Otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in Manga Burikko.
The history of anime can be traced back to the start of the 20th century, with the earliest verifiable films dating from 1912. Before the advent of film, Japan already had a rich tradition of entertainment with colourful painted figures moving across the projection screen in utsushi-e (写し絵), a particular Japanese type of magic lantern show popular in the 19th century. Possibly inspired by European phantasmagoria shows, utsushi-e showmen used mechanical slides and developed lightweight wooden projectors (furo) that were handheld so that several performers could each control the motions of different projected figures.
In Japanese popular culture, lolicon is a genre of fictional media which focuses on young girl characters, particularly in a sexually suggestive or erotic manner. The term, a portmanteau of the English words "Lolita" and "complex", also refers to desire and affection for such characters, and fans of such characters and works. Associated with unrealistic and stylized imagery within manga, anime, and video games, lolicon in otaku culture is generally understood as distinct from desires for realistic depictions of girls, or real girls as such, and is associated with the concept of moe, or feelings of affection and love for fictional characters as such.
Superflat is a postmodern art movement, founded by the artist Takashi Murakami, which is influenced by manga and anime. However, superflat does not have an explicit definition because Takashi Murakami does not want to limit the movement, but rather leave room for it to grow and evolve over time.
Hiroki Azuma is a Japanese cultural critic, novelist, and philosopher. He is the co-founder and former director of Genron, an independent institute in Tokyo, Japan.
Takashi Murakami is a Japanese contemporary artist. He works in fine arts as well as commercial media and is known for blurring the line between high and low arts. His influential work draws from the aesthetic characteristics of the Japanese artistic tradition and the nature of postwar Japanese culture. He is credited for designing the album cover for Kanye West's third studio album Graduation.
Aya Takano is a Japanese painter, Superflat artist, manga artist, and science fiction essayist. Aya Takano is represented by Kaikai Kiki, the artistic production studio created in 2001 by Takashi Murakami.
Weekly Dearest My Brother is a series of six bishōjo-centered manga booklets that were released weekly for a short time in Japan. The manga would come packaged with a limited edition plastic-figure assembly kit, designed by Ohshima Yuki, of the featured character of the week. These figures of small-breasted prepubescent girls helped to expand the niche market of lolicon and also placed Ohshima in high esteem among figure collectors in Japan due to the high level of detail and clever portrayals. Some of Ohshima's figurines are reproduced by Takashi Murakami.
Chiho Aoshima is a Japanese pop artist and member of Takashi Murakami's Kaikai Kiki Collective. Aoshima graduated from the Department of Economics, Hosei University, Tokyo. She held a residency at Art Pace, San Antonio, United States in 2006.
Neo-pop is a postmodern art movement that surged in the 1980s and 1990s. It is a resurgent, evolved, and modern version of the ideas of pop art artists from the 50s, capturing some of its commercial ideas and kitsch aspects. However, unlike in pop art, Neo-pop takes inspiration from a wider amount of sources and techniques.
Hitoshi Tomizawa is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for his sci-fi series Alien Nine.
Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture is the companion catalogue to the exhibition "Little Boy" curated by artist Takashi Murakami. The book is about the aesthetics of postwar culture in Japan and marks the final project of Murakami's Superflat Trilogy started in 2000.
Mr. is a Japanese contemporary artist, based in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. A former protégé of Takashi Murakami, Mr.'s work debuted in both solo and group exhibitions in 1996, and has since been seen in museum and gallery exhibitions in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Hong Kong, Seoul, Daegu, Paris, New York, Minneapolis, Chicago, Miami, Jerusalem, Los Angeles, and London.
Fan service, fanservice or service cut is material in a work of fiction or in a fictional series that is intentionally added to please the audience, often sexual in nature, such as nudity. The term originated in Japanese in the anime and manga fandom, but has been used in other languages and media. It is about "servicing" the fan—giving the fans "exactly what they want". Fan service can also refer to other stories that contain visual elements.
The Otaku Encyclopedia is a 2009 encyclopedia written by Patrick Galbraith and published by Kodansha which provides an overview of anime and manga topics, and interviews and profiles of important people in Japanese fandom.
SoFlo Superflat describes an art genre started in Miami in the 1990s. It is an urban pop art movement in South Florida that combines super bright colors and ultra flat images. The subject matters are very diverse. It is an outcrop of the Japanese Superflat movement, founded by the artist Takashi Murakami.
Murakami is a Japanese surname, 35th by frequency in Japan. It can refer to:
Fantasista Utamaro is a Japanese artist, art director, and illustrator based in Brooklyn, New York. He was born in Fuji, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, in 1979. He graduated from Tama Art University with a degree in textile studies. He is considered to be one of the leading artists working in the Japanese pop art movement.
My Lonesome Cowboy is a sculpture created in 1998 by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. Produced during Murakami's so-called "bodily fluids" period, the 9.45 ft-tall (288 cm) statue depicts an anime-inspired figure ejaculating a large strand of semen. Like its companion piece Hiropon, My Lonesome Cowboy is an example of superflat art, an art movement founded by Murakami in the 1990s to criticize Japanese consumer culture. The sculpture is noted as among Murakami's most famous works.
Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, the 1987 debut work of Gainax written and directed by Hiroyuki Yamaga, has attracted academic analysis of its themes in various formats, including dissertations, scholarly journals, university press books, and installations.
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