Week 13 - First half of "Scripted Affects, Branded Selves"

Scripted Affects, Branded Selves by Gabriella Lukacs, pg 1-105

In the first half of Scripted Affects, Branded Selves, Lukacs analyzes the Japanese television genre of "trendy dramas" and its surrounding televisual culture of the 1990s. The introduction of the book describes the birth of "trendy dramas" through historical events. With the aftermath recession of WWII, job stability became an issue in Japan. Through a series of reforms and legislation, the country rebounded into a state of stability, but at a cost. While older generations settled with retirement plans and life-long positions, the youth found themselves unable to find exciting jobs and unwilling to adopt the "regimented lifestyles" their parents lead. This lead to the rising popularity of Japanese dramas, which presented out-of-the-ordinary and sometimes extravagant lifestyle portraits that captured the attention and dreams of the young Japanese.

In the first chapter of the book, Lukacs describes the television industry's reaction to this post-war shift in popularity. Realizing the marketability of the new drama genre beyond air time, the industry presented television celebrities as glorified, multi-media commodities, also known as "tarento" (talent). Trendy dramas focused on the characters, not the plot. Story-like content was dropped in favour of emotion-elevating themes and lifestyles that surrounded the characters. The tarento behind these characters themselves became idolized images that could then be applied elsewhere in other medias: commercials, advertisements, magazines, etc. This lead to the evolution of an "intimate televisual culture": the immediate association of the tarento with the attached drama image.

In the second chapter, Lukacs presents a case study on the failed drama: Dokushin Seikatsu (Single Lives). Based on a real murder case in 1997 of a woman leading a double life as a corporate elite and a sex worker, Single Lives was an attempt at bringing attention to gender discrimination in the corporate world. Despite the popular interest in the murder at the time, the drama was not very popular, deemed both a political and financial failure. Lukacs explains this by pointing out 1) the producer's failure to adapt to the new tarento-based media economy, 2) the mismatch in the target audience, and 3) the mismatch between the role played by the tarento in the drama and her pre-existing image from previous works.