Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams: Japanese Science Fiction from Origins to Anime (Hardcover)

by Christopher Bolton (Editor), Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr. (Editor), Takayuki Tatsumi (Editor)
Key Phrases: orang pendek, terminal identity, language contact, Final Fantasy, New York, Macross Plus (more...)

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Product Description

Since the end of the Second World War—and particularly over the last decade—Japanese science fiction has strongly influenced global popular culture. Unlike American and British science fiction, its most popular examples have been visual—from Gojira (Godzilla) and Astro Boy in the 1950s and 1960s to the anime masterpieces Akira and Ghost in the Shell of the 1980s and 1990s—while little attention has been paid to a vibrant tradition of prose science fiction in Japan.

 

Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams remedies this neglect with a rich exploration of the genre that connects prose science fiction to contemporary anime. Bringing together Western scholars and leading Japanese critics, this groundbreaking work traces the beginnings, evolution, and future direction of science fiction in Japan, its major schools and authors, cultural origins and relationship to its Western counterparts, the role of the genre in the formation of Japan’s national and political identity, and its unique fan culture.

 

Covering a remarkable range of texts—from the 1930s fantastic detective fiction of Yumeno Kyûsaku to the cross-culturally produced and marketed film and video game franchise Final Fantasy—this book firmly establishes Japanese science fiction as a vital and exciting genre.

 

Contributors: Hiroki Azuma; Hiroko Chiba, DePauw U; Naoki Chiba; William O. Gardner, Swarthmore College; Mari Kotani; Livia Monnet, U of Montreal; Miri Nakamura, Stanford U; Susan Napier, Tufts U; Sharalyn Orbaugh, U of British Columbia; Tamaki Saitô; Thomas Schnellbächer, Berlin Free U.

 

Christopher Bolton is assistant professor of Japanese at Williams College.

 

Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr. is professor of English at DePauw University.

 

Takayuki Tatsumi is professor of English at Keio University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press (November 26, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816649731
• ISBN-13: 978-0816649730
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,452,514 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essays On Japanese Science Fiction, Past And Present, December 17, 2008

By	Dave_42 "Dave_42" (Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

"Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams" is a collection of essays written about Japanese Science Fiction edited by Christopher Bolton, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr., and Takayuki Tatsumi. These essays are split into two sections, the first one is "Prose Science Fiction", and the second section is "Science Fiction Animation". These essays discuss Japanese Science Fiction from its origins (oddly enough in detective fiction) to the anime of today, which has produced some extraordinary innovative storylines. The editors provide an interesting introduction to the book which discusses the organization and provides a good overview. Most of the essays were published elsewhere first. Only Chapter five appears to be original, but that doesn't mean that this book is not worthwhile.

The first section of this book covers the written form of Japanese Science Fiction, though the essays don't necessarily fit completely into the categories where they are placed. The first essay is by Miri Nakamura and is titled "Horror and Machines in Prewar Japan: The Mechanical Uncanny in Yumeno Kyusaku's `Dogura Magura'". This is an interesting chapter and provides insight into the use of machines in the fiction of the era. She has a wonderful discussion of how science fiction developed from detective fiction in Japan. This chapter is extremely important in seeing the origins of the genre in Japan, and one can easily see how key themes, such as the man-machine type stories have always played an important role in Japanese Science Fiction.

Chapter two is "Has the Empire Sunk Yet? The Pacific in Japanese Science Fiction" by Thomas Schnellbacher. This chapter helps build on the first chapter, and discusses the important theme of identity of the Japanese people in the storylines in Japanese science fiction. This chapter is a good example of how the essays don't really fit into the sections of the book, as it discusses prose, movies, and anime and how this theme has appeared in many important works in all three. The link between this era and the loss of prestige due to the war is significant, and important in the discussion.

Chapter three is "Alien Spaces and Alien Bodies in Japanese Women's Science Fiction" by Kotani Mari. This essay includes an interesting discussion on the rise of women's science fiction in Japan and how it differed from the women's movement in the west. Kotani Mari uses the transformation of the physical self as a running theme in this area of science fiction. Discussed are works like Kurimoto Kaoru's "Guin Saaga", Sato Aki's Barutazaaru No Henreki", and Takano Fumio's "Vasurafu".

Chapter four is "SF as Hamlet: Science Fiction and Philosophy" by Azuma Hiroki is an unusual choice for this book, as a good portion of this essay is looking at western works both in the SF arena as well as philosophy. However, Azuma Hiroki does bring the discussion back to Japanese science fiction and the shifts which took place in the genre in Japan during that time such as the shift from literature to anime and manga.

Chapter five is "Tsutsui Yasutaka and the Multimedia Performance of Authorship" by William O. Gardner. This is my personal favorite of the essays. I found the discussion of the innovative use of multimedia in the telling of a science fiction story to be incredibly interesting. Tsutsui's "Gaspard of the Morning was a newspaper-serialized novel, which incorporating feedback from the readers into the text, altering the story as it went, or so it appeared.

Chapter six is "When the Machines Stop: Fantasy, Reality, and Terminal Identity in "neon Genesis Evangelion" and "Serial Experiments: Lain" by Susan J. Napier. This chapter opens the second section of the book on anime, and it is anime which is the focus of the majority of the book, including several examples in the first section. While clearly anime is the dominant form of Japanese science fiction, I would have thought there would have been more to say about the movies and manga as well. Susan Napier takes an in depth look at the anime films mentioned in the title of the essay, and it is interesting to see how they fit in with the themes which have developed over time in the genre.

Chapter seven is "The Mecha's Blind Spot: "Patlabor 2" and the Phenomenology of Anime" by Christopher Bolton. This is another outstanding essay. Christopher Bolton clearly knows anime as well as "Patlabor", "Ghost in the Shell", and other works which he takes a deep dive look at some of the techniques used by the creators of these films.

Chapter eight is "Words of Alienation, Words of Flight: Loanwords in Science Fiction Anime" by Naoki Chiba and Hiroko Chiba. Yet again, a wonderful look at an entirely different view of techniques used in anime, that is to say the language and what the sub-context is that goes along with the choice of words. Not being someone who speaks Japanese or has been exposed to Japanese culture to any great extent, I am not sure I would ever have picked up on this aspect by watching the anime films, and that makes this chapter one of the best for me personally.

Chapter nine is "Sex and the Single Cyborg: Japanese Popular Culture Experiments in Subjectivity" by Sharalyn Orbaugh. This is another good chapter, as it takes a broader look at the subject, including providing references to Star Wars, Frankenstein, etc., which help the reader understand the topic and the comparisons being drawn. Sharalyn Orbaugh also looks at "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and "Ghost in the Shell" to help illustrate the discussion of sexuality and singularity which are important in these films.

Chapter 10 is "Invasion of the Woman Snatchers: The Problem of A-Life and the Uncanny in "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" by Livia Monnet. This essay takes an in depth look at the first fully computer-animated "photorealistic" feature film, and presents the view that it represents a turning point in the industry. It is an interesting discussion, though I am not sure I buy into the premise.

The last chapter is titled "Otaku Sexuality" by Saito Tamaki. This chapter looks at a type of fan which is unique to Japan and Japanese Science Fiction, and so it isn't directly about Anime even though it is placed in that section of the book. The otaku are shunned by some Japanese, for some reasons which Saito Tamaki discusses, and also discussed in great detail is the reality behind this group and myths are laid to rest. This is an interesting psychological analysis of a type of Science Fiction fan (though not all otaku are fans of science fiction), but I am not sure it tells us much about the genre any more than a study of types of fans in the U.S. would tell us about American Science Fiction. At the same time, it does provide a different perspective from which to view the genre.

Takayuki Tatsumi provides a nice afterword titled "A Very Soft Time Machine: From Translation to Transfiguration" in which he discusses the essays and how they relate as well as his own personal reflections on the subject.

Ultimately this is a very good book, and I am rounding up to five stars for the rating. I would have liked to see a few more essays, taking a look at some additional areas, such as manga and the non-anime movies in particular. However, what information is provided is excellent, and it is nice that they were able to bring this series of essays from different sources together in one place.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive and Fascinating, November 20, 2008

By	K. Klimt (Albuquerque, New Mexico) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams: Japanese Science Fiction from Origins to Anime (Paperback)

I bought this book because I was aiming to know more about Japanese cyberpunk, and I have not read through all the essays but the ones I have read are fantastic--informative but not too dense to be readable; I was thrilled to find a measured, academic article about something usually so removed from intelligent analysis as otaku/yaoi subculture. Aside from that, the bibliographies are tremendously informative in themselves, they pointed me to many other good sources (although not all of them are in English). I like this book too for treating with such depth and breadth Japanese science fiction in general, which tends to be reduced to a few popular anime and manga. Overall this is a great (and very welcome) essay collection.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Full Table of Contents, November 28, 2007

By	Christopher A. Bolton (Williamstown, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams: Japanese Science Fiction from Origins to Anime (Paperback)

The full table of contents for this book is as follows:

INTRODUCTION
by Christopher Bolton, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., and Takayuki Tatsumi

PART I--PROSE SCIENCE FICTION

Chapter 1. Horror and Machines in Prewar Japan: The Mechanical Uncanny in Yumeno Kyûsaku's Dogura magura
by Miri Nakamura

Chapter 2. Has the Empire Sunk Yet?--The Pacific in Japanese Science Fiction
by Thomas Schnellbächer

Chapter 3. Alien Spaces and Alien Bodies in Japanese Women's Science Fiction
by Kotani Mari (Translated by Miri Nakamura)

Chapter 4. SF as Hamlet: Science Fiction and Philosophy
by Azuma Hiroki (Translated by Miri Nakamura)

Chapter 5. Tsutsui Yasutaka and the Multimedia Performance of Authorship
by William O. Gardner

PART II--SCIENCE FICTION ANIMATION

Chapter 6. When the Machines Stop: Fantasy, Reality and Terminal Identity in Neon Genesis Evangelion and Serial Experiments Lain
by Susan J. Napier

Chapter 7. The Mecha's Blind Spot: Patlabor 2 and the Phenomenology of Anime
by Christopher Bolton

Chapter 8. Words of Alienation, Words of Flight: Loanwords in Science Fiction Anime
by Naoki Chiba and Hiroko Chiba

Chapter 9. Sex and the Single Cyborg: Japanese Popular Culture Experiments in Subjectivity
by Sharalyn Orbaugh

Chapter 10. Invasion of the Women Snatchers: The Problem of A-Life and the Uncanny in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
by Livia Monnet

Chapter 11. Otaku Sexuality
by Saitô Tamaki (with an introduction by Kotani Mari)

Afterword. A Very Soft Time Machine: From Translation to Transfiguration
by Takayuki Tatsumi