Let me just start off by saying, this book was great! I really enjoyed how accesible it was for someone who has not grown up with these elements of popular culture. There were a few themes throughout the book that we had explored in earlier readings. Elements like cultral scent, and the cuteness vs. coolness factor of Japanese anime characters. ‘Cuteness’ was something that appeared throughout the book when Allison was talking to teenagers and elementary school children in both Japan and America about what was appealing to them about the characters.

Allison also shows the history and underlieing factors behind Japanese media and popular culture. It was very interesting to see how Godzilla was born from United States testing nuclear bombs near Japan, and the bombs dropped during World War Two. It shows how these events affected and shaped the Japanese population. How television and other media characters were all heroes, the Power Rangers, Astro Boy and Sailor moon were all characters that ‘morphed’ from regular people (with the exception of Astro Boy) into extrodinary heroes that protected the people of Japan from human evils. How mass consumption became a theme of the times and cinema led to Japanese enterance into american economics. It is interesting to see how Media, much like games as we had read about earlier in the semester, are a reflection of the society and time they come from.How in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s Japanese identinty was surrounded by material consumption and wealth.

The section on Tamagatchi and mechanized toys really pulled together all the information in the book for me. The bond created between people and their technology, as something that fuses with the individual using it and becomes a part of their daily life. The way that technology creates a way to be pluged in and feel a connection with something, aslo distances people from each other. Allison outlines the issues in Japan of youth being pressured too heavily by parents to do well in school and succeed in life while not showing them enough human connection or emotion. Some youth turn to crime and violence for outlits. Others turn to magna and television shows to gain a connection with something, an emotional outlit they are not getting from their parents. Becoming recluses from society that are unable to function with people. Even people who don’t become recluses, but turn to material items for validation are unable to communicate in society.