In "Japanamerica," Japanese-American writer Roland Kelts explores how and why Japanese manga and anime have become as familiar to Americans as sushi or karaoke in the 21st century. Manga's exquisite drawings, overtly unreal characters and lack of happy-clappy endings have developed from sideline pop culture to a major commercial and trend-setting enterprise in mainstream pop music and Hollywood movies.
Many books have been written about the contrast between American and Japanese cultures. In "Japanamerica," Kelts examines the less obvious and the more intriguing -- the mutual adaptation that occurs between two very different creative consciousnesses and marketing mind-sets as manga and anime cross the Pacific.
With the great anime producer Hayao Miyazaki's hit movie "Spirited Away" as an apt starting point, Kelts looks back on the history of anime that begins with the life of Osamu Tezuka, the "father" of anime and creator of Astro Boy. Kelts' writing style is unpretentious and easily digestible; yet his research is diverse and acute. His interpretations of anime's development throughout the decades are seamlessly interwoven with anecdotes and inspired by interviews with an impressive variety of academics, professionals and fans for whom the well-being of anime is all but a life cause. With their insights, Kelts observes the macro and micro issues of the anime world -- economical, artistic and conceptual. He compares the silence and stillness that dominate many scenes in Japanese anime with Disney's early classics. He follows how the production and distribution of anime have been affected by the Internet age, the digital age, the falling birthrate in Japan and 9/11 in the United States.