Japanese Pop Culture ChannelJuly 3, 2010Book Review: Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential4by YoU 581 days ago Guess what’s the famous stuffs when you think about Japan? Sakura, Kimono, or Katana? You may probably come out with some other answers: high school girls and sailor-style uniform! Either way, you may not forget to mention the related stuffs such like Anime and Manga, Ryori (料理) and Miko. Indeed you have tons to mention about Japan. In order to probe into the secret life of Japanese schoolgirls, you probably have already watched or read some series and books. And actually the Anime we go through everyday (yes, if possible ) have certain relationship with high school girls and their Seifuku and will more or less help you to know their life either in a right or wrong direction. But what about how Japanese schoolgirls in real life? Let’s come back to our topic today.The book Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential was written by Brian Ashcraft, who is also a popular writer from Wired and Kotaku, one of the most famous blogs on the web, together with Shoko Ueda, who also be a contributor to Japanese Schoolgirl Watch column in Wired Magazine and was a former Japanese schoolgirl.What’s in the book? Let’s quote from what Brian has put it, “The book is divided in to chapters that cover the impact of schoolgirls on everything from fashion to fine art and from movies to manga.” It’s anything about the life of Japanese schoolgirls, how they became an icon to the world and everything you want to know about them. The book also features interviews with some famous illustrators, Manga artists and singers, say AKB48, Chiaki Kuriyama (栗山千明), Morning Musume (モーニング娘。), Noizi Ito (いとうのいぢ), Yasuomi Umetsu (梅津泰臣) and Miwa Ueda (上田美和) and so forth. It’s really something you would love to know deep in the industry.I personally noticed about the book a while ago, forgot where I got the information. It has been received well in Japanese and has been reviewed by lots of bloggers. The book will be released in mid to late July in North American and European. Be prepare and put an eye on it if you really interested in Japanese culture and sub-culture.Want more? You can read how Gigazine review the book on their site: English Version, Japanese Version. Also read how Brian talks about his book on Kotaku. Or simply get access to book’s official website.
SnowJuly 3, 2010 Doesn’t really sound that interesting, lots of people think of Japan as a country of Manga/Anime, Schoolgirls in sailor uniform, giant robots and whatnot. Which is definitely not the case, it’s too stereotypical. It’s like people saying The Netherlands is all about windmills and tulips =s. But that’s just my take on things, if one wants to actually know the culture you’ve got the study history. For the neo-culture, watching anime and reading manga (not Naruto or Bleach of course) should give you a clearer picture.Reply
711July 3, 2010 I also find that summarizing the whole country based on this is a bit too much, but I won’t pretend to know exactly what it is all about nor to make assumptions based merely on a short extract and the cover.I don’t think even mentioning stereotypes is a good point without reading it since I hardly think anyone would be silly enough to make a book based on that premise.Regardless of your preconceptions, it is not unfair to say this image of shoujo (or young high school girls for the 2 people that don’t watch anime but still visit this blog by mistakenly clicking on Google) have a lot of influence, even with the possibility of not being the greatest factor on society at large as Snow pointed, it do have a huge impact that goes way beyond anime and manga. Also worth mentioning that Japanese culture have always been fixated on youth, and the recent incarnation is more of a symptom of something that existed for a long time instead of a new trend that emerged recently.If the book take an empirical approach on the subject I am eager to see the results, thus the reason I am buying it. If it’s nothing more than a over-the-top look on the niche market that this trend generate and focus on nothing more than jpop and harem anime series I will be disappointed, but still, it’s worth a shot!Reply
711July 3, 2010 *ps: the cover is TERRIBLE! I wish they would hire a decent artist to make it instead of resorting to a barely passable Core Draw stuff ¬¬*ps 2: going back to KOTAKU and finally employing some time to read some of their articles (I always meant to but gave up midway) and found out my hopes might be a little exaggerated. This “journalist” guy style doesn’t seem all that throughout. I will still give him props and buy his book out of curiosity and pure hope that a shift in his subject from games to sociology will make him produce better papers, but I am not as eager for it to arrive as I was a couple of minutes ago ¬¬Reply
YoUJuly 3, 2010 @Snow: Sure thing you cannot define a culture just with some icons, guess that’s why learning history is so attractive to people who indeed want to get a really deep understanding of the culture, at least culture in the past time. That’s how you get a overview of the big picture (and it also could be stereotype since winner wrote the history). As for the small parts, you have to come closer to learn. I mean reading Manga and watch Anime can really do some help to learn the subculture but don’t take it too much since there’re always differences between 2D and 3D.PS. Would very much like to watch the coming match between Netherlands and Germany (in the Final I mean ). And sorry I am with the Germany @711: It was mentioned by some comments and reviews that part of the book is written from a view of foreigners. Guess it could add some differences to the reality in this case. The cover to me seems nice, partly because I have seen too many nice illustrations and it’s time for a rest.I personally like Kotaku, as well as Lifehacker. Though I cannot say too much of the layout and design, they do provide lots of great contents.Reply