Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S.

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Japanamerica is the first book that directly addresses the American experience with the Japanese pop culture craze–including anime from Hayao Miyazaki’s epics to the burgeoning world of hentai, or violent pornographic anime to Haruki Murakami’s fiction. Including interviews with the inventor of Pac-man and executives from TokyoPop, GDH, and other major Japanese and American production companies, this book highlights the shared conflicts both countries face as anime and manga become a global form of entertainment and change both the United States and Japan in the process.

Roland Kelts is a Lecturer at the University of Tokyo and a co-editor of the New York-based literary journal, A Public Space. His articles, essays, and stories have been published in Zoetrope, Playboy, Salon, The Village Voice, Cosmopolitan, and Vogue, among others. He currently splits his time between New York and Tokyo.

Foreword * May the G-Force Be with You * Atom Boys * The Business of Anime * Toy Story * Japan’s IP Problem * Strange Transformations * Cosplay and Otakudom: The Draw of DIY * Future Shocks * Anime Appeals

“[This] tells the incredible story of the way…Japanese entertainment and popular art…continue to grow and draw two very different worlds together.” —Pete Townshend, The Who“Embrace the world of otaku in Roland Kelts’ comprehensive study of how Japanese pop culture enchanted the West, from Speed Racer and Pokémon to cosplay and hentai manga.” —Wired“If you wish to understand the nuances of otaku-dom, or are just hentai-curious, Japanamerica is a broad primer” —The Village Voice

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