How much does its hypotheses still apply to anime and the consumption of it 20+ years later?Has the worldwide popularization of anime diminished the database nature in which anime is made in line to cater to a more general audience rather than to otaku or has that only strengthened?
>>282801402I like how this book basically called out the eva rebuilds years before the first one even came out
>>282801480How?
>>282801402I think the database mode of consumption was perfect for the industry to take it mainstream because it even leads to mindsets and ways of breaking down products that are conducive to investor confidence and publisher efficiency. The database was just expanded so the process could be used to create more mainstream products and turn larger populations into fans. This is something that counteracts the insularity characteristic of the moe phase as seen in how anime, manga, LNs, video games, etc. will rapidly cannibalize trends popular in other subcultures and media. That’s how isekai came to dominate the broadest appeal markets with a perfect computational model for creating novel configurations of the elements indexed in the database, spinning them out through adaptions and fan works to become immortal brands.
>>282802726Are the mainstream audience as good at identifying the database elements in these isekai as otaku were with moe anime back in the day? It seems the integrity of the database structure was dependent on otaku being deeply familiar with the elements that made these moe characters on a conscious level and thus being able to seek those elements out in other anime. It feels like its on more of a subconcious level that these normalfags that are into isekai and shounenshit are able to identify the database elements that appeal to them in these shows which is quite a different relationship.
I think one idea to consider is going way beyond the focus on characters to seeing every aspect of the narrative including metanarrative as indexed in the database. Another way to put it would be to say that people experience moe for genres, for storytelling tropes, etc. “independent” of character. I don’t want to downplay the centrality of character fetishism but to underestimate fetishization of story is a mistake that is a surrender to the apparent pervasiveness of postmodernism. Part of the total functioning of the database mode of consumption is that even two tiny elements of narrative, wrapped up in character or not, can be evaluated for meaning in the context of past exposure. The same principle is what allows us to see an entire backstory in a hint of one and recognize a character’s pattern. >>282802961I’m not sure about a direct comparison but I think the vast isekai audience are identifying the elements of genre and “premise” that are indexed in a database that is far less insular. That’s why it ends up being isekai but vending machine, isekai but villainess, isekai but edgy. The industry is never going to support the insularity of the moe phase unless it actually brings in enough cash. For the major publishing corporations, they simply need a bigger pond.
Bump to give myself more time to read many paragraphs.
>>282803378>I don’t want to downplay the centrality of character fetishism but to underestimate fetishization of story is a mistake that is a surrender to the apparent pervasiveness of postmodernism.Can you give an example of this?
>>282807429It might not be the best because of how ambiguous the separation of character and story is, but one of the things I’d point to would be establishment of the 4 girls main cast for moe appeal shows. The types of stock characters that appear in those casts have inherent relationships to each other than can be “read” as stories simply due to recognition of the traditional ways these characters interact. One of the shows that always stands out in my mind is Anne Happy because of how tropey every aspect of it is. You can identify the relationships between the main cast just by looking at their designs. Botan is the most obvious since her adherence to the sickly gloomy archetype is the basis for her characterization and gags. It’s because those elements can be identified that her story can be understood so thoroughly and the recognition that she represents low self esteem and the battle against personal darkness increases the potential for passionate feelings about her. The other more direct example is the consideration of genre with trends in everything from death games to isekai and back to death games again as well. Of course, there’s a clear synergistic advantage between a genre like death games and character fetishization, there’s that Gnosia series this season showcasing that sort of alliance.
>>282801402I'm not smart enough to say something like the other anon here. But I will say that Azuma's ideas hold a lot better nowadays than those from Saito's Beautiful Fighting Girl
>>282808442It probably needs updating but the topic really is central to otaku mythology. Nothing confirms this for me more than the film adaption of Tezuka’s Metropolis that packs in the entire collection of themes and story-types that have built up within these media. The heart of the Tower of Babel can only be a gynoid built from hubris, an angel to the outcastes, and the doom of the epoch. As far as I’m concerned, the true power in otaku media comes from dedication to the muses and the revival of goddess worship which naturally results in the creation of Her images, as maiden and conqueror, and their enchantment with erotic cultism in order to overthrow the false kosmos. The rebellion in anime and manga isn’t just against postwar Japan but is the essential rebellion against those who rule over the ruins of Her garden. I think one of the overlooked icons of the “beautiful fighting girl” is Eureka from Eureka Seven, because she takes the Rei thing and runs with it all the way to being a bridge for humanity to understand the Other through idealized love and empathy in a new awakening directly tied to the actual counterculture perspective while also interrogating decisions to react violently to a violent world. Eureka’s “inhumanity” is less a shocking confession than her being a war criminal and mass murderer.Or again just look at Dandadan. The nerd and the beautiful fighting girl are still right there, being sexual beings within their world. Whether things tip into objectification or not, the media is a thorn in the side of repressive systems because it asserts that humans are sexual beings and that runs counter to any narrative that relies on denying sexual identity.
Although I think it is true that however the database model is refitted for chasing the mainstream, there will be a portion of people who live in the full on 90s mode of animality and solitude deriving meaning in fiction rather than reality.
>>282801402Considering the industry is now shitting out endless isekaitrash and know exactly which isekai-related tropes will get them eyes on their slop, the database nature is definitely still there
>>282801402Is fiction becoming TOO fictional? Buy my book for more groundbreaking literary analysis cloaked in terminology expounded on in 300 pages or less.
>>282811530Getting your shitposts published is a venerable tradition
Azuma is considered pop science trash now for good reason. You can look at the trajectory of his association with Murakami and the superflat "movement" or just skim Database Animals to see his model of database consumption is built on totally flimsy superlatives that just make shit up, like the difference between Gundam and Eva fans or that somehow database consumption is a uniquely Japanese concept. It's amazing that you can blend a bunch of bad reads of philosophy to write something this overriding:>So if we were to stretch our chain of association, this sort of otaku behavioral principle can be thought of as differing from that of intellectual aficionados (conscious people), whose interest is based in cool judgment, and from that of fetishistically indulgent sexual subjects (unconscious people). But rather, more simply and directly, the otaku behavioral principle can be seen as close to the behavioral principle of drug addicts. Not a few otaku tell a heartfelt story that, having onceencountered some character designs or the voices of some voice actors, that picture or voice circulates through that otaku’s head as if the neural wiring had completely changed. This resembles a drug dependency rather than a hobby.Database consumption is probably verifiably correct in things like gacha games (though not even in total), but you'd think no one else has written theory about the otaku since Azuma. I guess that's probably mostly true because every serious academic has been stuck writing about shit like soft power for about as long. Doing a proper takedown of Azuma would require reading people like Kojeve, but anyone who does decide to actually read Database Animals now instead of buying into database theory wholesale is going to find plenty to laugh at anyway.
>>282801402I've always considered the propagation of a work as evidence that something within it communed with its audience - at least, barring external forces rewarding its propagation. As something positive, something capable of stirring reaction and thought among a group of people, reflecting and affecting their reality beyond the work itself.There's always danger of fiction leading to insularity, but the ability of a reader to dismantle and propagate the work's 'constituent elements' directly counters that effect.Does this book really try to argue against that?
>>282812273Comparing it cynically to drug addiction is why I think the database consumption model is in fact relevant to modern content consumption culture that is global, doom scrolls built into every platform, and the merger of fandom with entertainment media.Otaku were just canaries in the mine, everyone is an addict now.
>>282812273>Not a few otaku tell a heartfelt story that, having once encountered some character designs or the voices of some voice actors, that picture or voice circulates through that otaku’s head as if the neural wiring had completely changedIs this about moe elements and gelbooru tags?
>>282801402There are 50+ anime every season and only 2-3 of them are even know by normalfags. Most are still caterring to a niche.
