Research paper on Naruto fandom

[midas888]

I'm a long-time Animesuki lurker AND huge Naruto fan that is writing a research paper on Naruto fandom/fan culture. I'm basing my paper on essays by Jenkins, Clerc, and van Zoonen. I've found some threads ("Why is Naruto so popular?" and "any girls here who watch Naruto") that are useful but I still have some questions.

I don't really know what I'm going to be exploring yet. I'm supposed to explore a fan outlet in depth. If you could, take some time to reply to some (or even all!) of these questions:

1. What's the premiere Naruto fansite? Take into consideration the fan community at the site.
2. Fan fiction and Naruto. I know fan fiction is huge for shows like Star Trek (with slash and all that) but what about Naruto? Any good sites/authors you'd recommend? How serious does the fanfic get (does it get "adult" along the lines of slash)? Who are the usual writers of Naruto fanfic?
3. Thoughts on Naruto's prominence at conventions? I haven't been to conventions since AX2001, but I get the feeling from cosplay pics that Naruto is big for cosplayers nowadays.

These are more general questions about anime, but I'm going to pose them to y'all.
4. How many women watch anime, specifically Naruto? I've attached a poll to this thread, so please vote if you can (the other option is a serious option for transgender/intersex/other identifications. I've clumped them all into one category to make it easier for me, sorry).
5. Do you feel there is a stigma against anime fanboys and fangirls in the United States? How about in Japan? Why is there this stigma?
6. Jenkins writes in his essay "Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten" that "'Fandom' is a vehicle for maginalized subcultual groups (women, the young, gays, etc.) to pry open space for their cultural concerns within dominant representations." Do you agree/disagree, and how?

Thanks again for reading this! Again, answer as much or as little as you'd like. If you want to flame anything I wrote, please do it to me via PM and don't make this thread a hostile environment for others. I'll post choice parts of my paper to this thread when I'm done as a thank you.

[Kayess]

You will not get many responses for the first question because most of the better websites also host the manga/anime... and talking about them is not allowed according to the rules... Just a heads up.

[ctown]

Hey man you just wanna trick all the girls to respond right?

Anyway

1. goto google type in Naruto and you will find your answer.
2. Not sure I'm sure it's big I'm not crazy about it but even 21+ yr olds are recommanding me to watch this.
3. conventions are for freaks(joke) never been to one but it would be nice to see someone in cosplay trying to be the 5th Hokage ThoseHUGE( . ) ( . ) eyes I mean
4. Again u just want chicks to respond so you can secretly PM them right? (closet pervert symptom you got there)
5. stigma what does that means? answer: no labeling same as other kids just smarter people watch anime well idiots watch cartoons(I know they're the same shix)
6. can't help you there pay be $100 via paypal and I'll write a 10 page for you if you want

[socomberetta]

Originally Posted by midas888

1. What's the premiere Naruto fansite? Take into consideration the fan community at the site.

Use Yahoo! to find these sites. The 'premiere' site should be one of the first ones the search engine finds.

2. Fan fiction and Naruto. I know fan fiction is huge for shows like Star Trek (with slash and all that) but what about Naruto? Any good sites/authors you'd recommend? How serious does the fanfic get (does it get "adult" along the lines of slash)? Who are the usual writers of Naruto fanfic?

FanFiction.Net

Slash is a very big part of Naruto fanfiction. What do you expect when in the first episode of the series, you see the main characters accidentally kiss? I think I can honestly say that it comprises at least half of the Naruto fanfics on FanFiction.net. The seriousness of the fic depends on the author really. I dont read slash fics, but judging by their summaries, most of them were written with only one thing in mind: m/m love; usually there is no solid plot, just a series of events pasted together to get the characters a chance to get it on, so to speak.

Most of the serious fics tend to stay within the bounds of the Narutoverse, and those are usually the ones that are the most interesting, at least in my mind.

Some stories Id recommend are:
Bloodlines by The SOC Puppet
Future Legends by Jeremy
The Frog and the Princess by syaoran

3. Thoughts on Naruto's prominence at conventions? I haven't been to conventions since AX2001, but I get the feeling from cosplay pics that Naruto is big for cosplayers nowadays.

I tend to stay away from other people, unless their part of the group of women I will speak about in Question #4

These are more general questions about anime, but I'm going to pose them to y'all.
4. How many women watch anime, specifically Naruto? I've attached a poll to this thread, so please vote if you can (the other option is a serious option for transgender/intersex/other identifications. I've clumped them all into one category to make it easier for me, sorry).

Im very intimate with a lot of women, some of whom are bisexual, and we enjoy eachothers' company almost daily. Unfortunately, I dont have the time to ask them whether they are fans of anime because of all the hot sex.

5. Do you feel there is a stigma against anime fanboys and fangirls in the United States? How about in Japan? Why is there this stigma?

I tend to stay away from other people, unless their part of the group of women I spoke about in Question #4

6. Jenkins writes in his essay "Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten" that "'Fandom' is a vehicle for maginalized subcultual groups (women, the young, gays, etc.) to pry open space for their cultural concerns within dominant representations." Do you agree/disagree, and how?

I tend to stay away from other people, unless their part of the group of women I spoke about in Question #4

Thanks again for reading this! Again, answer as much or as little as you'd like. If you want to flame anything I wrote, please do it to me via PM and don't make this thread a hostile environment for others. I'll post choice parts of my paper to this thread when I'm done as a thank you.

You're Welcome.

[midas888]

Thanks again everyone for their help. Here's some parts pulled from my essay as thanks (it's not the whole essay, just parts that I thought might be thought-provoking):

In my exploration of Narutofan, I will examine the production and spread of anime with regards to Naruto and the community expression of and motivation behind Naruto fandom. I will show how the fandom serves to give the fans a sense of ownership and further deepens their connection to the series.

Technology was the basis behind this community and certain biases came with it. American society has long held the notion that women and technology do not mix (Mullens). From its beginnings then, anime has been steeped in sexism. It needs to be taped and subtitled to make it into distribution. Back in the 80s this meant buying and using expensive audio/visual equipment; these conditions were usually met by male fans. Unlike television shows aired in the United States which could be readily viewed by anyone, anime usually was initially distributed by male hands. For anime, there was no “well-connected off-line…other fans” (80) formed by broadcast television that Clerc writes about. Although subtitling served as a form of appropriation, this further gendered the anime community. It is no surprise that the majority back in the VHS days were male (personal communication).

Internet fan sites are usually started and run by males; Narutofan is no exception. The founder is a 16 year-old Canadian man. The other 4 co-administrators of the site are also male. Women, as Clerc notes, are slower to get online (80). Getting an episode of Naruto is primarily done online. One woman wrote: “I think there are way more male fans than female. Probably has a lot to do with the fact that you have to download the episodes, and a lot of females aren't familiar with things like IRC and BitTorrent. I’d bet if/when the series airs in the US the fanbase will be more nearly 50/50” (personal communication). Indeed reflecting this, informal surveys done on Narutofan and Animesuki (a general anime site) show the Naruto community is about 20% female and 80% male.

Community expression of Naruto fandom comes in many flavors. The main Narutofan site has numerous static pages functioning as an encyclopedia of the “Narutoverse.” Also in the site are links to the actual episodes, manga, and music. The encyclopedia and media content are the “collective intelligence (which describes knowledge available to all members of a community)” (Jenkins, “Interactive Audiences” 282). They provide a base for fans to fall back on, serving as a defined and tangible foundation for the Narutoverse and Naruto discussions.

Naruto readily lends itself to yaoi. In the very first episode, the two main male characters Naruto and Sasuke accidentally kiss. Within the first story arc, Naruto is attracted to Haku, whom he initially perceives as a girl because of the latter’s wearing a kimono. Naruto is voiced by a female voice actress. Gaara, one of the enemies in the Narutoverse, with his white face and makeup, has an effeminate appearance. Orochimaru and Kabuto, two male enemies out to destroy Konoha, have an extremely close relationship. Kabuto often declares his dedication to his boss and takes care of him when his arms are incapacitated. Many pairs of male characters’ personalities complement each other’s. All this and more make the construction of yaoi plots easier.

Most of the Naruto yaoi is written by women, as determined by an informal sampling of the writers’ profiles at Narutofan and Fanfiction.net. One of the main features of Naruto is the ninja fighting. Romance and relationships are usually variations on the same predictable theme. For example, the female character Sakura constantly pines after Sasuke. Even after 110 episodes, he continues to spurn her love and she is still rejected. Jenkins writes of Star Trek that “Women, confronting a traditionally masculine space, choose to read it instead as a type of women’s fiction” (“Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten: Fan Writing as Textual Poaching” 482). Naruto fanfic serves as a vehicle to move the story beyond the violent fighting and stagnant relationships, beyond a male’s anime. It allows for better development of the characters’ and their relationships, concepts usually associated with women (Jenkins, “Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten: Fan Writing as Textual Poaching” 482).

Naruto fandom, as illustrated by Narutofan and its forums, takes many forms. The Naruto anime community consists of a high percentage of males; this, along with the series’s numerous homoerotic undertones, could have spurred the production of yaoi. Naruto music videos retell the story arcs within the anime. However, all these forms of expression serve to provide an outlet for the fan’s interpretations and reinterpretations. Through these processes, a fan gains community and perceived ownership of series. Further study can be done on Naruto (and anime in general) in relation to the transnational identity, specifically with regards to Asian-Americans, and the complicated relationship between unlicensed anime fandom and American distribution companies.

[Animizzle]

Looking good midas888,

One thing however,
As Interesting as it may seem, I think you are exagerating the yaoi factor in Naruto. "numerous homoerotic undertones" and "Naruto readily lends itself to yaoi." are two thing I denifitly do not affiliate with Naruto fandom.

I bet my old man's good chair that more then 95% never thought of Naruto as having serious homoerotic references. Beside standard anime homoerotic undertones (which there certainly are)

The phrase "Orochimaru is a pedophile" seems nothing more to me then 15 year olds having a swell time ventilating their own kind of humor at that age, and in the least a true idea that the Orochimaru character is actually a pedophile or homosexual for that matter.

Moreover, the kissing scene and the bishounen Haku are to my belief scenes that have been repeated in many other shounen comics. I owe you and example, but coming back on my previous point about "standard manga/anime yaoi...these scenes are not striking for the Naruto series at all. We've seen it before, hence "Naruto readily lends itself to yaoi." looks rather odd to me. If it were me reading this piece without having seen one second of Naruto, I would have a very different opinion about it, definitly not the one I have now.

Anyway, it does make it more exciting doesn't it?
If you decide to continue with it(which I don't doubt you will) You might as well put the Lee-Gai relationship in it, for what it's worth.

On a different note,
In my thread Why is Naruto so popular you must have seen I based that Thread on a article I read about fandom. Now since you made this thread I have been looking for it and I was damn sure it was posted here on Animesuki either by xris or NoSanninWa, but I can't find it anywhere. Which is a damn shame because I think it could be very helpfull.

Good luck with your piece, it's funny reading such a serious approach on the series.

p.s. Im not a native english speaker so im sorry if things are unclear, it can't be helped

[Lee-pimp]

Originally Posted by midas888

2. Fan fiction and Naruto. I know fan fiction is huge for shows like Star Trek (with slash and all that) but what about Naruto? Any good sites/authors you'd recommend? How serious does the fanfic get (does it get "adult" along the lines of slash)? Who are the usual writers of Naruto fanfic?
3. Thoughts on Naruto's prominence at conventions? I haven't been to conventions since AX2001, but I get the feeling from cosplay pics that Naruto is big for cosplayers nowadays.
4. How many women watch anime, specifically Naruto? I've attached a poll to this thread, so please vote if you can (the other option is a serious option for transgender/intersex/other identifications. I've clumped them all into one category to make it easier for me, sorry).
5. Do you feel there is a stigma against anime fanboys and fangirls in the United States? How about in Japan? Why is there this stigma?

2. fanfiction.net is a great source for narut fanfiction and was already mentioned, you can check out some othere work here aksarah.com/naruto/ . A little more than half of the writers ive seen are females, probably because they feel the need to write out more emotional stories, im not really sure. some recomendations on ff.net

There Where When is Now Book 1,2,3 tokehgheko(spelling on the author isnt perfect)

No Guts No Glory by kuabara's pupil and i.p. freely (once again spelling)

Faith in Humanity and its sequel Restoration of Faith bye karrafear (again spelling)

3. Ive never been to any cons but from what i see naruto is a big presense there.

4.errrr.... not many i can say that possibly 10 to 20%

5. Yes i do feel there is one, i think this is because american lisencing companies make anime out to be shows for little kids which it is on a whole, not. SO naturally fanboys/girls will be outcasted a little. In Japan i think its much more normal to see a fanboy/girl because its like seeing some teenage fangirl/boy here for shows like "the oc" and "one tree hill" (some of my friends like them)

hope this info helps you out on your paper, its looking pretty good so far, except for the yaoi thing. Animizzle was right about that, many anime's have strong yaoi undertones or overtones. So if naruto is the only one you watch sure it may seem so but when compared its really not that bad. although some americans that have only seen anime here, and not unedited anime may think naruto is very gay. ok then good luck!

Woot This Is My 600Th Post On AnimeSuki!!!!!!!111one