Presenter(s): Mary Green
Faculty Mentor(s): Tera Reid-Olds & Pearl Lee
Oral Session 1 M
Hyperreality, in short, is the indistiction between reality and a simulated reality, according to postmodern theorist Jean Baudrillard. Protagonist Ken Kaneki of Sui Ishida’s Japanese manga, Tokyo Ghoul, is a young man trapped in a body that is not distinctly human or nonhuman. His liminality, and perhaps more importantly his popularity among fans, provides a convenient allegory for the manga’s presence within hyperreality. As canonical manga comes out, exponentially more Ken Kaneki related material is being produced as fanfiction (fan-produced content based on established characters and narratives) on the internet, a massive platform of the hyperreal. By exploring texts by famed comics theorists Scott McCloud and Charles Hatfield, along with contemporary cultural theorist Azuma Hiroki, and applying their research to Ken Kaneki’s character, I argue that the elements that make manga unique as a form are what allow for manga to be an easy bridge into hyperreality. It is through Tokyo Ghoul’s simultaneous use of abstraction, simulacrum, various panel transitions, mimesis, and coded texts and images that the life and subjectivity of Ken Kaneki is spawned and sustained within the hyperreal.