Episode Details

On this episode of the Japan Station podcast, award-winning author Peter Tieryas talks about his alternate history book series, United States of Japan, as well as answers many of the lingering questions at the end of his most recent book, Cyber Shogun Revolution.

Peter Tieryas is the award-winning author of the United States of Japan books (United States of Japan, Mecha Samurai Empire, Cyber Shogun Revolution). Inspired by Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle and Japanese popular media such as the Zone of the Enders and Metal Gear series of video games, the United States of Japan books present a dark but super technologically advanced world filled with epic mecha battles, hyper realistic video games, and a version of the United States that was split into two after Imprial Japan and Nazi Germany came out victorious in World War II. The United States of Japan books have been translated into multiple languages, including French, Spanish, and even Japanese. Tieryas is the recipient of two Seiun Awards for the Japanese translations of United States of Japan and Mecha Samurai Empire. Aside from his work as an author, Tieryas has also worked as a technical writer for LucasArts and a character artist for major motion pictures such as Guardians of the Galaxy. And he also really enjoys video games.

• Why Peter chose Beniko as the name of one of the main characters of United States of Japan
• Why Peter decided to reference Punch Out and Hajime no Ippo (Fighting Spirit) through the name of the main character of Mecha Samurai Empire (Makoto Fujimoto/Mac)
• The symbolism of Akiko Tsukino's dreams
• Unites States of Japan as a general commentary on militarism
• Why Peter decided to make Akiko Tsukino of mixed French Korean heritage rather than ethnically Japanese
• Why technology is so advanced in the United States of Japan universe
• Why Japan developed mecha in the universe of United States of Japan
• Peter's writing process for the United State of Japan trilogy
• Some of the things the mecha that appear in Cyber Shogun Revolution reference
• How Peter goes about creating mecha
• The positive reception of the United States of Japan books by fans around the world
• Winning the Seiun Award
• Traveling to Japan for the first time to attend the Seiun Award ceremony in 2017
• Why Peter decided not to focus on mainland Japan in the United States of Japan books
• Whether Peter plans to write more books in the United States of Japan series
• The dark undertones of the United States of Japan series
• Having Hideo Kojima write a blurb for Mecha Samurai Empire
• Peter's upcoming novel focusing on what would happen to the world if people stopped dying
• And a whole lot of spoiler talk regarding Cyber Shogun Revolution (after the outro mousic)
• And much more!

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