Writer-editor Jim Beard returns with another entry in his Memories from Today’s Grown-Up Kids series, this time focusing on essays on pop culture nostalgia from the original anime and tokusatsu fans entitled Rising Sun Reruns.
The discovery of new, exciting cartoons and martial arts action in rubber suits is the main entrée here, with 26 essays about the discovery of, and adulation over, two unique forms of entertainment from across the sea.
The collection contains missives from the earliest encounters in the 1960s to the Power Ranger craze of the 1990s, and all points in between. The subjects include Ultraman, Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot, Astro Boy, Battle of the Planets, Space Giants, Speed Racer, Robotech, Star Blazers, and many more.
The essays range from ones that encapsulate the entire experience of the discovery of anime and tokusatsu and the associated memories of racing home to tune in on fuzzy, UHF signals after grade school. The essays consist of ones that take a look back at the fond memories of a variety of programs and others focus on one particular series or character that entranced the writer at a formative age.
Along with all of the love that each writer provides, the essays also serve as a time capsule for what else was on TV, what toys and films were popular, and what life was like in an age before VCRs, the internet, and digital resources.
For anyone who shared similar experiences, Rising Sun Reruns will be just the nostalgia trip you are looking for (and will also undoubtedly expose readers to many that will send them to youtube and search engines to discover more favorites).
Rising Sun Reruns is currently available from Amazon in a print and digital edition.
