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Bibliographic Record Display

• Author/Creator:Galbraith, Patrick W., author.
  
• Title:Otaku and the struggle for imagination in Japan / Patrick W. Galbraith.
  
• ISBN:9781478007012
  147800701X
  9781478005094
  1478005092
  9781478006299
  1478006293
  
• Publication:Durham : Duke University Press, 2019.
  
• Physical Description:1 online resource (325 pages) : illustrations
  
• Links:Online book
  

• Yale Holdings

  Holdings Record Display

  • Location:Yale Internet Resource
    Information about Off Campus Access
    
    
  • Call Number: None
    
  • Status:No information available 
  • Notes: Online resource
    

   
• Local Notes:Access is available to the Yale community.
  
• Notes:Description based on print version record.
  
• Access and use:Access restricted by licensing agreement.
• Summary:"In this ethnographic study of Otaku-- a loose category referring to intense fans of Japanese animation, games, and comics-- conducted in Akihabara, the electronics-turned-pop-culture neighborhood of Tokyo, author Patrick Galbraith traces the evolving relationships of mostly male-fans with imagined female characters. The term otaku, he argues, is frequently pathologized, to mean alienated or introverted persons - usually male - who have difficulty having real relationships and thus retreat into a world of their own imagination and control. Galbraith wonders why the form of a relationship that focuses on an animated character is more problematic than other kinds of fan attachments - crushes on pop music stars or a deep investment in Star Wars or Harry Potter. Through his engaged ethnography at the height of the interest in maid cafés and animated female characters in the early 2000s, he is able to historicize this fandom in an empathetic and detailed way, showing that what many have taken to be a single and peculiar psychological phenomenon was actually a complex, quickly evolving pop culture phenomenon. The affective relationships of the fans (seen as 3D) and the characters (2D, even when they are in three dimensions) is seen as a shifting and ordered form of closeness, a closeness between humans and animated characters. Galbraith urges us to explore rather than denigrate these relationships."--Provided by publisher.
  
• Variant and related titles:e-Duke books scholarly collection 2019.
  
• Other formats:Print version: Galbraith, Patrick W. Otaku and the struggle for imagination in Japan. Durham : Duke University Press, 2019
  
• Format:Book
• BibliographyIncludes bibliographical references and index.
  
• Contents:Introduction: 'Otaku' and the struggle for imagination in Japan -- Seeking an alternative: 'Male' sh-jo fans since the 1970s -- 'Otaku' research and reality problems -- Moe: an affective response to fictional characters -- Akihabara: 'Otaku' and contested imaginaries in Japan -- Maid cafés: relations with fictional and real others in spaces between -- Eshi 100: the politics of Japanese, 'Otaku' popular culture in Akihabara and beyond.
  
• Subjects:Mass media and culture--Japan.
  Fans (Persons)--Japan.
  Popular culture--Japan.
  Animated films--Japan--History and criticism.
  Japan--Social life and customs--21st century.
  
• Genre/Form:Electronic books.