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Theory, Culture & Society
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Anytime, Anywhere

Tetsuwan Atomu Stickers and the Emergence of Character Merchandizing

Marc Steinberg

Concordia University, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Japan's first weekly, 30-minute animated TV series, Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy), is not only commonly regarded as the first instance of what is now known as `anime'; it is also regarded as the point of emergence of the commercial phenomenon of character-based merchandizing. Interesting enough, it is not so much Tetsuwan Atomu the TV series as the practice of including Atomu stickers as premiums in the candy maker Meiji Seika's chocolate packages that really ignited the character merchandizing boom. The key to the success of the stickers — along with the use of the already popular figure of Atomu — was their ability to be stuck anywhere, and seen anytime. This anytime-anywhere potential of the stickers arguably led to the new communicational media environment and the cross-media connections that characterize the anime system and the force which drives it: the character. Part historical, part theoretical, this article will explore the thesis that it was the `medium' of stickers that led to the development of the character-based multimedia environment that is a key example of — and perhaps even a precursor to — the ubiquity of media that is the theme of this journal issue.

Key Words: anime • character • consumption • Japan • mass culture • media theory • merchandizing

Theory, Culture & Society, Vol. 26, No. 2-3, 113-138 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0263276409103114
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