is a Japanese

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

critic, best known as the author of ''Evangelion as the Immaculate Virgin (analysis of the anime serie Neon Genesis Evangelion),'' Tokyo: Magazine House, 1997 and of ''Joseijou muishiki: techno-gynesis josei SF-ron josetsu,'' Tokyo: Keiso shobo, 1994 (''Techno-Gynesis: The Political Unconscious of Feminist Science Fiction),'' which won the 15th

Nihon SF Taisho Award The is a Japanese science fiction award. It has been compared to the Nebula Award as it is given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan or SFWJ. The Grand Prize is selected from not only Science Fiction novels, but also various SF m ...

. Kotani is one of the founders of the Japanese Sense of Gender Award (equivalent to the

Tiptree Award The Otherwise Award, formerly known as the James Tiptree Jr. Award, is an American annual literary prize for works of science fiction or fantasy that expand or explore one's understanding of gender. It was initiated in February 1991 by science f ...

) in 2001, and of The Japanese Association of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy. She is now the chair of the Japan

PEN A pen is a common writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a nib or in a small void or cavity wh ...

Women Writers Committee and a member of the Science Fiction Writers of Japan.

"Textual harassment" lawsuit

In 1997, Media Works published a

reference Reference is a relationship between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object. The first object in this relation is said to ''refer to'' the second object. It is called a '' name'' ...

book, ''Alternative Culture'', which contained an article describing Kotani's book, ''Evangelion as the Immaculate Virgin,'' and depicted Mari Kotani's name as a pseudonym for her husband

Takayuki Tatsumi is a Japanese scholar. He is a professor at Keio University, where he has taught literary theory and American literature since 1989. As an avid science fiction fan, he authored many books and essays on science fiction. He received Nihon SF Tais ...

, a professor of English at Keio University. When her complaints were ignored, she sued the author of the entry (Hiroo Yamagata), the publisher and Shufu-no-Tomo-sha, the distributor of the book, for what she termed "textual harassment." The lawsuit was broadly supported by Japanese writers. The Japan

PEN Club PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internation ...

established a Women Writer's Committee, with feminist critic Kazuko Saegusa as chair, and Kotani as sub-chair. During this period, Kotani and Maki Honda's translation of

Joanna Russ Joanna Russ (February 22, 1937 – April 29, 2011) was an American writer, academic and feminist. She is the author of a number of works of science fiction, fantasy and feminist literary criticism such as ''How to Suppress Women's Writing'', as w ...

' ''

How to Suppress Women's Writing ''How to Suppress Women's Writing'' is a book by Joanna Russ, published in 1983. Written in the style of a sarcastic and irreverent guidebook, it explains how women are prevented from producing written works, not given credit when such works are pr ...

'' received by major feminist critics in Japan including Chizuko Ueno, Fukuko Kobayashi, Yuko Matsumoto, and Kazuko Takemura. In 2001 the defendants were ordered to pay Kotani 3,300,000 yen (roughly $27,500), and to publish an apology on the top page of their respective website.

Cosplay

Kotani was not the first cosplayer in Japan but she is the earliest documented instance of cosplay at a fan event in that country. She attended a costume party at the 17th Nihon SF Taikai (also known as "Ashinocon")

science fiction convention Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of the speculative fiction genre, science fiction. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expre ...

in 1978 wearing a costume based on the cover art for Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel ''

A Fighting Man of Mars ''A Fighting Man of Mars'' is a science fantasy novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the seventh of his Barsoom series. Burroughs began writing it on February 28, 1929, and the finished story was first published in '' The Blue Book Maga ...

''. This costume has sometimes been misreported as a Triton costume (from the manga '' Triton of the Sea'') due to its visual similarity and because Kotani was known at the time as a member of the TRITON fan club. She was one of about the twenty people at the event wearing a costume; the others were either members of the same ''Triton of the Sea'' fan club or of , the antecedent of the Gainax anime studio. Despite being a costume party, most attendees wore ordinary clothing. In 2003, she established the annual Kotani Cup "for celebrating the best cos-players at Japanese National SF Convention."

Partial bibliography

Works by Kotani include: *''Joseijou muishiki: techno-gynesis josei SF-ron josetsu''. Tokyo: Keiso shobo, 1994. ''(Techno-Gynesis: The Political Unconscious of Feminist Science Fiction)'' , which won the 15th

Nihon SF Taisho Award Winners List
/ref> *''Fantasy no Boken'' ''(Adventure of Fantasy)'' *''Otoko-tachi no Shiranai On'na'' ''(The Women Men Don't See)'', translation of Marleen Barr's ''Lost in Space: Probing Feminist Science Fiction and Beyond'' *Translation of

Donna Haraway Donna J. Haraway is an American Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness Department and Feminist Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a prominent scholar in the field of science and technology studies. Sh ...

A Cyborg Manifesto "A Cyborg Manifesto" is an essay written by Donna Haraway and published in 1985 in the '' Socialist Review (US)''. In it, the concept of the cyborg represents a rejection of rigid boundaries, notably those separating "human" from "animal" and "h ...

'' (won the 2nd Japanese Translation Award for Philosophy) *Translation of

'' (with Maki Hona) *"Across the Multiverse: How Do Aliens Travel from ‘Divisional’ Space to ‘Network’ Space?" ''Japanese Journal of American Studies'' (Japanese Association for American Studies) 13 (2002): 157–170. *''Space, Body, and Aliens in Japanese Women’s Science Fiction'' (Science Fiction Studies, 2002) *''Hoshi no kagi, maho no kobako : Kotani Mari no Fantaji & SF annai'' (Tōkyō : Chūo Kōronsha, 2005) , *''Tekuno goshikku'' ''(Techno-goth)'' (Tōkyō : Hōmusha : Shūeisha, 2005) , *
Disturbing, Traversing, Borderless, Shaking Sexuality: The Place where Revolutionary Girl Utena was Born
', 2000.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kotani, Mari 1958 births Anime and manga critics Living people People from Toyama Prefecture Japanese feminists Japanese literary critics Science fiction fans Cosplayers