Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan

“In this tremendous book, Patrick W. Galbraith brings to life the relatively unknown world of Japanese popular culture. His voice shines throughout thoughtful interviews, detailed ethnography, sensitive portraits of people characterized as ‘otaku,’ and nuanced readings of videogames and interactive fiction. An impressive contribution to the field of manga and anime studies.” - Ian Condry, author of The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Japan’s Media Success Story

“This book offers nothing less than a thorough rethinking of normative sexuality and alternative sexualities through the figure of the otaku and their practices. It's everything that the fields of Japan studies, queer theory, and media history need at this moment. A virtually flawless and captivating read.” - Marc Steinberg, author of Anime’s Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan

"This thoughtful investigation of hegemonic masculinity and its alternatives at the margins of imagination is well-sourced with cultural and academic research as well as personal experience." - R. Tait-Ripperdan, Choice

“Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan brings much-needed nuance to a debate that is too often characterised by gross oversimplification.”

“Galbraith accomplishes two primary aims in Otaku: he provides a chronology of the process by which manga/anime obsessives went from being outsiders who cannot deal with ‘reality’ to becoming objects of fear and loathing … and then (semi)legitimate emblems of Japanese national popular culture; and he effectively shows how otaku have purposefully created alternative lifestyles that reject conventions of masculinity, productivity, and romantic love.”

“[Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan] is a book the field of Japan studies has been waiting for—a concise, readable, teachable, authoritative guide to the subject of primary interest for many of our students.... [It] will certainly keep Japan studies arguing for years to come and that is what makes it great.” - Jonathan E. Abel, Journal of Japanese Studies

“[Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan] is very effective in raising the more fundamental question that seems to be begged by this world, as to how different the difference of otaku life really is.... [Galbraith] has produced a book that is replete with elements of interest for scholarly and non-scholarly readers alike.” - Thomas Looser, Pacific Affairs

“Galbraith's Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan is an engaging addition to both his own body of work and the larger body of existing research into otaku culture and consumption.... Galbraith's straightforward prose and detailed discussions of otaku would be readily accessible to even novices in the field.” - Barbara Greene, International Social Science Review

“Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan is a meticulously researched book...[and] a strong contribution to the field of Japanese popular culture.” - Emma E. Cook, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

“This is an excellent and thought-provoking text which will no doubt take its rightful place in the canon of manga, anime, and otaku studies. . . . The narrative [Galbraith] weaves contains just the right amount of academic theoretical discourse, reflections on his personal involvement in the movement, more as a participant than as a participant observer, and a solid history of Japanese (sub-)culture over the last 50 years.” - Holger Briel, Japanese Studies