
The vocabulary of cultural theory is unnerving, less so because it's particularly arcane and academic, but rather because it misapplies terms ("text" for "artifact") and is essentially designed allow authors to gloss over explicating the actual relation between things by words like "as" and "linked" and "suggests". 1) having the theme of transformation, which is somewhat obvious) and comparisons drawn that I have not noticed before, but not enough to warrant any better rating. There are some interesting parallels pointed out here (such as both Ranma ½ ( Ranma ½, vol. Again, this was my lack of awareness of the methodology involved. But I would have wished for a scholarly work to actually fill this gap, instead of a cultural theory cop-out, supplemented here and there with glosses of interviews given to magazines. Look, I know that actually finding, and interviewing, decades later, the makers of such obscure works as Urotsukidoji - Legend of the Overfiend Book 1, or speaking to someone as famous as Rumiko Takahashi takes effort and a budget, either beyond my own means. I was expecting an in-depth behind-the-scenes first-hand report of the genesis and genealogy of anime.


I came to this book with entirely wrong expectations and should perhaps have researched the methodology first.
