In April, I had the opportunity to attend the Japanese Popular Culture Conference at the University of Victoria. Not only was I honored to be able to present my essay, but I was very fortunate to be able to meet a number of distinguished and fascinating people, and to attend some interesting presentations as well. Here are some highlights of the conference, from my notes.
I shall attempt to concentrate on topics particularly relevant to readers and viewers of manga and anime, and in a few cases on interesting social phenomenon that may particularly help the Western manga/anime audience.

Wednesday, 9 April 1997. Arrival in Victoria. While this occasion is not particularly noteworthy in terms of the conference, Victoria's gorgeous natural beauty must be mentioned. Spring flowers were in full bloom, from tulips to cherry blossoms, and the greenery along the roadsides were of vivid, glowing shades not normally seen in Boston.

Thursday, 10 April 1997. The first day of the conference. Tim Craig, the Conference Chair, welcomed us to the University of Victoria and the conference kicked off with a focus on the spiritual within manga.
The first presenter, Mark MacWilliams of St. Lawrence University, gave an excellent overview of the Tezuka Osamu manga of BUDDA, a re-telling of the story of the Buddha's life. Osamu's groundbreaking narrative style, wich includes elements of adventure, humor, and meta-references, are the foundations of modern manga.
The next presenter was yours truly, with a talk about Romanticism in the world of anime and manga, a glimpse into the hidden Japanese soul. I sought to show how elements of emotion, fantasy, individual struggle, interpersonal respect and love, and epic longing--elements not often thought of as "Japanese" by many people in the West--combine to give the average Japanese viewer of manga/anime the strength to dream and hope within his own life.
Other presentations that day largely had little to do with manga or anime, but were quite interesting nevertheless. Karen Kelsky (University of Oregon) noted, among other things, how women in commercials are depicted as vehicles or conduits of male power. She also noted (and I found this particularly amusing) that commercials by Western companies tended to show white men as objects of Japanese women's desire, while Japanese companies tended to show Japanese men usurping white men.
There were presentations on the use of symbolic representations of the Japanese flag in TV commercials (Todd Holden, Tohoku University), a look at the jazz scene in Japan (Taylor Atkins, University of Illinois), a presentation on how media "idols" are created in Japan as well as in Asia (Hiroshi Aoyagi, University of British Columbia), and how women idol singers tend to use English in their songs (James Stanlaw, Illinois State University), and a look at the melodramatic and sentimental enka singing style (based on a paper by Christine R. Yano of the Reischauer Institute at Harvard). The last was particularly amusing, as it included video clips of singers clad in outlandish costumes on over-done sets, singing (in an overly dramatic style) about suffering and loneliness and loss.
Another presentation which may be of particular interest to the anime audience was Saya Shiraishi's (Kyoto Bunkyo University) highly detailed look at the production of manga in Japan, and how the industry is growing in other Asian countries, such as Indonesia. She detailed the manga/anime process, from how a new series appears in a weekly or monthly magazine (such as SHONEN JUMP), is given about 10 weeks to prove itself, and is then turned (if successful) into condensed books (TANKOUBON) and possibly into anime. The children's anime DORAEMON, and its success in Indonesia, was a particular focus of the talk. Apparently its Indonesian fans include at least one cabinet minister!
And finally, Thursday evening featured guest speaker Fred Schodt, author of MANGA! MANGA! and DREAMLAND JAPAN. The presentation began with a look at the popularity of manga and anime in Japan today, from the monstrously huge doujinshi/fanzine industry, to the 24-hour coffeeshops with small manga libraries. Manga, as Fred Schodt related, has its roots in 14th century Japanese artwork. The introduction of Western-style political satire brought a new era to manga. Then, World War II not only pushed mangaka out of political satire and into other fields, but, with its ending, created a huge demand for cheap entertainment--after all, people who are surrounded by devastation and loss need a source of hope. Tezuka Osamu made a large impact in this era by decompressing storylines. Now manga come in all types of genres, some even so specialized as to be aimed at the audience of ex-juvenile delinquent young mothers ("yan-mama"). With manga now reaching the West, a new exchange of ideas is occurring (such as the "Jungle Taitei"/"Lion King" controversy). Fred Schodt himself had not foreseen the recent explosion of manga/anime's popularity within the United States. The talk made it clear that the manga/anime industry is still changing and growing and evolving.