1. Introduction: Astro Boy’s Grandchildren-Tales of Longing, Disappointment, and New Heroes in Japan
Part1: The Family Album of Emotional Machines: Pepper and His Successors
2. Representations of Emotional Capacity in Human-Robot Interaction: From Astro Boy to Pepper
3. Character, Desire, Infrastructure: Manga/Anime Fandom Preceding and Predicting Technological Experimentation in Japan
4. Characteristics of Artificial Intelligence in Japan
Part2: Between Promises and Realities: A Critique of Popular Media and Public Narrative
5. Hearts Meet Wires: Navigating the Ethical and Social Implications of Care Robotics
6. On Posthuman Imaginaries and Japanese Robot Culture: A Techno-Oriental Strand of Cruel Optimism
7. Human-Machine Relations from Abacus to AI in the Sanrio anime Aggressive Retsuko (Aggretsuko)
8. An Anthropological View of Social Robots: Ontological Indefiniteness and the Subjective Experience of Care Technologies in Japan
Part3: Inheriting Human Problems: Negotiating Dreams, Fears, and Gender
9. Kawaii Aesthetics in Human-Machine Romance: Reimagining Gender, Cuteness, and Digital Intimacy in A.I. Love You (2016)
10. Reframing Socio-Cultural Malaise in the Technocene: A Psychosocial Reading of K?b? Abe’s Inter Ice Age 4 and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun
Part4: Blurring Boundaries: Where Does the Human End, Where Does the Machine Begin?
11. Beyond an Ontological Divide: Possibilities of Emotional Connections between Humans and Androids in Sh?k? Murase’s Anime Ergo Proxy 12. The Obsolescence of Robot Commodity and Human-Machine Relationship: The Case of Two Anime
13. OriHime Robot Avatars, Affect, and Performance Digression 1: Artistic Visions on Human-Machine Attachments
14. My Robot, Blurting Out (translated by Jeffrey Angles)
15. Humans and AI humans-On Ambiguity and Change Digression 2: The Impact of the Popular Imaginary on Robotics Engineering in Japan
16. “We can expect the relationship between humans and robots to be of a different kind from that between humans“-An interview with Tatsuya Nomura 17. “Behavior that complements humans is an essential characteristic of social agents”-An interview with Hirotaka ?sawa 18. “By creating communication robots, I would like to ensure that there are no people who feel socially isolated”-An interview with Hidenobu Sumioka