JAMS@AX 2025 Conference Report

Abstract

This year, the Journal of Anime and Manga Studies (JAMS) hosted the JAMS@AX 2025 Academic Symposium, featuring scholars from multiple disciplines to audiences from all over the world. Since 2023, JAMS has continued to bring together fans and scholars at Anime Expo to explore anime on a deeper level through a variety of viewpoints, disciplines, and academic study. The theme of this year’s Anime Expo was “academia”, which was incorporated throughout the panels in the academic symposium. Scholars were encouraged to explore how different disciplines can be explored through anime and how critical scholarship can be achieved through engaging with anime at a deeper level. The panels included research around girlhood and identity, music theory and well-known anime music tracks, family and community within anime, and how anime can be a central hub for inquiry and exploration of knowledge. Additionally, panelists also discussed ecology and social commentary within anime, how to apply science within anime, and how educators across the globe are incorporating anime into the classroom. This report provides an overview of the key research ideas shared within these panels and the highly engaging discussions that took place throughout the symposium.