• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.91-97
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• 2008

What if the memory is not erased but continues to exist in the head as it was before? The typical answer to this question would be summarized as the "love for memory". It is almost unbearable that the memory is erased, forgotten or replaced with others. Even though three episodes may be understood as separate things, they have a different image when they are seen under one subject . he three episodes impresses the people with their unique fantastic images and artistic air. In the episode of , we can see a woman who is so much concerned with her past memory so that she does not love the present. In this episode, we can realize how much destructive the bad past memory gives effect on a woman and how memory can give bad effect on a person if that does not connect the past and the present. The work criticizes the society whichdoes not understand the current problems by depicting a person who is so preoccupied with the thing near that person only. shows that the dream is meaningless if people have the future dream without understanding what they really want. Theaudience is absorbed to each hero or heroin who is so obsessed with the past, present and future. What we can feel from these three works is the doubt about the human society which is so much preoccupied with the pessimism and the individuals who do not recognize the importance of the present because they are so much obsessed with their superficial past, present and future as well as the society where they live.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.849-869
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• 2015

Since South Korean government pushed ahead with decentralization system in 1990s, each local government has developed 'local government's character' so that communication between local residents and between local government and residents could be going well for rural solidarity. Local governments have designed their sole symbolic characters, applied the characters to local specialities and tourist goods, and used the designed characters for the promotion of area. There is no difference between South Korea and Japan in the function of local government's character as above-mentioned details. However, 'Yuru-chara' characters which are designed by local governments in Japan are rising dramatically in the field of Japanese major characters. 'Yuru-chara' characters' name awareness is expanded to the entire area of Japan as well as the designed area. A remarkable difference in how to promote character rather than character design caused such a successful outcome. The local governments in Japan carried out a promotion for local residents in various, friendly, and active ways, utilized local government's character as a way to publicize the image of area, and turned the character into products to bring additional effects. In the above process, there was a remarkable difference between Japan and South Korea. The purpose of this study was to research detail data related to the characters of the local governments in Japan, to analyze the promotion of the characters, and to suggest a strategy for promoting the characters of the local governments in South Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.57 no.7
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• pp.30-44
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• 2007

The culture includes every possible objective forms created by humans and their shared aspects of ideas, feelings, and behaviors, beliefs and etc. The dress and its ornaments are part of the culture that expresses the relationships in objective ways and in formless immaterial ways. The school uniform represents significant meanings to the students in their school years, and it is the way of expressing their individuality and full filling their needs for self-presentation. Therefore, understanding and analyzing youth culture means understanding students' school uniform along with fast changing twenty first century civilization. Korea and Japan are very close nations to each other. Both Korean and Japanese girls' school uniform style were adopted western clothing style and went through many changes based on cultural differences between two countries. They are affected by different peculiarities between two nations and youth cultures from different cities. Therefore, this research is on analyzing how different visual values of girl's high school uniforms in Seoul and Tokyo and understanding youth cultures through macro-analysis. The youth cultures in Korea and Japan are mostly similar but there is special development on animation in Japan and possibly can find many styles of girl's high school uniform. Both nations are varying to be opened to sexual culture of adolescents but Japan is more uninhibited than Korea. In Japan, sailor-uniform can be found in fetish way in public culture. On one hand, because of most private girl's high schools in Tokyo takes an entrance examination, top-ranking students are very proud of their school uniforms and even students from other public high schools get private high school uniforms to attend school festival. This analysis showed that private girl's high school uniform in Seoul appealed as slim fitted silhouette which is close to modem woman's suit style while in Tokyo appealed as boxy style matched with short pleated skirt or sailor-uniform style. Comparing that to school uniform photos taken on the street, we can find that alikeness or more extreme styles as examples. These are influenced by different youth cultures in Seoul and Tokyo and cultural differences stands for different aesthetic norm being accepted or rejected.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.13 no.6 s.59
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• pp.919-933
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• 2005

This study goes into the field of CosPlay that takes place in Korea, and directly observes the people who engage in CosPlays. Based on in-depth interviews, this research identified the reasons why the CosPlay aficionados participate in this practice and their cultural preferences. Ethnography methodology was used to understand the behavior of the cultural entities of CosPlays. Moreover, this research attempted to understand their daily formalities through their own perspective and language instead of superficial language. In general, CosPlay form that they manifest is classified into two main categories: those who enjoy posing by becoming their favorite characters and those like to wear the clothes of their favorite characters and go up on the stage to perform an act of animation or game where the applicable character appears. Some of these groups are: 1) 'Bishojo CosPlay' that CosPlays mostly Bishojo cartoon characters and wants to just stand out, 2) 'Aekyo' group that CosPlays merely for the sake of the enjoyment of wearing costumes instead of having the mania-like characteristics, 3) 'CosPlayer Group' who enjoy doing organized team CosPlay in order to present a performance, 4) 'J-Rock CosPlay' group that CosPlay Japanese visual rock groups and prepare to be among a professional CosPlay team, and 5) 'People related to Cospre.com' who try to make CosPlay rooted in as one of new cultures.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.159-166
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• 2013

Oryzias latipes and Oryzias sinensis are indigenous species found in Japan, China, and other East Asian countries, including Korea. Based on morphological differences, the species have been classified distinctly. However, the range of morphological characters such as the number of gill rakers, vertebrae, and spots on the lateral body overlaps and is too vague for clear identification, so their classification based on their morphological characteristics remains uncertain. In this study, the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene, which is used for DNA barcoding, was applied to clarify interspecific variation of O. latipes and O. sinensis. Intraspecific genetic diversity was calculated to identify correlations with geographic distributions. We studied two species collected from 55 locations in Korea. All individuals carried a 679-base pair gene without deletion or insertion. Between species, 525 base pairs of the gene were shared. The Kimura two parameter (K2P) distance of O. latipes and O. sinensis was 0.41% and 1.39%, respectively. Mean divergence within genera was 23.5%. Therefore, the species were clearly different. The distance between O. latipes and O. sinensis was 14.0%, which is the closest within genera. Interestingly O. latipes from the Japanese and Korean group represented 16.5% distant. These results were derived from geohistorical and anthropogenic environmental factors. The O. latipes haplotypes were joined in only one group, but O. sinensis was divided into two groups, one is found in the Han River and upper Geum River watershed; the other is found in the remaining South Korean watersheds. Further studies will address the causes for geographic speciation of O. sinensis haplotypes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Emotion and Sensibility Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.109-112
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in the brain activation evoked by music arranged in major and minor key used with an identical motion film during the fMRI testing. A part of the audio-visual combinations composed by Iwamiya and Sano were used for the study stimuli. This audio- visual clip was originally developed by combining a small motion segment of the animation "The Snowman" and music arranged in both major and minor key from the original jazz music "Avalon" rewritten in a classical style. Twenty-seven Japanese male graduate and undergraduate students participated in the study. Brain regions more activated by the major key than the minor key when presented with the identical motion film were the left cerebellum, the right fusiform gyrus, the right superior occipital, the left superior orbito frontal, the right pallidum, the left precuneus, and the bilateral thalamus. On the other hand, brain regions more activated by the minor key than the major key when presented with the identical motion film were the right medial frontal, the left inferior orbito frontal, the bilateral superior parietal, the left postcentral, and the right precuneus. The study showed a difference in brain regions activated between the two different stimulus (i.e., major key and minor key) controlling for the visual aspect of the experiment. These findings imply that our brain systematically generates differently in the way it processes music written in major and minor key(Supported by the User Science Institute of Kyushu University, Japan and the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation).

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.30
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• pp.139-168
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• 2013

This article aims to explain the significance and value of cartoons in the 1910s which were largely passed unnoticed in the preceding cartoon studies by scrutinizing cartoons published in Maeilsinbo in the 1910s. Until now, Korean cartoons in the 1910s has been neglected just because it were published in Maeilsinbo. However, this writing analyzed cartoons in this period on the base of the fact that the cartoons in the 1910s printed in Maeilsinbo diversified the horizon of the Korean cartoon. Cartoons in Maeilsinbo functioned as a bridge connecting cartoons published in Daehanminbo in 1909 reputed as a root of Korean cartoon and 1920s, the time when satirical cartoons and comics started being printed in newspapers. The characteristics of Maeilsinbo as a bulletin of government general and periodical characteristics that the agent of popular culture begun to move reside as multi layers in the cartoons in the 1910s. In this article, the process and the development of how cartoons published in Maeilsinbo. As pleasure became important in everyday life in Korea, cartoons were able to earn a portion in the newspaper. In the beginning, modern cartoon style seemed vague, but as time goes by, its own style gradually settled. Cartoons in this period were not fixed in specific section but various kinds of cartoons were developed during the time since works of Korean as well as Japanese cartoonists and illustrators were published. Among them, representative cartoons in Maeilsinbo were analyzed in this article under three categories: first, cartoons represented 'Choseon-ness' through scenes of daily life and customs concurrently contained a view of anti-civilization/enlightenment; second, cartoons represented the accumulation of wealth as valid from the view point of public interest; last, cartoons divided Koreans who suffered from hardships of life in Kyungsung and Japanese in Jingogae in order to divide space. In conclusion, Maeilsinbo disciplined the colonized, Koreans, and exposed the discourse of the colonial power via cartoon.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.50
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• pp.75-99
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• 2018

Makoto Shinkai, an animated film maker in Japan, has been featured as a one-person production system and as a 'writer of light', but his 2016 release of "Your Name" was a departure from the elements that characterize his existing works. At the same time, by the combination of the traditional musubi(むすび) story, ending these, it was a big hit due to its rich narratives and attraction of open interpretation possibility. As it can be guessed from the title of this work, this work shows the encounter between the Japanese ancient language and the modern language in relation to the 'name', and presents the image that the role of the name(language) is repeatedly emphasized with various variations in events for the perfect 'encounter'. In this work, the interpretations of $Signifi\acute{e}$ for characters and objects are extended and reserved as a metaphorical role of the similarity, depending on the meaning of the subject which they touch. The relationship between words and objects analyzed through the structure of Signifiant and $Signifi\acute{e}$ is an epoch-making ideological discovery of modern times revealed through F. Saussure. Focusing on "the difference" between being this and that from the notion of Saussure, Derrida dismissed logocentrism, rationalism that fully obeyed the order of Logos. Likewise, dismissing the center, or dismissing the owner had emerged after the exclusive and closed principle of metaphysics in the west was dismissed. Derrida's definition of 'deconstruction' is a philosophical strategy that starts with the insight on the nature of language. 'Dissemination,' a metaphor that he used as a methodological concept to read texts acts as interpretation and practice (or play), but does not pursue an ultimate interpretation. His 'undecidability' does not start with infinity, but ends with infinity. The researcher testifies himself and identifies that we can't be an interpreter of the world because we, as a human are not the subject of language but a user. Derrida also interpreted the world of things composed of Signifiant and $Signifi\acute{e}$ as open texts. In this respect, this study aimed to read Makoto's works telling about the meeting of a thing and a thing with name as a guide, based on Derrida's frame of 'deconstruction' and 'dissemination.' This study intends to re-consider which relationship the Signifiant and $Signifi\acute{e}$ have with human beings who live in modern times, examine the relationship between words and objects presented in this work through Jacques Derrida's destruction and dissemination concepts, and recognize that we are merely a part of Signifiant and $Signifi\acute{e}$. Just as Taki and Mitsuha confirm the existence by asking each other, we are in the world of things, expecting musubi that a world of names calls me.

• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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• no.43
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• pp.293-322
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• 2021

The present study examined the scientific awareness appearing in Korean tokusatsu series by focusing on Vectorman: Warriors of the Earth. As a work representing Korean tokusatsu series, Vectorman: Warriors of the Earth achieved the greatest success among tokusatsu series. This work was released thanks to the continued popularity of Japanese tokusatsu since the mid-1980s and the trend of robot animations. Due to the chronic problems regarding Korean children's programs-the oversupply of imported programs and repeated reruns-the need for domestically produced children's programs has continued to come to the fore. However, as the popularity of Korean animation waned beginning in the mid-1990s, inevitably the burden fr producing animation increased. As a result, Vectorman: Warriors of the Earth was produced as a tokusatsu rather than an animation, and because this was a time when an environment for using special effects technology was being fostered in broadcasting stations, computer visual effects were actively used for the series. The response to the new domestically produced tokusatsu series Vectorman: Warriors of the Earth was explosive. The Vectorman series explained the abilities of cosmic beings by using specific scientific terms such as DNA synthesis, brain cell transformation, and special psychological control device instead of ambiguous words like the scientific technology of space. Although the series is unable to describe in detail about the process and cause, the way it defines technology using concrete terms rather than science fiction shows how scientific imagination is manifesting in specific forms in Korean society. Furthermore, the equal relationship between Vectorman and the aliens shows how the science of space, explained with the scientific terms of earth, is an expression of confidence regarding the advancement of Korean scientific technology which represents earth. However, the female characters fail to gain entry into the domain of science and are portrayed as unscientific beings, revealing limitations in terms of scientific awareness.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.41-76
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• 2013

Based on an analysis of the Japanese animation director Kamiyama Kenji's Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series, this paper discusses two important subjects in modern technoscience-cyborg and old age. In fact, age has been an important social and political category in the modern world, along with gender, race, and class. However, age has not been a significant research topic for STS scholars. Even though many of these investigators have extensively explored the complex relationship between gender and technoscience, especially after the publication of Donna Haraway's "Cyborg Manifesto" (1991), few of them have been interested in how age is reconfigured by modern science and technology. If women, as Haraway has claimed, can have a different political and cultural outlook by becoming cyborgs, then, can we expect a similar socio-cultural transformation with regard to the interaction between cyborg and old age? Do the elderly experience lesser age discrimination through the growth of biomedicine and technoscience? Indeed, it is believed that seniors are increasingly becoming cyborgs with advancing age, since their declining bodily functions are consistently replaced and assisted by various biomedical technologies. Does this enable them to overcome ageism and age discrimination as well as their alleged physiological and mental limitations? As an answer to this question, Mike Featherstone has asserted that becoming a cyborg in old age could make the wrinkled skin a mere mask and create diverse new possibilities that were hitherto unavailable to an aging person. Based on my reading of Ghost in the Shell, however, I analyze a more complex set of problems when the senile cyborg is created through the encounter between the elderly and technoscience. I argue that while the senile cyborg could challenge traditional family ideology and nationalism it would leave ageism intact and define a new individualistic life form through a body controlled within the globalized internet and capitalist economy.