Pikachu's Global Adventure by Joseph Tobin

Initially developed in Japan by Nintendo as a computer game, Pokemon swept the globe in the late 1990s. Based on a narrative in which a group of children capture, train, and do battle with over a hundred imaginary creatures, Pokemon quickly diversified into an array of popular products including comic books, a TV show, movies, trading cards, stickers, toys, and clothing. Pokemon eventually became the top grossing children's product of all time. Yet the phenomenon fizzled as quickly as it had ignited. By 2002, the Pokemon craze was mostly over. Pikachu's Global Adventure describes the spectacular, complex, and unpredictable rise and fall of Pokemon in countries around the world.

In analyzing the popularity of Pokemon, this innovative volume addresses core debates about the globalization of popular culture and about children's consumption of mass-produced culture. Topics explored include the origins of Pokemon in Japan's valorization of cuteness and traditions of insect collecting and anime; the efforts of Japanese producers and American marketers to localize it for foreign markets by muting its sex, violence, moral ambiguity, and general feeling of Japaneseness; debates about children's vulnerability versus agency as consumers; and the contentious question of Pokemon's educational value and place in school. The contributors include teachers as well as scholars from the fields of anthropology, media studies, sociology, and education. Tracking the reception of Pokemon in Japan, the United States, Great Britain, France, and Israel, they emphasize its significance as the first Japanese cultural product to enjoy substantial worldwide success and challenge western dominance in the global production and circulation of cultural goods.

Contributors. Anne Allison, Linda-Renee Bloch, Helen Bromley, Gilles Brougere, David Buckingham, Koichi Iwabuchi, Hirofumi Katsuno, Dafna Lemish, Jeffrey Maret, Julian Sefton-Green, Joseph Tobin, Samuel Tobin, Rebekah Willet, Christine Yano

Discusses the phenomenon of Pokemon in a transnational and multidisciplinary perspective

About the Author

Joseph Tobin is the Nadine Mathis Basha Professor of Early Childhood Education at Arizona State University. He is the author of "Good Guys Don't Wear Hats": Children's Talk about the Media, editor of Making a Place for Pleasure in Early Childhood Education, and coauthor of Preschool in Three Cultures: Japan, China, and the United States.

Reviews
"I took a peek at the table of contents for Pikachu's Global Adventure, then read a little of the introduction, and the next thing I knew I was deep, deep in the book and didn't want to stop. The writing was that engaging, the information and arguments that compelling."-Henry Jenkins, coeditor of Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture
"The contributors to this volume are the smartest scholars working today in the areas of global media and children's media. This book tells an entertaining and surprising tale of how the little Japanese Pokemon transformed children's culture and global media economics. The changes that Pikachu wrought are only the beginning of fascinating new trends in role-playing games, video games, cartoons, and toys and the accelerated spread of such fads via the Internet."-Ellen Seiter, author of Sold Separately: Children and Parents in Consumer Culture
"Pikachu's Global Adventure is a compelling volume, as each essay offers new insights with few weak links or needless repetition." -- Jason Mittell * Popular Communication *
"A valuable contribution to debates about the guiding forces and diverse effects of global media cultures. . . . The fascinating Pikachu's Global Adventure extends the study of contemporary Japan by taking seriously transnational media in reconfiguring the boundaries of 'Japanese culture.'" -- Ian Condry * Journal of Asian Studies *
"The contributors to this volume provide thoughtful explanations to account for the popularity of Pokemon among children in Japan, America, Israel, and France. Although these essays focus on Pokemon, many of the insights found in this book are also applicable to other examples of children's popular culture that have Japanese origins." -- Mark I. West * Children's Literature Association Quarterly *



Book Information
ISBN 9780822332879
Author Joseph Tobin
Format Paperback
Page Count 312
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 431g