Photos from Anime Boston 2009

Some pictures of my presentation, "Kawaii Culture: Cuteness in Japan." It was a very fun panel. I even had a full room!







There may also be video footage of this presentation uploaded to Youtube soon. I will post links when that happens.

Breaking News: Cuteness Can Help Your Hand-Eye Coordination

"The secret to better performance: kittens" (Scroll down to the last article on the page.)

"A study at the University of Virginia suggests that experiencing cuteness can actually change how we behave. Students who watched a slideshow with pictures of puppies and kittens scored higher in the board game "Operation" - which requires manual precision - than students who watched a slideshow with pictures of mature cats and dogs."

Photos from my presentation at Anime Boston are coming. And thank you to the young woman who attended who pointed out this study to me.

Design Benign at Anime Boston, May 22-24

Three days until Anime Boston! Just a reminder that I will presenting two panels at the convention, which takes place May 22-24 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA.



Friday, May 22 at 6:00pm in Panel Room 207
Kawaii Culture: Cuteness in Japan
A presentation on Japan's favorite cute mascots - from Hello Kitty to "Pipo-kun" - and why cuteness is so prevalent in Japanese culture.

Friday, May 22 at 8:00pm in the Constitution Ballroom, Sheraton Hotel
Akiba Empire: The Otaku Influence
Presented with Alex Leavitt, a discussion on how anime and manga fans in Japan have influenced that country's economics, politics and mainstream culture, and what this could mean for worldwide anime fans. But mostly I'm going to talk about moe rice, Vocaloid and K-On.

If you're planning on going, please come by and say hi!

"Hating you makes me all warm inside." - Happy Bunny

Image from Kawaii Not

Japanese cute has crashed onto American shores like a tsunami. Target and Wal-Mart are filling up with Hello Kitty and Domo-kun merchandise. The Japanese cute pop aesthetic is inspiring many American artists, who put their own dark twist on the innocent, childlike aesthetic.

As popular as cute characters like Bob the Builder and Elmo are in the United States, there seems to be an underlying distrust of cuteness in American culture. Cuteness, associated with childhood, carries connotations of helplessness and neediness, undesirable traits in America's individualistic, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps culture. Japan's collectivist mentality fosters interdependency, having a greater tolerance for childish helplessness (called "amae").

Thus, when Japanese cuteness is adopted into American culture for consumption by teenagers and young adults, it's given an ironic twist. Characters like Happy Bunny and the Kawaii Not series demonstrate this trend: cute smiling, seemingly-innocuous characters spouting expletives and malice, giving an adult-like wink behind their childlike facade. Web sites like Hello Kitty Hell seek - in a tongue-in-cheek way - to expose the darker side of Japan's favorite commercial character. Violent cute characters like Gloomy Bear do exist in Japan, but they're in the minority of the greater Cute Commercial Complex.

"Cuteness and Green Design for a Brighter, Cuter Future" on Design Taxi

My article "Cuteness and Green Design for a Brighter, Cuter Future", originally written for Speak Up, is now also published on Design Taxi.