Susan Napier is professor of Japanese Studies at Tufts University where she also teaches courses on fantasy and science fiction film and literature. She received all her degrees from Harvard University and has been a visiting professor at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and a visiting scholar at University of Sydney. Her most recent books include The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature: The Subversion of Modernity, Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle: Experiencing Japanese Animation, and From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Cult in the Mind of the West. Her article on Harry Potter, “Harry Potter’s Fantastic Journey: Survival, Trauma and Transcendence in Twenty-First Century Fantasy” will be published this fall. She is currently writing a book on the Japanese anime director, Hayao Miyazaki.