This week’s session focused on developing and refining our research proposals. We discussed titles, research questions, and how to narrow down a topic so that it is both researchable and meaningful.
During the feedback session, I realised that my original research idea was still quite broad. I was interested in how social and cultural factors influence animation, but the scope was too wide to handle effectively. The discussion made it clear that instead of trying to cover animation in general, it would be more practical to focus on a specific context, creator, or body of work.
One important suggestion was to ground the research in a clear cultural background. Rather than comparing too many countries or animation industries, it would be better to look closely at one cultural context and explore how it shapes animation style, themes, and storytelling. This helped me understand that cultural influence is not something abstract, but something that appears through concrete details such as narrative focus, visual design, and recurring themes.
We also talked about the difficulty of measuring audience experience, especially emotional response. This made me realise that not every interesting idea can be easily researched. It is important to choose a direction where analysis is possible, using existing texts, case studies, and visual analysis, rather than relying on vague impressions.
After this session, I started thinking more seriously about focusing on a specific director and cultural background, particularly within Japanese animation. Looking at one creator’s work could make it easier to discuss how social and cultural conditions influence animation in a more focused and realistic way.
Overall, this week helped me understand that refining a research topic is part of the process. Being more specific does not limit the research, but actually makes it clearer and stronger.