More Anime College and University Courses Being Offered

Ninja Master Gara writes "Anime News Network reports New York University is offering a new courses on the anime industry and culture. Anime is slowly expanding from University Clubs into mainstream college courses, many of which begin at the 'What is anime?' level. Several Universities and Community Colleges already offer similar courses, or incorporate anime into existing studies." If any school decides to offer a course on the Gundam series, I'd be happy to teach a class.

Bachelor of Arts in Anime coming soon

Imagine what an effective work force we would have if people promptly said "Hai!" and could cheer with "Yatta! Yatta!" :)

Re:Bachelor of Arts in Anime coming soon

When I was in college (www.vt.edu) a few years back, I attended some of the local anime clubs from time to time.

I say some because there were three total university recgonized, bona-fide, clubs at that school. They each had separate meetings, which mostly comprised of 6-hour long screenings of non-stop anime. That's 18-hours a week, of nothing but the best in Japanese sci-fi, drama, comedy, fantasy and the occasional kids show.

Now was was really interesting about all this interest in Anime, was not the shows themselves, but rather the interest in Japanese culture they fostered. The clubs featured regular weekend clinics for language and culture courses and interest groups. A few club members even took trips to Japan regularily.

The fact that universities are starting to recognize this kind of love for culture (not just entertainment) seems like a perfect way to diversify the curriculum. It's about time!

what about

what about hentai class?

"I still gotta take Tentacle Rape 203 next term"

The prospect of taking a class on hentai...

Makes me want to go to NYU.

Hell, the prospect of getting a B.A. in anime arts gives me a warm fuzzy feeling, that will probably contrast nicely to the bitter cold of sleeping in a gutter if I get that degree.

Anime Course

The college I attended, Earlham College (www.earlham.edu), offered a course in anime for some years. Unfortunately they stopped offering it a year or two ago. I'm glad to see that course such as this are appearing at other Universities.

Re:Anime Course

Excellent! An anime course. This could round out my course schedule next semester of finger painting, shadow puppets, and nap time. I knew we were paying those big bucks for a college education for some reason: Cartoons! Woohoo.

Just kidding, calm down all you anime fanatics. If I can watch Star Trek then you can watch cartoons featuring scatily clad Japanese chicks of questionable age. :-)

"Anime classes at your local tertiary institution"

>I'd be happy to teach a class.
Id' be happy to be in the class. But i doubt i'd make a career out of it - a career which could pay my bills. But thats just me:) And once again - it would be a fun class to attend.

Here's something for the Survey level class

For all you people that want to see the funny part of anime: Dare to be Stupid [smoonstore.com].

For the advanced course, I would recommend a mix of Evangelion and Memories (especially Magnetic Rose and Cannon Fodder).

For the Phd degree, submit a one page dissertation explaining the reason for the plot developments in the Excel Saga [animefu.com].

Re:Here's something for the Survey level class

You know, anime is... mixed. I remember watching some and finding it wonderful. I enjoyed Ghost in the Shell [imdb.com] (Kokaku kidotai). Battle Angel Alita [imdb.com] (Gunnm) totally blew my mind. But then i watched the ones everyone recommends - Akira, Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion, Ninja Scroll etc... And was seriously underwhelmed. I think the key thing to remember is that anime is a medium, not a genre. There are some that are quite obviously aimed at a younger audience, and some that are obviously aimed at an adult audience, but feel very much like geek porn... It seems like these are the ones that are most popular in the West, which is a bit of a shame.

For people who see the rapid-fire, rapid-speech, Nintendo-y animes and get turned off, i'd definitely recommend watching a few other things (again, Battle Angel Alita is fantastic). For people who don't like the sci-fi or GIANT ROBOTS themes, there are fantasy ones... It's an interesting scene, though i have to admit i can't understand the people who will eat up just about anything the Japanese animators churn out. It's like music... books. All different.

Re:Here's something for the Survey level class

For the Phd degree, submit a one page dissertation explaining the reason for the plot developments in the Excel Saga.

Drugs. Very powerful drugs. Preferrably hallucinogens.

fantasy

I would have thought anime would have already been part of college, under art somewhere. Kinda like cartoon sketching or drawing, only with a particular style.

Reminds me of...

This reminds me of the Star Trek courses [csuchico.edu] that several colleges have had over the years. What a laugh riot. One syllabus I saw was basically watching 3 select star trek episodes a week, discussing them in class, and writing 5 papers analyzing them over the course of the semester. But still, that would be a great way to fulfill a GenEd humanities requirement or whatnot.

At my school...

I go to Western Washington University [wwu.edu] in Washington state and the Art History 270 course (India, Japan, China) taught by Momi Naughton takes an entire lecture period to talk about anime with a self-professed anime maniac, whose name I forget. He goes way back to influences such as Hokusai and brings basically the entire span of what we learned in the class and how if affected the development of anime. Quite interesting...

You know...

...in the Netherlands, that would be part of what they call a "pretpakket": basically something like a university degree in macrame. It's stupidly silly.

I heard education in the US sucked, but it's another thing to see it confirmed.

Ought to be an advanced course

Understanding anime should be an advanced course for writers and artists. The stylistic conventions are different from Western practice, but not incomprehensible. They can be studied and taught. Read Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics". (Skip his later Internet book.)

Anime As A Valid Cultural Influence

Course Description:
Anime (V33.0709) This course introduces students to the rich world of Japanese animation or anime, its form and style, history, popular genres and themes, major authors, and fan culture. We will explore the popularity of anime in relation to the cultural conditions of contemporary Japan and to the context of cultural globalization which is radically transforming the way audio-visual images are produced and consumed.

It's kind of nice to see that Anime is finally being recognize, after so many years, for it's massive cultural influences all over the world. It's gone from being a somewhat-maligned form of geek|children's entertainment to a full-fledged industry/art form. I think it would be interesting to see what's up next on the platter? Maybe the entire geek world can be examined for it's influences on modern culture. Think about it this way: someday your kids could be reading literature in school that includes archived Slashdot posts your doing now! Well.. considering how many "hentai tentacle rape" posts are bound to pop up here... maybe not.

Answer key?

1) The professor's just hoping one of the students will figure it out so he can steal the answer and publish it.
2) See the black hole into which everything I learned in Intro to Neurosci went the minuite after the final. All I know is playing the Gundam Wing SNES game made my cousin's kid puke all over the floor.
3) Will accept: brief history of CLAMP studios, rant about roomate's inability to appreciate Ranma, questioning the sexual orientation of the Inital D character designs without coming off as homophobic, "What the fuck's with Utena?"
4) Find some orphans, some scientists, Russian or German, some unobtainium, and either harness the power of a minor diety or drug a creepy psychic kid. If nothing happens, draw more Kabalistic symbols on the walls.
5) Up the budget for the Tokyo Police Cataclysm Division. [megatokyo.com]

Just pretend I came up with something funny in there somewhere.

"New York University is offering a new courses ...

Hopefully, they are offering a grammar class too.

Yup, see in it Austin...

At the University of Texas at *Austin* last fall was a full course focusing on just anime taught by Dr. Susan Napier of the Asian Studies Center there. (Dr. Napier did a guest lecture at Dr. Gossin's course last spring when we taught "Nausicaa" for the second time.) Dr. Napier has been invited as a guest lecturer at Harvard this spring and will be reteaching the anime course there. Yes, they're actually officially studying anime at *Harvard*! (Prepare for hell to free over after classes start there in a few weeks..... )

As for the complaint about the lack of college level books about anime (in English, that is) that's true. But Dr. Napier has completed her book "Anime from 'Akira' to 'Princess Mononoke'" and it will be out sometime this spring or summer. This will be the first college level analysis/literary criticism of anime available in English.

I'll give you one guess . . .

From the course at umich [umich.edu]:

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. ... 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. ...

Hmm, let me guess what the teenage boy viewers are thinking when they watch these transformation . . .

Anyway, it would be a fun paper to write. Although, if I were teaching the course, I would open it up to a transformation sequence from any magical girl anime (Hime-chan's Ribbon, Card Captor Sakura, Saint Tail, Devil Hunter Yohko, etc). It might also be interesting to speculate about why animators decide to use the transformations with such repetition. Is it simply to reduce the amount of new animation per episode or do they think it provides continuity between episodes?

it had to happen

we have had courses in Star Trek, Star Wars, Wine Appreciation and whatever.. but the point is here.. what will this mean for your future..

i am not arguing that people need not be given a grounding in the arts, far from it.. but lets face it folks, this is POP ART.. i doubt that other than the history of anime, this "course" can teach you anything that you and your friends can't learn by just sitting in front of the tube for a few brews and talking about it..

the point i am trying to make is that there is a LOT of art history out there.. stuff that people take for granted.. stuff that people don't BOTHER to learn...

Colleges are offering this kind of course to make you pay for a course that will not mean anything on your transcript (unless you are going into the anime field) and is nothing but grade padding.. in the same vein you may as well take a course in Britney Spears

don't get me wrong .. i am a big fan of anime.. its just that i think that a college course on it, while cool, would be a waste of money (yours/your parents/your state's) and time that could be better spent (on girls/brews/parties)...

Suchetha

You are WRONG sir!

The fact that it is art is what makes it logical to teach a class on. Early philosophy teachers used popular poetry, and film schools today use feature films as point of example and discussion.

Why is anime any different. There is a wealth of ways one could approach the class. First you could look at the original artwork, in it's native culture. Then you can look at the citizen's response to it. Or you could examen foriegn audiences and their interest in the genre.

There is probably a great deal to learn, the best way to become wise is to teach yourself how to think, not what to think.

"Only when you are looking for them will the Red spades and Black Diamonds appear" - Ray (Christopher Lloyd, Interstate 60)

Did the author just hit Google with...

"anime site:.edu" [google.com]?

Anyway, I wonder how much they will be teaching what they think anime should be, versus what it really is? I ask as I've read this book on Takarazuka Revue [amazon.com] which describes it basically as a hot-bed of azn lezbo tranny pr0n, whereas everyone Japanese who I've spoken to (including my wife, who studied at the associated drama school and college) says it's just fantasy escapism, especially because the average real-life Japanese man is so crap, the otokoyaku[*] provide an idealised view of what men could be.

[*] Obligatory Japanese word inserted to pretend I know what I'm talking about.

Gasaraki and film in general

Come on...this series needs a course devoted to it. I mean mechs, spirituality, politics, culture? I'm sure everyone else here will probably either say Lain or Neon Genisis Evangelion.

of course...the anime art form is something that should be studied. for one, it offers some great content and social/political messages that wouldn't be accepted in "mainstream" media. second, artwork and story telling go hand in hand. after all, isn't that what artwork (of any form) is supposed to do, to speak to the viewer and convey some message/story?

anyone who flames me saying that hollywierd puts out decent artwork hasn't been to the theaters lately. most of it is tripe. it's entertaining yes, but it's still tripe in an artistic sense. of course there is the rare gem out there, but it's not often that people can (or care to) recognize the difference. for this reason film classes in general (including anime classes) are a way to help people gain some perspective and recognize art for art, and not just art for the sake of entertainment.

after my first film class i couldn't watch any movie in "pan and scan" anymore. it helped me understand composition, writing, story telling, and substance...something which is lacking in most of the "modern" world.

-frozen

Anime's roots

I just wonder how many people realize where the word "anime" really comes from. For those who never knew, `anime' is really just the Japanese-truncated pronunciation of the American word `Animation'. So it amuses me that "anime" now essentially signifies "Japanese cartoons", when in truth everything from Batman to Donald Duck are "anime" as well.

gotta love how cultures mix and bounce things around.

How about an official one?

anime-juku [anime-juku.com] offers web-based anime production courses in english and japanese.

they have a trial course that you can try if you got a graphics pad.

I got the link when I was browsing around studio Ghibli [ntv.co.jp]

I wish...

...that UT had an anime class. I need one more elective credit for graduation. Would be nice, although, I wouldn't know what college they would put it under.

at boston university

we have a jaanese culture class that touches on anime :-p

possible final exam...

Essay question (90 minutes, no open books):
Explain FLCL.

Anime 101

Considering that it can be called a valid art form as any other form of hand-drawn animation is then it's hard to see why there is anything wrong with this at all. In fact, I find it interesting that something like this wasn't already in place.

Sure, anime hasn't been very mainstream up until recently, but I have seen some absurd art classes in my life. I'm not lying, but I have seen classes advertised as being "Studies of Hungarian Art from the 13th Century". Well, a class on anime can't do much worse, can it?

Great article about the importance of Anime

remember this? It was posted on /. a while back

http://www.kampo.co.jp/kyoto-journal/media/anima te d.html

Ummm.... ok, tis called talent.

Oh, there is a career in anime, you just have to be one of the best. You can't be a mediocre artist and try to get into something big enough to pay your bills with. You have to be top notch, just as with any other form of art.

Education need not be boring!

A lot of people see this sort of thing as a huge joke but I don't. Studying something in-depth that revolves around entertainment is really no different than a kind of community service. By being well educated about a specific form of entertainment, you become a better creator of that form of entertainment, improving the quality of life of those who indulge in this entertainment. As such, you help the industry evolve and improve faster. The concept of taking an Anime college course will prove to be quite beneficial to the Anime industry itself, I think.

I hear the alternative title was

A Bachelor Degree in Waiting Around to Collect Your Trust Fund.

Give you something to talk about between skiing the Alps and summering in Barbados.

The Humanities strike again!

B.A. In Anime

It looks like Underwater Basketweaving has some competition now.

DeCal

I just want to make a point that I think many people may not be aware of. I'm currently a student at UC Berkeley and we have all kinds of classes like this, from history of video games, stock market course, male/female sexuality, simpsons to 80's pop-culture. BUT, they are all taught by STUDENTS. And the students can teach anything here at UCB as long as they get a faculty adviser. The adviser doesn't really play a part in the course though.

DeCal stands for Democratic education, it is students teaching students. Don't be confused and thing NYU highered a new Anime history. They didn't, and UCB didn't high LoTR profs or Simpsons ones either, students are teaching these classes...

Finally...

I can fulfill my dream of writting my thesis on why Goku would win in a deathmatch against Superman.

Why are they doing this?

I could see them offering a course that uses anime as a sort of 'case study' for some real academic field, the way art majors examine a particular period or movement and fit it into their overall study of art.

Unfortunately, that's not what seems to be happening here. This looks like another pop-culture cop-out course.

I know people will get upset and point out that entertainment and pop-culture are worthy of study. That's true, but it should be serious study. If you want to teach a 100-level course on pop-culture, keep it broad and stress the basic themes and concepts of pop-culture with a variety of examples. If you want to focus on a specific medium/time-period/region combination, make an upper-level class that takes a specific academic perspective and targets a particular major.

In other words:
bad: Sociology 110 -- Sit-coms
good: Sociology 428 -- Sit-coms and wartime escapism in America

Basketweaving 101 classes have finally evolved.

What's next?

Classes on how the banter between Space Ghost, Moltar and Zorak (in a typical Space Ghost Episode) is a crypto facist metaphor for nuclear war?

Dolemite
_______________________

I'm An Expert -- Let me teach!!

My name is Alan Holman. I'm the head-writer of BANANA CHAN [geocities.com], a web-based series of anime scripts and manga with a plot which is carefully calculated, by me, to use ideas from EVERY anime. I know it seems like a lofty goal, but my innovative scripts [geocities.com] are pulling it off quite well, and they tell a unique, compelling sci-fi story about "folding time", and about the evolution of a town and its people. I've been working on this project for more than a year, and the research which I've went through has made me an expert on anime plots -- I've read more plot summaries and scripts than anyone else on the planet!...probably. My point: If anyone is hiring people to teach these classes, don't hire a fan; instead, hire someone like me, someone who has taken the time to make a web-site like my web-site: Banana Chan. [geocities.com] Ten episodic scripts are on the site so far, and the story will continue on February 15th. [The second manga [bananachan.envy.nu] is coming sooner.]

"This is the 21st century...

You can major in Gameboy if you know how to bullshit..."

Im not a big fan of anime but ...

Im am not a film major nor am I an anime fan but I did take a film class about techno thrillers which had Ghost in the Shell as a viewing and topic. This was over a year ago here at UC Santa Cruz by the way. And this year I walked in on another class' showing of what I think was Ghost in the Shell, not too sure, its very possible it was something different because it was a different teacher.

Even We 'Rednecks' have Animé in college!!

Greetings, minna!

This is my first post in here, but spying this subject from a post in AnimeNewsService.com got me over here to share a little something that may spark interest.

Anyways, I've been volunteering work for the last couple weeks at Eastern KY University (Richmond, KY), running an international student lab class "English Translation Made Real" where I conduct Animé translations from Japanese->English with the help of several Japanese Exchange students and a few Japanese class students.

It may sound fun, but it is a lot of work, but the benefits are two-way. The students get participation credit for taking the course, and I get translations to the latest animé and manga that I can drum up for translating.

Because of the classroom environment, the translating process is more laborious, as many students are honing their translation skills, but the care taken seems to bring about more accurate and technically correct translating scripts.

Anyways, that's my 8 yen. If anyone reading this knows a group or a club in need of translation help, try out what I did, and get a local school to help sponsor a translation class. ;2)

Hilarious

What a coincidence, I was just kicking myself last week for not enrolling in the new "Anime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke" class that fulfills one of our Non-Western General electives. It's an irregular course, which is all that we can expect here in Po-Dunk Oklahoma (OU). /me goes back to kicking /me

'Comic Book Guy' University?

Is it far from coming: "Worst syllabus ever!"

Someone has to ask...

...Will this train me to be a Pokemon Master?

Anime = $$$

I think NYU is very very smart in offering these courses, as they will probably make a mint off of them. Interesting that many of the other continuing ed courses are for topics/software that are "hot" right now (Maya, etc.).

While there are many of us who appreciate anime for what it is, and even those who have been taught about anime at various points (a My Neighbor Totoro clip that was shown in a character design class I had changed my life, no kidding), there's more reasons behind NYU's decision to offer anime courses than just academic enlightenment.

It's like my dad once told me: colleges and universities are businesses. And it's also like a Harper's article I once read: colleges are catering more and more to their "customers" desires.

Not to be cynical or anything, but there are a lot of otaku in the NYC area, and the presence of anime is becoming more and more prevalent every day-- from English-language issues of Newtype to a US version of Shonen Jump (at a convenience store near you!). The real test is if more anime courses are introduced later on, and if they are more focused (i.e., specific themes, comparative analysis, single artists'/studios' works, etc.) and less generalized.

Ivy Leagus and anime

Hey All, Thought this was funny. I'm currently a sophomore at Dartmouth College, studying anime in the Japanese Department. We have a floating seminar class, Japanese 81, different every year. This year it happens to be an anime course. For the class, we have to watch: Spirited Away Blood: The Last Vampire Perfect Blue Akira etc. The best part: they are featured in the Loews Movie Theatre on campus. Big screen, surround sound (where applicable), and a hell of a lot of fun. What a great class. -E Robinson, 05

Big Eyes

Can I ask the really obvoius question (at the risk of being modded down by some hyper-sensitve moderator who lives in his parent's basement and collects star wars toys and has never kissed a girl despite being 38 years old...but I digress)

Again, I am not being even slighly sarcastic here...why do most anime characters have disrpoportianely large eyes, muscular (for males) and wildly sexual appeareances and child-like facial features? I'm sure that NYU will address these issues. But I am already paying those NYU fuggs $1000 a credit (not even exaggerating!) for my comp sci curriculum and can't afford to take such courses just because they strike my whimsy.

There HAS to be some reason for this trend, but I just can't figure it out. Any clues?

By the way...not all moderators are bad. I myself moderate from time to time. The vitriol I expressed in the first passage was a catharsis directed at a moderator who modded down an honest joke as a Troll when that was far from the case. Oh well, you gotta have SOMETHING to talk to your therapist about, right? ;P

Why haven't I seen anything on Robotech

Come on people, ya'll ought to know that Robotech is what opened up a lot of youngester's eyes, including myself. I ought to get a PhD is Robotechnology since I've read every book, seen every video, studied Tirol's history, including the Seeders and Karbarrans. Come on, my server is named SDF-1 and my network domain is Macross. My screen saver and wallpaper are Robotech and I've been playing the Robotech: Battle Cry on my X-Box for weeks now.

Re:Anime Is Shit

Where is my anime course, I want apreciating Ghost in the Shell, and I WANT IT NOW NOW NOW!

Re:RIAA needs to plug the P2P hole at colleges

thats not anime!

Re:My initial reaction

Hey Gundam is a very indepth and creative series, there are so many ways to anaylize the gundam universes. Every gundam series has its own message, so good, plus giant fighting mobile suits.. cant get much better then that

Re:Anime Sucks

wow... when comments like that get modded to plus 3 informative, something is really wrong.

Re:Anime Sucks

heh yeah right like superfriends or marvel are any better as you say?. I do like the stories but it is the unique artwork that set's anime apart from all other animation. It has style and a 'feel' thats more original than the other load of crock that passes for entertainment

Re:sure, this is usefull

Not to troll but I am going to anyway. I really long for the days when people took courses at universities in electrical, mechanical, chemical engineering, math, computer science and such. Just how useful will coursework in Anime be in say 10 years.

I guess I thought the same thing about rap music in the 80s and it is still around.

Re:Anime Sucks

My post was the only well constructed and non-judgemental arguement in the bunch. $50 says that the mod that got me for flamebait is this guy's boyfriend.

Now that's flamebait (a post with obvious intentions to furiate, frustrate, and nuture further ill-willed posts), you fat geek. Make a note grasshopper.

Re:Anime Sucks

Go and get the whole series of NEON GENISIS: EVANGELION , watch it with the 2 movies afterwards and then come back and say anime sucks...

Re:sure, this is usefull

If you're just going to college to get help you get work, why not go to a vocational college? Why waste time with the Ivys? (answering my own question) because there's more to life than just work. Live and look around for a change.

Re:I bloody well agree!

Heh... steenkin cowardly anonymous trolls.

I don't know where you're coming from, but this geek here loves animé, and I'm married to someone who likes it too, and I work two jobs, and volunteer at a local University, as well as assist two animé clubs.

I also have my drilled-AOL-CDs Mobile in my office, so I know I have a life, and I'm pretty much happy about it.

"Beeeee ta!" >;2P

Re:Anime Is Shit

I'll bite.

Have you been to any anime conventions lately? Yes, there are a lot of guys (most presumably are more interested in toys than girls). But, my goodness, as anime catches on in the mainstream, there are a lot more cute girls looking very hot in their little cat-girl outfits.

Re:sure, this is usefull

They might as well have an ass picking class, or a class on boogers. Be just as usefull.

Well, there are plenty of classes at most colleges and universities that you could say that about. Considering the cost of college these days, many programs could cut their non-essential requirements down, reducing the stay to three years.

Some will argue that you will end up not getting as well rounded education; but for many that is an expensive luxury.

-MDL

Whose favorite college course was a one credit class in IBM 360 assembly language, where we used punch cards to submit our jobs.

Re:I am so glad...

So that's how you get modded down! You poke fun at people majoring in Anime!

And all this time I've been poking fun at GNU people and getting nowhere. Finally I might get my Excellent Karma down to Trollbait levels now that I know the trick.

p.s. I would like to apologize to all the Stallmanista's I ragged on over the years. You REALLY do have a sense of humour. It's these Anime nuts that can't take a good ribbing...

Re:sure, this is usefull

If you're a Japanese major, a linguistics major, or even possibly an International Business major with a focus on Japan I could easily see how this would help you to get work. Anime allows you to see a view of Japan that is a little out there, but by being out there it emphasises some of the underlying pricipals that are common throughout all Japanaese life and allows you to see some less commonly used Japanese linguistic patterns, simply because in real life they don't occur that often. Anime is also a great source of mythology or superstision in Japanese culture. So, if you needed to be familiar with Japanese culture it gives you a very convienient way to do so. I would have to agree that outside of a very limited number of majors there would be no use of the class, but that's the same for any major; How many people outside of Math need to know how Game theory works? Or outside of Computer Science how a lexical compiler works? Outside of where they're used a lot of classes are worthless. You need to take everything in context otherwise it loses a lot of it's meaning.