My sexy book OTAKU IN USA is reviewed in this morning's edition of the Asahi Shimbun. The book next to it is Seiji Horibuchi's MOERU AMERICA - the story of how Viz blazed a trail for the rise of manga and anime right smack on Uncle Sam's front yard. There are some wild pictures inside of a Bay Area hippie commune that Horibuchi got groovy at during the '60s. He also green-lit my book TokyoScope when I worked at Viz, so it's kind of a gas to now be competing with him for shelf space here in Japan like a couple of neighboring maid cafes. The solution?
BUY BOTH BOOKS!
Congrats on the book! Was this written for translation and publication in Japanese, or is there an original English version in publication too? (I'm translating an article and the title comes up; I'd like to know whether to transliterate the Japanese title or to give an official English one.)
--Peter (durf at gol dot com)
Posted by: Peter | October 04, 2006 at 03:08 AM
Hey Durf,
This book was written in English, but translated in Japanese for the Japanese market. Right now, there is no English version (but you never know). The official English title is 'OTAKU IN USA - Love and Misunderstanding! The History of adopted Anime in America.'
Posted by: Patrick Macias | October 04, 2006 at 03:19 AM
Thanks very much! The essay I'm translating now will show up in the next issue of the Japan Foundation's "Japanese Book News"; I'll send you a link when it's uploaded. :-)
Posted by: Peter | October 04, 2006 at 03:26 AM
Hmm you think Toren Smith will follow ? Would be very interesting to compare stories!
Posted by: Danielle Tokunaga | October 04, 2006 at 11:27 AM
Just a quick update: issue no. 50 of Japanese Book News is out now. You can get the goods here:
http://www.jpf.go.jp/e/publish/jbn/index.html
Posted by: Peter | December 25, 2006 at 01:20 AM