OPTION 1:

In this modality, the proposals of the Communications will follow the main thematic line of the new edition of the Congress and the Festival: Japan and its imprint on the Fantastic Genre.

Japanese culture has nurtured the fantasy genre through a particular fusion of aesthetic and narrative elements that integrate spirituality, modernity, the supernatural and a special respect for tradition. At the core of this vision is its fundamental syncretism, where religions such as Shintoism or Buddhism deploy their beliefs around the kamis (deities or spirits of nature), zen, or derivatives such as bushido (the way of the samurai). Dogmas that cohabit in the same nuclear space with neons, pixels, androids, artificial intelligences and many other technological entities whose interconnections, as a whole, have permeated the diverse forms of Japanese expression such as plastic arts, architecture, theater, literature, cinema, manga, anime, etc.

From this particular worldview, which has come to expand beyond borders to impact mass culture globally, many other subgenres and phenomena of fantasy have also developed, such as J-Horror, kaiju, isekai, mecha, eroguro and, among them, cyberpunk. A speculative science-fiction movement that combines advanced technology with dystopian urban environments under the coexistence of the human and the artificial and that, in this year 2025, celebrates the anniversary of one of its greatest audiovisual exponents, the anime Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995), based on the cartoons of Masamune Shirow (1989). Authors such as Hirai Kazumasa (The Hour of Revolution, 1963) or Kōno Tensei (Hikari, 1976) in literature; such as Sogo Ishii (Burst City, 1982), Shigeru Izumiya (Death Powder, 1986) or Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo: The Iron Man, 1989) in cinema; or like Katsuhiro Ōtomo (Akira, 1988) or Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed, 2004) in anime influenced (like many others) by the pages of manga, have been defining the bases and imaginary of cyberpunk that we enjoy today.

Within its broad spectrum, abstracts submitted for this main thematic line may contain variations such as the following:

1) Research and theoretical reflection on Japanese culture, connected to the fantastic in its various forms of expression: studies, currents, movements, works and prominent authors.

2) The derivations of the Japanese tradition, and its fantastic link, with the diverse models of audiovisual culture and new technologies: its imbrication in cinema, television series, comics, manga, videogames, virtual reality, theater, plastic arts, etc.

3) Research and theoretical reflection on the origin, development and evolution of Japanese culture in the various subgenres and phenomena of fantasy (cyberpunk, steampunk, biopunk, J-Horror, kaiju, isekai, mecha, eroguro, etc.), cultural and technological models, and from the perspective of the study of currents (works, prominent authors, etc.) and variants on which to establish this relationship.

4) Japanese culture as a tool for communication, education, reflection or social and political analysis from audiovisual fiction and the fantastic.