Introducing Japanese Popular Culture

Description

Specifically designed for use on a range of undergraduate and graduate courses, Introducing Japanese Popular Culture is a comprehensive textbook offering an up-to-date overview of a wide variety of media forms. It uses particular case studies as a way into examining the broader themes in Japanese culture and provides a thorough analysis of the historical and contemporary trends that have shaped artistic production, as well as, politics, society, and economics. As a result, more than being a time capsule of influential trends, this book teaches enduring lessons about how popular culture reflects the societies that produce and consume it. With contributions from an international team of scholars, representing a range of disciplines from history and anthropology to art history and media studies, the book’s sections include: Television Videogames Music Popular Cinema Anime Manga Popular Literature Fashion Contemporary Art Written in an accessible style by a stellar line-up of international contributors, this textbook will be essential reading for students of Japanese culture and society, Asian media and popular culture, and Asian Studies in general. Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of Figures Contributors Japanese Conventions 1 Introducing Japanese Popular Culture: Serious Approaches to Playful Delights PART I Characters 2 Kumamon: Japan’s Surprisingly Cheeky Mascot 3 Hello Kitty Is Not a Cat?!?: Tracking Japanese Cute Culture at Home and Abroad PART II Television 4 The Grotesque Hero: Depictions of Justice in Tokusatsu Superhero Television Programs 5 Tokyo Love Story: Romance of the Working Woman in Japanese Television Dramas 6 The World Too Much with Us in Japanese Travel Television PART III Videogames 7 Nuclear Discourse in Final Fantasy VII: Embodied Experience and Social Critique 8 The Cute Shall Inherit the Earth: Post-Apocalyptic Posthumanity in Tokyo Jungle PART IV Fan Media and Technology 9 Managing Manga Studies in the Convergent Classroom 10 Purikura: Expressive Energy in Female Self-Photography 11 Studio Ghibli Media Tourism 12 Hatsune Miku: Virtual Idol, Media Platform, and Crowd-Sourced Celebrity PART V Music 13 Electrifying the Japanese Teenager Across Generations: The Role of the Electric Guitar in Japan’s Popular Culture 14 The “Pop Pacific”: Japanese-American Sojourners and the Development of Japanese Popular Music 15 AKB Business: Idols and Affective Economics in Contemporary Japan 16 In Search of Japanoise: Globalizing Underground Music 17 Korean Pop Music in Japan: Understanding the Complex Relationship Between Japan and Korea in the Popular Culture Realm PART VI Popular Cinema 18 The Prehistory of Soft Power: Godzilla, Cheese, and the American Consumption of Japan 19 The Rise of Japanese Horror Films: Yotsuya Ghost Story (Yotsuya Kaidan), Demonic Men, and Victimized Women 20 V-Cinema: How Home Video Revitalized Japanese Film and Mystified Film Historians PART VII Anime 21 Apocalyptic Animation: In the Wake of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Godzilla, and Baudrillard 22 Toy Stories: Robots and Magical Girls in Anime Marketing 23 Condensing the Media Mix: The Tatami Galaxy’s Multiple Possible Worlds PART VIII Manga 24 Gekiga, or Japanese Alternative Comics: The Mediascape of Japanese Counterculture 25 Sampling Girls’ Culture: An Analysis of Shōjo Manga Magazines 26 The Beautiful Men of the Inner Chamber: Gender-Bending, Boys’ Love, and Other Shōjo Manga Tropes in Ōoku 27 Cyborg Empiricism: The Ghost Is Not in the Shell PART IX Popular Literature 28 Murakami Haruki’s Transnational Avant-Pop Literature 29 Thumb-Generation Literature: The Rise and Fall of Japanese Cellphone Novels PART X Sites and Spectacles 30 Hanabi: The Cultural Significance of Fireworks in Japan 31 Kamishibai: The Fantasy Space of the Urban Street Corner 32 Shibuya: Reflective Identity in Transforming Urban Space 33 Akihabara: Promoting and Policing “Otaku” in “Cool Japan” 34 Japan Lost and Found: Modern Ruins as Debris of the Economic Miracle PART XI Fashion 35 Cute Fashion: The Social Strategies and Aesthetics of Kawaii 36 Made in Japan: A New Generation of Fashion Designers 37 Clean-Cut: Men’s Fashion Magazines, Male Aesthetic Ideals, and Social Affinity in Japan PART XII Contemporary Art 38 Superflat Life 39 Aida Makoto: Notes from an Apathetic Continent 40 Art from “What is Already There” on Islands in the Seto Inland Sea Glossary Bibliography Index