Characters: Rights and Roles
Abstracts and Bio-blurbs
Tuesday, 25 June 2024, 9:30–18:00
Simone Schroff:
What is a character? Copyright’s (muddled) answer
Characters are economically one of the most valuable creations as they tie multiple copyright works together. Their uniqueness is what gives them appeal—an idea directly compatible with copyright law, which has protected them in the past. However, characters are different from other works: they do not fit neatly any existing work definition. This presentation will outline how copyright law assesses a character, and it identifies three key issues. First, character protection is always interpreted in the context of other work types such as literary works and art works. A clear understanding of what a character is in the first place has not been developed and it is not based on how authors view the issue. Secondly, characters used by a third party are often not treated as independent works but as part of something else. This raises questions about originality and substantial copying, in a context of the vague character concept. As a result, the conclusions courts draw vary widely within and across jurisdictions. Thirdly, the presentation will outline how especially large companies have used trademark law to circumvent these issues, creating a two-class system of protection and an even stronger deviation from how creatives view the issue.
Dr Simone Schroff is a researcher in copyright law and an Associate Professor at the University of Plymouth. She specializes in qualitative, quantitative, and comparative copyright law and policy analysis. She currently works on the structural position of authors in the creative industries, the overlap between competition and copyright law, and copyright education for creative professionals. After gaining a PhD from the University of East Anglia, Dr Schroff worked at the RCUK Centre for Copyright and New Business Models in the Creative Economy (CREATe; 2013–2015) and the Institute for Information Law (University of Amsterdam; 2015–2017). As a Canon Foundation Fellow, she stayed at Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan; 2017–2018).
Lukas R.A. Wilde:
Characters, kyara, figures, actants: Terms and concepts across disciplines
Building on my recent study Transmedia Character Studies (with Tobias Kunz, Routledge 2023) I want to provide a brief overview of different “character” conceptualizations and orientations developed throughout the humanities. My talk first focuses on a systematic terminological and conceptual divide running through all existing literature, as to whether “characters” must be located on the level of a represented (but, potentially, transmedial) storyworld – rendering contradictory versions who seem to appear across works and worlds something different, a “second-order original,” a “network of character versions,” or a mere “cultural icon”. Other scholars, especially from anthropology and cultural studies, take these broader, inherently contradictory “icons” as their starting point (“the James Bond”), assigning storyworld-specific instances to a lower-level category – “character versions”, for instance. Departing from this decision about how to “deal” with metafictional or transfictional entities, we get a very different understanding of pre-narrative characters such as mascots or marchandise figures for which the very distinction between “contradicting” and “non-contradicting” instances does not seem to apply very well, since the media they circulate in provide no stories and few “narrative facts” about them to begin with. In various strands of Japanese character/manga/anime discourse, “kyara” or “chara” (in distinction to “kyarakutā”) has been proposed as a terminological alternative especially suited to capture the specific semiotic nature of such pre-narrative anthropomorphic icons. Similarly to Denson’s and Mayer’s influential concept of a “serial figure” in American studies and televisions studies, however, “kyara” also retains a certain flexibility to capture both the pre-narrative and the meta-narrative/transfictional aspects of character representations. They are then seen as either too contradictory or as too “flat and unchanging” to afford any linear progression or psychological depth. While these debates might seem purely terminological in nature, they underscore all our conceptions of canonicity, continuity, and authorship.
Lukas R.A. Wilde is an Associate Professor at the Department of Art and Media Studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. His German-language dissertation on the functions of ‘characters’ (kyara) within everyday communication of contemporary Japanese society received important awards in Comics and Animation Studies and Interdisciplinary Picture Studies in 2018 and 2021, respectively. He is the Vice President of the German Society for Comic Studies (ComFor), and one of the organizers and founders of the digital artists initiative Comic Solidarity and the GINCO Award (The German Inclusive Comics Award of the Independent Scene). For a list of publications, see http://lukasrawilde.de/en/index.
Dario Lolli:
Believing in Characters: Character Licensing as ‘Truth Function’
Animated characters are composite socio-technical objects brought to ‘life’ by a combination of creative designs, industrial processes, and voice acting, in which the gaps in the perceived temporal and spatial continuity of the picture are filled and inhabited by the dreams of their viewers. To be successful, characters rely on our capacity to inhabit them, our believing in them. Believing in characters, however, has been notoriously regarded as a childish, if not even pathological, practice by an increasingly psychologizing public discourse in Japan as elsewhere. This widespread perception has rearticulated the liberal conception of the adult bourgeois individual as a rational and intentional subject vis-à-vis a childlike and emotional media fan, allegedly unable to distinguish reality from fiction. This primacy to the rational individual also sits at the core of mainstream legal theories, in which the ‘selective legal fiction’ of corporate authorship (Cubitt 2020: 54) is designed on a purely theoretical subject: the free author and owner who produces for other free individuals, the non-owning consumers. Believing in characters, however, cuts across arbitrary distinctions between cultural producers and consumers, owners and non-owners, authors and imitators. It unsettles the liberal image of the free, rational individual by opening it up to a distributed notion of agency emerging through complex socio-technical networks over which no one is ever fully in control. While the productivity of consumption has often been presented against legal models of authorship, this paper focuses on the largely invisible activities carried out by professionals in the licensing sector – i.e., the leasing of intellectual properties to generate new good, promotions, and events – to open a more nuanced understanding of what we do with animated characters and what animated characters do with us. Specifically, I will present my research fieldwork at licensing trade shows in Japan and Europe to illustrate how processual licensing operations unfold within and against the bodies of professional attendees through assemblages of characters, data, goods, architectures, and repeatable technical standards. Following a Foucauldian understanding of power as irreducible to ‘the representation of the law’, I will consider character licensing not as an eminently juridical function but as a ‘truth function’ (Foucault 1978: 89) not unlike that of fans: believing in characters.
Dario Lolli is an Assistant Professor in Japanese and Visual Cultures at Durham University (UK). A media scholar by training, his research focuses on the history of perception in visual culture, particularly in animation and digital media. His in-progress monograph, Dispositives of Extension, investigates the transnational circulation of Japanese media franchises against the backdrop of the rise of global licensing. He is a permanent member of the Archive Center for Anime Studies at Niigata University, Japan, and has published in Convergence, Media Culture & Society, and Mechademia, amongst others.
Olga Kopylova:
The many faces of Ronja and Pippi: Children’s book illustrations, fan art, adaptation
This talk will address the flexibility of character visuals in official illustrations for Astrid Lindgren’s Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter (1981) and Pippi Longstocking (1945). Children’s novels are inhabited by characters in a narrow narratological sense, bound to a particular work of fiction and its storyworld. However, character stability is often undermined by illustrations, which play a significant part in character construction. Their impact and relative weight may vary: in cases like The Moomins series by Tove Jansson, authorial illustrations become an integral (though not immutable) part of the narrative. In many other cases, illustrations change between editions and translations, providing a new visual interpretation of the same work with each iteration. This practice can be contrasted with adaptation, which produces an altogether new work, and franchise development, where a certain level of visual consistency is often considered a prerequisite for the basic recognizability of otherwise malleable characters disjoined from any particular text. Furthermore, the combination of fixed text and changing visuals points to fan art, where the drive toward visual variation is even more pronounced. Illustrated children’s books thus foreground yet another pattern of character variability and provide a link between official and fan practices.
Olga Kopylova defended her PhD thesis on media mix and adaptations at the Graduate School of Manga Studies at Kyoto Seika University. She is currently employed as a translator and a lecturer at Tohoku University Graduate School of Arts and Letters, teaching courses on contemporary Japanese popular culture. Her research interests include comparative media studies, fandom studies, adaptation studies, and narratology of popular media texts.
Joleen Blom:
The case of the book Video Game Characters and Transmedia Storytelling (2023)
For this seminar, I will talk about my book Video Game Characters and Transmedia Storytelling published at the Amsterdam University Press (AUP). The book combines Humanistic theories from Japanese narratology, Transmedia Storytelling, and Game Studies to discuss (dynamic) game characters in our contemporary popular media culture.
I will address two issues from my book regarding the copyright of characters: from a theoretical perspective, I will present the book’s chapter Strategies to control a character’s transtextual identities on how any fictional character’s transtexual identity is in flux, which turns ideas of authorship, ownership, and canonisation into a paradox. I will argue that especially dynamic game characters challenge the notion of authorship and ownership because they have no coherent identities as players influence the characters within a single game work, thereby becoming a part of the characters’ identities. From a practical perspective, I will briefly address the issue of (not) using character images in the book. Dutch law does not recognize fair use, which means that I needed explicit permission from authors to use any images. But, since most characters are nowadays created by conglomerates, who exactly is the author and how could I have contacted them and receive explicit permission? I will explain that I opted to not use any character images.
Dr. Joleen Blom is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies and the Game Research Lab at Tampere University. Her research interests include transmedia storytelling, Japanese games and culture, characters, and para-social relationships and intimacy through technology and media.
Nick Stember:
Super Squash Brothers: Harvesting from the Field of Intellectual Property
Over the last decade, there have been no less than three legal cases concerning the ownership and licensing of the 1980s cartoon Calabash Brothers 葫芦兄弟. Taken together, these cases shed light on the changing legal status and popular conception of cultural work in the People’s Republic of China. First, from 2010 to 2011, the cartoon’s creators launched an unsuccessful series of lawsuits against their former employer, the Shanghai Animation Studio, for compensation. In 2020, meanwhile, a parody of the cartoon in a musical number performed by comedian Wong Cho Lam on the Hunan TV variety television show To Laugh! became the subject of a lawsuit by the very same studio. Much remarked upon at the time was the fact that, while an earlier 2019 lawsuit by the studio which had been brought against the makers of the film When Larry Met Mary had ultimately proved unsuccessful, in the suit against Wong, the court found in favor of the plaintiffs for damages of 100,000 RMB. As the example of Calabash Brothers colorfully demonstrates, public awareness of the value of intellectual property is not only on the rise in China today but is finally beginning to bear fruit.
Nick Stember (he/him) is a historian and translator of Chinese literature and popular culture who recently defended his PhD dissertation on “pulp science” in early Reform-era (1976-1986) comic books at the University of Cambridge. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the National Museum of Denmark, studying visual depictions of Daoist self-cultivation in comics, animations, video games, and other transmedia adaptations of xianxia or “immortal fantasy.”
Zoltan Kacsuk:
Working with anime and manga characters from a digital humanities perspective: Lessons learned from the Japanese Visual Media Graph project and beyond
Characters play a central role in the creation and consumption of a large range of popular Japanese visual media such as manga, anime, visual novels and so on. Characters are so central to the reception of these media that the organization of information on both source and transformative works in the domain revolve around them as one of the main entity types in almost all metadata models employed by online fan communities. As part of the Japanese Visual Media Graph (JVMG) project we have not only examined some of these metadata models and have attempted to integrate them, but have also undertaken various example research projects (Tiny Use Cases) focusing on characters and their attributes as they are represented in fan data. This presentation will offer an overview of all the various problems encountered, insights reached and further new possibilities envisioned for working with metadata on characters for large-scale quantitative research in the domain of popular Japanese visual media with the JVMG knowledge graph.
Zoltan Kacsuk holds a doctoral degree in manga studies from Kyoto Seika University. He is a postdoctoral researcher at the Japanese Visual Media Graph (JVMG) project, Institute for Applied Artificial Intelligence, Stuttgart Media University. His work on the JVMG project can be followed at: https://jvmg.iuk.hdm-stuttgart.de/.
Wednesday, 26 June 2024, 9:30–12:30
Gan Sheuo Hui:
Instant Attraction: On Animated Characters in Today’s Saturated Media Environment
This talk aims to explore how recent character creation tends to prioritize visual appeal and instant emotional resonance, catering to audiences prone to “TLDR” tendencies, and how digital personalization has reshaped the concept and reception of fictional characters. Today’s animation viewers have diverse expectations and demands toward characters and stories. Although central plots still exist, the need for characters to keep the plot details in place is stronger in our highly saturated media environment. The hyper-complexity of many images that can now be digitally and artificially created may lead to a hollowing out of the actual impact of the images. It also prompts searches for more down-to-earth, raw source materials, such as the online videos created by YouTubers. These amateur materials are somewhat appealing because of their simplicity, and they fascinate an increasing number of viewers. Aesthetically, they are characterized by a fusion of cross-platform programming/referencing rather than unidirectional moves from one distinct media to another. Their amateur creativity largely consists of learning from each other (copying/imitating) and experimenting in search of appropriate (not necessarily new) performances that attract attention, can communicate quickly, and are sustainable in the making. Emotional resonance is prioritized via non-linear character development. These characters do not necessarily follow the traditional “character construction” according to certain sociological or psychological categories. They are also framed not as stars but as personas and personally customized. Audiences often follow their point of view to share experiences from daily life or journeys. The new role of the animated character or a certain trope shaping social media performances can be best illustrated by the “dere” types in anime (such as tsundere, shindere, or yandere in Japanese) and their counterparts in VTubers, which indicate a transition from classic character development methods to those driven by digital consumption, changing how narratives and characters connect with viewers.
Sheuo Hui Gan is a lecturer in Animation Theory at the Puttnam School of Film and Animation at LASALLE, University of the Arts, Singapore. In 2008, she obtained a Ph.D. in Human and Environmental Studies from Kyoto University, Japan, with a study on Japanese anime. Her research and teaching focus on aesthetics in all forms of animation, putting an emphasis on East Asian productions. Currently, Dr Gan is developing a curriculum for UAS that integrates humanities and social sciences with arts for a holistic education. She has also received funding for a children’s book project exploring immersive storytelling without traditional character arcs.
Mathieu Mallard:
Defining film authorship in the 1970 complete reform of the Japanese copyright law: Exploratory notes on the debates of the 4th Subcommittee of Examination of the Copyright System (1966–1970)
The history of the Copyright System in Japan ranges to at least the beginning of the XXth century. However, its most important reform was the 1970 Complete Reform of the law, born out of the new administrative and technological needs of a Japanese society reshaped by the American Occupation and the Post-war Economy. From 1947 to 1970, several attempts at modernizing the Copyright System were initiated, until those efforts reached their most thorough and extensive manifestation: the Examination Committee of the Copyright System (Chosakuken Seido Shingikai). Organized around different subcommittees, this committee resolved to tackle the issues and new needs arising from all sectors concerned by the Copyright System, from literature to the new media of television. Based on the official history of the Copyright System issued in 2000 by the Bunka-Chô and the historical documents it provides, the aim of this presentation will be to summarize the extent of the debates of the 4th Subcomittee, specialised on the issues of the Film Industry, mostly by emphasizing the crucial difference it brought between legal authors (chosakusha) and detentor of the rights to the work (chosakukensha) in Film Copyright. In doing so, our goal will be to interrogate the power dynamics that shape the definition of the author of film, and, in turn, the symbolical and material hierarchies that structure the field of film and television. Interrogating the concrete scope of protection allowed to artistic workers by the Copyright Law will in the end bring us to another question: why the curious absence of this complete reform in the historiography of the Japanese animation industry from 1960 to 1970?
Mathieu Mallard is a doctoral student at the Research Center for Expertise, Arts and Transitions (CREAT) of the University of Lorraine, France (Lorraine Université d’Excellence). He is currently preparing a PhD thesis in Film Studies under the direction of Katalin Por (ESTCA, University Paris 8) and Fabrice Montebello (CREAT), tentatively titled “Establishing Artistic Authority during the Structuration of the Japanese Animation Industry: Emergence and Ambiguities of the Animator-Author (1957–1973).” Investigating the formation of the social position of “authorship” so central to the methodologies of Film Studies, his study focuses on Japanese animation and interrelates the social history of professions in the animation industry, the sociology of art, and the industrial history of artistic labor and works.
Dalma Kálovics:
Access issues and archiving of comics in the digital age
The digital age in manga publishing held great promises both for casual readers and researchers: Immediate access to contents from anywhere, anytime without limitations. However, instead of the expected freedom, digitalization arrived with a different set of restrictions. While previously only shipping costs stood in the way of purchasing foreign books, copyrights-induced geoblocking hinders access to translated digital comics, standing in the way of translation and adaptation-related inquiries. Researchers are forced to resort to the use of VPN, which, while not illegal, may violate the Terms of Service of content providers. Furthermore, while printed books are kept in circulation in the second-hand market even after copyrights expire, unpurchased digital materials become inaccessible through official sources. Copyrights of popular titles are usually extended, but this results in a limited view of comics publishing in a given period. Methods to hinder pirating make local storage of comics difficult, thus, if a provider goes out of business, even purchased materials will be lost. The National Diet Library in Japan started collecting free digital materials in 2013 and contents for purchase in 2013 within the Legal Deposit System, but providing access is slow and limited. Even for digitalized materials, copyright issues often restrict access to library premises, just like in the case of analog originals, which are now closed to public survey.
In this presentation I will give an overview of the obstacles digitalization has placed in front of manga research in relation to copyrights both in the commercial realm and public archives.
Dalma Kálovics is an assistant professor at the School of International Studies, Kwansei Gakuin University, in Nishinomiya, Japan. She received her PhD in Manga Studies from Kyoto Seika University in 2019, researching 1960s shōjo manga within children’s magazines from a media historical perspective. Recently, she has been focusing on the materiality of manga and how different publication formats relate to the visual structure of comics, be it in 1960s children’s magazines, rental comics and newspapers, or recent digital comics and webtoons.
Susana Tosca:
Fictional Characters and the Cultural Commons in Museum Communication
Drawing on Santagata et al.'s conceptualization of "Cultural Commons" as systems of intellectual resources shared within a community, either through physical or virtual spaces, this talk proposes a reflection on the use of fictional characters from popular culture to enhance museum communication strategies. Cultural Commons are defined not only by their cultural output—such as traditions, languages, or artistic expressions—but also by the social interactions that generate and sustain these cultures (Santagata et al., 2021).
Incorporating well-recognized yet historically grounded fictional characters into museum exhibits can effectively bridge the gap between historical fidelity and public engagement. However, this approach introduces several challenges: firstly, the potential for anachronisms or inaccuracies that may mislead rather than educate museum visitors; secondly, the negotiation between using public domain characters versus those protected by copyright, which may limit creative expression or entail legal risks; and thirdly, the social dilemma of cultural reproduction, where the intention to preserve cultural integrity may conflict with innovative presentation techniques.
Focusing on two collaborative projects at the National Museum of Denmark, "Pop Imaginaries in the Museum" and "New East Asian Tales at the Museum," this talk wants to start a dialogue about how fictional characters can be integrated into museum settings. These projects utilize characters and narratives inspired by the Viking era and Old Egyptian history, as well as East Asian cultural tales, through mediums such as comics, animation films, and virtual reality. My intention is to start a discussion on the practical applications of Cultural Commons in museum settings, particularly through the lens of popular culture and media studies, to innovate and invigorate the public's interaction with history. Can we craft narratives that are both informative and resonant, ensuring at the same time that cultural traditions are preserved in a responsible manner?
Susana Tosca is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Southern Denmark. Over the last twenty years, her research has combined aesthetic and media studies approaches to investigating the reception of digital media. She has published widely on the areas of hypertext, digital literature, computer games, transmediality and Japanese popular culture media. She is the author of the books Sameness and Repetition in Contemporary Media Culture, Transmedial Worlds in Everyday Life, Understanding Videogames and Literatura Digital. She is currently the PI of the projects Digital Entertainment Machine, funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark, Transmedial Travel Imaginaries funded by the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science, and Pop Imaginaries in the Museum, funded by Augustinus Fund.