Manga Movies: Contemporary Japanese Cinema, Media Franchising and Transnational Adaptation

日本漫画书正日益成为全球电影的素材来源，不仅是日本电影。最近好莱坞和跨国电影中的动漫(日本动漫)和翻拍漫画已经变得越来越引人注目，包括由知名制片人出品的《龙珠Z》、《极速赛车》和《血与血：最后的吸血鬼》，以及宣布翻拍的《美国阿基拉》和《死亡笔记》。随着漫画文化在全球电影文化中变得越来越突出，关于漫画对日本和其他国家视觉文化的影响的问题仍然存在。事实上，关于动漫对日本电影业的重要性的研究相对较少，对这些媒体在跨国规模上的影响的研究就更少了。因此，该项目将由两部分组成：第一，日本漫画媒体文化的审查；第二，漫画和动漫在全球市场上的改编。这两个部分将协同工作，试图弥合在理解日本作为一种全球现象方面的差距，同时建立在当前讨论日本媒体产品在国内外取得成功的工作的基础上。因此，该项目试图调查漫画如何被用作日本电影文化的源文本，首先考察日本的媒体特许经营和从漫画到真人电影的改编。在日本，从动漫到真人大片，再到艺术和邪教电影，漫画提供了一系列令人难以置信的电影的起源，然而，漫画对日本电影的影响以及日本电影中的历史相对来说还没有被描绘出来，也没有得到足够的讨论，这个项目将致力于解决这一问题。事实上，漫画往往是日本大型多媒体特许经营权的发源地，这一现象在英语学术工作中尚未得到研究。这样做将有助于更好地了解日本电影业，以及日本媒体在国内的制作和使用方式。因此，该项目将使用案例研究漫画文本来考察漫画被改编成特许经营的情况，并将对日本市场上最重要的跨媒体改编形式进行评估。除了日本边境之外，最近日本动漫和漫画的全球知名度也出现了从经典和新动漫来源的各种借用。这些改编自电影的电影通常是真人电影，但非常强调数字技术，这给西方类型和观众带来了有趣的挑战，特别是在儿童电影制作方面，同时也挑战了如何以及应该如何使用数字技术的概念化。像《龙珠Z》和《极速赛车》这样备受瞩目的相对失败的电影，让我们有可能深入了解将日本漫画和动漫改编成真人电影的问题本质，特别是在使用数字技术弥合日美文化差异方面。此外，还将分析当代美国电影制作人选择漫画和动漫来源的原因，以及粉丝对他们改编的反应，以调查美国和其他电影行业在改编动漫产品方面面临的风险。该项目将产生一系列期刊文章(预计这些文章将成为共同撰写的专著的前两部分)，同时也为在诺里奇(可能还有伦敦)举行动漫相关活动提供动力，并向行业和各种其他机构发送报告。该项目的一个核心目标是提供有用的产出，跨越工业和学术之间的鸿沟，从而使尽可能多的潜在受益者参与进来。

Manga, or Japanese comic books, are increasingly becoming the source materials for, not just Japanese, but global cinema. Recent anime (Japanese animation) and manga remakes in Hollywood, and in transnational cinema, have become increasingly high profile, including Dragonball Z, Speed Racer and Blood: The Last Vampire, plus the announcements of American Akira and Death Note remakes, all by well-known producers. As manga cultures become increasingly prominent in global film cultures questions remain about the impact of manga on visual culture in Japan and beyond. In fact, there is relatively little work on the importance of manga and anime to the Japanese film industry, and even less on the impact those media are having on a transnational scale. The project will therefore be formed of two parts: first, an examination of manga media cultures in Japan; and, second, an examination of manga and anime's adaptations for the global marketplace. These two parts will work in concert, attempting to bridge gaps in understanding about Japanese 'soft power' as a global phenomenon, while building on current work that discusses the success of Japanese media products at home and abroad.Consequently, this project seeks to investigate the ways in which manga are used as source texts for Japanese film culture, beginning with an examination of media franchising and manga-to-live-action-film adaptations in Japan. Manga provides the origins for an incredible range of films in Japan, from anime to live action blockbusters to art and cult cinema and yet, its influences on, and history in, Japanese film is relatively unmapped and under-discussed, something this project will aim to address. Indeed, manga tend to form origin points for large multi-media franchises in Japan, a phenomenon which has yet to be investigated in English-language academic work. Doing so would enable a better understanding both of the Japanese film industry, and of the ways in which Japanese media are produced and used in their domestic setting. The project will therefore use case study manga texts to examine the circumstances under which manga are adapted into franchises, and will offer assessments of the most significant forms of inter-media adaptation present in the Japanese market.Beyond Japanese borders too, the recent global visibility of Japanese anime and manga has seen a variety of borrowings from both classic and newer manga and anime sources. These film adaptations, normally live action but with a heavy emphasis on digital technologies, are offering interesting challenges to Western genres and audiences, especially in filmmaking for children, while also challenging conceptualisations of how digital technologies can and should be used. High profile, relative failures like the Dragonball Z and Speed Racer films offer potential insights into the problematic nature of translating Japanese manga and anime into live-action film, particularly around the use of digital technologies to bridge the gaps between Japanese and American culture. Moreover, the reasons for the choices of manga and anime sources by contemporary American filmmakers will be analysed, as will fan responses to their adaptations, in order to investigate what is at stake for the American and other film industies in adapting manga and anime products. The project will result in the production of a series of journal articles (which it is envisaged will later form the first two sections of a co-authored monograph), while also providing the impetus for manga and anime related events to take place in Norwich (and potentially London) and reports to be sent to industry and various other institutions. A central aim of the project is to provide useful outputs that cut across the divides between industry and the academy, thereby engaging as many potential beneficiaries as possible.