Stone Bridge Press

This whimsical look at Japan's "language of no language" introduces 70 gestures that will help you hurl insults, flirt, agree, excuse yourself, cross the street, and even make promises - wordlessly! Some are deadly, some are practical, and some are wacky, but all are genuine and used today on the streets of Japan, at home, and in manga and anime. Finally, a way to tell someone at a loud party, "Hey! Your underwear is showing!" in four easy hand motions.

Making a strand of one thousand origami cranes has become an international movement for peace, happiness, and health. This book is an update of the Heian classic, with new photographs and projects, plus 48 tear-out sheets of colorful chiyogami to get you started. Included is the story of Sadako in Hiroshima and suggestions for how cranes can be used at schools and hospitals, as wedding gifts, and by people everywhere to demonstrate their commitment to world peace.

Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami's best-selling books, including Norwegian Wood, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and Kafka on the Shore, have been translated into over forty languages. His dreamlike prose delights readers across borders and datelines. What lies behind this phenomenal international appeal? The Japan Foundation asked novelists, translators, artists, and critics from around the world to answer this question.

This readable, wide-ranging analysis brings you quickly up to speed on the ever-changing relationship between Japan and the United States. Drawing on history, cultural commentary, and opinion, the author portrays two nations in conflict yet increasingly connected.

Here are extended reviews of one hundred top Japanese animation films, TV series, and made-for-video series, from 1958 to the latest Cartoon Network hits. Each entry includes data, personnel, summary, style, critical comments, and viewer-discretion guides. From Akira to Yu Yu Hakusho, fans will learn tons of new information about old favorites, or will discover films they absolutely - zettai!! - have to see.

This long-awaited "companion" volume boasts over 500 all-new glossary-style entries to help you decipher anime's distinctive content, images, and cultural motifs! Ranging from Aikido to Zero fighters (with Japanese Mountain Vegetables in between), Gilles Poitras covers all the minute details of anime in fascinating detail, including illustrations, anime images, film citations, and numerous references to the related art of manga.

The prequel to the wildly successful Anime Companion, a new guide for every kind of fan is now available! What makes Japanese animation Japanese? Who's got the anime goods? What's it all mean anyway? Answering just about every question a fan has, Anime Essentials is an easy-to-read and fun-to-look-at overview of the pop culture phenomenon sweeping America.

The year is 2044. The people of Earth are finally free from their alien occupiers and prepare to search for Admiral Hunter's missing fleet. But a deadly new adversary threatens to test the limits of the Expeditionary Force's use of Shadow Technology... Included here is everything fans are looking for - series history, plot, character, and mecha guides, plus page after page of detailed film art and drawings - assembled by the film's director and other production insiders.

Patrick Galloway, who last looked at samurai movies in Stray Dogs and Lone Wolves, now takes on Asian masters of suspense, exploitation, the supernatural, and bone-chilling, blood-curdling fear and evil. The �lms featured here are pan-Asian, including Korea and Thailand, and represent a mix of classics and the contemporary cutting edge. Included are overviews of genres, cultures, and viewing tips.

The pioneering genius of Japan's "god of manga," Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989), is examined through his life's masterwork: Tetsuwan Atomu. Also known as Mighty Atom or Astro Boy, Tetsuwan Atom was a comic series featuring a cute little android who yearns to be more human. The history of Tetsuwan Atomu and Tezuka's role in it is a road map to understanding the development of new media in Japan and the United States.

This collection of short stories by non-Japanese who choose to live in Japan is an absorbing look at the Outsider in a nation that does not absorb foreigners easily. Unlike that other, earlier hotbed of expatriate writing, Literary Paris, which was not so different from home, postwar Literary Japan has confronted its expatriate writing community with a challenging mental and physical landscape.

Born into the burakumin - Japan's class of outcasts - Kenji Nakagami depicts the lives of his people in sensual language and stark detail. The Cape is a breakthrough novella about a burakumin community, their troubled memories, and complex family histories. Includes House on Fire and Red Hair.