Little Boy : The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture - review(sort of)

[Sukotto]

"Little Boy : The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture"
by Takashi Murakami (Editor)


Here's a art/sociology? book (book on anime/otaku history?)
I recently came across for anybody
who's an anime freak. (much less in recent years for me.
Ever since Pokemon... I've been much more selective.
Sooooo much and sooooo little monies.
It might have been the first for many, but....)


Kono hon wa (This book is)
Nihongo & English de,

I've only read a couple essays so far, including one on "otaku".
I wasn't aware of a Japanese serial killer that stalked young girls
some years ago that was way far gone into an imaginary world of anime.
Likewise the Aum cult that gassed Tokyo was reportedly really
into a movie released State-side as "Harmegeddon".

It is these events that evidently wound up giving the word "otaku" a bad
connotation. (There could be more....?)
Sure movies can have messages, but come on folks...


Before studying Japanese at college I was not aware of any such
bad connotation at all. And in fact, many of us were under the impression
that comics and animated movies/shows in Japan were not "only for kids".
And we as Americans had it backwards in shunning the medium.

So far I can't really tell what the book is saying beyond the obvious
from the title. The essays thus far are extremely intriguing.
But for anyone into anime :cool: