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Title in Japanese: 日本(人)のアイデンティティと美意識の境界におけるゆるキャラと人類とその境界線の不思議な不安定感 Japan has become overrun by friendly critters: (typically)soft, furry mascot-suited characters known as yuru kyara (wobbly mascot characters)or gotôchi kyara (local... more
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      PhilosophyJapanese Language And CulturePopular CultureAnthropology of Japan
This article compares contemporary Japanese entities known as kyara ("characters") with historical anthropomorphized imagery considered to be spiritual or religious. Yuru kyara ("loose" or "wobbly"... more
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      MarketingReligionHistoryCharacter Design
The recent boom in cute characters (kyara) has permeated Japanese popular aesthetics to the extent that character-shaped foods have displaced the former emphasis on recreating natural objects in bento (packed lunches) created for... more
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      Japanese StudiesJapanese Language And CultureManga and Anime StudiesJapan
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      Character DesignJapanFukushima nuclear disasterYurukyara
This thesis examines a Japanese children's fantasy story, An-Pan Man. an animated television cartoon. The cartoon employs stereotypical characterizations that are a) defined by language use, especially politeness markers encoded in... more
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      HistoryCharacter DesignJapanKyara
Japan has become overrun by friendly critters: (typically) soft, furry mascot-suited characters known as yuru kyara, or gotochi kyara, who exist in order to make their locality or sponsoring agency beloved and famous. Of special interest... more
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      Anthropology of JapanCharacter DesignJapanKyara
(the download is the introduction to the book in which my chapter appears; its abstract follows) Contemporary Japan is overrun with lovable animated characters (kyara), from globalized Hello Kitty to obscure Gin-Maru Kun, the ginkgo nut... more
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      Japanese Language And CultureGenderMetaphorAnthropomorphism
Title in Japanese: 日本(人)のアイデンティティと美意識の境界におけるゆるキャラと人類とその境界線の不思議な不安定感 Japan has become overrun by friendly critters: (typically)soft, furry mascot-suited characters known as yuru kyara (wobbly mascot characters)or gotôchi kyara (local... more
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    •   8  
      Japanese Language And CulturePopular CultureAnthropology of JapanCharacter Design
In the age of the “transmediagesamtkunstwerk” – that is, a “total work of art” in which we no longer have one single work that concentrates a variety of media, but rather a work that finds expression through multiple media – the concept... more
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      Japanese StudiesMedia StudiesFan StudiesMerchandising
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      Anthropology of TaiwanAnthropology of ReligionKyara
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      Character DesignJapanYurukyaraKyara
This introduction to the topic of character recontextualization sets out to address a variety of character products that cannot be adequately described as ›narrative‹: Coffee mugs, clothes, office supplies, and other material objects.... more
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      Japanese AnimeManga and Anime StudiesTransmedial StorytellingMedia Convergence
"Japan is famous for its manga tradition, said to form a large part of the Cool Japan image promulgated globally as a lauded aspect of soft power. Yet an important contemporary part of this tradition that reflects domestic aesthetics... more
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      Character DesignJapanKyara
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      Character DesignJapanKyara
Im Zentrum des Beitrags steht die Konturierung eines spezifischen Fi-gurenbegriffs aus dem japanologischen Diskurs, der in weiten Medienbereichen zur Anwendung kommen kann, welche als prä-oder non-narrativ einzustufen wären. Als kyara,... more
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      Media ConvergenceJapanese Popular CultureFan FictionTheory of Literary Character
Seit etwa der Jahrtausendwende wird Japan ein Aufstieg zur „Figuren-Supermacht“ nachgesagt. Dadurch werden kyaras zunehmend als kulturphilosophisches Problem betrachtet, das die japanische Bevölkerung in allen Gesellschaftsbereichen... more
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      Japanese Language And CultureJapanese Popular CulturePicture TheoryCharacters
The Winter School “De/Recontextualizing Characters” proposes taking a closer look at a variety of transmedia ‘characters’ (or rather: of their utilization) which cannot be accounted for if they are primarily understood through the ‘lens’... more
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      Transmedial StorytellingFan CulturesMedia ConvergenceJapanese Popular Culture
In der Pariser Metro tritt seit 1977 ›Serge le Lapin‹ auf, ein pinkfarbener Hase in ikonischem gelben Outfit, der auf Hinweisschildern ›stellvertretend‹ für unachtsame Reisende in schließenden Zugtüren eingeklemmt wird. Seit 1993 kommt... more
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      Japanese StudiesManga and Anime StudiesCharacter DesignTransmedial Storytelling
The Winter School “De/Recontextualizing Characters” intends to investigate from an intercultural and interdisciplinary perspective: What medial (material, institutional, and semiotic) affordances and constraints are relevant or even... more
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      Japanese StudiesMedia StudiesParticipatory ResearchCharacter Design
Im Zentrum des Beitrags steht die Konturierung eines spezifischen Figurenbegriffs aus dem japanologischen Diskurs, der in weiten Medienbereichen zur Anwendung kommen kann, welche als prä-oder non-narrativ einzustufen wären. Als kyara,... more
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      PhilosophyMedia ConvergenceJapanese Popular CultureFan Fiction
Imagery of natural phenomena has been deliberately used in Japan in aesthetic representations for humans and social relations, at least since the introduction of Chinese poetry, Buddhism, and the writing system (ca. 7th c.) and into the... more
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      ArtJapanese Language And CultureGenderMetaphor