Anne Allison, associate professor of cultural anthropology, is currently in Japan on Fulbright and Social Sciences Research Council senior fellowships where she is researching popular heroes and super heroes in Japan that get circulated through comics and television programs, are mass marketed through toys and other merchandising, and are exported around the world as global commodities. While her research is not complete, her observations show a difference in Japanese and U.S. views of the game. The phenomenon began in Japan nearly four years ago with the release of the Nintendo Game Boy. What began as a game ballooned to a mass merchandising sensation. The game was picked up as a serialized comic, or manga.
Mothers say that it fosters communication at home.
Children watch the TV program to get hints on how to play the game, for example. Allison will continue her research through the spring semester.