• 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.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.39
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• pp.349-363
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• 2015

As the market sheare of the Chinese game market across the world has been largely expanded over a decade, big game exporters of USA, Japan, Korea have developed Chinese factors and promoted export strategies, that target China. The Purpose of this study is to analyze the popular game characters of USA, Japan and Korea in order to provide empirical analysis of traditional Chinese elements applied in existing games. The RPG games in USA, Japan and Korea were selected for the contents analysis of the Chinese elements to show how the existing game companies used Chinese elements. The main findings of the research from survey data are rather inconsistent with the content analysis. In particular, all the RPG game companies of USA, Japan and Korea showed a remarkable ratio of using Manzu clothes more than Hanzu clothes. But, the preference of real game users on the Manzu style were lower than Hanzu style. Moreover, Chinese users showed more preference of the game character background that users more deepen Chinese culture. We suggest that applying Chinese elements need to be more selective based on real user's demand.

• 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.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.51
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• pp.129-158
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• 2018

China has had many excellent Chinese-style animation since the 1950s. These animations are of distinctive Chinese national characteristics. They have won many awards both at home and abroad, such as "Feelings of Mountains and Waters", "Uproar In Heaven", "Why is the Crow Black-Coated" and so on. But nowadays, Chinese animations that mimics Japanese and American animation are very often, and there are few animation works with rich traditional Chinese culture. There are some works in the name of Chinese style, but they have not been fully accepted by the audiences. If one wants to create animated works of Chinese style, the author must have an in-depth understanding of Chinese traditional and folk art. Animation can not be designed only on the surface. This paper mainly studies the traditional five color concept in China and its application in animation. The purpose is to provide some references to differentiate Chinese animation from other countries in terms of style and color. The main content of this paper is to understand the concept and history of Chinese traditional five color views, and to know that this color system has reflected the ancestors' concept of nature and society. On the basis of five monochromatic colors, red, yellow, green, white and black, it is a kind of complex color concept that has been developed and perfected continuously after a long period of accumulation and precipitation in the practice of life. It is the theoretical basis of Chinese traditional color system and a complete set of historical, cultural, philosophical and religious theories. Finally, this paper analyzes the colors and their symbolic meanings of the main roles in "Uproar In Heaven", a color long animation produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio, including Sun Wukong, the Jade Emperor and Na Zha. Color is the first visual language. The use of color symbols to express the inner feelings, status, good and evil of the characters will affect the audience's emotions, behaviors and opinions imperceptibly. The traditional Chinese five color concept has gone through such a long history, and its symbolic meaning has a more profound impact on Chinese people. Applying the color concept and symbolic meaning of Chinese traditional five color concept will further highlight the personalities and emotions of the roles in Chinese style animations. This paper takes the five-color view as the theoretical basis, and through the analysis of cartoons with traditional Chinese color, the author finds ways to flexibly use traditional Chinese culture.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.40
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• pp.367-395
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• 2015

Mobile games have taken 80% of the market sales in smart device application industry that is highly regarded as one of the fast growing pool of cultural content after the distribution of smart devices. One of the most successful mobile games after the smart device's appearance is . created by Gung-ho Online entertainment under Softbank Japan, has gained the sales revenue of one trillion dollars after its release in 2012, just after one year of its exposure to the market. The game also has been the top rank by Worldwide Mobile Game Revenues for 2years achieving 40 million downloads worldwide in 2015. However, there is no place for a Korean game in world mobile game sales ranks yet. Even though the mobile game industry has been expanding every year, Korean games are losing its places in the market. Therefore, the analysis of a successful game such as is vital for diagnosing Korea's game content and its lack of direction. This study utilizes K. Masanao's Matrix for Creating Profit System for analyzing 's factors for its success. First, the game has incorporated puzzle and RPG contents for creating a new genre, which led various age groups to play the game. Second, the developers have applied 'limited time' in-game festivals and collaborations between the game and famous contents such as God Festival and Character Draw system to increase the profit revenue. Third, the company communicated with on and off line players to seek their needs for developing the game's better development. Consequently, the three success factors of deduced from this study not only reflect the related researches and academic values, but also contribute for the search in finding better ways to developing game contents for Korean mobile game industry.

• 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.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.43
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• pp.321-342
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• 2016

The "uncanny valley" curve describes the measured results of the negative emotion response which depends on the similarity between the artificially created character and the real human shape. The "uncanny valley" effect that usually appears in the animation character design induces negative response such as fear and hatred feeling, and anxiety, which is not expected by designers. Especially, in the case of the commercial animation which mostly reply on public response, this kind of negative response is directly related to the failure of artificially created character. Accordingly, designers adjust the desirability of the character design by avoiding or utilizing the "uncanny valley" effect, inducing certain character effect that leads to the success in animation work. This manuscript confirmed the "uncanny valley" coefficient of the positive emotion character design which was based on the actual character design and animation analysis. The "uncanny valley" concept was firstly introduced by a medical scientist Ernst Jentsch in 1906. After then, a psychologist Freud applied this concept to psychological phenomenon in 1919 and a Japanese robert expert Professor Masahiro Mori presented the "uncanny valley" theory on the view of the recognition effect. This paper interpreted the "uncanny valley" effect based on these research theory outcomes in two aspects including sensation production and emotion expression. The mickey-mouse character design analysis confirmed the existence basis of the "uncanny valley" effect, which presented how mickey-mouse human shape image imposed the "uncanny valley" effect on audience. The animation work analysis investigated the reason why the produced 3D animation character should not be 100% similar to the real human by comparing the animation baby character produced by Pix company as the experimental subject to the data of the real baby with the same age. Therefore, the examples of avoiding or utilizing the "uncanny valley" effect in animation character design was discussed in detail and the four stages of sensation production and emotional change of audience due to this kind of effect was figured out. This research result can be used as an important reference in deciding the desirability of the animation character.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.41
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• pp.75-106
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• 2015

Animations characterize space as a strategy to effectively show the inner conflicts of characters and to highlight the theme. During the process of inner conflict, characters unconsciously use defense mechanism to protect their egos from the fear that came from deficiency, and because of the self-deceptive quality of self-defense mechanism, the reality is distorted and conflicts get intensified. This study focuses on the concept of anti-house, the space where conflicts get intensified, analyzes animations to find out the aspect of inner conflict, and interprets the characteristic of space that is used for metaphoric structure frame. Also, it aims to reveal how the defense mechanism, which intensifies the inner conflict of characters, is characterized as anti-house. The analysis in this study was mainly done with the TV series, , and the theater version of . It is because the characters have serious deficiency from broken home and have a psychological quality of closed boundary that is symbolized as 'A.T. field'. Especially, the core character, 'Shinji Ikari', shows how a character uses compulsive self-defense mechanism to deal with inner conflict and as a result, goes through ego-collapse and then introspection. This process of the character's experience is the core of the whole plot. Through analysis, the relationship between the character's self-defense mechanism and the space, anti-house(which expands to Anti-city), was inferred. The space is made up of three axes, x-axis of horizontal space, y-axis of vertical space, and in the sense that all the space has no exit, z-axis of deeper contradictory space. This thesis started with the decision that is the most suitable work in analyzing the metaphorical relationship between self-defense mechanism and anti-house. There was limitation, however, as the typical characteristics of Japanese animations, pedantic composition and the possibility of broad interpretation, hindered clear verification. Hopefully, this limitation will be overcome by following studies and this study is expected to show the importance of space in interpreting the text of animations, and to serve as database for other creative works.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.46
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• pp.63-84
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• 2017

Overwhelming images of vividly colored aircraft flying across the blue sky and steam gushing from massive machines are reminiscent of Japanese animation films, especially of works by master director Hayao Miyazaki. By presenting together steam engines, which are mechanical devices of the Industrial Age in the past, and aircraft of the future age, the director constructs ambiguous space and time. These special time and space constitute nostalgia for past time, with devices called steam engines as a medium, and a longing for science and the future as represented by aircraft. In addition, the anticipation and disappointment, ideals and regrets of humans who see these two from the perspective of the present are projected on the works. This shares the characteristic of the steam punk genre, which seeks to return to the past rather than to face current problems. A subgenre of science fiction (henceforth "sci-fi"), steam punk reflects fundamental skepticism of science and technology and mechanized civilization, which have developed beyond human control. In addition, as works that clearly display such characteristics, director Miyazaki's and < $Nausica{\ddot{a}}$ of the Valley of Wind> can be examined. With spectacles of steam engines and aircraft, these two works enticingly visualize narratives about nature and humans and about the environment and destruction. Such attractiveness on the part of the master director's works has led to support from fans worldwide. However, often in the backgrounds of director Miyazaki's works, which have depicted ideal worlds of nature, environment, and community as highly concentrated fantasies, lie presuppositions of war and the end of the world. As works that are especially prominent in such characteristics, there are and . These two works betray the expectations of the audience by establishing the actual wartime as the temporal background and proceeding toward narratives of reality. Trapped in the ontological identity of the director himself, the war depicted by him projects a subjective and romantic attitude. Such a problem stems also from the ambiguity of the hybrid space and time, which is basic to the steam punk genre. This is because the basic characteristic of steam punk is to transplant past time, which humans were able to control, in the future from a perspective of optimism and longing via steam engines rather than to face current problems. In this respect, steam punk animation films in themselves can be seen as having significance and limitations at the same time.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.111-121
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• 2005

The appearance of digital culture swiftly has changed the culture in domestic and international arenas before and after the year 2004 and the image and animation have become two of the most important expression media in contemporary age. Among the Japanese animations that have demonstrated the rapid development of cartoon and animation in the world, the director Dakahata Isao's 'Graves of the Fireflies' that has influenced many works has been evaluated as one of the noticeable works that has a unique method and scenario dramatization in terms of producing the original novel into an animation. This study investigates the metaphor and symbolism shown in this work according to each sequence, divides the production ability in the work into three elements and applies them to the important elements such as camera, colors and mise-en-scene when the original work is depicted into image. It can be summarized in more detail as in the following: firstly, I study the rhythm of camera corresponding to the symbolism of the angle that the camera has and production; secondly, I analyze the artistic elements appeared in the process of expressing the original work into the image, especially the production for the colors and symbolism contained in them and the composition of screen. Thirdly, I analyze how effectively the atmosphere for the situations for the original work is expressed in animation with the aid of one of the image elements, mis-en-scene. It is expected that the analyzed findings will be effective as a way of overcoming the limitation of expressions that the original work in text and the study on these processes will become good examples to the relevant workers and will be the good references to the producers who are interested in the creation of animation in Korea.