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Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon. Edited by JOSEPH TOBIN. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2004. xiii, 299 pp. $74.95 (cloth); $21.95 (paper).
The edited volume Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon makes a valuable contribution to debates about the guiding forces and diverse effects of global media cultures. Does it also point the study of contemporary Japanese culture in new directions?
The book documents the rise and fall of the global Pokémon craze-a boom encompassing video games, comics, a television series, films, trading cards, and other licensed merchandise-from 1996 to about 2001. The fourteen authors, from the fields of anthropology, media studies, education, communications, and cultural studies, explore the phenomenon in Japan, the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, and France. By dissecting the business practices, media synergies, and day-to-day consumer activities of Pokémon, they have succeeded in producing a readable, engaging, and provocative text suitable for undergraduate or graduate courses. The diversity of case studies means that the volume may be read across many themes and disciplines, but it also leads to different levels and styles of theoretical engagement, such that some readers may pine for more analytical nuance, while others may wish for less theory. Overall, however, a good balance is reached.
Joseph Tobin's introduction sets the stage by asking...