Sam Cyb's BA3A Research Report Work

My ideas for my dissertation in week 3 were a little unfocused again, trying to make something that revolved around a few anime series that were fresh in my mind, trying to come up with the right question that would allow me to talk about them in relation to the medium of animation. When I came to my lecturer for help, she told me that ideally, I wanted to use a question where the answer would help me with my work. After looking over my work in progress, she asked; if you were to make a cartoon or anime tomorrow, what would be the first thing you'd do? I thought it over and realised that in some of my favourite series, some of the longest running shows and anime, the most prominent and engaging component is the characters and the world. So I think I've found my question... How to create an engaging fictional universe for a long-running animated series? Some anime to watch, re-watch, and research: Dragonball Z Cowboy Bebop One Piece Naruto Fullmetal Alchemist Deat...

The Superheroes Journey in My Hero Academia Things to talk about: Protagonists that actively seek out the power to become a hero, rather than the typical superhero who is granted power, born with power, or acquires power by chance and only THEN feels obligated to use that power for good - Iron man, Batman, etc. Grounded conflict - The art of the fight scene where the stakes, forces, tensions and powers at play are plain for all to see. The fight scenes of My Hero Academia exemplify this by not being about who's strongest, or even who's more skilled - sure, these aspects are acknowledged and used to an extent - but most of all it's about who uses the abilities and resources at their disposal the most creatively. There are no secret saviours who rush in for the rescue, there are no secret hidden powers, everyone just gets the one power - and each power is versatile enough to have many applications, but they also always have some kind of weakness, even if it's onl...

Feeling overwhelmed and unfocused whenever I sat down to work on my dissertation, I got some feedback on what I'd written so far. It was recommended that before I go any further: I should figure out what it is I want to learn from my research I should figure out what could help me with my personal showcase and other projects  Perhaps create a structure based around that goal  Also character design is such a broad subject that maybe I only need to talk about one genre As I'm struggling to stay invested in this topic, some other ideas for what I could write about include: The hero's journey in My Hero Academia, how it subverts, parodies, and doubles down on elements of the genre to it's advantage, compare it to other stories with a similar premise (Sky High movie, Unordinary webcomic) and examine what makes it more effective The hero's journey in Steven Universe, and how to tackle the portrayal of thought provoking issues regarding anxiety, identity and s...