Since the end of the Second World War--and particularly over the last decade--Japanese science fiction has strongly influenced global popular culture. Unlike American and British science fiction, its most popular examples have been visual--from Gojira (Godzilla) and Astro Boy in the 1950s and 1960s to the anime masterpieces Akira and Ghost in the Shell of the 1980s and 1990s--while little attention has been paid to a vibrant tradition of prose...