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unjapanologistYes, you get what you deserve when you ego-google. But since I'm building a career and all that, I like to check what pops up first when a grant committee or someone I might want to collaborate with searches for my name.
Today this turned up on the first page of results when I searched with a browser I'd never used before:
*cough* I can explain. The numbers in front of the title jumble up the meaning, but four people I absolutely don't know were arrested. My name turns up there only because I was the one who submitted the news report to Anime News Network. My involvement with the so-called "manga murder" case in Belgium was limited to writing updates about it on my university's manga-themed Japanese Studies blog.*
The "manga murder" was a very weird murder case that started when someone found body parts in a park in Brussels accompanied by a paper that referenced the manga Death Note. it remained unsolved for years. Since most of the news related to the case first came out in Belgian media, in French or Dutch, our uni blog (now hibernating) happened to be in a great position to get the scoop on the newest developments. It was all slightly creepy but fascinating, and unless I'm very much mistaken, those "manga murder" posts are still our most popular stuff. We ended up playing host to a large group of sleuthing L roleplayers/aspiring detectives who were trying to solve the case in the comments. People even made a slew of YouTube videos about their theories. It was fantastically amusing and I should write it up on Fanlore some day.
*The "manga murder" also led to my first radio interview, which was very eductional. The broadcast started with a soundbite of horrible screaming from one of the Death Note movies, and then the interviewer basically asked me to explain why manga fans turn into murderers. I think I pulled through all right, but the experience made me take the "how to communicate productively with the media" part of becoming an academic much more seriously.
Today this turned up on the first page of results when I searched with a browser I'd never used before:
*cough* I can explain. The numbers in front of the title jumble up the meaning, but four people I absolutely don't know were arrested. My name turns up there only because I was the one who submitted the news report to Anime News Network. My involvement with the so-called "manga murder" case in Belgium was limited to writing updates about it on my university's manga-themed Japanese Studies blog.*
The "manga murder" was a very weird murder case that started when someone found body parts in a park in Brussels accompanied by a paper that referenced the manga Death Note. it remained unsolved for years. Since most of the news related to the case first came out in Belgian media, in French or Dutch, our uni blog (now hibernating) happened to be in a great position to get the scoop on the newest developments. It was all slightly creepy but fascinating, and unless I'm very much mistaken, those "manga murder" posts are still our most popular stuff. We ended up playing host to a large group of sleuthing L roleplayers/aspiring detectives who were trying to solve the case in the comments. People even made a slew of YouTube videos about their theories. It was fantastically amusing and I should write it up on Fanlore some day.
*The "manga murder" also led to my first radio interview, which was very eductional. The broadcast started with a soundbite of horrible screaming from one of the Death Note movies, and then the interviewer basically asked me to explain why manga fans turn into murderers. I think I pulled through all right, but the experience made me take the "how to communicate productively with the media" part of becoming an academic much more seriously.
