EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

Book Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan

Download or read book Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan written by Patrick W. Galbraith and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2019-12-06 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From computer games to figurines and maid cafes, men called “otaku” develop intense fan relationships with “cute girl” characters from manga, anime, and related media and material in contemporary Japan. While much of the Japanese public considers the forms of character love associated with “otaku” to be weird and perverse, the Japanese government has endeavored to incorporate “otaku” culture into its branding of “Cool Japan.” In Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan, Patrick W. Galbraith explores the conflicting meanings of “otaku” culture and its significance to Japanese popular culture, masculinity, and the nation. Tracing the history of “otaku” and “cute girl” characters from their origins in the 1970s to his recent fieldwork in Akihabara, Tokyo (“the Holy Land of Otaku”), Galbraith contends that the discourse surrounding “otaku” reveals tensions around contested notions of gender, sexuality, and ways of imagining the nation that extend far beyond Japan. At the same time, in their relationships with characters and one another, “otaku” are imagining and creating alternative social worlds.

Book Beautiful Fighting Girl

    Book Details:
  • Author : Tamaki Saitō
  • Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
  • Release : 2011
  • ISBN : 0816654506
  • Pages : 243 pages

Download or read book Beautiful Fighting Girl written by Tamaki Saitō and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Nausicaä to Sailor Moon, understanding girl heroines of manga and anime within otaku culture.

Book Otaku

    Book Details:
  • Author : Hiroki Azuma
  • Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
  • Release : 2009
  • ISBN : 0816653518
  • Pages : 177 pages

Download or read book Otaku written by Hiroki Azuma and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Printbegrænsninger: Der kan printes 10 sider ad gangen og max. 40 sider pr. session

Book Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media Culture

Download or read book Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media Culture written by P. W. Galbraith and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-08-30 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the most complete and compelling account of idols and celebrity in Japanese media culture to date. Engaging with the study of media, gender and celebrity, and sensitive to history and the contemporary scene, these interdisciplinary essays cover male and female idols, production and consumption, industrial structures and fan movements.

Book The Ethics of Affect

    Book Details:
  • Author : Patrick W. Galbraith
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2021-09-20
  • ISBN : 9789176351598
  • Pages : 360 pages

Download or read book The Ethics of Affect written by Patrick W. Galbraith and published by . This book was released on 2021-09-20 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on ongoing fieldwork in the Akihabara neighborhood of Tokyo, specifically a targeted subproject from 2014 to 2015, this book explores how and to what effect lines are drawn by producers, players and critics of bishōjo games. Focusing on interactions with manga/anime-style characters, these adult computer games often feature explicit sex acts. Noting that the bishōjo, or "cute girl characters," in these games can appear quite young, legal actions have been taken in a number of countries to categorize and prohibit the content as child abuse material. In response to the risk of manga/anime images encouraging underage sexualization, lawmakers are moved to regulate them in the same way as photographs or film; triggered by images, the line between fiction and reality is erased, or redrawn to collapse forms together. While Japanese politicians continue to debate a similar course, sustained engagement with bishōjo game producers, players and critics sheds light on alternative movement. Manga/anime-style characters trigger an affective response in interactions with their creators and users, who draw and negotiate lines between fiction and reality. Interacting with characters and one another, bishōjo gamers draw lines between what is fictional and what is "real," even as the characters are real in their own right and relations with them are extended beyond games; some even see the characters as significant others and refer to them using intimate terms of commitment such as "my wife." This book argues for understanding the everyday practice of insisting on lines, or drawing a line between humans and nonhumans and orienting oneself toward the drawn lines of the latter, as demonstrating an emergent form of ethics. Occurring individually and socially in both private and public spaces, the response to fictional characters not only discourages harming human beings, but also supports life in more-than-human worlds. For many in contemporary Japan and beyond, interactions and relations with fictional and real others are nothing short of lifelines.

Book The Otaku Encyclopedia

Download or read book The Otaku Encyclopedia written by Patrick W. Galbraith and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2014-02-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Otaku: Nerd; geek or fanboy. Originates from a polite second-person pronoun meaning "your home" in Japanese. Since the 1980s it’s been used to refer to people who are really into Japanese pop-culture, such as anime, manga, and videogames. A whole generation, previously marginalized with labels such as "geek" and "nerd," are now calling themselves "otaku" with pride. The Otaku Encyclopedia offers fascinating insight into the subculture of Cool Japan. With over 600 entries, including common expressions, people, places, and moments of otaku history, this is the essential "A to Z" of facts every Japanese pop-culture fan needs to know. Author Patrick W. Galbraith has spent several years researching deep into the otaku heartland and his intimate knowledge of the subject gives the reader an insider’s guide to words such as moé, doujinshi, cospla y and maid cafés. In-depth interviews with such key players as Takashi Murakami, otaku expert Okada Toshio, and J-pop idol Shoko Nakagawa are interspersed with the entries, offering an even more penetrating look into the often misunderstood world of otaku. Dozens of lively, colorful images—from portraits of the interview subjects to manga illustrations, film stills and photos of places mentioned in the text—pop up throughout the book, making The Otaku Encyclopedia as entertaining to read as it is informative.

Book Moe Manifesto

Download or read book Moe Manifesto written by Patrick W. Galbraith and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2014-06-24 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moe is a huge cultural phenomenon and one of the driving forces behind the enormous success of Japanese anime and manga—not just in Japan but now throughout the world. In Japan, avid fans of manga comics, anime films and videogames use the term Moe to refer to the strong sense of emotional attachment they feel for their favorite characters. These fans have a powerful desire to protect and nurture the youthful, beautiful and innocent characters they adore—like Sagisawa Moe in Dinosaur Planet and Tomoe Hotaru in Sailor Moon. They create their own websites, characters, stories, discussion groups, toys and games based around the original manga and anime roles. Author Patrick Galbraith is the world's acknowledged expert on Moe and a journalist based in Tokyo. For this book, he interviewed twenty important figures in the world of Japanese manga and anime to gain their insights on the Moe phenomenon. These interviews provide us with the first in-depth survey of this subject. Galbraith uncovers how Moe is influencing an entire generation of manga artists and readers. For those new to anime, manga, and youth culture in Japan, he discusses what constitutes the ideal Moe relationship and why some fans are even determined to marry their fictional sweethearts. He reveals key moments in the development of Moe, and current and future trends in the spread of Moe works and characters from Japan to other parts of the world. The Moe Manifesto provides an insider's look at the earliest Moe characters such as Ayame by Tezuka Osamu. The book has over 100 illustrations of the most famous Moe characters, many in color, and it is sure to delight manga and anime fans of every age.

Book Debating Otaku in Contemporary Japan

Download or read book Debating Otaku in Contemporary Japan written by Patrick W. Galbraith and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-07-16 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the spread of manga (Japanese comics) and anime (Japanese cartoons) around the world, many have adopted the Japanese term 'otaku' to identify fans of such media. The connection to manga and anime may seem straightforward, but, when taken for granted, often serves to obscure the debates within and around media fandom in Japan since the term 'otaku' appeared in the niche publication Manga Burikko in 1983. Debating Otaku in Contemporary Japan disrupts the naturalization and trivialization of 'otaku' by examining the historical contingency of the term as a way to identify and contain problematic youth, consumers and fan cultures in Japan. Its chapters, many translated from Japanese and available in English for the first time – and with a foreword by Otsuka Eiji, former editor of Manga Burikko – explore key moments in the evolving discourse of 'otaku' in Japan. Rather than presenting a smooth, triumphant narrative of the transition of a subculture to the mainstream, the edited volume repositions 'otaku' in specific historical, social and economic contexts, providing new insights into the significance of the 'otaku' phenomenon in Japan and the world. By going back to original Japanese documents, translating key contributions by Japanese scholars and offering sustained analysis of these documents and scholars, Debating Otaku in Contemporary Japan provides alternative histories of and approaches to 'otaku'. For all students and scholars of contemporary Japan and the history of Japanese fan and consumer cultures, this volume will be a foundation for understanding how 'otaku', at different places and times and to different people, is meaningful.

Book The End of Forgetting

Download or read book The End of Forgetting written by Kate Eichhorn and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-07-08 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thanks to Facebook and Instagram, our younger selves have been captured and preserved online. But what happens, Kate Eichhorn asks, when we can’t leave our most embarrassing moments behind? Rather than a childhood cut short by a loss of innocence, the real crisis of the digital age may be the specter of a childhood that can never be forgotten.

Book Precarious Japan

    Book Details:
  • Author : Anne Allison
  • Publisher : Duke University Press
  • Release : 2014-02-04
  • ISBN : 0822377241
  • Pages : 257 pages

Download or read book Precarious Japan written by Anne Allison and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2014-02-04 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an era of irregular labor, nagging recession, nuclear contamination, and a shrinking population, Japan is facing precarious times. How the Japanese experience insecurity in their daily and social lives is the subject of Precarious Japan. Tacking between the structural conditions of socioeconomic life and the ways people are making do, or not, Anne Allison chronicles the loss of home affecting many Japanese, not only in the literal sense but also in the figurative sense of not belonging. Until the collapse of Japan's economic bubble in 1991, lifelong employment and a secure income were within reach of most Japanese men, enabling them to maintain their families in a comfortable middle-class lifestyle. Now, as fewer and fewer people are able to find full-time work, hope turns to hopelessness and security gives way to a pervasive unease. Yet some Japanese are getting by, partly by reconceiving notions of home, family, and togetherness.

Book Media Convergence in Japan

Download or read book Media Convergence in Japan written by Various and published by Kinema Club. This book was released on 2016-05-20 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Japanese media system is in a state of flux as a result of shifts in the digital economy, new audience metrics and declining print and broadcast revenues. This volume examines issues of media consolidation, participatory culture and franchising in contemporary Japan, and explores how the Japanese media system is adapting to change in light of its tendency toward prioritizing domestic markets, restricting access and co-opting fan movements. The chapters consider conflict and negotiations within the Japanese media system, structural transformations, emerging modes of producer and audience relations and potential sites of innovation.

Book Electrified Voices

    Book Details:
  • Author : Kerim Yasar
  • Publisher : Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
  • Release : 2018
  • ISBN : 9780231187121
  • Pages : 304 pages

Download or read book Electrified Voices written by Kerim Yasar and published by Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University. This book was released on 2018 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kerim Yasar traces the origins of the modern soundscape, showing how the revolutionary nature of sound technology and the rise of a new auditory culture played an essential role in the formation of Japanese modernity. Electrified Voices is a far-reaching cultural history of the telegraph, telephone, phonograph, radio, and early sound film in Japan.

Book Erotic Comics in Japan

    Book Details:
  • Author : Kaoru Nagayama
  • Publisher : Asian Visual Cultures
  • Release : 2020-12
  • ISBN : 9789463727129
  • Pages : 290 pages

Download or read book Erotic Comics in Japan written by Kaoru Nagayama and published by Asian Visual Cultures. This book was released on 2020-12 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comics and cartoons from Japan, or manga and anime, are an increasingly common feature of visual and popular culture around the world. While it is often observed that these media forms appeal to broad and diverse demographics, including many adults, eroticism continues to unsettle critics and has even triggered legal action in some jurisdictions. It is more urgent than ever to engage in productive discussion, which begins with being informed about content that is still scarcely understood outside small industry and fan circles. This translation is the most comprehensive introduction in English to erotic comics from Japan, or eromanga. Divided into three parts, it provides a history of eroticism in Japanese comics and cartoons generally leading to the emergence of eromanga specifically, an overview of seven themes running across works with close analysis of outstanding examples and a window onto ongoing debates surrounding regulation and freedom of expression in Japan.

Book Puppets  Gods  and Brands

Download or read book Puppets Gods and Brands written by Teri J. Silvio and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2019-09-30 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The early twenty-first century has seen an explosion of animation. Cartoon characters are everywhere—in cinema, television, and video games and as brand logos. There are new technological objects that seem to have lives of their own—from Facebook algorithms that suggest products for us to buy to robots that respond to human facial expressions. The ubiquity of animation is not a trivial side-effect of the development of digital technologies and the globalization of media markets. Rather, it points to a paradigm shift. In the last century, performance became a key term in academic and popular discourse: The idea that we construct identities through our gestures and speech proved extremely useful for thinking about many aspects of social life. The present volume proposes an anthropological concept of animation as a contrast and complement to performance: The idea that we construct social others by projecting parts of ourselves out into the world might prove useful for thinking about such topics as climate crisis, corporate branding, and social media. Like performance, animation can serve as a platform for comparisons of different cultures and historical eras. Teri Silvio presents an anthropology of animation through a detailed ethnographic account of how characters, objects, and abstract concepts are invested with lives, personalities, and powers—and how people interact with them—in contemporary Taiwan. The practices analyzed include the worship of wooden statues of Buddhist and Daoist deities and the recent craze for cute vinyl versions of these deities, as well as a wildly popular video fantasy series performed by puppets. She reveals that animation is, like performance, a concept that works differently in different contexts, and that animation practices are deeply informed by local traditions of thinking about the relationships between body and soul, spiritual power and the material world. The case of Taiwan, where Chinese traditions merge with Japanese and American popular culture, uncovers alternatives to seeing animation as either an expression of animism or as “playing God.” Looking at the contemporary world through the lens of animation will help us rethink relationships between global and local, identity and otherness, human and non-human.

Book Otaku Spaces

    Book Details:
  • Author : Patrick W. Galbraith
  • Publisher : Chin Music
  • Release : 2012
  • ISBN : 9780984457656
  • Pages : 0 pages

Download or read book Otaku Spaces written by Patrick W. Galbraith and published by Chin Music. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive look at Japan's otaku collectors, including peeks inside their rooms and visits to their favorite stores.

Book Media Theory in Japan

Download or read book Media Theory in Japan written by Marc Steinberg and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-24 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing an overview of Japanese media theory from the 1910s to the present, this volume introduces English-language readers to Japan's rich body of theoretical and conceptual work on media for the first time. The essays address a wide range of topics, including the work of foundational Japanese thinkers; Japanese theories of mediation and the philosophy of media; the connections between early Japanese television and consumer culture; and architecture's intersection with communications theory. Tracing the theoretical frameworks and paradigms that stem from Japan's media ecology, the contributors decenter Eurocentric media theory and demonstrate the value of the Japanese context to reassessing the parameters and definition of media theory itself. Taken together, these interdisciplinary essays expand media theory to encompass philosophy, feminist critique, literary theory, marketing discourse, and art; provide a counterbalance to the persisting universalist impulse of media studies; and emphasize the need to consider media theory situationally. Contributors. Yuriko Furuhata, Aaron Gerow, Mark Hansen, Marilyn Ivy, Takeshi Kadobayashi, Keisuke Kitano, Akihiro Kitada, Thomas Looser, Anne McKnight, Ryoko Misono, Akira Mizuta Lippit, Miryam Sas, Fabian Schäfer, Marc Steinberg, Tomiko Yoda, Alexander Zahlten

Book Anime

    Book Details:
  • Author : Jonathan Clements
  • Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
  • Release : 2019-07-25
  • ISBN : 1838714391
  • Pages : 438 pages

Download or read book Anime written by Jonathan Clements and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-25 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive history of Japanese animation draws on Japanese primary sources and testimony from industry professionals to explore the production and reception of anime, from its origins in Japanese cartoons of the 1920s and 30s to the international successes of companies such as Studio Ghibli and Nintendo, films such as Spirited Away and video game characters such as Pokémon.