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Ani-Gamers Podcast #026 - Lawrence Eng Interview

Lawrence Eng presenting a panel at Genericon XXIII

(NOTE: This episode has been renamed due to an admittedly poor choice of words in my original title. Sorry!)

We're back with a show recorded merely a week before its release (an amazing record for the Ani-Gamers Podcast). Listen on for my fascinating interview with Dr. Lawrence Eng, a longtime anime fan who chose to pursue his fandom as a line of research when he joined Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)'s "Science and Technology Studies" doctorate program, and focused his dissertation on "otaku studies." In this interview from Genericon XXIII at RPI, I pick Eng's brain on the findings of his research, his own life as an otaku, and a few other topics related to anime fan culture.

Show notes and links after the break.

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(Runtime: 46 minutes)



[00:00] Opening Song: "Tatakae! Otaking" by Tsujiya Kooji (Otaku no Video OP)

[00:50] Intro time.

[01:00] Lawrence lets everybody know who he is and why he matters.

[05:02] "Did you study otaku because you wanted to study anime, or was it just a fortunate coincidence that otaku were relevant to your studies?"

[07:36] "Describe some of your findings."

[12:30] "When anime is distributed for free online through fansubs and streaming, how does the dynamic change?"

[15:03] Lawrence goes into some more of his findings.

[24:12] "Since you started in fandom until now, what has changed?"

[29:01] "Is there a single moment in your research that stood out?"

[31:17] "When you were at RPI, did you participate in any of the anime events on campus?"

[34:47] "What do you define as 'otaku'?"

[36:53] "Have you heard of the Otaku Elimination Game? What do you think of it?"

[41:57] "Have you been reading the Otaku Diaries from the Reverse Thieves?"

[42:55] "What do you think of Genericon this year?"

[44:49] Outro time, complete with plugs for all the usual stuff. (Except for iTunes, which I keep forgetting. REVIEW UUUUUS!)

[45:37] Ending Song: "Duvet" by Bôa (Serial Experiments Lain OP)

More Lawrence Eng info online:

4 comments:

Lawrence Eng said...

Hi Evan. It's cool to see this was posted so quickly. One question, though:

Why is it "Lawrence Eng _vs._ Otakudom"

(I'm asking about the versus part)

Was there something I said that made it sound like I was in opposition to otaku culture? I wouldn't normally take that stance.

Evan Minto (Vampt Vo) said...

Yeah, I wasn't really going for any sort of opposition thing. I was just trying to think of a spiffy name, and I was working off of the idea that you had "tackled" otaku culture. (It was clear in the interview that you're totally an otaku yourself.) If you think it comes off in a bad way, I'll be happy to change the title.

Lawrence Eng said...

I don't think it's so bad, but people might misinterpret it or jump to conclusions based on the title. That said, it might be a pain to change the filename, so I leave it at your discretion :)

Evan Minto (Vampt Vo) said...

I'll certainly change the name of the blog post, and I'll see what I can do about changing the filename. Sorry about the misunderstanding!

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