Anime DVDs & comic books

Product Description

When Peter Carey offered to take his son to Japan, 12-year-old Charley stipulated no temples or museums. He wanted to see manga, anime, and cool, weird stuff. His father said yes. Out of that bargain comes this enchanting tour of the mansion of Japanese culture, as entered through its garish, brightly lit back door. Guided–and at times judged–by an ineffably strange boy named Takashi, the Careys meet manga artists and anime directors, the meticulous impersonators called “visualists,” and solitary, nerdish otaku. Throughout, the Booker Prize-winning novelist makes observations that are intriguing even when–as his hosts keep politely reminding him–they turn out to be wrong. Funny, surprising, distinguished by its wonderfully nuanced portrait of a father and son thousands of miles from home, Wrong About Japan is a delight.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #887131 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-03
• Released on: 2006-01-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 8.00" h x .52" w x 5.23" l, .42 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Novelist Carey is a two-time Booker Prize winner (Oscar and Lucinda; True History of the Kelly Gang), and although his latest work is presented as nonfiction, his fiction readers won't be disappointed. This travel diary reads like a scintillating novella, and Carey has, in fact, added his own fictional embellishments to the real-life events he reports. After his shy 12-year-old son, Charley, began reading English translations of Japanese manga, their Saturday mornings at the Manhattan comic book store Forbidden Planet spurred Carey's own interest. As their "cultural investigation" of manga and anime widened, "the kid who would never talk in class was now brimming with new ideas he wasn't shy to discuss." This father-son bond deepened when they flew to Japan to meet manga artists and anime directors, including Yoshiyuki Tomino (Mobile Suit Gundam). At publisher Kodansha, they learned of manga's history, and touring Studio Ghibli, they encountered the "most famous anime director in the world," Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away). Their guide to Tokyo's cartoon culture was Takashi, a teenager the narrative says Charley met online (yet, as Carey revealed in a newspaper interview, he created the imaginary character of Takashi because the narrative needed conflict, and Carey wanted to avoid "conflict with anybody in real life"). Carey's fluid and engaging writing style gets a boost from 25 energetic b&w anime/manga illustrations.
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From Bookmarks Magazine
With two Booker Prizes to his credit, Carey has little left to prove in literary circles. But he admits straightaway that he’s a horrible reporter. So horrible, in fact, that one of the characters of his new nonfiction book, Wrong About Japan, is entirely fictional. That reviewers let such trickery slide attests to Carey’s remarkable writing skills, as does the rich variety of critical responses to his book. It’s an homage to his son, a study of dislocation, and an intellectual inquiry into the roots of Japanese animation. A few critics knocked Carey for not being the best travel companion on the page and meandering rather than driving straight at his point. Wrong About Japan is a slight book, but just as with the best animation, one should not dismiss it as child’s play.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From Booklist
In an intriguing departure from his novels, two of which are Booker Prize winners, Australian-born, New York-based Carey offers an arresting account of his visit to Tokyo with his shy 12-year-old son, a journey inspired by Charley's passion for the Japanese comics known as manga and anime, the animated films they inspire. Carey arranges meetings with key manga and anime creators, and arrives, therefore, armed with questions and preconceived notions. But as he and Charley explore the city, which Carey describes with his signature clarity and wit; meet various artists, including the creator of the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam, Yoshiyuki Tomino; and speak with a Japanese writer who survived the firebombing of Tokyo, Carey realizes that there is much about Japanese art and culture that remains impenetrable to outsiders. And so Carey's candid and provocative travelogue, replete with classic scenes of bumbling Westerners in Japan and generation-gap moments between father and son, evolves into an incisive query into the nature of the imagination, cultural divides, and the pitfalls of interpretation. Donna Seaman
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