new media, possible worlds

This Wired article, Daniel Pink’s “Japan, Ink: Inside the Manga Industrial Complex,” is about a year old, and I’m just getting to it now, but it reveals yet more evidence of the fictional universe phenomenon I have been thinking a bit about recently, thanks in great part to Matthew’s work done here.

Discussing the existence of ‘dojinshi’ in Japan, or self-published manga similar to fan-fic, and the conventions that draw tens of thousands of people, the article’s author is shocked that intellectual property suits haven’t been filed left and right by the media conglomerates that more or less all swirl around a core of manga production, which spawns tv, film, and merchandizing content. These amateur manga are produced with old-fashioned tracing, copying, and scanners, Photoshop, and other programs. Pink interviews one of the dojinshi convention organizers:

“The dojinshi are creating a market base, and that market base is naturally drawn to the original work,” he said. Then, gesturing to the convention floor, he added, “This is where we’re finding the next generation of authors. The publishers understand the value of not destroying that.” And as the manga weeklies falter and decline, new talent is more important than ever. Meanwhile, Takeda said, the dojinshi creators honor their part of this silent pact. They tacitly agree not to go too far — to produce work only in limited editions and to avoid selling so many copies that they risk cannibalizing the market for original works.

To replace the marketing terms with media critical ones, the nebulous existence of some ur-text [the "original work"] forms a center [business model] that readers ["market base"] are drawn back to. (Such a neat mapping of critical terms onto business ones is probably a bit irresponsible, but oh well). But really, what constitutes an “original work” in a manga like the 1980s cyberpunk classic Appleseed, whose fictional universe’s origins have been told and retold by countless manga publications, two feature films, an OVA, and video games? Where do we locate the center of this narrative universe of Appleseed, for instance, that readers/viewers are drawn to? Certainly not in the intellectual property rights. Perhaps in the continuity provided by the geography as it is gradually expanded not only by subway and street maps within that universe, but also the spatial relations opened up on an even smaller scale between individual panels?

Interesting how palpable the sense is of the stifling effect American intellectual property laws have on genuinely new narrative potentialities in new media. I mean, fictional universes are more important than ever in all sorts of current US popular culture, but nowhere near the scale of dojinshi. “What’s less obvious is that anmoku no ryokai ['unspoken, implicit agreement'] isn’t just a deft way to avoid conflict. It’s also a business model, one that’s exportable to the US.” I’m less optimistic.