IRMA-International.org: Creator of Knowledge
Information Resources Management Association
Advancing the Concepts & Practices of Information Resources Management in Modern Organizations

Are You Really a Child?: Androids and Cyborgs in Japanese Comics and Animations

Are You Really a Child?: Androids and Cyborgs in Japanese Comics and Animations
View Sample PDF
Author(s): Natalia Dmitruk (University of Wrocław, Poland)
Copyright: 2018
Pages: 31
Source title: Androids, Cyborgs, and Robots in Contemporary Culture and Society
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Steven John Thompson (University of Maryland, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-2973-6.ch003

Purchase

View Are You Really a Child?: Androids and Cyborgs in Japanese Comics and Animations on the publisher's website for pricing and purchasing information.

Abstract

A multitude of genres and types of characters, in Japanese comics and animated series, suggests many thought-provoking themes; i.e., questions about human nature. Many artists can see the answers to these questions in artificial humans – both cyborgs and androids. In this research, the author analyzes Japanese texts of popular culture in which artificial children are the protagonists of the stories. The author aims to compare a child figure in sociological discourse, considered there as vulnerable, to the representations in manga and anime, in which characters are created as children or technologically-modified prepubescents. In this chapter, the author presents ideas and culture associations for the concepts of android and cyborg. The chapter focuses also on analysis of the characters from Japanese comic books and animations – both androids and then cyborgs – according to transhumanistic and posthumanistic theories. The analysis results in a conclusion that a child figure is dehumanized in the context of cyborg and android child protagonists.

Related Content

Brij B. Gupta, Akshat Gaurav, Francesco Colace. © 2025. 16 pages.
Akshat Gaurav, Varsha Arya. © 2025. 16 pages.
Brij B. Gupta, Jinsong Wu. © 2025. 22 pages.
Purwadi Agus Darwinto, Agung Mulyo Widodo, Nilla Perdana Agustina, Kadek Dwi Wahyuadnyana, Mosiur Rahaman. © 2025. 30 pages.
Mosiur Rahaman, Karisma Trinda Putra, Bambang Irawan, Totok Ruki Biyanto. © 2025. 30 pages.
Shaurya Katna, Sunil K. Singh, Sudhakar Kumar, Divyansh Manro, Amit Chhabra, Sunil Kumar Sharma. © 2025. 22 pages.
Kwok Tai Chui, Varsha Arya, Akshat Gaurav, Shavi Bansal, Ritika Bansal. © 2025. 22 pages.
Body Bottom