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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.
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 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)...
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
Suchetha
learn from yesterday, plan for tomorrow, party tonight
or one out of three ain't bad
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 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.
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...
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
-- . . ramblin' . . .