Tokyo Geek's Guide

Tokyo Geek's Guide
Author: Gianni Simone
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2017-07-11
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1462919707

Tokyo is ground zero for Japan's famous "geek" or otaku culture--a phenomenon that has now swept across the globe. This is the most comprehensive Japan travel guide ever produced which features Tokyo's geeky underworld. It provides a comprehensive run-down of each major Tokyo district where geeks congregate, shop, play and hang out--from hi-tech Akihabara and trendy Harajuku to newer and lesser-known haunts like chic Shimo-Kita and working-class Ikebukuro. Dozens of iconic shops, restaurants, cafes and clubs in each area are described in loving detail with precise directions to get to each location. Maps, URLs, opening hours and over 400 fascinating color photographs bring you around Tokyo on an unforgettable trip to the centers of Japanese manga, anime and geek culture. Interviews with local otaku experts and people on the street let you see the world from their perspective and provide insights into Tokyo and Japanese culture, which will only continue to spread around the globe. Japanese pop culture, in its myriad forms, is more widespread today than ever before--with J-Pop artists playing through speakers everywhere, Japanese manga filling every bookstore; anime cartoons on TV; and toys and video games, like Pokemon Go, played by tens of millions of people. Swarms of visitors come to Tokyo each year on a personal quest to soak in all the otaku-related sights and enjoy Japanese manga, anime, gaming and idol culture at its very source. This is the go-to resource for those planning a trip, or simply dreaming of visiting one day!

Stray Dog of Anime

Stray Dog of Anime
Author: B. Ruh
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2016-01-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1137437901

Upon its US release in the mid 1990s, Ghost in the Shell , directed by Mamoru Oshii, quickly became one of the most popular Japanese animated films in the country. Despite this, Oshii is known as a maverick within anime: a self-proclaimed 'stray dog'. This is the first book to take an in-depth look at his major films, from Urusei Yatsura to Avalon .

The Ikigai Journey

The Ikigai Journey
Author: Hector Garcia
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2020-06-23
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1462921442

In The Ikigai Journey, authors Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles take their international bestseller Ikigai: the Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life a step further by showing you how to find your own ikigai through practical exercises, such as employing new habits and stepping outside your comfort zone. Ikigai is the place where our passion (what we love), mission (what we hope to contribute), vocation (the gifts we have to offer the world) and profession (how our passions and talents can become a livelihood) converge, giving us a personal sense of meaning. This book helps you bring together all of these elements so that you can enjoy a balanced life. Our ikigai is very similar to change: it is a constant that transforms depending on which phase of life we are in. Our "reason for being" is not the same at 15 as it is at 70. Through three sections, this book helps you to accept and embrace that--acting as a tool to revolutionize your future by helping you to understand the past, so you can enjoy your present. Section 1: Journey Through the Future: Tokyo (a symbol of modernity and innovation) Section 2: Journey Through the Past: Kyoto (an ancient capital moored in tradition) Section 3: Journey Through the Present: Ise (an ancient shrine that is destroyed and rebuilt every twenty years) Japan has one of the longest life spans in the world, and the greatest number of centenarians--many of whom cite their strong sense of ikigai as the basis for their happiness and longevity. Unlike many "self-care" practices, which require setting aside time in an increasingly busy world, the ikigai method helps you find peace and fulfillment in your busy life.

Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media Culture

Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media Culture
Author: P. W. Galbraith
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2012-08-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1137283785

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.

Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan

Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan
Author: Patrick W. Galbraith
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2019-12-06
Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 147800701X

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.

The Notenki Memoirs

The Notenki Memoirs
Author: Yasuhiro Takeda
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2005
Genre: Animated films
ISBN: 9781413902341

A tell-all account of Studio Gainax, the creators of the classic anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. Yasuhiro Takeda, a member of the Gainax company since its inception, talks about everything from the untold stories of Eva to the Gainax tax evasion scandal that plagued its production. Including a series of stunning revelations, this history of Gainax is a must-read for any serious anime fan.

The Dragon and the Dazzle

The Dragon and the Dazzle
Author: Marco Pellitteri
Publisher: Tunué
Total Pages: 734
Release: 2010
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 8889613890

"In the worldwide circulation of the products of cultural industries, an important role is played by Japanese popular culture in European contexts. Marco Pellitteri shows that the contact between Japanese pop culture and European youth publics occurred during two phases. By use of metaphor, the author calls them the Dragon and the Dazzle. The first took place between 1975 and 1995, the second from 1996 to today. They can be distinguished by the modalities of circulation and consumption/re-elaboration of Japanese themes and products in the most receptive countries: Italy, France, Spain, Germany and, across the ocean, the United States. During these two phases, several themes have been perceived, in Europe, as rising from Japan's social and mediatic systems. Among them, this book examines the most apparent from a European point of view: the author names them machine, infant, and mutation, visible mostly through manga, anime, videogames, and toys. Together with France, Italy is the European country that in this respect has had the most central role. There, Japanese imagination has been acknowledged not only by young people, but also by politicians, television programmers, the general public, educators, comics and cartoons authors. The growing influence of Japanese pop culture, connected to the appreciation of its manga, anime, toys, and videogames, also urges political and mediologic questions linked to the identity/ies of Japan as they are understood--wrongly or rightly--in Europe and the West, and to the increasingly important role of Japan in international relations."--Back cover

Pattern Recognition

Pattern Recognition
Author: William Gibson
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 419
Release: 2004-06-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0141904461

'Part-detective story, part-cultural snapshot . . . all bound by Gibson's pin-sharp prose' Arena -------------- THE FIRST NOVEL IN THE BLUE ANT TRILIOGY - READ ZERO HISTORY AND SPOOK COUNTRY FOR MORE Cayce Pollard has a new job. She's been offered a special project: track down the makers of an addictive online film that's lighting up the internet. Hunting the source will take her to Tokyo and Moscow and put her in the sights of Japanese hackers and Russian Mafia. She's up against those who want to control the film, to own it - who figure breaking the law is just another business strategy. The kind of people who relish turning the hunter into the hunted . . . A gripping spy thriller by William Gibson, bestselling author of Neuromancer. Part prophesy, part satire, Pattern Recognition skewers the absurdity of modern life with the lightest and most engaging of touches. Readers of Neal Stephenson, Ray Bradbury and Iain M. Banks won't be able to put this book down. -------------- 'Fast, witty and cleverly politicized' Guardian 'A big novel, full of bold ideas . . . races along like an expert thriller' GQ 'Dangerously hip. Its dialogue and characterization will amaze you. A wonderfully detailed, reckless journey of espionage and lies' USA Today 'A compelling, humane story with a sympathetic heroine searching for meaning and consolation in a post-everything world' Daily Telegraph 'Electric, profound. Gibson's descriptions of Tokyo, Russia and London are surreally spot-on' Financial Times

K-ON! College

K-ON! College
Author: kakifly
Publisher: Yen Press LLC
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2014-02-18
Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 031640974X

Yui, Mio, Ritsu, and Tsumugi embark on their college adventures! It will take some time for the girls to get used to life away from their families and adjust to the pace of college life, but there's one aspect of their new situation that there's no uncertainty about-joining the pop music club! But they aren't the only high school band making their debut on the college scene. Is Afterschool Tea Time ready to perform alongside the hard-rocking rhythms of The Girlz?!

Before and After Superflat

Before and After Superflat
Author: Adrian Favell
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Art and society
ISBN: 9789881506412

This is a history of the Japanese art world from 1990 up to the tsunami of March 2011, and its struggle to find a voice amidst Japan's economic decline and China's economic ascent. It looks at how the pop-culture fantasies of Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara and the other artists of the Superflat movement came to dominate the art of Japan today. It also delves into what lies behind their imagery of a childish and decadent society unable to face reality.