Compos Mentis

Sakura-Con

On April 11 and 12, I attended Seattle’s Japanese popular culture convention as a reporter for Siliconera. My knowledge of manga and anime is fairly limited in comparison to gaming culture, so only a handful of events strongly interested me. Nevertheless, the sea of cosplay was a constant source of fascination, even if I could only identify a few of the characters.

A few opportunities for reportage turned out fairly well. Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade had a booth, as PAX takes place in the same convention hall. Hiroki Kikuta was also present, and I had the chance to share an extended discussion with him on the subjects of his albums Alphabet Planet and Concerto. That article is currently lost in translation, but will surface on Siliconera hopefully by the end of May.

Of the few panels I attended, my favorite was by writer Roland Kelts on the reception of Japanese popular culture in the United States. The author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded America divides his time between lecturing at the University of Tokyo and teaching creative writing in Brooklyn.

His book includes the only interview in English with Toru Iwatani, the inventor of Pac-Man. According to the book , the kernel of the Pac-Man idea came from the game designer’s observation that only young boys frequented gaming arcades, and all the gameplay revolved around blowing things up. Realizing that there was an untapped market out there, Iwatani spent some time listening in on conversations between young girls in cafes around Harajuku. He discovered that they talked about two things above all else: food and fashion. He thought that if he could create gameplay that revolved around eating, and graphics that were colorful and fashionable, that he might introduce girls to the gaming experience. The innovative approach wound up attracting a wider audience than was originally intended.

His impression from living in both cities is that today New York and Tokyo communicate with one another. He pointed to the retrospective of Takashi Murakami going on at the Brooklyn Museum, an artist who has partnered with Luis Vuitton and whose pop style has frequently been associated with Andy Warhol. “I can talk to Japanese in Tokyo about New York and they know what I’m talking about,” he says. “The same happens when I’m back in Manhattan.”

There are still major cultural differences. While cosplay exists in both countries, there are different circumstances under which it is considered appropriate. Japan has professional cosplayers who are hired for conventions; Americans more habitually turn cosplaying into a competition.

Part of what draws Americans to Japanese games, he says, is their emphasis on stylization over realism and exploration over competition. Anime also has its own novel artistic qualities, which he believes are only just beginning to be recognized in American academia. He has begun organizing an anime film series that will travel across college campuses in the United States and has edited a study guide on Hayao Miyazaki’s Grave of the Fireflies, including essays by critics of animation and film. He says it marks the first time anyone has tried to put together a program of anime films for universities that tries to communicate the art behind the medium and the cultural aesthetics of its sixty-year history.

Siliconera, Crono and Frog time travel into Sakura Con ‘08
Siliconera, Gabe and Tycho chat about Penny Arcade Adventures