Waseda essay: take two!
Thank you everybody who helped fix the first draft of my essay! :o (Smooches to raitherai and omato for extensive raping. ♥) It's...really amazing how much crack I must've been smoking when I wrote it. So anyway, now you get to read through my second draft!
I am an illustrator--a visual storyteller. I was probably only three years old when I first watched the Hayao Miyazaki film, Tenkuu no Shiro: Laputa, but even to this day I still marvel at the creativity and effort that was put into its production. It is through Miyazaki's work, along with the creations of many other brilliant minds from Japan, that I discovered my aspiration to become a comic artist. It is my hope that my work will also be able to impact my audience emotionally and philosophically. Keeping that goal in mind, my plan for college has three parts: to improve as an artist, to improve as a writer, and to find the means to deliver my stories. With the opportunity to study in Japan at the Waseda School of International Liberal Arts, I feel that I will be able to progress significantly in all three of these objectives.
I am currently majoring in both Fine Arts and Business Administration with a minor in Japanese. After I receive my Bachelor's degree in Business, I plan to start a publishing company, through which I will distribute my own comics and eventually expand into publishing the work of others as well. While it may be easier to publish through a third party, I consider myself to be very self-reliant and determined. Independently making my stories available to an audience without being bound by another company's contracts and restrictions is a challenge which I am more than willing to take. Taking into consideration Japan's status as the largest economic nation next to America and the availability of classes in business such as Advertising Management and Microeconomics, I feel that the Waseda program fits neatly with my academic objectives and interests.
However, I do not plan to restrict my studies to on-campus activities. As an artist, I hope to absorb the drawing methods that have developed from Japanese culture and adapt them to my own projects. Furthermore, I plan to obtain valuable knowledge of the comic industry in Japan, gain contact with professionals in that field, and perhaps even find an opportunity to intern with a Japanese publishing house. Regardless, the experience of submerging myself in an entirely new culture and environment will provide me with ample inspiration to further improve my art. I have lived in a quiet suburban area for most of my life, where each day is as predictable as the next and the surroundings never change. Spending a year in the center of one of the largest metropolitan societies in the world will give me the chance to observe a completely different atmosphere and a greater variety of people for me translate into my sketchbook. Ideally, by the time I return from Japan, my artistic abilities will span a wider spectrum of subjects, styles, and techniques.
While art is an integral part of storytelling, the most crucial aspect to consider in the process of creating sequential art is the writing. In my case, the stories I write tend to focus on the characters and their backgrounds; I need to be able to understand them inside and out--their personalities, their pasts, their families, their hometowns, their clothes, their jobs, and any other minute details. Therefore, the best thing I can do as a writer in order to have a firm grasp of my subject is to experience the different cultures I am trying to represent from a first-hand perspective. For example, despite the range of ethnicities and traditions America encompasses, the country on the whole is a very non-contextual society--most people do not hesitate to say what they mean. On the other hand, Japan is frequently said to be the complete opposite, having a much stronger emphasis on what is not said in their correspondence with one another. The two are perfect complements, and learning about both will give me a deeper insight to how different ways of communication affects the way people think and act. Naturally, the best way to become familiar with these aspects of a culture is to make friends; by talking and listening to the locals, I hope to steal a glimpse of Japanese day-to-day life and society. In addition to that, I also plan on enrolling in the classes offered in the area of cultural anthropology. I hope that going from one side of the spectrum to the other--from America to Japan--will give me a solid foundation in understanding different cultures, bringing me closer to my original purpose as a writer: to create more realistic, multi-dimensional characters and settings in my stories.
I believe that there is much for me to gain from Japan. As a prospective businessman, I will learn about the practices of Japanese publishing houses and take classes in the fields of business and economics on top of my general education requirements, cultural anthropology courses and Japanese language studies. As an artist, I will improve my skills by learning from artists within the backdrop of a nation that has produced endless amounts of films and graphic novels which continually inspire me all throughout my life. Finally, as a writer, I will benefit from the exposure to a different culture and environment by gaining the knowledge to develop an authentic, likable cast of personalities within a vibrant, imaginative environment. A year in a Japanese institution of higher education can provide me with so much more than a year spent at any American college, and I plan to take full advantage of an opportunity to study at Waseda University to ensure that the experience will contribute to my future success.
Again, suggestions and corrections would be very much appreciated. And if you had made a correction to the first draft which wasn't changed in this draft, but you really feel that said correction needs to be made, tell me so and give me an explanation! :D And again, thanks in advance!!
(...Even though I'm probably not going to get accepted ajfkldf;hsd;fljasdkfa T_T)
EDIT: Okay I'm sick of this essay so I printed it out and I'm mailing it and there's nothing you can do about it!!
I am an illustrator--a visual storyteller. I was probably only three years old when I first watched the Hayao Miyazaki film, Tenkuu no Shiro: Laputa, but even to this day I still marvel at the creativity and effort that was put into its production. It is through Miyazaki's work, along with the creations of many other brilliant minds from Japan, that I discovered my aspiration to become a comic artist. It is my hope that my work will also be able to impact my audience emotionally and philosophically. Keeping that goal in mind, my plan for college has three parts: to improve as an artist, to improve as a writer, and to find the means to deliver my stories. With the opportunity to study in Japan at the Waseda School of International Liberal Arts, I feel that I will be able to progress significantly in all three of these objectives.
I am currently majoring in both Fine Arts and Business Administration with a minor in Japanese. After I receive my Bachelor's degree in Business, I plan to start a publishing company, through which I will distribute my own comics and eventually expand into publishing the work of others as well. While it may be easier to publish through a third party, I consider myself to be very self-reliant and determined. Independently making my stories available to an audience without being bound by another company's contracts and restrictions is a challenge which I am more than willing to take. Taking into consideration Japan's status as the largest economic nation next to America and the availability of classes in business such as Advertising Management and Microeconomics, I feel that the Waseda program fits neatly with my academic objectives and interests.
However, I do not plan to restrict my studies to on-campus activities. As an artist, I hope to absorb the drawing methods that have developed from Japanese culture and adapt them to my own projects. Furthermore, I plan to obtain valuable knowledge of the comic industry in Japan, gain contact with professionals in that field, and perhaps even find an opportunity to intern with a Japanese publishing house. Regardless, the experience of submerging myself in an entirely new culture and environment will provide me with ample inspiration to further improve my art. I have lived in a quiet suburban area for most of my life, where each day is as predictable as the next and the surroundings never change. Spending a year in the center of one of the largest metropolitan societies in the world will give me the chance to observe a completely different atmosphere and a greater variety of people for me translate into my sketchbook. Ideally, by the time I return from Japan, my artistic abilities will span a wider spectrum of subjects, styles, and techniques.
While art is an integral part of storytelling, the most crucial aspect to consider in the process of creating sequential art is the writing. In my case, the stories I write tend to focus on the characters and their backgrounds; I need to be able to understand them inside and out--their personalities, their pasts, their families, their hometowns, their clothes, their jobs, and any other minute details. Therefore, the best thing I can do as a writer in order to have a firm grasp of my subject is to experience the different cultures I am trying to represent from a first-hand perspective. For example, despite the range of ethnicities and traditions America encompasses, the country on the whole is a very non-contextual society--most people do not hesitate to say what they mean. On the other hand, Japan is frequently said to be the complete opposite, having a much stronger emphasis on what is not said in their correspondence with one another. The two are perfect complements, and learning about both will give me a deeper insight to how different ways of communication affects the way people think and act. Naturally, the best way to become familiar with these aspects of a culture is to make friends; by talking and listening to the locals, I hope to steal a glimpse of Japanese day-to-day life and society. In addition to that, I also plan on enrolling in the classes offered in the area of cultural anthropology. I hope that going from one side of the spectrum to the other--from America to Japan--will give me a solid foundation in understanding different cultures, bringing me closer to my original purpose as a writer: to create more realistic, multi-dimensional characters and settings in my stories.
I believe that there is much for me to gain from Japan. As a prospective businessman, I will learn about the practices of Japanese publishing houses and take classes in the fields of business and economics on top of my general education requirements, cultural anthropology courses and Japanese language studies. As an artist, I will improve my skills by learning from artists within the backdrop of a nation that has produced endless amounts of films and graphic novels which continually inspire me all throughout my life. Finally, as a writer, I will benefit from the exposure to a different culture and environment by gaining the knowledge to develop an authentic, likable cast of personalities within a vibrant, imaginative environment. A year in a Japanese institution of higher education can provide me with so much more than a year spent at any American college, and I plan to take full advantage of an opportunity to study at Waseda University to ensure that the experience will contribute to my future success.
Again, suggestions and corrections would be very much appreciated. And if you had made a correction to the first draft which wasn't changed in this draft, but you really feel that said correction needs to be made, tell me so and give me an explanation! :D And again, thanks in advance!!
(...Even though I'm probably not going to get accepted ajfkldf;hsd;fljasdkfa T_T)
EDIT: Okay I'm sick of this essay so I printed it out and I'm mailing it and there's nothing you can do about it!!