Project: Online Survey

Posted: April 29th, 2009 | Author: MB | Filed under: PROJECTS |

For my third project, I wanted to evaluate the anime fan community directly to complement my previous theorizing. I decided on using a six-question survey with written, rather than multiple choice, responses. The intent of this was to encourage people to respond due to its short length, and to enable the individuals to give personal and specific responses. Additionally, I designed some of the questions so that they visibly reflected the central theses of my paper; additionally, I informed the respondents of the three major topics of my paper. The purpose of this was to cause the respondents to reply in such a way immediately useful for my thesis, but also to encourage them to voice their opinions about the relationship of such theses to their perceptions of the online anime fan community and their own interests. I posted this survey on three anime-related forums on Animenation.net, EvaGeeks.org, and Shoujo-ai.com, and sent it out to two listservs: my fraternity’s, Psi Upsilon, which has a large number of people interested in Japanese culture and anime, and Duke’s anime club’s. I chose these five groups because I am members of all of them and am thus able to ask for people’s assistance, and because I anticipated that my activity on the sites and with groups has led to a familiarity with the slang, activities and websites that would emerge in the responses. The survey was largely successful and resulted in little confusion and 31 detailed responses. Although the methods I used did not render responses in concrete majorities, the results indicate trends in the online anime community. The responses both complement and contradict the theories used in my first two projects.

Survey Results

1) What do you find most rewarding about participating in fan projects or being active on fan websites? Why do you choose to participate?

Interest in others’ opinions- 5

Meeting people/friends- 5

Promote understanding of anime- 4

Communication with other fans- 11 (two of these directly referenced the importance of the community. One referred to this as a replacement of physical interaction)

As a hobby/ to relax- 5

Helping out with various projects and websites online 2

Analyzing an anime 2

2) Are you regularly in contact with other members of the anime fan community?

Communicate in unspecified way- 7

Online, not in person- 5, (1 referenced a virtual “family”)

In person, not online 7

Anime clubs- 4

18 respondents are active on a message board, although they did not report it

Games and polls- 1

Conventions- 2

No- 2

3) Is the Japanese origin or quality of a series important to your interest in it? What is its most attractive quality?

Attraction to different kinds of stories: character development, plot quality- 12 (one remarked on specifically Japanese style of storytelling)

Attraction to visual style/artwork- 9

Japanese style is different somehow, has an extra flair or otherworldliness- 6

Overall quality- 3

More intellectual- 4

4) Did you become involved in anime due to an interest in Japanese culture or language?

Introduction through franchises aired on TV- 14 (including Sailor Moon, Naruto Trigun, Dragon Ball Z)

Anime caused interest in Japanese culture- 7

Subtitles, not dubs- 4

Interest in language, but not driving force- 3

No-3

Yes-2

5) How have you participated in or contributed to the anime fan community? (ie posting fanfiction on Fanfiction.net, creating a website, etc.)

Fanfiction: Posted on Fanfiction.net- 4, unspecified/unpublished- 8

Helping with websites- 5 forum moderators, 2 website assistants, 1 artist

Posting on forums-5

Making own website-4

Costumes-3

Online projects- wiki-writing- 1, re-dubbing- 2

Fan art-2

Making anime- inspired comic book-2

Blogging-2

Making Amvs-2

Reviewing Anime -2

Attending conventions-2

Reading manga- 2

Translating- 2

6) What websites are you most active on, and how did you first acess them?

(The images accompanying this entry indicate the most frequently reported connections between websites.)

Sample Responses:

1) What do you find most rewarding about participating in fan projects or being active on fan websites? Why do you choose to participate?

I choose to participate because I enjoy interacting with people from all over the world, even though I live in the States. I think the most rewarding thing about anime fandom is just meeting all sorts of people and discussing various issues, even if it’s not anime.

Personally, I love reading the opinions of others. I like to post my own thoughts on a blog, and then I can read what other people think about the same thing. It is pretty interesting actually. People suggest or say many things that I never thought of or also noticed something that I never did before!

There’s often little to doing something enjoyable unless you can enjoy it with other people. It’s a way to make something that used to be considered solitary (i.e. watching anime) into a social activity. I find social contact with other like-minded individuals rewarding, where you can often discuss things that you can’t talk about in normal everyday conversation.

2) Are you regularly in contact with other members of the anime fan community?

I attended my college anime club in my senior year, originally searching for someone with superior drawing skills to collaborate with. I ended up going to social outings with the club, such as movies and sushi dinners. And I’m currently working with someone with superior drawing skills that I met at the anime club. I provide the story and script, he supplies manga-style artwork.

Yes, at conventions and I have a number among my friends.

Answer: Not often. I recognize some peoples screen-names but I don’t write
with them regularly though I wished I had some sort of contact. Where I live,
no one likes fanfiction.

3) Is the Japanese origin or quality of a series important to your interest in it? What is its most attractive quality?

Sort of. It’s not really so much that it’s Japanese, but that it that it’s animation done the right way. There are some good western animations, but few. After watching anime for a few years, however, I have come to like the “Japanese” aspects, most of all the language.

The origin doesn’t matter, but I do prefer the different storytelling, settings, and such that separate anime from other mediums.

The origin doesn’t matter. Anime has given me interest in Japan, yes. However, the Japanese origin is not the source of my interest. I watch anime because there are lots of wonderful stories out there to be seen.

4) Did you become involved in anime due to an interest in Japanese culture or language?

I actually became interested in anime first, and from anime, I became interested in Japanese culture and language. I watch some Gundam Wing and Sailor Moon episodes, and next thing I knew, I was in love with everything Japanese!

No, I began watching anime because of an interest in the (terrible) North American dub of Sailor Moon.

I began watching anime due to some of the Americanized versions from my childhood and seeing a few animes caused me to be nostalgic for that. Also, the presence of a high school anime club gave me a social outlet and is probably where I really became interested in it.

5) What how have you participated in or contributed to the anime fan community? (ie posting fanfiction on Fanfiction.net, creating a website, etc.)

Writing fanfiction, Role-playing on the forums, translating a few things here and there (for example: doujinshi (fan comics), or pictures/text), the voice of Asuka in Zeak’s Re-Take fanimation, and helping out with the Evageeks wiki as well as being one of the staff members here.

I’ll admit that I’ve written fanfiction. There’s probaly still some stories of mine on fanfiction.net. Sometimes it’s kind of fun to challenge yourself and from a writer point of view, it’s kind of a fun challenge to write something with characters that are already someone else’s.

Answer: I post fanfics on http://www.Fanfiction.net, let people have a
different view of an anime or maybe a different ending or different action at
a certain place. Other than that, not much. I’m not much for looking around at
forums, as I don’t generally get the idea^^;

6) What fan websites do you find yourself visiting most often? How did you first come across these websites?

Baka-updates and AnimeTake (to download the anime), ANN (anime news network) to rate and read things about the series, Animepaper (to get some awesome wallpapers) and Random Curiosity (the blog I post to that does episode recaps for many different anime series airing).

- Animenation.com . Honestly not sure how I first heard of it.
- Anime News Network. Saw it as the source of news for Ask John.
- Spinoff creation sites, such as AnimeMusicVideos.org or Cosplaylab.com
- Anime convention sites, such as Metroconventions.com

Animesuki.com, dattebayo.com, Crunchyroll/Hulu/Viz.com now that Naruto is released there instead. I came across these sites from Torrent aggregators (and came to enjoy their work/aggregation skills.

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