"Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams: Japanese Science Fiction from Origins to Anime" ed. by Christopher Bolton, Jr.

Covering a remarkable range of texts ”from the 1930s fantastic detective fiction of Yumeno Kyusaku 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. Rich exploration of the genre that connects prose science fiction to contemporary anime.

Bringing together Western scholars and leading Japanese critics, this groundbreaking work traces the beginnings, evolution, and future direction of science fiction in Japan, its major schools and authors, cultural origins and relationship to its Western counterparts, the role of the genre in the formation of Japan's national and political identity, and its unique fan culture.

Contents
Introduction. ROBOT GHOSTS AND WIRED DREAMS. Japanese Science Fiction from Origins to Anime

Part I. Prose Science Fiction
1. HORROR AND MACHINES IN PREWAR JAPAN. The Mechanical Uncanny in Yumeno Kyu¯saku’s Dogura magura
2. HAS THE EMPIRE SUNK YET? The Pacific in Japanese Science Fiction
3. ALIEN SPACES AND ALIEN BODIES IN JAPANESE WOMEN’S SCIENCE FICTION
4. SF AS HAMLET.Science Fiction and Philosophy
5. TSUTSUI YASUTAKA AND THE MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCE OF AUTHORSHIP

Part II. Science Fiction Animation
6. WHEN THE MACHINES STOP. Fantasy, Reality, and Terminal Identity in Neon Genesis Evangelion and Serial Experiments: Lain
7. THE MECHA’S BLIND SPOT. Patlabor 2 and the Phenomenology of Anime
8. WORDS OF ALIENATION, WORDS OF FLIGHT. Loanwords in Science Fiction Anime
9. SEX AND THE SINGLE CYBORG. Japanese Popular Culture Experiments in Subjectivity
10. INVASION OF THE WOMAN SNATCHERS. The Problem of A-Life and the Uncanny in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
11. OTAKU SEXUALITY

Afterword. A VERY SOFT TIME MACHINE. From Translation to Transfiguration
PUBLICATION HISTORY
CONTRIBUTORS
INDEX