Linked to the annual journal Mechademia (University of Minnesota Press, 2006-), the third Mechademia conference was held Seoul, from 29 November to 2 December, 2012. It deserves highest in appreciation as a rare place of exchange for researchers engaged in entertainment media and fan cultures "from Japan," but it was not without problems as this report indicates. First, insofar as most papers addressed only a certain kind of animation from Japan. Second, animation did attract attention mainly as grist for cultural studies and philosophical speculation. Third, the uneven relationship between representation theory, media studies and social critique, or the gap between familiarity with the material and theory orientation, was striking. The conference revealed also the need for more contributions by Asia-based researchers.