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	まんが家/北京外国語大学日本語学部・日本人教師
〃	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	東京福祉大学・非常勤講師
〃	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	新潟大学人文学部メディア・表現文化論主専攻プログラム・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	明治学院大学・非常勤講師
〃	冨田　美香	東京国立近代美術館フィルムセンター・主任研究員
〃	鶴見　太郎	早稲田大学大学院文学研究科・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	神戸芸術工科大学芸術工学部まんが表現学科・助教
〃	佐野　明子	桃山学院大学国際教養学部・講師
〃	滝浪　佑紀	城西国際大学メディア学部・准教授
〃	山路　亮輔	webコミック作家
〃	谷口　恵太	web映像作家
〃	近藤　和都	東京大学大学院学際情報学府・博士後期課程
〃	鈴木　麻記	東京大学大学院学際情報学府・博士後期課程
Team Researcher Overseas	Marc Steinberg	Concordia University・准教授
〃	秦　剛	北京外国語大学北京日本学研究センター・副教授
〃	堀　ひかり	コロンビア大学東アジア言語文化学部・Assistant Professor
〃	Kim Kyu-Hyun	カリフォルニア州立大学デーヴィス校歴史学部・准教授