6:00 P.M., TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2000
DOLBY LABORATORIES, SAN FRANCISCO

"Japan Edge takes the outsider's approach, with essays by Americans on Japanese animation, comics, "noise" music and other cybernetic realms. The first-person narratives work best... Loaded with great trivia."-Newsweek

"Written by four people who are probably the most qualified on the North American continent to write such a book...Every anime fan ought to own this book because it's a powerful antidote to the false image of Japan we get through cartoons and Godzilla movies...this book puts it all in perspective."-www.athenstown.com

San Francisco, CA (2/25/00)-Viz Communications, in association with the Japan Society of Northern California, proudly presents an event hosted by the coauthors and editor of Cadence Books' Japan Edge: The Insider's Guide to Japanese Pop Subculture.

On Tuesday, February 29, 2000, three San Francisco Bay Area writers will discuss and show audio/visual clips of what's on the cutting edge of anime, manga, noise music, and cult cinema in Japan. Join Carl Gustav Horn (editor of Pulp and longtime writer on anime) on anime and manga, Mason Jones (founder of Charnel Music and editor of Ongaku Otaku music magazine) on music, Patrick Macias (San Francisco Bay Guardian and Pulp film critic) on cult film, and, as moderator, Satoru Fujii (co-founder of Cadence Books and Viz Comics). Look beyond the mainstream into the nature of cultural identity, art and creativity on both sides of the Pacific with this discussion between four friends and collaborators whose lives are at the center of the Japanese pop explosion!

The presentation begins at 6:00 P.M. with a reception in the Presentation Studio of Dolby Laboratories at 100 Potrero Avenue (at Alameda), San Francisco, CA. The program begins at 6:30 P.M and will run for approximately an hour, with a question and answer session afterwards. Reservations are strongly recommended; please RSVP by e-mail or phone with the Japan Society (Tel 415-986-4383, E-mail: cjoser@us-japan.org). Admission is $7 for Japan Society members, $10 for non-members, and free for students with ID. The space was generously donated by Dolby Laboratories.

Japan Edge, released in Summer 1999, is a unique book on pop culture: not a would-be "all-inclusive" guide, but the autobiographical stories of four young writers presenting their lifelong love affair with their favorite subjects. It's a confessional, daring nonfiction narrative; a meditation on art and its relation to society; and a beautifully illustrated, extensively cross-referenced guidebook to your own explorations of Japanese pop culture. Suggested reading, listening and viewing lists are provided, as well as extensive historical and bibliographical information.

Japan Edge is written by Carl Gustav Horn, Mason Jones, Patrick Macias, Yuji Oniki and Matt Thorn. It is b&w, 200 pages long, and retails for $19.95 in the U.S. and $29.95 in Canada.

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