The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature explores the dark side of Japanese Literature where modern Japan's repressed anxieties, fears and hopes come to the surface. A close analysis of fantasy, fiction, film and comics reveals the ambivilance felt by many Japanese towards the success story of the nation in the twentieth century

A wide range of fantasies, many discussed here for the first time in English, form the basis for a ground-breaking analysis of utopias, dystopias, and the disturbing relationship between women, sexuality and modernity, and the role of the alien in the fantastic. The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature introduces the extraordinary range of Japanes fantasy and explores the role of fantasy as a cross-cultural genre.