Lobster, was wondering if you'd finished your paper yet on anime as a subculture (assuming thats the subject you did it on). Was hoping you'd post a link to it here (or maybe just put the text in one long Post).

What interests me is that anime is clearly a subculture of Japanese culture (and some other Asian cultures' influence, obviously) but it seems to have grown into something different. I am not so much interested in the origin of anime as a subculture, but the direction it's been taking in the past couple years and where it might go in the future. The biggest thing I've seen is that anime has started to form even smaller subdivisions of itself, (mecha, shoujo, school life, ancient Japan (samurai, ninja), boys love, sci-fi, folklore specific, just to name a few), and I'm wondering which will die out and which will enjoy greater popularity (along with the changes and traditions institutionalized in each)...