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Yokai Attack!: The Japanese Monster Survival Guide | 
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| Authors: Hiroko Yoda, Matt Alt
Creator: Tatsuya Morino
Publisher: Kodansha International
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $8.52
You Save: $6.43 (43%)
New (22) Used (5) from $8.52
Avg. Customer Rating:  53 reviews
Sales Rank: 27061
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 4770030703
Dewey Decimal Number: 398.20952
EAN: 9784770030702
ASIN: 4770030703
Publication Date: October 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. Delivery is usually 5 - 8 working days from order, International is by Royal Mail Airmail
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Product Description
Yokai are Japan's traditional creepy-crawlies. Almost always encountered in the dark of night, they were once feared throughout the land. But they're more than just myth, more provocative than pop culture--references to yokai abound in Japanese idioms, and nearly every Japanese person has at least a passing knowledge of the most famous of these captivating creatures from times of old. Now, after collecting data and descriptions from a variety of sources, including first-hand accounts and microfilms of 18th-century publications stored in the National Diet Library in Tokyo, authors Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt have produced the first English-language guide to Japans yokai monsters. Original illustrations, created by the talented Tatsuya Morino, detail the potential visible appearance of each yokai. And alongside each and every one are data points allowing you to take in each yokai's characteristics at a glance.
Forget Godzilla. Forget the giant beasties karate-chopped into oblivion by endless incarnations of Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and the Power Rangers. Forget the Pocket Monsters. Forget Sadako from The Ring and that creepy all-white kid from The Grudge. Forget everything you know about Japanese tales of terror. Their roots may extend back to days of yore, but Yokai Attack! will convince any reader that Japan's bewitching tradition of yokai monsters is far from being history.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 48 more reviews...
 Useless as Survival Guide but Essential Reading for J-Horror Fans December 5, 2008
Hiroko Yoda's and Matt Alt's attempt to cash in on the absolutely glutted handbook/survival guide market is ultimately a failure because almost all of the Yokai described in this book are either completely harmless, in which case you can safely ignore them, or totally lethal, in which case all you can do is bend over and kiss your ass goodbye. Not much survival advice to be gleaned from THAT beyond identifying the Yokai in question and thus determining whether or not you are already dead. Perhaps if this had been written as if intended for movie or manga characters with supernatural powers it might have worked, but as is, it is pointless as a survival guide.
However, this book is VERY valuable as a guide to identifying and understanding those yokai you may have seen referenced in j-horror, anime, and manga, or in understanding yokai-influenced aspects of Japanese culture. (It is interesting how many yokai are believed to have originated as living metaphors or plays on words in Japanese.) The best part of the entire book is the detailed information on origins and especially MEANINGS of the yokai, so many of which can be traced back to Japanese concepts of one sort or another. ANYONE interested in Japan and Japanese culture can learn something from this book,...
including no doubt even native born Japanese!
Other books by Alt and Yoda are Hello, Please! Very Helpful Super Kawaii Characters from Japan, a guide to an even MORE horrifying group of characters as far as I'm concerned (Too much cuteness! Head about to explode!); Zero Over Berlin, a Japanese novel which I'm thinking they translated into English; and Super #1 Robot: Japanese Robot Toys, 1972-1982, a guide to the robot toys Alt's childhood obsession with would eventually lead him to Japan and his career, not to mention his wife!
 Awesome Little Guide November 24, 2008
This is an awesome reference book for all those Japanese boogeymen. It's a cute, small book. Great quality, and plenty of interesting reads about each monster. Very very interesting, by learning about the Japanese boogeymen, you understand a big chunk of Japanese culture.
I would recommend this book for anyone interested in Japan!
A Monster guidebook...Yohko would love it! November 19, 2008
Being a fan of old school anime like Devil Hunter Yohko, I was surprised to see this book. Over 50 "monsters" are in it, and they are illustrated as well. Reading almost like a Manono Hunter's Dictionary or encyclopedia, the book is shaped and looks like a traditional manga. This was a joy to read and really took me back to the days of watching old school monster anime like Vampire Hunter D and Devil Hunter Yohko (She'd love a book like this).
For those not into anime or Japanese culture, I'm not sure this would float your boat, but even the Buffy fans would probably get a kick out of this, as the book is written in ways that mimic the research books that they used to use to look up demons. A fun book, very colorful and attractive and is a conversation starter to have on your desk. An even better idea would be to print up a more "official" looking plain cover sleeve and put it over to make people think you're really researching demons. On second thought, maybe not.
A fun and reader-friendly book on Japanese spirits and more! November 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When I first got into Japanese pop culture, one of the things that I noticed through watching Japanese films, television, video games and reading manga (Japanese comic books) is that you would see occasionally see these monsters.
For Americans, when they think of Japanese monsters, outside of the typical Godzilla and related monsters that many have been accustomed to seeing in movies, some are discovering these weird creatures such as turtle-like humans or girls clad in traditional Japanese clothing that looked demonically possessed.
I can see people watching an anime like "Demon Prince Enma" and wonder why one of the monsters is this turtle like creature named "kappa" and then watch a Japanese TV show with people walking through a cemetery being scared out of their wits by people dressed up as a turtle. What is this "kappa"? Or even play a video game such as "Dead or Alive" and see this muscular character with a very long nose called a "tengu" and then see this character on various video games? One thing you will notice as you follow Japanese pop culture is that these monsters are featured quite a bit and definitely makes you wonder more about them.
My curiosity peaked in mononoke (ghosts) or bakemono/obake (monsters) was through the books and radio programs by Hawaii's Glenn Grant. Known for interviewing and researching these monsters and retelling the frightening stories on his radio program and audio book. About people who meet a beautiful woman on the beach, late at night and then all of a sudden this beautiful woman's neck starts to elongate and ends up being a vengeful monster. Who is this monster known as "Rokuro Kubi".
There are some websites that would have some information and some Japanese magazines that would do the occasional obake story every so often but recently, I have read the latest book from husband and wife team Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt titled "Yokai Attack! The Japanese Monster Survival Guide".
I am very impressed by the amount of monsters featured in this book alone. The book is broken down in chapters: Ferocious Friends, Gruesome Gourmets, Annoying Neighbors, The Sexy and Slimy and the Wimps.
So, as an example, one of the popular monsters you see in Japanese pop culture is the Kappa.
For the Kappa, the writes give you a pronunciation, English name of the monster, the alternate Japanese names, the gender, its height, weight, locomotion (how they move), their distinctive features, offensive weapons, their weakness, their habitat and their claim to fame. Also, how they attack, how you survive an encounter with the Kappa and my favorite, how the monster has had its place in Japanese culture.
In this case, in Tokyo, there was a bridge called he Kappabashi (Kappa Bridge) but now is occupied by the Bhuddist temple, Sogenji, which is also known as a Kappa Temple.
Also, there is a sushi called the "kappa-maki", which is a cucumber roll.
You get a lot of these fun details throughout the book and this is what I found quite enjoyable.
Also, a ghost that may sound funny but has terrorized school kids aplenty is the monster known as "Toire no Hanako" (Hanako in the Bathroom) which is a girl with a bobbed hair in red skirt.
There have been many crazy stories on this monster alone and featured aplenty on manga and anime. The monster has even been made to a horror film. But it was cool to see how this monster came to the scene and see the authors really do their research on the monster and also its comparisons to similar monsters.
There are so many of these Japanese monsters found in this book alone and it does help when the layout of the book has a very good layout, presentation with images and illustrations. Each monster chapter has a pretty cool illustration by Tatsuya Morino and definitely a nice touch to the book.
The book ends with a resource featuring websites, bibliography and a Yokai index to quickly find that monster that you may have seen on a television or manga.
Overall, the presentation of how this book was written was well-done. The authors definitely made it a book that is fun and reader-friendly, but most of all, it is quite obvious that they did their research on each monster (especially to know it's various names and other monster comparisons) and although I'm sure there are plenty of monsters in Japan not featured on this book, the more well-known obake (about 46 of them) that one would see in a Japanese film, television show, video game or manga, is what you will find on this book.
Where else would you find how to escape from a human-faced tree or keeping your home safe from a bathtub licker?
"Yokai Attack! The Japanese Monster Survival Guide" is an invaluable resource for those into Japanese culture and those who always wondered the origins of these creepy monsters and spirits but written in a fun as simple way for those to follow. Definitely check it out!
Must-have guide for lovers of Japanese culture and animation! November 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Watching films by Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away & My Neighbor Totoro), Isao Takahata (Pom Poko), and Takashi Miike (The Great Yokai War), I was impressed that there is a whole tradition of creepy and cool monsters that is quite distinct from the kinds of monsters that populate fairy tells in Europe and America. I always wanted to know more, and was very excited to see "Yokai Attack!"
This is one of the best kinds of guides -- it is well researched and thoroughly documented, but it is also fun to read and lavishly illustrated. It reads like a nature guide -- as if you could whip it out and do some quick reading when you encounter one of these creatures in the wild -- but is witty and fun.
For each monster there is a quick list of facts, and a series of entries that tell what they do, where they are found, how they are dealt with, and also tells some traditional stories of encounters with the monster. There are several pictures for each entry, some in an anime/manga style by the popular manga artist Tatsuya Morino, some that are actual photographs of places or items associated with the monster, and what I like most: traditional paintings or sketches of the monster, sometimes dating back to the 17th century.
It's a very fun read, that can be read through or browsed an entry at a time. My kids, who share my love of anime, had a great time looking through the book -- even though (or maybe because) some of these monsters are very scary and do things you would never find in a Disney film. (An angry Kappa, for example, attacks by punching a slimy hand through the ... in order to pull the intestine out from within; if challenged by a Kappa to a wrestling match there is nothing to be done but to grit your teeth and accept with a bow, though it would be good to have a fresh cucumber on hand to distract your opponent).
Highly recommended for lovers of Japanese pop culture.
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