Anime and Otaku culture to be discussed at “Anime and Contemporary Japanese Society”

by Chris MaGee

Here's an event coming up next week here in Toronto that I know many of you out there will be interested in. Presented by the Japan Foundation “Anime and Contemporary Japanese Society” is a seminar that will explore the impact and influence of anime and otaku culture on contemporary Japanese society with special emphasis put on Japanese audiences vs. foreign Japanologists and the ground zero of Otaku culture, Akihabara.

The two and a half hour seminar will be moderated by Dr. Eric Cazdyn, Professor of Comparative Literature and East Asian Studies at University of Toronto and will include lectures by Jaqueline Berndt, Associate Professor of Art and Media Studies at Yokohama National University and Kaichiro Morikawa, Associate Professor of Contemporary Culture at Meiji University as well as a Q&A session with the audience.

The doors will open for "Anime and Contemporary Japanese Society" at the George Vari Engineering & Computing Centre, Room ENG103 on the Ryerson University Campus, 245 Church Street at 5:45 p.m. on March 4th with the lecture starting at 6:00 and the best part is that admission is free. It is recommedned that you reserve a spot for yourself though, so make sure to RSVP at www.jftor.org/whatson/rsvp OR anime@jftor.org OR 416-966-1600 x600 to save yourself a seat.

Thanks to the above photograph "Otaku" by Samuel Zuder from his site SamuelZuder.com.