[audiobook] The Philosophy of Charlie Kaufman (The Philosophy of Popular Culture) by From The University Press of Kentucky in Arts-Photography

Description

In Animersquo;s Media Mix; Marc Steinberg convincingly shows that anime is far more than a style of Japanese animation. Beyond its immediate form of cartooning; anime is also a unique mode of cultural production and consumption that led to the phenomenon that is today called ldquo;media mixrdquo; in Japan and ldquo;convergencerdquo; in the West. According to Steinberg; both anime and the media mix were ignited on January 1; 1963; when Astro Boy hit Japanese TV screens for the first time. Sponsored by a chocolate manufacturer with savvy marketing skills; Astro Boy quickly became a cultural icon in Japan. He was the poster boy (or; in his case; ldquo;sticker boyrdquo;) both for Meiji Seikarsquo;s chocolates and for what could happen when a goggle-eyed cartoon child fell into the eager clutches of creative marketers. It was only a short step; Steinberg makes clear; from Astro Boy to Pokeacute;mon and beyond.Steinberg traces the cultural genealogy that spawned Astro Boy to the transformations of Japanese media culture that followedmdash;and forward to the even more profound developments in global capitalism supported by the circulation of characters like Doraemon; Hello Kitty; and Suzumiya Haruhi. He details how convergence was sparked by anime; with its astoundingly broad merchandising of images and its franchising across media and commodities. He also explains; for the first time; how the rise of anime cannot be understood properlymdash;historically; economically; and culturallymdash;without grasping the integral role that the media mix played from the start. Engaging with film; animation; and media studies; as well as analyses of consumer culture and theories of capitalism; Steinberg offers the first sustained study of the Japanese mode of convergence that informs global media practices to this day.