Kay Clopton
The Ohio State University, University Libraries, Faculty Member
- Cultural Studies, New Media, Translation Studies, Comics Studies, Comic Book Studies, Manga and Anime Studies, and 4 moreComparative Cultural Studies, English Literature, Graphic Novels, Comics Studies, Manga Studies, Popular Culture, Cultural Studies, Women's Studies, Gender Studies, Visual Culture, Comparative studies, and Educationedit
- B.A. - English: The Ohio State University (2001)
M.L.I.S. - Kent State University (2006)
M.A. - Comparative Studies (2011)
Ph.D. - Comparative Studies (2018)edit - Maurice Stevens, Advisoredit
Kuragehime, better known in English as Princess Jellyfish, is a josei manga series that follows a group of female otaku who live in a female-only apartment building. While the protagonist, Tsukimi Kurashita, is mildly embarrassed by (and... more
Kuragehime, better known in English as Princess Jellyfish, is a josei manga series that follows a group of female otaku who live in a female-only apartment building. While the protagonist, Tsukimi Kurashita, is mildly embarrassed by (and largely uncomfortable with) failing to become a beautiful princess, the rest of the residents are comfortable and happy in their existence, until there is threat of someone buying their Tokyo apartment building in the name of urban renewal. Befriended by a stylish woman who unsettles the house, the lives of Tsukimi and the others are disrupted by a seeming ideal of womanhood…who turns out to be a crossdressing man doing so in a dualistic role of avoiding his responsibilities as a child of a politician as well as a desperate need to have a connection to his mother. This disruption leads to makeovers and, ultimately, to a career in making fashionable clothes in order to raise money to save the building and, ultimately, to show how all women are beautiful after all. This paper will interrogate what it means for female pariah (as female otaku have an even worse reputation than male ones) to find their way in a world that they fear and seek shelter from in their home. The ultimate question is: are these women being forced into a typified femininity, or are they arriving to a place where they have changed but are still themselves at heart?
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Amagakure Gido’s Sweetness & Lightning is a seinen manga series about a widower, his little girl, and how they, along with the help of one of his high school students, are building connections through homemade food. Amagakure relies on... more
Amagakure Gido’s Sweetness & Lightning is a seinen manga series about a widower, his little girl, and how they, along with the help of one of his high school students, are building connections through homemade food. Amagakure relies on sentiment and utilizes a number of sensory approaches to achieve an emotional connection that is palpable to the reader as it is experienced by the characters. By looking at the ways in which giongo (onomatopoeia) and gitaigo (mimetic words describing emotion or action) speak to the joys and sorrows experienced by these characters (alongside scholarly research that discusses the importance of sound to recalling memories (Harris)), this presentation will explore the importance of sound to memory within the text as well as with the reader as they experience the narrative. Building on scholarly work with linking memory to language, the analysis of Sweetness and Lightning seeks to better understand how a sentimental narrative utilizes sounds to carry the reader “into the living world, immersing [the reader] into the materiality of a sonorous landscape” (Whittaker 324). Previous research into the connections between giongo, gitaigo and haiku will be further enhanced by neurological studies and research from other scientific communities to better understand the linkages between written sounds, emotion, and memory.
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Anno Moyoco’s Insufficient Direction is an autobiographical manga about her life with her husband, director Anno Hideaki, and their otaku lifestyle. Her usage of giongo (onomatopoeia) and gitaigo (mimetic words describing action or... more
Anno Moyoco’s Insufficient Direction is an autobiographical manga about her life with her husband, director Anno Hideaki, and their otaku lifestyle. Her usage of giongo (onomatopoeia) and gitaigo (mimetic words describing action or emotion) not only give readers a window to her life as an ota-wife, but gives readers an opportunity to see giongo and gitaigo as they tie into memory. Scholars argue that sound, smells, and memory are intertwined because the same part of the brain that processes sense is also responsible for storing emotional memories. Anno and her husband communicate through giongo and gitaigo to remember their favorite anime, manga, and films, and this paper seeks to analyze this work, their use of sound effects in their lives, and how this connection to memory draws on a larger collective sense of memory tied to language. This paper will explore the function of sound in this josei manga and how this connection to memory is rooted to earlier forms of Japanese art, primarily haiku. By undertaking this project, we will better understand why giongo and gitaigo have such an important role in manga and to its readers, as well as why gitaigo will often become part of the lexicon.
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Giongo are the onomatopoeic effects that one reads in Japanese manga. Gitaigo are the effects that represent emotion and action. These effects are seen, to varying degrees, in manga geared towards males and females, but the usages are... more
Giongo are the onomatopoeic effects that one reads in Japanese manga. Gitaigo are the effects that represent emotion and action. These effects are seen, to varying degrees, in manga geared towards males and females, but the usages are not as gender specific as one would assume. Male-oriented manga utilizes gitaigo in ways that show an emotional anchor to the narrative (and to nature) that is almost reminiscent of Sōseki Natume’s Kokoro, and female-oriented manga is unafraid to place action over emotion when needed. As the assumption is rooted in a Western viewpoint that overlays gender stereotypes over artifacts from outside of the culture, this presentation will analyze seinen and josei manga’s usage of effects to better understand Japanese culture, as well as to dismantle Western notions of what is appropriately male or female.
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Gitaigo and giongo are the onomatopoeia and mimetic effects one sees in Japanese manga. These effects not only take on the properties of sound, but also serve to indicate emotional reactions as well as action and movement. Effects that... more
Gitaigo and giongo are the onomatopoeia and mimetic effects one sees in Japanese manga. These effects not only take on the properties of sound, but also serve to indicate emotional reactions as well as action and movement. Effects that replicate nature are also indicative of the time of year, and seem to show how important it is to represent nature and emotion in Japanese art forms (as featured in other art forms that emphasize these uses of sound, which includes haiku, kyōgen, and bunraku). By examining the ways in which these effects are deployed in Ōtsuka Eiji and Yamazaki Housui’s Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, this presentation will examine how these effects are part of the art of sound in manga, answering the question of whether these effects themselves are a form of art, or simply text.
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Gitaigo and Giongo are effects that one encounters when reading Japanese manga. While giongo are the effects that represent actual sounds, gitaigo are effects that convey emotion, action, and other non-auditory effects. These... more
Gitaigo and Giongo are effects that one encounters when reading Japanese manga. While giongo are the effects that represent actual sounds, gitaigo are effects that convey emotion, action, and other non-auditory effects. These onomatopoeic and mimetic effects assist in connecting the reader to the material, and help in the development of empathy towards a character. Benshi, narrators for silent films, performed a similar work in Japan; they not only told the audience what was going on in the film, but also added to the film to direct the audience towards their reactions to what was presented on screen. This paper will explore the ways in which gitaigo (and, to an extent, giongo) work on connecting the audience to the silent medium of comics in ways rather similar to the work of benshi. This exploration will demonstrate the importance of utilizing “sound” to connect the audience to a work on a deeper level than by the visuals alone.
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Josei manga (meaning comics for women) appears to be the last frontier of manga in the United States. Few titles targeting older, female readers have been published in the U.S., and titles that have been successful – like Yazawa Ai's Nana... more
Josei manga (meaning comics for women) appears to be the last frontier of manga in the United States. Few titles targeting older, female readers have been published in the U.S., and titles that have been successful – like Yazawa Ai's Nana (Viz), and Tobe Keiko's With the Light (Yen Press) – have been marketed as shōjo, despite their themes. And with the only U.S. company dedicated to selling josei manga closing its doors in 2010,1 there has been a resistance to bring more josei titles to the public. Scanlations have been a readily-available source for manga fans, and this paper seeks to investigate why josei is so popular among scanlators (and those who read them) and not among legitimate distribution channels. Through an analysis of select josei titles (including, but not limited to Wataru Yoshizumi's Cappuccino), I seek to decipher the text for clues as to why these works are not picked up by U.S. publishers (which will include issues of the economy as well as possible gender and content questions), but are popular among scanlators.
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"In our current climate of immigration legislation, the photograph as part of immigrant documentation is still an important aspect to regulating bodies. Not unlike racial profiling, being a properly documented citizen is paramount to many... more
"In our current climate of immigration legislation, the photograph as part of immigrant documentation is still an important aspect to regulating bodies. Not unlike racial profiling, being a properly documented citizen is paramount to many vocal supporters of strict immigration policies. In the nascent days of immigration policies, photographs were used alongside medical inspections to limit the influx of immigrants into the United States, creating a bifurcated system in which Chinese immigrants, and their bodies, were criminalized and medicalized at a radically different level than other immigrants. I am examining how this regulating of bodies through this visual medium began. Using the methodology of visual analysis on a sample of images, I explore how photography has created a visual taxonomy of immigrants that spans from the 19th century to present day. Visual immigration policies began with the forced photographic documentation of Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans whose citizenship was tenuous in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chronicling the use of photography from today to photography's origins, I will chart the multifarious ways in which photography has been used to criminalize and regulate bodies, showing that our immigration policies have a long history in terms of the use of photography as a scientific means to regulate bodies, contributing to studies of biopolitics by providing a visual analysis of what is discussed and elided about the shaping of immigrants.
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Riyoko Ikeda is considered one of the most influential shōjo manga-ka to emerge from the “Fabulous 49ers,” yet this seminal work (Rose of Versailles) is currently unavailable in English. This paper seeks to investigate why it is that a... more
Riyoko Ikeda is considered one of the most influential shōjo manga-ka to emerge from the “Fabulous 49ers,” yet this seminal work (Rose of Versailles) is currently unavailable in English. This paper seeks to investigate why it is that a work that is considered part of a seminal group of female manga-ka has been relegated to being slowly brought forth by scanlators, whereas more obscure male manga-ka, like Yoshihiro Tatsumi, are being published by North American comic publishers. Age is less of a factor – titles by Osamu Tezuka are being published with regularity – and as this property is commercially available in French, Spanish, and German, interest in this seminal work (at least on an international scale) has not waned. While female readers are still considered important to North American manga sales, there is a disconnect that emphasizes new shōjo titles over older, seminal works that should, otherwise, be able to find an audience. This paper seeks to understand this disconnect and how it is being dealt with by the fans and the publishing community.
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Japanese manga is a rather popular medium globally, and it has worked its way up from an obscure product to taking up large sections of national chain bookstores. This paper will look at the evolution of how translations have been... more
Japanese manga is a rather popular medium globally, and it has worked its way up from an obscure product to taking up large sections of national chain bookstores. This paper will look at the evolution of how translations have been handled; analyzing the conversion from "Westernizing" manga to the inclusiveness of manga tropes and Japanese cultural references, I will look at how the quality of Japanese manga translation has changed the ways in which companies approach the material as well as the number of companies that choose to translate Japanese manga. Taking examples of manga that span the breadth of time, as well as encompassing a number of English-Language manga translation companies translating for the U.S. audience, changes in translation "trends" give an indication as to the future of Japanese manga translation for U.S. readers. There have been significant changes in the manga-translation business, some that deomstrate the profitiablity of translating Japanese manga and others that are the victims of a poor economy coupled with a loss of market share with the rapid saturation of titles reaching the marketplace: Tokyopop, at one time the leading publisher of Japanese manga translation, has joined with HarperCollins and significantly reduced its staff over the past two years; Dark Horse and CMX, both American book publishers and American comic affiliates, respectively, have released a number of manga that embraces retaining the sound effect usage unique to Japanese culture (where sound effects for the mundane, for silence itself, and to express emotion are represented); and even publishers of non-comic texts like Random House (under the name Del Rey) and the aforementioned HarperCollins Publishers, have taken great interest in tapping into the manga market. I will look at how the transformation of translation has changed, at how these draw in the types of readers these manga attract in the United States, to show that quality, and an active campaign to bring in female readers, show the future of Japanese manga in the United States is a possibility even in this economic downturn.
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Anno Moyoco’s Insufficient Direction is an autobiographical manga about her life with her husband, director Anno Hideaki, and their otaku lifestyle. Her usage of giongo (onomatopoeia) and gitaigo (mimetic words describing action or... more
Anno Moyoco’s Insufficient Direction is an autobiographical manga about her life with her husband, director Anno Hideaki, and their otaku lifestyle. Her usage of giongo (onomatopoeia) and gitaigo (mimetic words describing action or emotion) not only give readers a window to her life as an ota-wife, but gives readers an opportunity to see giongo and gitaigo as they tie into memory. Scholars argue that sound, smells, and memory are intertwined because the same part of the brain that processes sense is also responsible for storing emotional memories. Anno and her husband communicate through giongo and gitaigo to remember their favorite anime, manga, and films, and this paper seeks to analyze this work, their use of sound effects in their lives, and how this connection to memory draws on a larger collective sense of memory tied to language. This paper will explore the function of sound in this josei manga and how this connection to memory is rooted to earlier forms of Japanese art, primarily haiku. By undertaking this project, we will better understand why giongo and gitaigo have such an important role in manga and to its readers, as well as why gitaigo will often become part of the lexicon.
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To prepare for the reading of Shirow Masamune's Ghost in the Shell, I was asked to give an overview of manga for a class on science fiction.
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Research Interests: History, Cultural Studies, Music, Environmental Philosophy, Education, and 18 moreWomen's Studies, Art, Architecture, Comic Book Studies, Comics, Comics/Sequential Art, Graphic Novels, Comics and Graphic Novels, Nature, Teaching, Comic books, Manga, Comic Strips, Fantasy, Cartooning, Native Studies, Japanese culture. Anime and manga., and Feminist Studies in Religion
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... 95 Figure 3 - Otou-san chastises Ari. Copyright of image belongs to Yoshizumi Wataru. .... 96 Figure 4 - Ari and Sousuke's intimacy 1. Copyright of image belongs to Yoshizumi Wataru. .... 97 ...