BCM320 has opened up a wholeness experience within the last couple of weeks in class. We have been consistently watching films of differing genres and cultures to what I am used to and live-tweeting our thoughts and reactions to each film. The reason in which we are partaking in such behavior is to explore a form of auto-ethnography.
Before beginning this class I was unaware of auto-ethnography as a concept, however through class content, but more specifically the reading ‘Autoethnography: An Overview” I have established a better understanding of not only the concept of autoethnography but also how evidently present it is in everyday life. Ellis, C., Adams, T.E., and Bochner, A.P. (2011) describes the concept of autoethnography as ‘an approach to research and writing that seeks to describe and systematically analyze (graphy) personal experience (auto) in order to understand cultural experience (ethno) (Ellis, 2011)’. Essentially it is a method of research that uses personal experiences to facilitate a better understanding of culture through differing cultural experiences.
This week in BCM320 our film we were to watch and live-tweet about was Akira. A highly-acclaimed Sci-Fri action anime film directed Katsuhiro Otomo and written by Otomo and Izo Hashimoto. Akira is a film about A secret military project that endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath who can only be stopped by two teenagers and a group of psychics.
This film was unlike anything I have previously watched, with anime being a new experience both culturally and visually with animated movies not being a familiar genre. I found the film hard to follow due to the viewing being dubbed rather than the use of subtitles as I found the English didn’t line up in certain parts and that the film lacked the Korean/Asian inspiration I was expecting. However, watching the film was adventurous and I thoroughly enjoyed the visuals and the vibrant psychedelic colors used throughout the film. While participating in the live-tweeting I was researching into the film to find that the film serves an inspiration for many people such as Kanye West’s music video ‘Stronger’ and ‘Stranger Things’.
I found the film, Akira to be a positive introductory experience into the world of Anime and while I found my lack of Asian influence and experience in the anime genre affected my viewing slightly, I am open to experiencing further the world of anime extending my cultural experience with such Korean films and genres.
Digital Asia 
Reblogged this on MOLLY HOYT-BULL.
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