Rags Drum 2021: Results of the Annual Call for Submissions

About Rags Drum

If we disregard the present generation’s rebellious attitude toward what came before, … it is impossible to understand today’s works. … Taking over the theatres for different kinds of audiences is both a task and an opportunity.

—Brecht.

The Rags Drum Organizing Committee at Lab on Roof now announces the selection results for Rags Drum 2021, the second edition of its call for submissions on anime, comics and games (ACG).

The Selection Results

After a submission period of 3 + 2 months and more than a month of judging, the Rags Drum Organizing Committee at Lab on Roof announces the following results. The Pre-Festival, with selection based on the completeness of the articles and approval by a majority of the judges, has produced eight award-winning articles in total. The Post-Festival, which requires unanimous approval by the judges, has produced no award-winning articles.

The following two submissions entered only the Pre-Festival and passed its review (listed with their authors in order of receipt):

• “From Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind to Touhou Kikeijuu ~ Wily Beast and Weakest Creature: ‘Entrusting the World to an Idol’ amid Various Predicaments”, 宫酒姬

• “Starting with the Haruhi Suzumiya Series and ‘Sekaikei’ (World-Type Fiction): Some Ramblings on the Postmodern and ACGN Studies”, 真紅様

The following six submissions by five authors passed the Pre-Festival review on the basis of either their full texts or their abstracts, but unfortunately did not secure the panel’s unanimous approval at the Post-Festival:

• “Chips, Amputation and the Death Drive: Kaiji Ito’s Suicide Game”, 米岡

• “From Reproductions to Simulacra: The Modern Turn in the Consumption of Literature and Art”, 米岡

• “The Spatialized Body vs. Embodied Space: Imagining Space and the Body in Japanese Anime and Manga”, 斑鸠

• “Decoding ‘The Drowned Giant’: One Reading of the ‘Giant’ Metaphor”, 心田安详

• “Fear of Beasts: How America Became the Home of Titans”, 哲哥

• “How Is Death ‘Born Anew’? A Study of Death in Isekai Reincarnation Works”, 甚谁

Congratulations to all the authors above! Under the previously announced event rules, each submission that passed the Pre-Festival will receive a fee of RMB 300.

The abstracts of the following three submissions passed the Pre-Festival review, but unfortunately their full texts did not secure approval from a majority of the judges at the Post-Festival:

• “Mr. Osomatsu, Season 3: Shu Matsubara’s Journey through Sketch Comedy”, CM

• “Post-Bishōjo and After Bishōjo: An Inquiry into the ‘Post-’ in Bishōjo Games”, 宫酒姬

• “How Is a Fan Pilgrimage Possible? On the Contingency of the Suicide Journey in Narcissu” (later retitled “The Contingency of Narcissu: An Account of an Impossible Fan Pilgrimage”)¹, 红茶泡海苔

The organizing committee will notify the authors of award-winning submissions of the results and, after obtaining their consent, publish their work as soon as possible. Authors of submissions that did not receive awards regain the full right to decide how to use their work (you’re welcome to submit to us separately too, haha). Whatever the outcome, our sincere thanks to every author above for submitting their work!

I. Acknowledgments

We thank the members of the judging panel for volunteering their time and effort to review the submissions. They are:

will, an ACG enthusiast.

马小褂, an ACG enthusiast.

有电拍拍, an ACG enthusiast.

rocefactor, an ACG enthusiast.

屋顶第十一任所长, an ACG enthusiast.

We thank “唯一指定真实August_Rush” for providing artwork and publicity support for the event, including designing the poster. We also thank the writers, groups and platforms involved for their friendly suggestions and sincere help. As a token of its thanks, the Rags Drum Organizing Committee at Lab on Roof will give each of the six people named above a Dangdang book gift card worth RMB 50.

In hosting this event, the Rags Drum Organizing Committee at Lab on Roof has gained more experience and learned further lessons. If our lack of experience or ability has caused difficulties for writers and readers along the way, we ask for your patience and understanding, and warmly welcome your feedback. For next year’s event, we will draw on this experience to keep improving and address our shortcomings, striving to make the event more beneficial to writers and readers. Thank you all for your support and interest. We hope you will follow, read and share the submissions we will be publishing next.

Rags Drum—we hope we can meet again next year.

Rags Drum Organizing Committee, Lab on Roof.

19 November 2021.