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Azuma Hiroki is a philosopher and cultural critic who has in recent years become a major intellectual figure in Japan, writing on issues as diverse as representation, art history, otaku subculture, narrative structure, and, lately, freedom in the post-9/11 world. His work is notable for the strong theoretical background that it brings to the analysis of subculture, especially otaku subculture. Azuma initially worked on the philosophy of Jacques Derrida, and in his first book, Sonzaiteki, yubinteki: Jacques Derrida ni tsuite (1998, Ontologi-cal, postal: On Jacques Derrida), he traces Derrida s usage of the logic of the postal to lay the grounds for a new theory of communication. Already in his second book, Yubinteki fuantachi (1999, Postal anxieties), a collection of diverse essays and reflections, Azuma pushed his Derridean-inspired theory of communication further in the direction of an analysis of subculture, particularly in his …