| Publication |
2010.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article uses the U.S. reception of Japanese animation, or anime, to explore the impact of cultural globalization within the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. It introduces historians to the medium of anime, describing the transpacific appeal of several representative texts from the period. Anime exhibited characteristics that made it both Japanese and global, yet it also reproduced Western racial and gender hierarchies, allowing it to cross borders easily. The second half of the article discusses the creation of local anime fan communities throughout the United States beginning in 1977. These communities socialized locally in fan clubs, connected nationally at conventions and through networks of science-fiction fans, and participated in the construction of transnational cultural identities. Examples of underground anime literature illustrate how fan's envisioned their local, national, and transnational communities. The article concludes with suggestions for rethinking U.S. cultural relations in the postwar era.
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