Mechademia

Mechademia: Second Arc
Subject Anime and manga studies, Japanese studies, Asian studies, Media studies
Language English
Edited by Frenchy Lunning, Sandra Annett
Publication details
Former name(s)
Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga, and the Fan Arts
History 2006–present
Publisher
Frequency Biannually
Standard abbreviations
ISO 4 Mechademia
Indexing
ISSN 1934-2489 (print)
2152-6648 (web)
LCCN 2006215646
OCLC no. 72523390
Links

Mechademia: Second Arc is a biannual (formerly annual) peer-reviewed academic journal in English about Japanese popular culture products and fan practices. It is published by the University of Minnesota Press and the editor-in-chief is Frenchy Lunning. Mechademia has also held an annual conference since 2001.

Volumes

Since 2006, ten volumes have been published. Each volume is dedicated to a collection of articles themed around a specific topic, such as shojo manga or anime and manga fandom. It is indexed in Project MUSE and JSTOR. After a break of three years, a new series of Mechademia volumes (Second Arc) was launched beginning in 2018, the first being themed around childhood. The scope of Mechademia will be broadened to include all of Asia in its remit.

No. Title Release date ISBN
1 Mechademia 1: Emerging Worlds of Anime and Manga December 22, 2006 978-0-8166-4945-7
2 Mechademia 2: Networks of Desire December 26, 2007 978-0-8166-5266-2
3 Mechademia 3: Limits of the Human November 5, 2008 978-0-8166-5482-6
4 Mechademia 4: War/Time November 11, 2009 978-0-8166-6749-9
5 Mechademia 5: Fanthropologies November 9, 2010 978-0-8166-7387-2
6 Mechademia 6: User Enhanced November 3, 2011 978-0-8166-7734-4
7 Mechademia 7: Lines of Sight November 7, 2012 978-0-8166-8049-8
8 Mechademia 8: Tezuka's Manga Life January 21, 2014 978-0-8166-8955-2
9 Mechademia 9: Origins December 10, 2014 978-0-8166-9535-5
10 Mechademia 10: World Renewal November 2015 978-0-8166-9915-5

Reception

Steve Raiteri from Library Journal commends Mechademia as a "great first effort [...] bridg[ing] the gap between academics and fans." Christophe Thouny, writing for Animation also thought the writing and tone was accessible by both academics and fans. Ed Sizemore from Comics Worth Reading criticizes the journal for its review and commentary section because they "read like summaries of the works (films and books) discussed with no actual critique of the work". However, Sizemore commends the journal's academic essay section.

By contrast, Raiteri in Library Journal states that fans will find the Review and Commentary section "the most accessible" section of the journal. Kevin Gifford contrasts Mechademia with shallower works on anime, praising its "insightful essays and reviews" and detail, calling it "worthwhile reading for anyone hungry for intelligent writing" about anime. Tomo Hirai of the Nichi Bei Times described the first volume as "an informative and inspiring read for those curious beyond the skin of anime".

A review of the second volume of Mechademia by Comics Worth Reading's Johanna Draper Carlson criticises the journal for its dry tone and "flat statements following after each other separated only by footnote numbers". A later review by Ed Sizemore recommends that Mechademia "should stop trying to develop a theme for each issue". Active Anime's Holly Ellingwood comments that the journal's "strong academic bent may put off some potential readers but give it a chance and peruse through the many varied topics". A later review by Scott Campbell commends the third volume of Mechademia as being "extremely insightful and thought provoking ... [about] anime, manga, and even the future of mankind". D. Harlan Wilson found the third volume to be "as accessible as it was provocative and enlightening".

William McClain criticises the fourth volume for having articles that are "too restrictive" in focus, calling attention to the lack of discussion, in this volume, of how anime and manga culture has spread internationally. McClain also criticises the volume for not including enough visual aids for the general reader, but praises the Mechademia journal as a whole for its experimental approach. Ellen Grabiner feels that War/Time takes the approach that war has become a part of everyday life in post-war Japanese society, and praises the broad range of essays. Timothy Iles feels that the strength of Mechademia is that it provides "theoretically informed, historically grounded, jargon-free research that highlights first and foremost, not the self-serving virtuosity of the researcher, but the interpretive depth of the material under analysis."

Abstracting and indexing

According to Ulrichsweb, Mechademia is abstracted and indexed in EBSCOhost, Gale, OCLC, and ProQuest.

Most cited articles

According to Google Scholar, the three most-cited papers in Mechademia are: