After reading about cyberpunk in general, someone recommanded this book focusing on, as the subtitle precises, posthumanism in Japanese visual culture to me.

I didn’t like this book at all. I struggled a lot reading through it. It bothered me so much it made me dropped other books as long as I hadn’t finish this one.

I took a few days after finishing it before writing this review and I think 3 elements made me feel this way.

First, the focus in not on cyberpunk but on posthumanism which is not a topic I care about. You can discuss how posthumanism fit into cyberpunk but I didn’t feel it was well addressed in the book.

Second, I am not sure a book is the best way to discuss visual culture. The book alternates between lengthy descriptions of movies and discussion and connection with other materials.

Finally, its style is way too academic for me. Think about any caricature of an academic discussing any topic and you’ll get a pretty close idea.

I have seen most of the movies discussed in the book but didn’t feel I now have a new understanding of the material. Part of the reason might be I don’t have the cult-like relationship with these movies as seem to be the case for the author and the target audience. What made me first drop the book was the discussion on Ghost in the Shell. It felt so much like masturbation intellectuelle that I grew bored after a few sentences. Same with the discussion on Tetsuo, with added body horror and sexual violence.

I was expecting more discussion on the reception by the Japanese audience, what it was telling about the Japanese society what kind of theme were specific. Here, the reference mostly seems to be western movies or producers…

Final word

Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.