Anime Books

I wrote a review of the book "Cinema of Mamoru Oshii: Fantasy, Technology and Politics by Dani Cavallaro", describing it as "comprehensive, even if a bit dense." Well, Brian Ruh's book "Stray Dog of Anime" accomplishes the same goal that Cavallaro set out to accomplish, only minus the thick academic language. This is not a slight to Cavallaro's work, which should help bring Oshii's genius into the line of sight of Western Academia. However, for the rest of us who appreciate an intelligent yet more accessible style of writing, there is Ruh's book.

What's interesting is that Ruh's book captures the same format as Cavallaro's, walking the reader through Oshii's work in chronological order. Ruh follows a helpful outline approach that offers an introduction, description, synopsis and, finally, analytic commentary on each film. Ruh's dissection of each film is presented in a conversational format that is without pretense. Readers like myself will especially appreciate the Oshii interview excerpts throughout the book. In fact, I bought both books hoping to find not just a critical look at Oshii's films, but also some insight from the man himself. It's always a good feeling to come across an outside view of a movie or film director that is in line with my own. I really appreciated how Ruh takes notice of Oshii's maturation through each film, with Patlabor 2 being something of a pivotal point in Oshii's more subdued yet enriching approach to how dialog and mood is captured and conveyed in his films.

Unfortunately, my favorite Oshii film -- Innocence -- was not yet finished at the time of the publishing of this book, so you won't find any discussion about this film. But it is a minor miss for an otherwise well written, comprehensive inspection of Oshii's other works.

If you can afford it, buy this book and Cavallaro's together.

These days it's hard to not know what the idea of a superhero is. With the summer movie offerings having many adaptations of comics to the big screen, it seems like it is hard to be able to turn around and not be inundated with images of superheroes. Our culture is one that has the superhero ideals ingrained into it.

Super/Heroes: From Hercules to Superman is a compilation of essays that all deal with the idea of heroes, and what makes them so fascinating to our culture. Its goal is to traverse the boundaries between heroes and super heroes. Many of the essays in the collection explore parallels between the hero myths of our past and popular culture, with the intention to shed light on the creative process of mythmaking. The essays included are a product of the "Men in Tights" Superheroes conference that was held at Melbourne University, Australia in 2005.

The book was divided into five sections. Each of these topics has five essays dealing with topics of the section. The ideas discussed in the book are as follows:

-- Being a Super/Hero: Myth and Meaning,
-- Into the Labyrinth: Dark Journeys,
-- We Can be Heroes: Bodies that Hammer,
-- Collisions: Gods and Supermen, and Media Convergence, and
-- Selling Hero Culture.

Each of these topics gives us you something to ponder:
-- Whether it be what is a super/hero--what journeys do heroes make that define themselves and their powers,
-- How can popular culture icons such as wrestlers, musicians and television characters embody the super/heroes culture,
-- Comparisons of mythical heroes and current day characteristics, and the influx of the superhero culture into our everyday lives.

This collection was a nice change of pace for me. I enjoyed the academic views on the hero culture and integration of superheroes into popular culture. The essays comparing mythological heroes and current popular things like Harry Potter and rap made me smile, and think hard about the ideas proposed by the author of the essay.

Armchair Interviews says: Interesting and thought-provoking read in this day of real, make-believe and tarnished superheroes.

I am a huge fan of Escaflowne the anime series. This manga, unfortunately, has very little to do with the series, but it's still great! It goes in a completely different direction than the anime, which I think makes following both of them a bit confusing at times but overall a lot of fun. The art on Escaflowne and the other mechs is brilliant, although this is one of my first mangas so I must admit I'm not a particularly experienced reader. Still, it was very good and impressed me greatly!

Volume two of Yakitate follows Azuma and company as they prove themselves not only to the eccentric store manager of the South Tokyo Branch of Pantasia, but also the company's chief meister (who bears a striking resemblance to certian Gundam heros/villains).

The first little story finishes where we left off in volume one, trying to create the most appealing loaf of French Bread, such that even a horse will eat it. The arc finishes predictably and a new challenger arises in the form of a rival bakery across the street who offers a televised breadmaking competition in flamboyant fashion.

It's right about here that the story begins to become more ridiculous than ever... at least before there was some semblance of believability. In volume two, that's all thrown out (save for in baking facts and recipes) as more unbelievable characters are introduced and strange contests abound.

The art is consistent over the volumes (with Azuma's sister's cameo sexing her up a bit, rowr) and the pacing is the typical high point/low point/cliffhanger of shonen series.

Pick it up if you like over the top, oddly themed comedies.

I, myself, don't know much about drawing. I purchased this book as a gift for my stepdaughter and she loves it.

The entire experience was amazing. Shipped earlier then expected, in pristine condition, no hassles no worry.

The product itself is great. The guide truly helps with the basic structure of drawing characters anatonomically correct. It's always better to learn how to draw something right first and then learn how to break the rules later.

the artsyle on the cover is Extremely Missleading~!
It Will only show how to draw "realistic" style manga anatomy. The women model is also rather man-ish looking.
So its not what i expected at all and i'm kind of Dissapointed. There is also a very Weird p2 page spread of up-crotch shots that i can only imagine are there for H-manga refrences.

First off, I have to say I was very impressed at the beginning of this book. The starting chapters, covering some perspective and posing, detailed skeletal and later muscular structures were very well done. The skull, hand and feet sections were in depth and very helpful and detailed.

However- when they started into full body poses I was remotely annoyed. Most of the poses and references they gave for men were in action. Throwing something, or starting to run- pictures that neatly expressed the male body in motion. That's all very nice and well, but I would have enjoyed seeing more relaxed forms as well. Not all my work and other people's work with men is drawn in motion! Quite a bit is still.

And when we move into the woman, there's no action at all. Mainly references draw for woman who are stretching, or reclining and a lot of these poses are from 'suggestive' views. It's also slightly annoying to find 10 different views from which to draw a female crotch and the male subjects mysteriously elude this area. While we're at it, not all female's breasts are aroused 24/7. It's not truly necessary to draw nipples on every figure.

This whole extra fascination with the female body is perhaps more annoying to me then others since I originally got this book hoping for help on male anatomy- since if I truly need a reference for a female form I can simply go into the bathroom.

It would have also been nice to see more variations in the male/female models. In general a nice reference book, though it could have covered a lot more in some areas and a lot less in others.

I've collected many anatomy books, but what makes this one unique is that it shows both the simple (shapes) and finished drawing in several camera viewpoints, and illustrates muscle changes (like when raising an arm), again both in simple (rough animation) and finished work. This is perfect for animation so we can study how the body shifts in a clean illustrative format. I particulary like how they illustrate the diffrences in gender proportionately. Made my life much simpler. Once you know how to draw the anatomy correctly yet cleanly, it's easier to adapt it to more complex or more cartoony forms. A must have!

I actually had a college lit class that used anime text as the basis of the class. This book was the reference work that pointed out the literary merit of anime. Not only was I impressed that there was anime of literary merit, I was surprised by the depth of the popular works that she covered.

Each chapter uses a popular Manga as the focus to explain a concept, bringing in additional references as needed. The book as actually very easy to read considering that the book really is about literary analysis.

I learned a lot from this book, but it is not what I originally thought. When I first picked up the book, I would not have expected a literary analysis textbook. Make sure thats what you expect if you pick up the book because the title might seem more "fun" that it actually is.

I bought this book for a friend that is very interested in anime.
He tells me that it is very interesting and informative. He has been taking it to work to read during breaks so I guess he really likes it.

This book takes a fairly scholarly approach to anime and is probably not for the casual reader or the hyper fan. In particular the author looks at the sociological subtexts of anime in fairly grood detail. While this is only one approach to the subject she generally does a fairly good, and interesting, job. I will say that if she used the word "priviledged" one more time I would scream.

This would not be my choice for a first book on the subject, for which I would recommend "Anime Explosion". If you're interested in the cultural references, including the Japanese and Buddhist mythology underlying many of the stories, check of "Samurai from Outer Space", a much better book that the title implies.

Save yourself the money on this book. The author seems to read some anime reviews, "The Anime Companion", and some cultural anime books, and slop them together as though she's got original information. Some of which she STILL gets wrong. Incorrect pictures for some of the anime, too, only futher lowering the quality of this book...which is hard to do with pictures, you'd think.

I am a huge fan of anime and also of the Japanese culture and history. I figured that this book would be interesting. I heard good things about it and bad things about it but wanted to judge it myself.
First - it was first published in 2000 which means that the anime scene has already changed greatly. In fact, many of the points made in the book would have been outdated by the time it was printed.
Second - she seems to focus a lot of sex. Now that may be because much of her information, and the anime she selected to view, came from University students or stores who supplied students. The idea that pornography is a _major current_ within the world of anime is a interesting but flawed statement. Erotic anime makes up a small corner of the anime produced in Japan and it has greater sales abroad than in its homeland. In fact, I would go as far as to say that Non-Japanese would be the main target for this type of anime - which means trying to understand the Japanese male-female relationship via adult anime is also flawed. But it might tell us alot about American and European college students.
She has tons of interesting points to make but the foundations she builds to hold them up seem weak and shaky. For example, she talks about men's insecurity and their need for Mecha using sci-fi shows where most of the pilots are female. She uses sources about American Superheros to talk about Japanese characters.
Also, while she did mention a Tenchi movie, she seems to skip the Tenchi Muyo! TV shows. What about Dominion Tank Police, Gall Force, Martian Successor Nadesico, Wings of Honneamise, any of the Gundam shows or even Dirty Pair? I don't think she even once writes about CLAMP!
In other words, while she does get into detail about a few areas of anime, she is far from covering it all. So buyer beware and buy it used.
I would also suggest _The Erotic Anime Movie Guide_ by Helen McCarthy and Jonathan Clements for the history and true understanding of erotic anime. For understanding mainstream anime I would suggest _Anime Explosion_ by Patrick Drazen, _Samurai From Outer Space_ by Antonia Levi and _The Anime Companion_ by Gulles Poitras. ^_^

Over-ethical bounty hunting can be hard work.


In a diaspora situation the police have little of coping with the crime situation over such a large area, so bounty hunters are quite popular. The ones that aren't too fussy about dead or alive tend to make more money, which leaves the Bebop crew struggling.

Supergenius crimelord doubles, computer brained dogs and annoying alien girls don't really help.

Okay,so there's been a lot of griping about the "Shooting Star" manga series,when the truth is it's not such a bad series.Of course anyone who is interested in getting into the Bebop franchise, shouldn't go to "Shooting Star" first.In fact this is probably the last Bebop thing you should explore.

With all the said,I think the only flaw with the series are some of the personality changes,but they are slight,and I'll let it go, since this just a "What if?" alternate reality/universe-type situation.The characters designs are also quite different,but I think it fits the whole alternate-universe feel of the manga series.

So if you've watched the series,the movie, read other manga series then check this series out.You may be in for a pleasant surprise(or not)

It was a refreshing twist to the Bebop universe. Spike's style was made a little, um, too pushy. He cared too much for his ship. Ed is still Ed, but has a more animeish (is that a word?)look to her (him? not sure about it this time around.)Jet hasn't changed with the new artist, but Faye has turned into a snobby brat. The art is hectic in the fight scenes, but is okay as is. Is worth a look for hardcore Bebop fans, but not for newcomers. See you space cowboy.

This series is a retelling of Cowboy Bebop supposedly, except for some reason Cain Kuga destroyed the characterization of everyone. Spike is now much lazier than the original, and lacks the laid back yet serious stature he has in the anime, Ed is now a whiny little brat, and Faye is nothing but a brainless (...) The artwork is ugly to look at... no, the character designs are okay, but the action is drawn so odd that it is impossible to tell what is going on. And the stories themselves are very lacking, they do not have the Bebop feeling that the anime does, and devoid of any characterization. Listen to this review: DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY LIKE I DID! I've goofed up so none of you will make the same mistake like me!

The good thing is Cain Kuga provides great art for this series. The bad thing is Kuga, as the writer, never grasped the personality or appeal of each character. The subtlety of the anime and the balance of the various personalities aboard the Bobop is lost. The most infuriating is Spike has taken on a whole new personality of stupidity. Instead of a cleverness hidden behind his nonchalant attitude, he has become Bebop's grunt, driven by hunger and little else. There's a reason the manga is being canceled after issue 2.

i like the serie and the writer and i like t see soon a new part of the serie ending by marriage of hitomi and van .i hope the writer read that.

Okay, I'v watched the anime The Vision of Escaflowne (Tenkuu no Escaflowne) and this manga is a very good choice for fans of the anime (it's maybe more enjoyable if you haven't seen the anime though). But be warned: character disigns are not the same! The plot is deferent! And to all Dilandau fans (myself inclued) his character disign is VERY deferent from the anime! So all Dilly-lovers (like me) should brace for impact on that one! But all that a side this is a very good manga! I, personaly, think that the anime is better as fare as plot, characters etc. but none the less this is a good manga! And also, be sure to check out the shojo version of this manga done by I think it's Yuzuru Yashiro but don't quote me on that.

I got the first one as a gift. I had previously seen all of the amnime and loved it and expected the same from the manga. I was extatic to see totaly different characters and plot, don't get me wrong, I loved the anime ones, it's just I was never able to get attached to them like I was in the manga.

Well, if you are expecting to see the Escaflowne television show retold, you are out of luck. I enjoyed the manga, but a lot of that was because I knew what to expect -- I knew this version of the manga is the shounen version: it is geared towards boys, so have more violence and mecha. Hitomi is a weaker character, but she still has her moments. Van and Allen are charming, though somewhat different from their TV selves, and Dilandau (who takes on both TV Folken and TV Dilandau's roles) is fascinating as always -- though more as I want to know how he will turn out as compared to the show. Even if you haven't seen the anime, I would recommend this book. Heck, as long as you do not expect a retelling of the anime, I would say you would enjoy this.

If you're considering buying this book because you liked the anime, DON'T! The story is, in my opinion, massacred in this manga. The characters are childish and they seem to be trying way too hard to be "cool". The overuse of slang is laughable, and the artwork isn't nearly as well drawn as in the series. Don't waste your money.

Anime fans frequently praise this book as an explanation of the sexuality in anime. This is a COMPLETE AND TOTAL misunderstanding of what this book is. In truth, this book is a work of apologetics against the "sex and tentacles" reputation that anime has in Great Britain-- the residence of the authors.
The key to understanding this book is the chapter on the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) which must rate and evaluate every movie that is released in the UK. If the film contains content that is deemed too explicit, the film must either accept cuts or be banned from being shown in the UK. Anime, particularly the adult titles that came out in the early days of the anime explosion, tended to require frequent cuts (Johnathan Clements translated some anime titles for the UK, which the BBFC cut or banned. This may explain his venom in the chapters he wrote).
All the other chapters center around the fact that anime has a bad reputation in the UK. This history (which gets some facts wrong) is meant to say to the British reader: The Japanese are not a nation of sexual perverts. The discussion of certain series (notably Urutsukidoji) are meant to inform the British reader what actually happened in the stories as opposed to the distorted rumors that were going around the country. The movie section gives a selection of titles (which is NOT intended by them to be exhaustive) meant to show the British reader that not all anime is porn.
The book has problems. First, is their ludicrous attempt to explain away the fact that some anime sexualizes minors. They claim that these people wearing school uniforms are actually junior college students and all females that are sexual objects are adults. This is a statement that is irresponsibly false. If they knew it, it is a complete lie. if not, it reflects poorly on their knowledge of Japan. College students don't wear uniforms, and in Japan, up until 1999 (after the time the book was written) the age of consent in Nagoya and Tokyo was 13 and girls could get married at 16. Moreover, the concept of enjo kosai (compensated dating-- a sort of informal prostitution by high school girls) was a factor at the time of their writing, but it goes unmentioned by the authors-- a point that puts a big hole in their argument and hence omitted.
The second major problem is this book was written by some angry people. In fairness, I would not care to live under the BBFC determining what I can watch. However, with anger, clarity and rationality suffers. The book seems vitrolic and frequently fails to come to a point. There are distortions (They imply that two episodes of "Crying Freeman" had so much censored by the BBFC, that the distributor had to put them together on one tape. In actuality, less than one minute was cut from both episodes combined. As a result, their credibility suffers. Also, they seem to operate under a belief that a high quality story that is sexually explicit ought not to be put in the same category as a sleazy porn story. So they classify anime as being mainstream, erotic or porn. The problem is this makes everything relative: Only stuff I *don't* like can be considered porn.
So essentially, the book does not deliver as a rational discussion of erotic anime. It comes off looking more like a 191 page rant against the BBFC.

This is an extremely in-depth look at the history of anime and the role of eroticism in shaping it. It also covers the views that have shaped how anime is perceived. It has a guide to individual movies which takes up about a third of the book, but only half of those are erotic films. A must for increasing your understanding of anime, but it is not really a film guide.

This one's a bit of a mixed bag. Part of the problem is that the same author's later Anime Encyclopedia makes the latter half of it (a list of Erotic anime), completely redundant. However, the first half, comprising learned essays on anime topics, remain very intriguing. In particular, this book contains a fascinating study of the media's reaction to anime, and the first account of the shonen ai genre to go into any reasonable depth. Very important for anyone who takes anime seriously, but bear in mind that only part of the book is still relevant today.

I agree that this book is only a rant against the BBFC, which the author may have found justified to put in print, but I simply want to correct the correction to what Mr Wenat qualifies as "poor knowledge of Japan" on the part of the author which, again, may be true, but his correction isn't quite accurate either.

As the Japanese school system is divided into primary school, junior high school, high school, and university levels and that, in fact, primary, junior high, and high school students DO ABSOLUTELY have to wear a uniform. I do not exactly recall if McCarthy used "junior college" or not in the text, but in some parts of the English-speaking world, as far as I remember, it refers to high school students. Japanese students enter high school at age 16 and graduate at 18. Whether the age of consent is 13 in Nagoya and Tokyo is irrelevent, because the universal age of majority in Japan is 20. Thus anything below that is underage sex.

As for enjo kosai, this is not usually somehting present in anime (although I've seen some), but that is not a phenomenon only present amongst high school girl, but also amongst housewives, office ladies, university students and freeters, thus can be considered prostitution with all it implies. However, its ommission from the McCarthy text does put somewhat of a hole in their argumentation about school uniforms, but is not entirely relevent from the discussion either.

As for all anime not being ero-anime cannot be effectively shown or understood through this guide, since the flow of nonero-anime to the west is still at a trickle. The number of OVA is decreasing because of late-night TV airings, and a simple search on Amazon.co.jp through DVD and video demonstrates this fairly quickly.

The fact remains that the erotic undertones of anime are strong, but when one thinks about who they REALLY aim, which is mostly pre-teens, teens, and young adults (sex notwithstanding), anime simply attempts to capitalise on what boys want (big breasted characters and mecha) and the girls with idealised love stories, beautiful men and women characters, and cute stuff, something they yearn for and try to achieve themselves. But then, if anyone has recently seen a film from the United States without any erotic undertones, you are welcome to drop me a line.

Besides, this book was written in 1999... This is getting aged.

191 pages of a serious study of the anime's history in Japan and impact of ... anime in the western world. The book deals with its roots, how much of it is made in Japan (when compared to other categories), the many types (..., horror, ..., so on), the characters, anime games and even how translations, from Japanese to English, sometimes made a normal anime into a ... version that will increase its selling power in the English and American market BUT destroy the story line. It also deals with the media's reactions to anime and how marketing strategies make a cartoon worse than it started out with. For example, ... boys are more likely to buy a cartoon with a adult rating than one for family viewing. Also the book shows how most ... anime is bought up by mainstream video/DVD viewers NOT anime fans (who are more likely going to want the Japanese, and therefore pre-eroticized, version of the story).
Contains adult material, so only for 18 years or older AND only for the serious reader.

This book was a very enjoyable, easy read. It gave plenty of great information, and I would recommend it to anybody wanting to start their own!!

It reads like a very practical guide for would-be pornographers. That is both a plus and a minus, because it doesn't take much to see that it is probably an uphill climb to make any sort of decent income this way. Lots of work, lots of challenges, and you are not at all likely to do this secretly or on the side.

This book offers no real information or practical steps to actually start your business. It mentions all items in passing (usually no more than a paragraph on any subject, some of whihc ar eimportant). Definetly not going to get you get started. And there is absolutely ZERO useful information on finding models.

This book is a very thin description of how to get into the Internet content provider world. The problem is that as far as the real useful information, it could have been done with even fewer pages. Maybe 10 would have been good. The content is meant for a photographer not a videographer. The most useful information is in the smaller print sidebars liberally placed in each chapter. A page on how much to pay models is probably the most useful and that information can be gotten from the World Modeling website or Luke Ford. Not much on how to sell your work, all very general information. Too little information for the price.

This book appears promising yet falls woefully short on delivery. Most of the info in the book you already know or can learn from a myriad of other books or sources. It promises to show you how to become an internet pornographer yet tells you little or nothing about how to set up a website, find hosting, payment options or any of the other nuts and bolts needed to be succesful. The info on where to find models is no mystery, just common sense. What to pay models was a bit interesting but the advice to pay by check is accounting 101. All in all I give it 2 stars which is a shame, a colaberation with someone wed-savvy may have made this a winner.