Jangwa Pana

23 - 39

Authors: Sarahi Isuki Castelli-Olvera

In this article, we start from the consideration that manga X, created by the collective CLAMP between 1994 and 2003, and published in Mexico by Editorial Vid between 2002 and 2005, is a story whose overarching principle corresponds to the various elements of the New Age. We base this on the following assumptions: first in this manga, the sephirotic tree, the B.O.T.A. tarot and the aspects of Enochian magic, typical of western esoterism, are present iconographically. Second, Kamui, the subject of the story, represents God, so that his actions determine the entire narrative; besides, it has a twin star (Fuma), which fulfills the function of being its complementary opposite. Finally, the apocalypse is detonated by the well-being of the Earth, which arises as an organism with its own life and is intended to survive the destruction of humanity. We carry out this analysis taking up the notion of an overarching principle, as well as the importance of the source, present in the historical method. In addition to the above, we use the paradigm of indicial inferences proposed by Carlo Ginzburg, the elements of structural analysis of Helena Beristain’s story and the notion of postmodernity introduced by Fredrick Jameson. The primary sources would be the 18 volumes of X published in Mexico.

61 - 71

Authors: Diego Maté

From its beginnings, videogames deployed an esthetic spectrum that made new forms of representing death possible. It could be thought that differences between videogame and other media, such as cinema, arise from the clash between two great cultural forms: storytelling and gaming. But current context shows a scenario that is full of mixtures and connections between them. In this work, characteristic features of death representation in videogames –such as recurrence, insertion in a playful regime, distance from typical semantizations of narrative genres, and tendency to disrupt the story– are pointed out. In addition, this work describes two great representative strategies that the medium elaborated in different moments of its history. At present, both of them coexist and to a great extent dominate the video-ludic landscape. One strategy consists in invisibilizing the act of dying; in the other one, death is spectacularized through an audiovisual maximization. These two forms do not present themselves in a pure state nor do they exclude other possible representative paths, but they allow us to observe tendencies that enjoyed (and enjoy) a great stability. Finally, four cases are analyzed. Such cases produce a deviation from the implementation of the act of dying as a penalty and as a regression of ludic nature, and propose alternative solutions to the question about the representation of death.

87 - 99

Authors: Jesús Eduardo Oliva-Abarca

This article aims to study the abridged series, a type of western fan made parodies that use summarized original footage from famous animes. This phenomenon has become popular on Youtube and shows the possibilities of adaptation and transformation at the hands of the anime fans through new media and new technologies. Also, abridged series demonstrate the tendency of fans to employ the parody as a way to apprehend the media universe and as critical commentary about reality. In the context of digital culture, the abridged series based on Dragon Ball Z, Yu Gi Oh!, and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure are analyzed through reviewing the parody, the intertextuality, and the intermediality theories. From this exam, it can be concluded the following: firstly, this type of parodies are closely related with other fan made expressions, such as fanfictions or fanfics, fansub, fandub, fanart, fanfilms, and fangames. Secondly, abridged series, as well as any other fan made recreations of anime, are intertextual and intermedial devices that refer to constituted textual worlds to convergent media. Finally, fictional and media universes can be conceived as artifacts to comprehend and to communicate reality. Coupled with this, abridged series, as parodic fan made recreations of anime, are a way to the reinterpretation of these worlds, as well as a form by which fans appropriate the reality, or realities, referred by the anime and other cultural products.

117-133

Authors: Edixon Quiñones-Reyes y Samuel Ávila

This paper reports animal sacrifices witnessed between 2010 and 2013, during exhumations performed by the forensic team of Serious Crimes Investigation Team (SCIT) of the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNMIT). The exhumations were carried out within the framework of the investigations conducted by the United Nations (UN) to clarify the crimes committed during the armed conflict in East Timor in 1999. Therefore, the bodies exhumed correspond to the victims of this event. In this pages, the sacrifices are subject to an anthropological interpretation, with a symbolic perspective. To this end, the procedures, artifacts and other elements, present in the practices observed, are described in detail, arguing that this practice corresponds to older traditions, previous to the imposition of the Catholic religion in Timor, and it was a mechanism of interaction among the family group, as well as a tool of communication with the afterlife.