Book Reviews: Arcade Mania and A Violent Professional

Since I just hit my summer break for college a few days ago, I was excited to have some free time on my hands to read whatever I wanted to. Yeah you read a lot in college, but it's not necessarily stuff you're fascinated by or stuff you're in the mood to read. So with the extra time on my hands I was hyped to read something of my own choosing. I decided to pick out two titles to tackle this week: Brian Ashcraft's Arcade Mania: The Turbo-Charged World of Japan's Game Centers (2008) and Kier-la Janisse's A Violent Professional: The Films of Luciano Rossi (2007). Without further ado, my opinions on these books/details about them, are presented below.

Arcade Mania:
True to its title, Arcade Mania details the types of games populating the floors of contemporary Japanese arcades. Sprinkled in with the book's descriptions of games are insights into Japanese arcade culture and interviews with game players, developers, and marketers. The book is split into different chapters and each of these chapters focuses on a different "genre" of arcade game (such as crane games, fighting games, shooters, etc.) Each section provides the reader with a brief history lesson of the genre complete with a myriad of pictures of old machines and screenshots. Each chapter also highlights a different player and/or game designer who is considered an expert in their designated genre. These profiles turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the book as they give the text a personal edge while providing insight into the way these games are consumed in their home country. It's one thing to know these games exist, it's another thing entirely to know the culture in which they are played. To put it another way, arcade games are the "what" in this context, but the people who play them provide the answer to the "why". It's a bonus that the author found such an interesting cross-section of characters to interview. From the mother of two who doubles as a crane game ninja to enigmatic game creator "Suda 51", the interviewees are nothing if not interesting.

If I had one complaint about the book it would be that it is not detailed enough. But then again, I don't know if depth was the goal here. In both its writing style and layout Arcade Mania resembles a magazine. I don't mean this as a criticism. The book's super fun to look at and is incredibly readable. It's just that those looking for substantial information on arcade game history or sociological insight into the gaming scene in Japan need to look elsewhere. With its light text and killer page design, Arcade Mania should provide those with an interest in Japanese pop culture and/or video games with an easy, entertaining, and factoid-filled read.

P.S.- Those who enjoyed Arcade Mania would be wise to check out Brian Ashcraft's more recent book, Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential: How Teenage Girls Made a Nation Cool. Utilizing a similar picture heavy design to the one found in Arcade Mania, Schoolgirl gives the reader a summary and history of the popularity of Japanese schoolgirls in popular culture (um, excluding porn of course). The book's fun and informative. It's also a great novelty item due to the obscure and offbeat subject matter.

A Violent Professional:
A Violent Professional is a book dedicated to the Italian character actor Luciano Rossi, who appeared primarily in bit parts in genre films during the mid-sixties to the early eighties. Talk about a niche title! I knew little to nothing about Rossi going into the book, but I still read it in the hopes that it could introduce me to some cool movies. This, along with the fact that the book was part of the same series as Mark Schilling's No Borders, No Limits convinced me to take a chance on Violent Professional. Ultimately I'm glad I picked this title up because it's a hugely entertaining and compelling read that also looks great.

Violent Professional is covered in pics of movie stills and publicity photos. And being that most of the movies in here are '70's Italian exploitation films, the photos in the book are soaked in loud, eye-catching, retro cool. The meat of the book is in the text though, and it is in this text that the book shines. Whereas No Borders, No Limits took a more dry and academic approach to its text, A Violent Professional contains much more personality and humor which makes the book easy to breeze through in a sitting or two. In the book's introduction the author explains her admiration of Rossi as an unsung hero of Italian cult cinema. She also describes her attraction to the actor, which leads to her rating each of his films on a scale of one to four hearts based on how hot she thinks he is in each film (she humorously explains her reasoning behind the system, "...I was reading Tigerbeat before I was reading European Trash Cinema.") The heart rating system provides the book with a fun twist that gives it an extra boost of personality without distracting from the facts and information it has to offer.

The descriptions of the films are also great. They make me want to track down a lot of the titles, which may prove difficult considering that many of these movies are a touch on the obscure side. On a final note, those reading Violent Professional should pay close attention to the English titles given to these films, which contain gems of titles such as Confessions of a Sex Maniac and Sex Slayer!