan fictions, drawing
characters, attending conventions or anime community gathering and collecting the
merchandise relating to their favourite anime and manga are kinds of devoted activities that
those fans usually do. They are often willing to spend money no matter how much it costs. Fans
do this to express their fandom identity through objects that relate to their fandom (merchandise
and costume play). Some of them are productive (create fan fiction, etc.) and some of them lead
to the consumptive behaviour (buying and collecting merchandises). However, whether it is
consumerism or productive, fan activities require physical objects (Woo, 2014).
Audience do not become fans for granted. There are some aspects and processes or turning
points when they transform from “ordinary audience” to “fans” and as the product of Japanese
popular culture, anime and manga do contain several or even Japanese values such as habits,
norms, tradition, slang words, and so on. By watching anime and reading manga frequently, the
audience will receive information, interpret and decode the information they get during the time
they consume it and certainly the Japanese values inserted in anime and manga create the
changes in fans perception, behaviour or habits. Therefore, this research explored the aspects
that make people become fans of anime and manga and the changes fans have experienced
when they become the fans.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Audience, Fan and Fandom Studies
The basic concept relating to studies on media however is audience. Audience are receivers of
information or messages and the ones who will pay to get such information or messages. The
audience are not the only ones who are targeted as consumers or buyers for some products,
people who produce media products are at the same time also become the audience to the
material they produce. For instance editors of magazines also read other magazine, TV
producer also watch another television programmes and so on (Burton, 2002).
Active Audience Reception Theory
Audience not only become passive receivers which only “sit” and accept information
surrounding them, but they actively and even unconsciously involved in creating the meaning
of every messages they received. In fact, every form of information delivered through media
contain ambiguity and it makes the interpretation of its meaning can be different depend on
audience experience, background and personal contexts therefore the real meaning of the text
was created by personal experience of the reader.
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In his model Hall stated that the messages are created or encoded by the producers and it
contains the information or values that producer intended to deliver. Then the messages are
delivered to targeted audience through certain medium or channel. After the messages “arrived”
to the targeted audience, then the audience will decode the messages through one of these three
positions: 1) Dominant position which is the audience will take the information in accordance
with what producer intended to deliver, 2) Negotiated position which is the audience accept
certain part of what producers intended to deliver, and the reject the part that seems to not fit to
their personal context, and 3) The opposite position which is audience will reject all the
intended meaning from producers and instead, using their own interpretation to create meaning.
There are many factors that influence audience to decode their messages, such as life
experience and their cultural background. This explains why audience from different
background of culture and beliefs could reject some messages or even has different
interpretation.
Fan and Fandom
According to Lewis (1992), the term fans and fandom refer to “any set of extremely devoted
followers of a media star or performer, performance or text”. They are usually identified by
great, even obsessive attachment to their object of attraction. Often they show a strong sense of
awareness and fellow-feeling with other fans. Become a fan also involves a pattern of
supplementary behaviour, in dress, speech, other media use, consumption, and so on (McQuail,
2010 p.344).
The trends on fans research began in 1930’s and since that time the academic opinion about
fans has kept changing because of the change in trends, technology and globalization. From the
first time the term “fan” appeared, fans have been considered as deviant people or “abnormal”
ones in a society because they seemed to overly enjoy and follow things in “uncommon” way
and even become “pathological” individuals which are the victims of pop culture industries.
However, the development of technologyhas provided almost unlimited access for continuous
research on fan as well as fandom studies and, in turn, changed the understanding of the terms
of fan. This has slowly led towards positive direction on what fans are all about. Fans nowadays
become “mainstream” and are not “victims” of pop culture industries but as the audience that
support media industries and selectively choose the content on media industry – not merely
accept it.
Burton (2002) states in his book Media Psychology that there are types of need that one can
meet through consuming media like watching, reading or listening in the context of this theory:
(1) Need for information, based on curiosity, (2) Need to maintain a sense of personal identity,
to check media exemplar for behaviour, (3) Need for social interaction, using examples from
the media to developing one’s social relationship, and (4) Need to be entertained and diverted,
to escape from reality and attain a pleasure.
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Based on the idea above, people who consume media are active audience because they select
the content they want to consume and use it to match their needs although the choice of content
is limited. They take decision to interpret the meaning by themselves.
Cultural Studies
Cultural studies are “theoretical perspectives that focus on how powerful, dominant groups
influence culture” (cited in West & Turner, 2010.p.362). This perspective concerns the attitude,
approach and criticism of culture. In particular, cultural studies focus on “popular” things
opposingto “high class” culture.
Popular Culture
Three definitions of culture are stated by Williams; first it implies a general process of
intellectual, spiritual and development of aesthetics. Second, it denotes a certain way of life of
specific people or group and the third definition is focused on the works, artistic activity and
intellectual practices. Those definitions are related to each other from the current perspectives
of popular culture. Popular culture forms a major place for citizens to create meaning and
therefore the way modern theorists have sought to conceptualize popular culture merits close
attention (Littlejohn & Foss, 2009, p.762).
According to John Storey in his books entitled Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An
introduction (2009) popular culture is the term having various meaning. Popular culture can be
described as “simply culture that is widely favoured or well-liked by many people”. Williams
(1983) also suggests four current meanings for the term popular culture: ‘well-liked by many
people’; ‘inferior kinds of work’; ‘work deliberately setting out to win favour with the people’;
‘culture actually made by the people for themselves’(Storey, 2009, p.5).
Nowadays the term ‘popular culture’ is more defined as “the everyday, the mainstream, and
that commonly accessible culture produced for mass consumption”. Because of this mass
consumption, that is why popular culture gives huge influence towards almost everything in
society and daily life, such as fashion, food, lifestyle, behaviour and so on. As phenomena
popular culture is intimately connected with education, mass communication, production and
society’s ability to access knowledge (Jacobs et al, 2015). Commonly popular culture covers
the study of texts (popular fiction, television, pop music, etc.) and live cultures or practices
(seaside holidays, youth subcultures, the celebration of Halloween, etc.)
Japanese Popular Culture:Anime and Manga
For most of people, the term Japanese popular culture is often associated with manga, anime
and J-pop.“Pop” in the context of Japanese popular culture has meaning “popular” as in “of the
people”, it is rather different from the usage in western which tends to describe “light” culture
and “well-liked by many people”(Seaton & Yamamura, 2015).
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Anime and manga as the central of Japanese Popular Culture are forms of a hybrid text which
means that anime and manga are a mixture of Japanese art and western comic one. Cartoons,
drawings, and comics are examples of “Manga”, while movies, videos, and animated pictures
are “anime”. Anime is also called “Japanimation”.
Manga and anime usually employ many symbols such as sweat drop indicating the nervousness
of character, having nosebleed as a symbol of sexual arousal and flowers showing the romantic
or happy atmosphere. Different sizes and shapes of certain body parts are also showing the
different meanings such as larger eye as showing innocence or cuteness, smaller eyes showing
coldness and etc. The character image shift from “realistic” forms to “super-deformed” in one
frame usually shows that the characters are affected by strong emotion. These kinds of
iconographic symbols makes the readers of manga and anime audience perceive the meaning
instantly by reading or watching it. In some cases, however, there are also manga and anime
which do not show details of iconic symbols like mentioned above. These anime and manga
types depends on the genre and target audience (Bryce, 2010).
Besides various genres already mentioned above, things like featured characters, plots and
themes in anime and manga, which audience can align themselves also become the reason that
anime and manga are easy to be accepted. For some audience, emotional intensity and
character's complexity in anime and manga appeal for them as they have similar experiences
with the characters. In summary, manga and anime can fulfil their needs of entertainment and
to “escape from reality” (Bryce, 2010).
In Indonesia anime was introduced in early 1980 in the form of video tapes. The first batch of
anime aired in Indonesia was the one that had been popular in Japan in the 70s such as Google
V, Ultraman, Doraemon, Candy-Candy, Gundam and many others. They were also the pioneers
of the anime in Indonesia. These anime characters at that time attracted a large audience and
started becoming a trend in Indonesia because anime gave the different characteristics
compared to animation from America or Europe, therefore Indonesian people view anime as a
new and unique form of entertainment.
Media Ecology Theory
McLuhan suggest that media are like ecological system which is the change in media such as
technology and media development shapes the perceptions, feeling, emotion, and value for
those who“live” in that ecosystem. The power of technology and media to construct society can
exist because of communication bias and also communication media have ability to control and
deliver the opinion and idea to the society (Turner & West, 2010).
Media ecology stated three assumptions. First, media infiltrate every action in society. People
can’t avoid or escape from media. This kind of media such as radios, television and games
construct the society. Second assumption is, media fix perceptions and organizes experiences.
For instances, when people watch television or read newspaper, unconsciously they will get
influenced and somehow manipulated by the news or information that exist in those media and
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they surely will create changes to their daily life. The third assumption is that media tie and
connect the world [Link] lead people into creating global village, which is defined as
the world that media unite into becoming one big political, economic, social, and cultural
system.
III. METHOD
This research was conducted by using qualitative research method using phenomenological
approach because it was best suited to be used for exploring and understanding individual as
ascribed to social or human problem and also qualitative research method was focused on
interpreting the data gained from participants directly.
Furthermore phenomenological approach is usedto describe a common phenomenon that
individuals experience such as “how” and “why” they experience it. In this context the objects
studied are fans, anime and manga. Therefore the common phenomenon they experienced is
their fanatical emotional tie toward anime and manga.
The research was limited and only covered particular scopes, which describe the aspects that
have made people or audience become anime and manga fans. Therefore researcherswill know
what kind of aspects that make people or audience of popular culture “turn” into fans in
general. In this context, the research studied anime and manga fans of popular and various
genres in Indonesia since there are so many kinds of anime and manga ranging for children to
adult,.
In order to gain primary data for this research about study on fans of anime and manga,
researcher used in-depth interview and observation methods to certain informants. Their
selection was based on criteria set up by the researchers. The secondary data were taken from
previous journals, research and books related to this research e.g audience, fan and fandom
studies, communication theories, cultural/popular culture studies and media studies. The
researchersalso sought some changes that fans have experienced when they become fans of
anime and manga. Actually anime and manga are not the only products from Japanese Popular
Culture, but since their popularity has reached people in the world, therefore the reserchers
usedanime and manga as the indicators to find the aspects that make people or audience
become fans of Japanese popular culture.
The selected informantsweere mostly in the 20’s since the researcher selected the informants
that the researchers are familiar with. A reason for it is to make the process of data collecting
easier, especially during the in-depth interview so that the openness, amenities and flexibility
from the informants needed most were met. In addition, the locations where the informants
collected were randomly chosen. Genderwas not the concern in this research; therefore the
informants are male and female.
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IV. FINDING & ANALYSIS
Aspects that make people become fans of anime and manga
Based on the data gained, what made them interested in anime and manga was various.
Although the informant stateddifferently, but the aspectsmaking anime and manga become
appealing to them were the art styles(artwork) and the stories. Furthermore, what made them
like anime and mangawas the story, cultural aspect, knowledge, drawing technique and. Every
individual has his/her own preferences regarding what kind of entertainment they need, what
kind of shows they like, and so on.
The changes fans experienced when they started becoming fans of anime and manga
When a person becomes a fan of certain object or thing it means that s/he is devoted, attached
and sometimes obsessed to things. In this context, fans had different perspectives with non-fans
towards anime and manga and this perspective shaped their perception. The perception of every
individual created changes on her/his attitude and behaviours.
Therefore, based on the data analysis, there were several aspects involving the process of
audience to transform themselvesto become anime and manga fans: (1) media and technology,
the social environment, (2) easy access to get anime and manga, (3) characteristics of anime
and manga and (4) fans preferences to fulfil certain needs. Media and technology such as
television, internet and video games were the important aspectssupporting the development of
anime and manga popularity throughout the world. Next, social environment like family and
friends also took part in the process of becoming fans. Neutral and even positive reaction from
family and friend was enough to support them to be fans, moreover the influence of friends and
peerswere strong enough to trigger them to be more interested in and obsessed to anime and
manga.
Books, DVDs, and anime stores also triggerred the fans to consume more and more of anime
and manga because of this easy access. These fans went to the stores that were mentioned
above to get their collection of anime and manga and stuff related to it. Referring to fulfil their
certain need, as stated in Uses andGratification theory, there are types of needs that one can
attain through consuming media: (1) Need for information, based on curiosity, (2) Need to
maintain a sense of personal identity, to check media exemplar for behaviour, (3) Need for
social interaction, using examples from the media to develop one’s social relationship, (4) Need
to be entertained and diverted, to escape from reality and attain some kind of pleasure.
Such changes, from audience to fans, changed their perspectives toward anime and manga and
the changes in perspectives created new perception toward anime and manga. As the result, the
new perception certainly influenced behaviour and attitude of fans. The changing behaviour
meant was the way they consume anime and manga.
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Fans consumed anime and manga regularly. The way they consume anime and manga was
different from ordinary audiences, who only consume it rarely and even would rather not read
manga or watch anime. In general, fans also loved collecting stuff regarding their favourite
anime and manga such as merchandises; figurine, poster, etc. because it was a kind of fun and
could satisfy their need as the fans. They also incline to gather with other fans who shared
similar interests with them. It could be like joining community, club or have group that consists
of people who also fans of anime and manga to do discussion and exchange information about
any updates regarding their interest.
Their appearance was also influenced just like the way they do a cosplay. For instance, when
fans came to an event they usually wore costumes or attributes (sticker, pin, bag, and hat), it
was like the way they showed their fandom or favourite anime and manga characters through
this activity. Frequently, in their daily life, they also dressed up like their favaourite anime and
manga. The way they talkedwas also highly influenced by anime and manga because of
continuously exposed to anime (that uses Japanese language). These fans sometimes uttered out
Japanese words they got from anime, even unconsciously when they gathered with other fans.
Not only did their behaviour change, but also their attitude also did. They tended to imitate the
personality of certain anime and manga characters that they believed to have inspired them and
applied it in their daily life. What is surprising is when they imitateed the way character
interacted to one another in certain anime and manga scenes and made it as a rolemodel of
social interaction among them (mimetic). Besides, these fans of anime and mangahad a thought
or WERE inspired to work in anime or mangaindustries because of their interest to anime and
manga. Anime and manga also made them interested in another aspect from Japan such as its
traditional culture, traditional food, snacks, and even they wished to visit and stay in Japan if
they could. Conclusively, anime and manga did change the perception of the fans and modified
their behaviours and attitude.
10 Author name / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2016) 000–000
Figure 1 Pattern of Research Result
V. CONCLUSION
Based on the research finding and analysis, the researchers have concluded that there were
several aspects making people become fans of anime and manga by which the researchers
categorize into two major aspects: external and internal ones. These aspects are interrelated
and supported each other; they are as follows: Below the researcher will breakdown the aspect
that makes people become fans of anime and manga:
A. External:
a. Media and technology development
i. The broadcasting of anime on television
ii. Distribution of video games
iii. The Internet development
b. Social environment
c. Easy access to get anime and manga
B. Internal:
a. The characteristics of anime and manga
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b. Fulfilment of certain needs of individual
Afterwards, the changes from audience to fans of anime and manga transformed the perspective
of individual toward anime and manga. The changes in individual perspectives will create new
perception toward anime and manga because perception exists as the results of perspective. The
new perception in fans certainly will modify the behaviour and attitude of the fans.
As in cultural study assumptions, culture pervades almost all aspects in people’s daily life.
Culture in this context is delivered from anime and manga. Becoming fans changed the
perspective of those people toward anime and manga and thus it also changed their perception
on it. By consuming anime and manga, the culture appearing in anime and manga was recorded
to create changes in fans’ behaviour and attitude.
However, the aspects mentioned previously are not absolute, since development of technology,
media and popular culture are still going on. Therefore in the future there may be another aspect
that will trigger people to become fans of anime and manga and thus reshape their perception
again.
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