Anime and Sumo Analyzed

[Mulboyne]

Education Guardian: The Rise of Anime
Rayna Denison, lecturer in the department of media and film studies at the University of Sussex, has spent the past four years researching Japanese animation, especially the work of Hayao Miyazaki. "My first degree was in Japanese studies," she says, "which is how my interest began. But it's a fascinating time for anime...Fans already take it very seriously, but now academia is beginning to as well. "Most of the research that has previously been done focuses on the creative side, though. I thought it was about time someone looked at Japanese film in terms of the industry that surrounds it. It's a business as well as an art."
...To assess the performance of the same product in different international markets, Denison travelled to Japan to undertake primary research. "I went back through the advertising and marketing campaigns for the film, to look at how it was promoted and perceived. I also looked at which cinemas the film was shown at - the way a film is screened affects how people approach a film."..."I was able to do lots of research from my desk, because I could use the internet to gauge how an international audience was reacting to the same film, at similar times but in different places."

Education Guardian: Sumo studies
Last year, researchers at the Nippon Sport Science University achieved what once may have seemed just a dream. They built an equation that describes a sumo wrestler. In a paper called Development of Predictive Equations for Body Density of Sumo Wrestlers Using B-Mode Ultrasound for the Determination of Subcutaneous Fat Thickness, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, K Saito and five colleagues present the details, large and small. "Body density," they explain, "was measured by the underwater weighing method. ... [This] has not been much used because of the technical difficulties and because of a lack of baths large enough."