Ok, so here is the cover of the new reprint of my 2006 book Otaku in USA. Goes on sale in Japan on July 10. This is a bunko paperback edition from publisher Takeshobo that, like many great Japanese technological advances is smaller, compact, and more efficient.

At first, we planned on updating the original cover by using a new picture of an American LUM cosplayer, but they all turned out to be flaky or demented. Artwork is lots easier to work with, so we commissioned a fancy new illustration by utomaru with design and layout by Yoshiki Takahashi.

Seven years is a long time in the otaku game (shit man, even three months is a lifetime for anime fans now…), but I guess the publisher figures that ribald tales about Kojiro Abe and co. (as translated by Tomo Machiyama) might still tickle a few funny bones out there. Either way, the book contains a new introduction by myself that tries to get things up to speed: the death of DVD, the rise of the streaming anime wars, and the new jack swing of stalking Japanese people via social media and the significance of otaku stoners.

Most of that lot are on the plate in greater detail for my next book for Japan, due “real soon”. In the meantime, got a spare 819 yen? Because here's the....

Amazon.jp page for