This research project seeks to understand the historical context of the emergence during the wartime period (1931–1945) of the methods, aesthetic, formality, and educational training systems of the subculture that has come to be known as “otaku bunka,” centering on manga, animation, and special effects films. The term “otaku” originated in the magazine of which project leader Otsuka Eiji was editor in the early 1980s and came into common currency when it was used in media reports to describe the defendant in a case of serial murders of young girls. Eventually the term was lifted out of historical context and entered standard usage, where it is normally written in Japanese using the katakana syllabary. Returning the term to its original roots in this study, the project cites the term in its original hiragana.
　The mentality of otaku culture has heretofore been discussed out of its historical or political context as part of postmodern culture theory and it tends to be seen as a peculiar phenomenon engendered by the specific postmodern conditions of an island country in the Far East. However, for example, it is well known that animation film maker Miyazaki Hayao is not only an anti-war supporter of the peace movement but also an avid airplane enthusiast and fan of things military. His recent work Kaze tachinu (The Wind Rises) was made as if its producer Suzuki Toshio confronted director Miyazaki with that very contradiction. The contradiction that this film brought to the surface leads us to ask once again what “war” means in otaku culture and, further, why otaku culture is so vulnerable to the aesthetic of war, as symbolized by the beauty of a fighter plane and the aesthetic of fascism.
　One issue that must be examined is that one of the seminal works of modern manga, the “Norakuro” series by Tagawa Suihō, started in 1931, which was also the first year of the Japan's Fifteen-Year War (1931–1945). The introduction to Japan of Disney manga also overlaps this period. Several characters and methodologies of manga were created during wartime, and the fact that manga and anime were destined to be both united with and compete with national policy can be readily observed. However, the historical details as to how the methods and aesthetic of manga, anime, and so forth (which tend to be thought of as products of postwar society, postmodernism, or “tradition”) were created in the wartime and postwar eras, have yet to be fully ascertained.
　We hope to restore a sense of historicity and political depth to Japan's subculture research by reidentifying the birth of otaku culture in the methods and aesthetic that arose during the wartime era.

Research Representative	大塚英志	国際日本文化研究センター・教授
Organizer	北浦寛之	国際日本文化研究センター・助教
Team Researcher	浅野龍哉	神戸芸術工科大学先端芸術学部・実習助手
〃	板倉史明	神戸大学大学院国際文化学研究科・准教授
〃	内田　力	東京大学大学院総合文化研究科・博士後期課程
〃	大野修一	株式会社徳間書店アニメ・コミック編集局・編集者
〃	香川雅信	兵庫県立歴史博物館・主査 / 学芸員
〃	菊地　暁	京都大学人文科学研究所・助教
〃	キム・ジュニアン	新潟大学人文学部・准教授
〃	木村智哉	日本学術振興会特別研究員(PD)(国立歴史民俗博物館)
〃	嵯峨景子	東京大学大学院学際情報学府・博士後期課程
〃	須藤遙子	横浜市立大学・客員准教授
〃	鶴見太郎	早稲田大学大学院文学研究科　・教授
〃	冨田美香	立命館大学映像学部映像学科・教授
〃	中川　譲	日本映画大学・准教授
〃	藤岡　洋	東京大学東洋文化研究所・助教
〃	細馬宏通	滋賀県立大学人間文化学部・教授
〃	牧野　守	映画史研究家
〃	室井康成	民俗学者
〃	山本忠宏	神戸芸術工科大学先端芸術学部・助教
Team Researcher Overseas	秦　剛	北京外国語大学北京日本学研究センター・副教授
〃	マーク・スタインバーグ	コンコルディア大学・准教授