I was honored to write a review for Pacific Affairs of Daniel Johnson’s 2023 monograph Textual Cacophony, a critical analysis of Japanese internet culture between roughly 2006 and 2014. Johnson is especially interested in the anonymous message board 2channel and the video sharing site Niconico, and my review highlights why the online subcultures associated with these sites are still relevant and worth studying. Here’s the opening paragraph:
It’s no secret that a great deal of twenty-first century media has been influenced by internet subcultures; unfortunately, much of this culture has been lost to time. Many emergent online cultures of the 2000s have proved tragically ephemeral, with the scarce documentation that exists often falling into the trappings of cultural nostalgia. Thankfully, Daniel Johnson’s Textual Cacophony: Online Video and Anonymity in Japan functions as a critical analysis that documents and preserves an important moment in Japanese media history that continues to resonate across national borders.
You can read the full review on the Pacific Affairs website here:
https://pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/book-reviews/textual-cacophony-online-video-and-anonymity-in-japan-by-daniel-johnson/
Digital Fantasy Diary 