Animation World Network reviews Anime's Media Mix

Marc Steinberg’s book discusses the importance of character merchandising on the popularity and cultural influence of anime.

Steinberg_Anime's coverThere have been dozens if not hundreds of studies, both popular and academic, on Japanese comics and animation; on the genre, the industry, and the individual characters, on the cartoonists, on the social phenomenon in Japan and in America, even on the “cosplaying”: the dressing-up as favorite cartoon characters by their fans.  Marc Steinberg, an assistant professor of film studies at Montreal’s Concordia University, takes an original approach.  He has studied what he calls “the media mix”; the merchandising of the anime characters that he argues has been of equal importance in leading to their popularity and cultural influence.

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Published in: Animation World Network
By: Fred Patten