Professor Marc Steinberg has published a revised, expanded edition of Anime’s Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters (2012) in Japanese (2015)

This expanded, translated volume, titled Naze Nihon wa “media mikkusu suru kuni” nanoka (Why is Japan a “Media Mixing Nation”?), was supervised by Ōtsuka Eiji, and published by Kadokawa books.

The expanded version includes new material based on interviews with key figures in Kadokawa involved in their media mix strategies through the years 1980-2000, and offers a close-up look at a book publisher transitioning to become a media conglomerate. In the new chapters, Prof. Steinberg addresses the recent merger between Kadokawa and Dwango, the company behind the “YouTube of Japan,” Niconico Video, and the imperative to create stronger platforms for written and video content that animates this merger.

Why is Japan a “Media Mixing Nation”? was awarded the Japan Society for Animation Studies Book Prize for 2015 (along with Anime’s Media Mix).

A small part of this additional research was published as “8-Bit Manga: Kadokawa’s Madara, or, The Gameic Media Mix,” in Kinephanos, in December 2015