[Database Consumption] Series Hub

            Today, I'm starting a series on Azuma Hiroki and Database Consumption. This is not a ground-shaking announcement, since pretty much every series I've started on here has referenced Azuma at least once. But that's why I'm doing this - I talk about Azuma a lot, so I want to do the legwork of an in-depth examination.

             Parts of this series have been adapted from my graduate thesis, but this material has been greatly revised and expanded. I consider my thesis obsolete at this point. Depressing, since it's less than a year old, but whatever.

            I basically have three goals for this series: 1). Explain Azuma's work, 2). Compare it with other critics, 3). Compare it to a company in the otaku market (in this case, Kaiyodo). Azuma's work is very consumer-centric (not that this is a bad thing), but changes in consumption require responses in production. By looking at how companies respond to Azuma's animalization, we get a better picture of the role of capital and technology in the otaku industry.

            If there is a critic or company you'd like me to address, leave a comment! I can't promise to respond quickly, but I will definitely take your input into consideration as the series moves on.

            Here's my tentative outline:

Part One: Azuma and Database Consumption
[001] Who is Azuma Hiroki (and Why Should I Care?)
[002] What is Database Consumption (and Where Did it Come From?)
[003] Azuma vs. Hegel: Defining History
[004] Azuma vs. Okada: Defining Otaku
[005] Azuma vs. Allison: Polymorphous Perversity
[006] Azuma vs. Lukács: Affective Elements in Trendy Dramas
[007] Database Consumption Summary

Part Two: Kaiyodo Case Study
[008] A History of Kaiyodo
[009] Azuma vs. Kaiyodo: Technology, Capital, and Toys
[010] Pixar's Woody: Normativity in Toy Story
[011] Sci-Fi Revoltech Series No. 010 Woody: Plastic Databases
[012] Creepy Woody: Polymorphous Perversity
[013] Conclusion

In an effort to be a more conscious critic, I'm going to actual provide a bibliography:

Allison, Anne. Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination. Berkeley: University of California, 2006. Print.

Arai, H. (2005) Intellectual Property Strategy in Japan. International Journal of Intellectual
Property.Vol. 5, No. 12.

Azuma, Hiroki. Otaku: Japan's Database Animals. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2009. Print.

Daliot-Bul, M. (2009) Japan Brand Strategy: The Taming of 'Cool Japan' and the Challenges of
Cultural Planning in a Postmodern Age. Social Science Japan Journal Vol. 12, No. 2.           Oxford University Press.

Eko No Tanteidan (2013). Kūru Japan Kasegeru No? Nihon Keizai Shinbun 03/23/2013.

FGI Report. (2010) Asia Trend Map.
http://www.meti.go.jp/english/report/downloadfiles/201005asian_trend_f.pdf

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, Arnold V. Miller, and J. N. Findlay. Phenomenology of Spirit.        Oxford: Clarendon, 1977. Print.

Ishiguro, N. (2004) Lecture given on Japanese Animation: Still Pictures, Moving Minds course,
MIT, 10 May.

Leonard, Sean. Progress against the Law: Anime and Fandom, with the Key to the Globalization   of Culture. International Journal of Cultural Studies 8.3 (2005): 281-305. Print.

Lu, A. (2008) The Many Face of Internationalization in Japanese Anime. Animation: An
Interdisciplinary Journal Vol. 2, No, 2.SAGE Publications, London, Thousand Oaks, CA.

Lukács, Gabriella. Scripted Affects, Branded Selves: Television, Subjectivity, and Capitalism in       1990s Japan. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2010. Print.

McKevitt, A. (2010) “You Are Not Alone!”: Anime and the Globalizing of America. Diplomatic
History, Vol. 34, No.5. Wiley Periodicals, Malden, MA.

Miyawaki, Osamu. Tsukurumono wa yozora ni kirameku hoshi no sū hodo mugen ni aru -            Kaiyodo monogatari. Tokyo: Kōdansha, 2003. Print.

Miyawaki, Shūichi. Sōkeishūdan: Kaiyodō no hassō. Tokyo: Kōbunsha, 2002. Print.

Okada, Toshio. Otakugaku nyūmon. Tokyo: Shinchosha, 1996. Print.

Okada, Toshio. Otaku wa sude ni shindeiru. Tokyo: Shinchosha, 2008. Print.

Ōtsuka, Eiji. Teihon Monogatari Shōhiron. N.p.: Kadokawa, 2001. Print.

Tēkoku Databank. Kabushiki kaisha Kaiyodo. Nikkē Telecom 21. Tēkoku Databank Kigyō   Jōhō, n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.