Science Fiction/Asian Studies

“Eye-opening, entertaining, and informative, Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams provides a fascinating, in-depth overview of Japanese prose science fiction and animated series and films, from prewar precursors to the most recent cutting-edge works.” -Ian Condry, author of Hip-Hop Japan

“The Japanese imagination of both the future and the bizarre come together in Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams, highlighting what may be the most inventive literary and popular culture anywhere in the world today.” -John Whittier Treat, Yale University

Since the end of the Second World War-and particularly over the past 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. 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: Hiroko Chiba, Naoki Chiba, William O. Gardner, Azuma Hiroki, Kotani Mari, Livia Monnet, Miri Nakamura, Susan J. Napier, Sharalyn Orbaugh, Thomas Schnellbächer, Saitô Tamaki.

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 in Tokyo and the author of Full Metal Apache: Transactions between Cyberpunk Japan and Avant-Pop America.

University of Minnesota Press
Printed in U.S.A.
Cover design by Percolator Graphic