I'm looking for books on contemporary Japanese society. Namely examinations the cultures' increasing neuroticism, perversion, nihilism and declining population. Both fiction and non-fiction are fine.
*bows respectfully towards you*
>>7371742
ha-so
Ryu Murakami. Coin Locker Babies inspired a moderate amount of Japanese pop fiction and is super-gross and violent and surreal (and has Anemone, the best waifu in fiction), so you won't get bored; and it's still pretty introspective about modern Japan, in a very nihilistic and funny way. From The Fatherland With Love is half-Tom Clancy half-social commentary.
>>7371739
Bump
>>7371739
Almost Transparent Blue, if you consider the 80's "contemporary"
>>7371739
Fuck Japan. Two nukes weren't enough.
Bumpity bumb bumb
>>7371739
>nihilism
keep throwing this word around like you know what it means
Speed Tribes will help you
I AM CAT
>>7371739
>not reading a post-structuralist academic work that analyses Evangelion
>>7371758
How is coin locker babies in comparison to almost transparent blue?
>>7376377
Anno said that he picked the name because "it sounded complicated" I think people are overthinking the show.
I dunno about literature but 'The Crazy Family' might interest you
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087377/
> The Kobayashi family finally get the chance to move out of their tiny, cramped Tokyo apartment in favour of the suburban house of their dreams. But all is not well: the house is infested by termites and the family starts cracking up: Son Masaki is studying so obsessively for his exams that he's losing his mind; daughter Erika is oblivious of all but her forthcoming record company audition, grandfather Yasukuni starts getting World War II flashbacks and father Katsuhiko is so worried about his family's "sickness" that he thinks can only be cured by group suicide...
>>7376386
The toxic fanbase speaks for itself.
>>7376386
Anno literally says he was extremely depressed . Basically this is one of the few times Death of the Author aplies as the right type of reading. You can't tell me Instrumentality isn't jewish kaballah magic ala Walter Benjamin.
Only some retarded atheist moron who thinks that all religions are the same, would think the show would have the same impact if the symbolism was changed from judeo-christian to some nordkek symbolism.
>>7371739
> Tamaru, C. A. (2012). The" herbivorous" men of Japan: negotiating new masculinities (Doctoral dissertation).
is a good starting point for a sociological understanding. If you follow that up with
>Niu, H. J., Chiang, Y. S., & Tsai, H. T. (2012). An exploratory study of the otaku adolescent consumer. Psychology & Marketing, 29(10), 712-725.
then you'll understand what western academic thought models the changes as.
I've heard that
>http://www.unitec.ac.nz/epress/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Cool-New-Asia-final.pdf
is a good resource but I've yet to read it.
>>7376459
shit bro, them's some big references, you a specialist or something?
>>7376522
>A Sociology of Japanese Youth: From Returnees to NEETs (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies)
Over the past thirty years, whilst Japan has produced a diverse set of youth cultures which have had a major impact on popular culture across the globe, it has also developed a succession of youth problems which have led to major concerns within the country itself. Drawing on detailed empirical fieldwork, the authors of this volume set these issues in a clearly articulated ‘social constructionist’ framework, and put forth a sociology of Japanese youth problems which argues that there is a certain predictability about the way in which these problems are discovered, defined and dealt with.
The chapters include case studies covering issues such as:
• Returnee children (kikokushijo)
• Compensated dating (enjo kōsai)
• Corporal punishment (taibatsu)
• Bullying (ijime)
• Child abuse (jidō gyakutai)
• The withdrawn youth (hikikomori) and
• NEETs (not in education, employment or training)
By examining these various social problems collectively, A Sociology of Japanese Youth explains why particular youth problems appeared when they did and what lessons they can provide for the study of youth problems in other societies.
>u.pomf.io/sqwkzn.epub
>>7376531
this shit is legit shit.
longer than the papers I posted but well worth the time .
>>7376578
also available as a pdf if anybody is interested...
>>7376397
>Instrumentality isn't jewish kaballah magic ala Walter Benjamin.
Firstly, you're retarded. Secondly, it is is [a la].
>>7376531
If japanese bullying is even 1 tenth as badas it is in animethen it's terrifying. Or is it like the 80s, where every bully legit tried to kill the MC?
Anyway, Japan upsets me. I mean, I love it, but the knowledge that it's so xenophobic and brutal really sours all the things I want to read about it.
>>7376647
Nah dude, it's just natural tribalism, most people do it. No reason to let it sour your shit unless you're a pussy.
>>7376397
But you do know that Evangelion doesn't feature actual kaballah entities? It's just terminology SEELE uses because of its fascination or rather obsession with it. They're basically the illuminati of the evaverse. That said, I kind of agree. Kaballah and gnosticism fits well with the "obsessive, crazy religion" trope. In addition these schools are really focused on a sort of seperation from reality and one of the major themes of eva is escapism.
>>7376386
I dunno man, Anno comes of as a person who has low self esteem and wouldn't want to present himself as overconfident. You can see that lots of detail was put into the show, but him being an extremely shy nerd wouldn't want to admit that in public television. You also shouldn't trust everything people say about their own work in interviews and tv, just read interviews with Bob Dylan or Ikuhara.
>>7376195
So explain to him what does it mean
>>7371739
the death of the author
Kanehara Hitomi... start with Snakes and Earrings
The Japanese Mind edited by Davies/Ikeno is a nice primer if you're extremely new to Japan - it's a collection of essays written by postgrad students about Japanese thinking. It's a very basic book to the point of being boring, but I guess it's a good starting point.
Zielenzinger's Shutting Out The Sun is for the first half, a good study of what causes the phenomenon of Hikkikomori in Japanese society. Extremely sad in some of the contained stories, but the book goes somewhat off the rails later.
Precarious Japan by Allison - very depressing study of precariousness, the loss of homes, in contemporary Japanese minds caused by the economic downfall. Something like a look behind the curtain of Japan.
>>7376459
>>http://www.unitec.ac.nz/epress/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Cool-New-Asia-final.pdf
hahahahaha
no
the shit in here is mad stupid
>>7376647
>I love it, but the knowledge that it's so xenophobic and brutal really sours all the things I want to read about it.
But that's what makes it interesting you limp-wristed western bitch boy.
>>7377482
I have always supposed that (perhaps subconsciously more than intentionally) the religious symbolism in nge was moreso to show how grandiose and all encompassing depression and other mental afflictions seem to you when you're suffering from them.
Like when you're depressed the world seems transcendentally horrifying- when in reality you're just an ape with a little bit too much of chemical y and a little too little chemical x.
>>7376635
yes please, although it seems like some of these posts are in the quotes but missing from the thread so maybe people got in trouble for piracy
and maybe i will too
