Papers by Paul Ocone
Transformative Works and Cultures, 2024
BobaBoard is an in-development social media platform for media fans who are striving to create a ... more BobaBoard is an in-development social media platform for media fans who are striving to create a space of belonging and acceptance for what its founder describes as a "niche group of weirdos." This emerging community is creating a protected space where media fans can explore and share their sexualities through both an anonymity-first design and a core ethos of anti-censorship. However, these goals are not simple or easy to implement, and there are both affordances and limitations to BobaBoard's approach. Through digital ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation and interviews, I found that the strategies and innovations through which tensions surrounding anonymity and (anti)censorship are negotiated illustrate emerging community ethics around the cocreation of fan spaces and the exploration of sexual fantasy in these spaces. These community ethics, or the ethics of world-making, demonstrate the possibilities of collaboratively creating protected spaces for sharing desire and sexuality.
Mechademia, 2023
*NOTE* This is a copy of the paper that was reprinted in a self-published doujinshi in 2024. If y... more *NOTE* This is a copy of the paper that was reprinted in a self-published doujinshi in 2024. If you would like a copy of the version of record that was published in the journal Mechademia, please message me or email me at ocone1 [at] umbc [dot] edu.
Mechademia, 2021
*NOTE* This is a copy of the paper that was reprinted in a self-published doujinshi in 2024. If y... more *NOTE* This is a copy of the paper that was reprinted in a self-published doujinshi in 2024. If you would like a copy of the version of record that was published in the journal Mechademia, please message me or email me at ocone1 [at] umbc [dot] edu.
Conference Presentations by Paul Ocone
Fan Studies Network—North America conference, 2024
As previous scholarship has noted, anime-related tourism promotion is imbricated with the "media ... more As previous scholarship has noted, anime-related tourism promotion is imbricated with the "media mix" model of anime franchising, with tourism promotion integrated into media mix promotion; the real-life settings of anime themselves become spatial parts of franchises for fans to consume (Ocone 2023). Previous work on other kinds of spatial media mixes in Japan emphasizes the pedestrian routes that fans take through space, and how fan movement can follow or resist commercial attempts to channel movement in certain ways (Ernest dit Alban 2020, Steinberg and Ernest dit Alban 2018). Extending these theorizations of the spatial media mix, I consider the commercial strategies used to promote anime tourism and the ways fans respond to these strategies through a detailed case study of the spaces of tourism for the anime series Sound! Euphonium (2015-2024), set in the city of Uji. From ethnographic fieldwork and interviews on anime pilgrimage in 2023 and 2024, I discovered that in addition to commercial and officially-sanctioned sites of tourism, there also existed a wide range of semi-official and unofficial spaces for fans of the series. These spaces range from settings for the series not on the official maps to restaurants and other business that fans like to frequent; information about these spaces spreads through fan networks and social connections. In this presentation, I describe the official and less official spaces of anime pilgrimage, how fan spaces are created and promoted, and the ways fans make use of spaces to their own ends. I also elaborate on a typology categorizing fan spaces on a spectrum of official/sanctioned to unofficial/unsanctioned and describe the limits and affordances of possible engagements with space for each type. I ultimately aim to clarify understanding of the different kinds of spaces and spatial relationships that can be involved in fan tourism.
Popular Culture Tourism Stakeholders Summit in Japan, 2024
Contents tourism promotion is an increasingly important part of many anime media mixes in Japan, ... more Contents tourism promotion is an increasingly important part of many anime media mixes in Japan, and anime pilgrimage involves attachment to places that themselves become part of the media mix (Ocone 2023). However, the over-commercialization of pilgrimage/contents tourism can come at the expense of fan practices, potentially alienating core practitioners in pilgrimage subcultures and resulting in less strong attachments to place (Okamoto 2016). In this presentation, based on ethnographic fieldwork, I explore the relationship between pilgrimage and the contents tourism media mix in the context of the series Sound! Euphonium and tourism to Kyoto and Uji. In this case study, commercialized contents tourism is a major part of the media mix, especially collaborations with the Keihan Group, but at the same time, there is a strong grassroots and fan-driven element to pilgrimage. Considering this duality, I ask whether and how commercial and fan interests can align with each other.
“Like A Version: Adaptations, Reboots and Remakes in Popular Culture” conference, 2023
Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 (2021), the ultimate film in the Rebuild of Evangelion anime tetralogy, is di... more Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 (2021), the ultimate film in the Rebuild of Evangelion anime tetralogy, is director Anno Hideaki’s final statement on the franchise that began with his series Neon Genesis Evangelion in 1995. The metanarrative of the film (as well as its paratexts) emphasizes a sense of ending and closure—yet 3.0+1.0 also troubles this sense of closure through a use of cyclical storytelling. Rebuild of Evangelion is a reworking of the original series in an alternate continuity, but the films also suggest that this continuity is connected to the timeline of the 1995 series, part of a cosmic recycling of events and characters. This tendency is only strengthened in 3.0+1.0, which explicitly calls back to the 1995 series as an earlier timeline. The emphasis on cyclic "remaking" extends to the formal and aesthetic levels, as well. Previous scholarship has emphasized Evangelion’s reuse of animation (Kirkegaard 2021), and 3.0+1.0 continues to reuse animation and music—not only from previous Evangelion works, but also from other works directed by Anno. On a deep level, then, 3.0+1.0 creates a cyclical sense of time in which the very nature of "rebooting" or "rebuilding" is examined—it is only then that a sense of closure can be reached.
(Presentation for roundtable "Social Media" at FSN-NA 2022.) BobaBoard is an in-development fando... more (Presentation for roundtable "Social Media" at FSN-NA 2022.) BobaBoard is an in-development fandom-centric social media platform that strives to create a space of belonging and acceptance for what its founder described to me as a “niche group of weirdos.” Two ways this emerging community is creating a protected space where media fans can explore and share sexuality are through an anonymity-first design and a core ethos of anti-censorship. However, these goals are not simple or easy to implement, and there are both affordances and limitations to BobaBoard’s anonymity-first and anti-censorship approach. Through digital ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation and interviews, I found that the strategies and innovations through which these tensions are negotiated illustrate emerging community ethics around the co-creation of fan spaces and the exploration of sexual fantasy in these spaces. BobaBoard’s collective ethical practice, or what was described to me as a sense of “social responsibility” shared by members of the community, is a key way that the platform’s users navigate the uncertainties and challenges of creating BobaBoard, both as a social media platform and as a community. This social responsibility, a sense that every user is responsible for co-creating BobaBoard’s nascent culture, speaks to broader conversations in fan studies about how fans engage in ethical practice (Busse 2018, Lothian 2016, also Galbraith 2021), as well as broader conversations in anthropology about ethics, values, and how people understand and collectively strive for what they understand to be the good life (e.g. Das 2010). BobaBoard’s ethics are an ethics of care, but also an ethics of community-building or “world-making” (Lothian 2016, 744), which is embedded in but ultimately goes beyond an ethics of care. Users have lengthy discussions about ethics and how to create a better platform and better community. These community ethics, or the ethics of world-making, demonstrate the possibilities of communities co-creating protected spaces for sharing desire and sexuality.
[Presentation at the Mechademia 2022 conference)
“Moe,” a word expressing affective responses to... more [Presentation at the Mechademia 2022 conference)
“Moe,” a word expressing affective responses to fictional characters and describing otaku media inspiring those responses, is a term with a contested and contentious history, not least in Anglophone anime fandoms. As “moe” made its way into the consciousness of Anglophone anime fandom in the 2000s, it quickly became embroiled in debates about the direction anime was heading, with “moe anime” becoming a reviled phenomenon for some fans and commentators and a celebrated one for others. Debates about the impact of moe on anime were highly fraught and contentious, and anime series such as K-On! (2009) were caught in the crosshairs of this discourse. At the same time, the problem of pinning down exactly what was meant by the always-ambiguous concept of “moe” caught the attention of some fans. These fans engaged with what was available from Japanese sources and started developing theories of moe, some theories even getting picked up in scholarly work. This theorizing provides valuable insight into what was thought about moe and how fans experienced the phenomenon during this period and offers different ways of understanding moe. Engaged in dialogue with other fans, experts, journalists, and academics, Japanese and non-Japanese alike, fans debated and discoursed to build their own understandings of moe. Through digital archival research, this paper maps the transcultural flows and frictions (Annett 2015) of theories and discourses of “moe" from its migration as a concept between Japanese and Anglophone anime fan cultures in the 2000s and early 2010s.
[Presentation at UMBC URCAD 2022.] Bobaboard is an in-development fandom-centric social media pla... more [Presentation at UMBC URCAD 2022.] Bobaboard is an in-development fandom-centric social media platform that strives to create a space of belonging and acceptance for its “niche group of weirdos.” Two ways this emerging community is creating a protected space where media fans can explore and share sexuality are through an anonymity-first design and a core ethos of anti-censorship. However, these goals are not simple or easy to implement, and there are both affordances and limitations to Bobaboard’s anonymity-first and anti-censorship approach. Through digital ethnographic fieldwork, I found that the strategies and innovations through which these tensions are negotiated illustrate the possibilities of communities co-creating protected spaces for sharing desire and sexuality.
(Multimedia conference presentation for FSN-NA 2021.)
Recent controversies over the presence of... more (Multimedia conference presentation for FSN-NA 2021.)
Recent controversies over the presence of ahegao (O-face) shirts at anime conventions have brought to light key tensions over the presence of sexuality in anime fan spaces. Some conventions have banned these shirts in order to facilitate a family-friendly space. Yet despite aiming to present a family-friendly image, many anime conventions still host 18+ panels and vendors; Otakon’s mascot is even based on a character from a Japanese erotic game. This key tension, between sexual expression and keeping a family-friendly space open to all, operates at the core of many anime conventions. In contrast to American anime conventions trying to create spaces for all ages, many Japanese fan spaces, such as the fanzine convention Comiket, instead try to keep a space open for all expression, including sexual expression, which is not quarantined but out in the open. Between American and Japanese fan spaces, then, there are multiple conceptions of how to construct an “open space” with regards to sexual expression. Building on recent work on anime fan spaces and sexuality by Patrick W. Galbraith and Edmond Ernest dit Alban, among others, this poster aims to explore the tensions and logics at play in different fan spaces.
Thesis Chapters by Paul Ocone
My B.A. thesis.
Abstract:
Anime fan conventions are spaces that are infused with desire and affe... more My B.A. thesis.
Abstract:
Anime fan conventions are spaces that are infused with desire and affect for the media of anime and manga and the characters within. They are also places where sexuality and sexual media is highly visible. This thesis sought to understand the role of desire and affect in anime conventions, and in anime fandom in general, with an ethnographic study of the convention Otakon, held in Washington, D.C. every summer. At Otakon, desire and affect, both sexual and non-sexual, permeate the physical and social space in multifaceted but interrelated ways. First, desire and affect in relation to media are intimately linked to cultural capital and sociality: all three are mutually generative, with affective affinities between fans generating social relationships and cultural capital structuring a fan’s relationship to media and to other fans. Second, as people, media, and representations of characters circulate through the physical space of the convention, desire and affect circulate through the social space, generating fan identities and fan communities. Since this movement through space takes on importance, frictions emerge over the arrangement of space and the ways people move through it. Third and finally, the social acceptability of desires, behaviors, and expressions is negotiated: the convention is a context where the expression of certain fan desires and identities becomes more acceptable, but frictions are generated over the acceptability of other desires, expressions, or behaviors. All of these dynamics are especially highlighted in the presence of erotic media and in the sexual desire for characters at the convention, which is a key part of Otakon’s culture: sexuality is where all of these things coalesce.
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Papers by Paul Ocone
Conference Presentations by Paul Ocone
“Moe,” a word expressing affective responses to fictional characters and describing otaku media inspiring those responses, is a term with a contested and contentious history, not least in Anglophone anime fandoms. As “moe” made its way into the consciousness of Anglophone anime fandom in the 2000s, it quickly became embroiled in debates about the direction anime was heading, with “moe anime” becoming a reviled phenomenon for some fans and commentators and a celebrated one for others. Debates about the impact of moe on anime were highly fraught and contentious, and anime series such as K-On! (2009) were caught in the crosshairs of this discourse. At the same time, the problem of pinning down exactly what was meant by the always-ambiguous concept of “moe” caught the attention of some fans. These fans engaged with what was available from Japanese sources and started developing theories of moe, some theories even getting picked up in scholarly work. This theorizing provides valuable insight into what was thought about moe and how fans experienced the phenomenon during this period and offers different ways of understanding moe. Engaged in dialogue with other fans, experts, journalists, and academics, Japanese and non-Japanese alike, fans debated and discoursed to build their own understandings of moe. Through digital archival research, this paper maps the transcultural flows and frictions (Annett 2015) of theories and discourses of “moe" from its migration as a concept between Japanese and Anglophone anime fan cultures in the 2000s and early 2010s.
Recent controversies over the presence of ahegao (O-face) shirts at anime conventions have brought to light key tensions over the presence of sexuality in anime fan spaces. Some conventions have banned these shirts in order to facilitate a family-friendly space. Yet despite aiming to present a family-friendly image, many anime conventions still host 18+ panels and vendors; Otakon’s mascot is even based on a character from a Japanese erotic game. This key tension, between sexual expression and keeping a family-friendly space open to all, operates at the core of many anime conventions. In contrast to American anime conventions trying to create spaces for all ages, many Japanese fan spaces, such as the fanzine convention Comiket, instead try to keep a space open for all expression, including sexual expression, which is not quarantined but out in the open. Between American and Japanese fan spaces, then, there are multiple conceptions of how to construct an “open space” with regards to sexual expression. Building on recent work on anime fan spaces and sexuality by Patrick W. Galbraith and Edmond Ernest dit Alban, among others, this poster aims to explore the tensions and logics at play in different fan spaces.
Thesis Chapters by Paul Ocone
Abstract:
Anime fan conventions are spaces that are infused with desire and affect for the media of anime and manga and the characters within. They are also places where sexuality and sexual media is highly visible. This thesis sought to understand the role of desire and affect in anime conventions, and in anime fandom in general, with an ethnographic study of the convention Otakon, held in Washington, D.C. every summer. At Otakon, desire and affect, both sexual and non-sexual, permeate the physical and social space in multifaceted but interrelated ways. First, desire and affect in relation to media are intimately linked to cultural capital and sociality: all three are mutually generative, with affective affinities between fans generating social relationships and cultural capital structuring a fan’s relationship to media and to other fans. Second, as people, media, and representations of characters circulate through the physical space of the convention, desire and affect circulate through the social space, generating fan identities and fan communities. Since this movement through space takes on importance, frictions emerge over the arrangement of space and the ways people move through it. Third and finally, the social acceptability of desires, behaviors, and expressions is negotiated: the convention is a context where the expression of certain fan desires and identities becomes more acceptable, but frictions are generated over the acceptability of other desires, expressions, or behaviors. All of these dynamics are especially highlighted in the presence of erotic media and in the sexual desire for characters at the convention, which is a key part of Otakon’s culture: sexuality is where all of these things coalesce.
“Moe,” a word expressing affective responses to fictional characters and describing otaku media inspiring those responses, is a term with a contested and contentious history, not least in Anglophone anime fandoms. As “moe” made its way into the consciousness of Anglophone anime fandom in the 2000s, it quickly became embroiled in debates about the direction anime was heading, with “moe anime” becoming a reviled phenomenon for some fans and commentators and a celebrated one for others. Debates about the impact of moe on anime were highly fraught and contentious, and anime series such as K-On! (2009) were caught in the crosshairs of this discourse. At the same time, the problem of pinning down exactly what was meant by the always-ambiguous concept of “moe” caught the attention of some fans. These fans engaged with what was available from Japanese sources and started developing theories of moe, some theories even getting picked up in scholarly work. This theorizing provides valuable insight into what was thought about moe and how fans experienced the phenomenon during this period and offers different ways of understanding moe. Engaged in dialogue with other fans, experts, journalists, and academics, Japanese and non-Japanese alike, fans debated and discoursed to build their own understandings of moe. Through digital archival research, this paper maps the transcultural flows and frictions (Annett 2015) of theories and discourses of “moe" from its migration as a concept between Japanese and Anglophone anime fan cultures in the 2000s and early 2010s.
Recent controversies over the presence of ahegao (O-face) shirts at anime conventions have brought to light key tensions over the presence of sexuality in anime fan spaces. Some conventions have banned these shirts in order to facilitate a family-friendly space. Yet despite aiming to present a family-friendly image, many anime conventions still host 18+ panels and vendors; Otakon’s mascot is even based on a character from a Japanese erotic game. This key tension, between sexual expression and keeping a family-friendly space open to all, operates at the core of many anime conventions. In contrast to American anime conventions trying to create spaces for all ages, many Japanese fan spaces, such as the fanzine convention Comiket, instead try to keep a space open for all expression, including sexual expression, which is not quarantined but out in the open. Between American and Japanese fan spaces, then, there are multiple conceptions of how to construct an “open space” with regards to sexual expression. Building on recent work on anime fan spaces and sexuality by Patrick W. Galbraith and Edmond Ernest dit Alban, among others, this poster aims to explore the tensions and logics at play in different fan spaces.
Abstract:
Anime fan conventions are spaces that are infused with desire and affect for the media of anime and manga and the characters within. They are also places where sexuality and sexual media is highly visible. This thesis sought to understand the role of desire and affect in anime conventions, and in anime fandom in general, with an ethnographic study of the convention Otakon, held in Washington, D.C. every summer. At Otakon, desire and affect, both sexual and non-sexual, permeate the physical and social space in multifaceted but interrelated ways. First, desire and affect in relation to media are intimately linked to cultural capital and sociality: all three are mutually generative, with affective affinities between fans generating social relationships and cultural capital structuring a fan’s relationship to media and to other fans. Second, as people, media, and representations of characters circulate through the physical space of the convention, desire and affect circulate through the social space, generating fan identities and fan communities. Since this movement through space takes on importance, frictions emerge over the arrangement of space and the ways people move through it. Third and finally, the social acceptability of desires, behaviors, and expressions is negotiated: the convention is a context where the expression of certain fan desires and identities becomes more acceptable, but frictions are generated over the acceptability of other desires, expressions, or behaviors. All of these dynamics are especially highlighted in the presence of erotic media and in the sexual desire for characters at the convention, which is a key part of Otakon’s culture: sexuality is where all of these things coalesce.