Japan Pop!: Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture

Rating:
Summary: fascinating read
Review: A fascinating and enjoyable read. "Japan pop" gave me a fresh and informitive insight into Japans modern culture and and in to the psychology of its people. Loved this book and I highly recommed it. ray brooks

Rating:
Summary: Very poor introduction to the subject
Review: Claiming to be a book which bridges the divide between the worlds of academia and populism, Japan Pop! gets off to a poor start with an absurdly high cover price likely to put it out of reach of the casual J-Pop Culture fan. The price might have been justified had this been a glossy, photo-packed book, but seems ludicrous given that it is merely a collection of 17 essays. The essays dwell on four major areas of contemporary J-Pop Culture: music, manga and animation, TV & film and the popularity of J-Pop Culture outside of the country. It comes as little surprise that Mark Schilling's contribution, about the Tora-san character in the Otoko wa Tsurai yo (It's Tough Being a Man) film series, is the most interesting - not necessarily because of the topic, but because Schilling is the only contributor who is a writer of any repute. The majority of these essays are written by academics and it shows: footnotes abound, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers get analysed to the nth degree and claims are made that "Sailor Moon's rearrangement of the traditional superhero myth bears hints of not only a new social order, but also the kind of moral struggles, alliances, and identities that may create and accompany it." The book also contains a number of confidence-sapping factual errors (example: Osaka band Shonen Knife "started playing in the mid-1980s" which is not true, they started playing in December 1981). Schilling's Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture (Weatherhill) remains the definitive starting point for those seeking a good, accessible introduction to the subject; Japan Pop! is only for the otaku completist, and a wealthy one at that.

Rating:
Summary: Japan Pop! Fascinating and entertaining
Review: For anyone who has noticed the ubiquity of anime, sushi shops, Japanese style and other aspects of Japanese culture, this book provides a welcome and readable introduction to what Japanese popular culture is and where it comes from. I particularly liked the chapters on music but I probably learned more about Japanese culture and the mind set behind it from the chapters on television and anime. This book explains not only that there is a Japanese poular culture, but why it is the way it is. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: an academic tired of bad academics
Review: In a word, this book is a mess. Methodologically suspect and theoretically uninformed, it relies on antiquated Orientalist assumptions of essential cultural identity and unchanging social forms to make the multifarious sources it cites all sound the same, which is too bad, because it is the only English-language 'scholarship' available at present on many of the topics covered. A wasted opportunity that makes me sad and mad.

Rating:
Summary: fascinating read
Review: Japan Pop! considers various forms of Japanese popular culture, from pop music and animated cartoons to films and television. The result is an analysis of Japanese society, cultural identity, and daily life which provide absorbing surveys into Japanese psychology. A 'must' for any college-level student of Japanese studies.

Rating:
Summary: A "must" for students of Japanese studies & popular culture.
Review: Japan Pop! considers various forms of Japanese popular culture, from pop music and animated cartoons to films and television. The result is an analysis of Japanese society, cultural identity, and daily life which provide absorbing surveys into Japanese psychology. A 'must' for any college-level student of Japanese studies.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: This is an outstanding, enjoyable and entertaining read that gives great insight into Japanese contemporary society and culture. I particularly like the breadth of topics and the depth of knowledge displayed by the contributors. I wish I had read this before my recent visit to Japan. Although as a follow-up read, it brought new life to my experience there.