This Year’s NYAF

We were fortunate to be among the latter-first in line to see the premiere of Soul Eater. We weren’t the first but we weren’t the last. We were just enough bodies away from the front of the line to not be among the first and just enough bodies ahead where we weren’t among the last.

We waited patiently for 45 minutes. Not a long time but noticeably long enough. When the doors opened, we filed in behind those who were among the first and in front of those who were among the last. We were sat in seats that were far enough away from being too far to see but not close enough to say we got great seats.

We saw the opening title sequence. It whet my appetite for more. We saw the cosplay. He laughed and clapped. Then, as they are about to start the movie, he turns to me and says, “Daddy, I have to go to the bathroom.”

Pained, I take his hand and we leave.

The drama above typified my experience at this year’s New York Anime Festival (NYAF). This was my second NYAF. Both my kids came with me to last year’s event. It was a first for all of us. We caught a few screenings but spent most of our time by the stage and in the exhibit hall feeling our way around the event.

This year I came with an agenda. I was going to attend some panels to legitimize my professional presence at this year’s event. It was my decision to bring my eldest despite my agenda (I would have brought my youngest too if he weren’t sick), so I couldn’t get upset when his stamina gave out on him.

Overall he did pretty well. Pacified with Bugdom and Cartoon Wars on my iPod Touch, he sat through the “How to Become Famous on the Internet” (Friday), Tokyo Pop (Friday), and “Steampunk in Anime” (Saturday) panels.

We missed Soul Eater but saw old episodes of Gundam and Sgt Frog (which he really enjoyed). We also saw AKB48, Reni (who was really nice, we met her before during Eureka 7 day at Kinokuniya), and Maids hijinx on stage (including a chicken-riding Spider-man and a dancing Predator).

I am not otaku but am a fan of anime and manga. I have fond memories of watching Captain Harlock and Cyborg 009 on UHF with my sister. The imaginative hybridization of future technology with old timey look and feel and the “real life” complexities of being alive that drew my sister and me in decades ago still draw us in today.

Professionally, I count myself among a growing number of educators who believe anime and manga are excellent tools for forging pathways to literacy and encouraging greater interest in subjects like social studies and science for those not immediately enthused by the subjects.

Series like Code Geass, where the main character possesses the power to hypnotize and manipulate people, asks the question: How far is too far in the pursuit of a just cause? Death Note presents a similar storyline and moral dilemma. The complex themes of just causes and collateral damages occur throughout world history and literature making classroom connections easy.

Regardless of the current educational environment, as educators our passions are directed at inspiring inquisitive minds and critical thinkers, who will eventually become civic participants.  The “test culture” being fostered by Arne Duncan and his constituents makes it challenging to engage students in school but not impossible. Creative use of pop culture artifacts like anime and manga is one method of keeping students engaged.

The next NYAF occurs in conjunction with the New York Comic Con (NYCC), October 8-10, 2010. At the last NYCC, I attended a panel on the inclusion of manga in library collections and the use of comic books and graphic novels as literacy tools.

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BTW – The Funimation blog has a video of the premiere Mother Nature called my eldest at.

This a bird, This a plane

When my Ahma came over she couldn’t read English. To manage, she devised a system for identifying objects by shape, size, color, and label art. This system was not foolproof like when our local supermarket started selling liquid soap (she thought it was lotion). But it served her needs 90% of the time. Family and friends filled the remaining 10%.

I was reminded of this at the Asian American Comic Con when a panelist at The New Villains session commented on the universality of comic books and their appeal to immigrants without an English language background.

Despite growing mainstream acceptance, comic books remain in an area of education I like to call “outsider” or “outlaw instruction,”  a controversial teaching vehicle frowned upon by educational power brokers and their social elite who believe that Shakespeare is the only way to learn English and rote memorization the only way to learn math. I include the use of texting and social media as other forms of outsider instruction.

While I do believe students of English should read Shakespeare and that rote memorization is a necessary part of math learning, they are not the whole of learning. They should not be the foundation of English or math teaching.  I maintain my belief that students (young and old alike) learn more deeply and effectively when they see meaning and value in what they are learning.

As a language arts tool, comic books not only teach emergent readers sequence and prediction skills, they provide more experienced readers with opportunities to practice interpretive and visual decoding skills. As a writing tool, they teach composition and organizational skills (especially to visual learners).

James Bucky Carter, in his “Going Graphic” article in the March 2009 issue of the ASCD’s Educational Leadership magazine, notes the use of graphic novels and comic books as authentic composing activities; exercises that have the student “build crafting, composing, viewing and visualizing skills.”

As a social studies tool, I agree with The New Villains panel that heroes are a reaction to a society’s fears. Heroes and villains have also evolved to address deep social questions. The panel mentioned, Light, the questionable main character in the manga and anime, Death Note. He has the power to eradicate “evil” as he sees it. The dilemma is: What is the criteria for evil? And does the punishment suit the crime?

The idea of the “registration” of a particular peoples deemed risks to national security is one is portrayed often in comic books. In the early pages of the Uncanny X-men and recently in Civil War, a “registration act” (an act of law that required members of a single group to give up their Constitutional rights) was the catalyst to conflict.

The social studies connection is the Internment camps and the Nazi Death Camps of World War II.  Our history of slave ownership and women’s suffrage can also be taught through the comic book story convention of a registration act. In current events, this could be applied to the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay (some of who have spent upwards of five years incarcerated on the suspicion of terrorism).

Secret Identities, the anthology of Asian American “superhero stories” that inspired the Asian American Comic Con, is a unique language arts and social studies teaching opportunity. In addition to its potential immediate appeal among Asian ESL and Asian mainstream students, the themes of betrayal, estrangement, and identity are universal especially among young middle school readers who begin feeling the pressures and responsibilities of peer groups and broader social expectations.

It is important for Secret Identities to be used as a tool in the core language arts and social studies curriculum. It’s potency is that it is more than just a collection of stories only bonded by race to be referenced in the weeks prior to Asian American Heritage Month. While it does feature all Asian writers and artists, race does not tether the broad emotional reach or imagination of the stories.