Anime Books

This is a good book. I think. I don't really know, because I can't read Kanji. and in case anyone's interested this book DOES NOT have furigana! the illustrations are good, but won't make up for not understanding the text.

This book is no good. If you can speak Japanese than use it, but otherwise, it's just useless. I personally can't speak Japanese and this book makes absolutely no scence to me. don't think you can slide by without knowing the language. I'm returning it right away.

This book reallt thaught me how to draw all those cool characters you see in games like the Final Fantasy series and from anime series like Dragonball Z and Rurouni Kenshin. It's really worth buying it, it's cool to be able to draw like this and show off with it!

This thing works! I could barely draw stick figures and now I'm drawing like a pro. My friends ask me to draw and frame my pictures for them. This book has awesome tips!

PS:Pikachu must die! It is a disgrace to anime.

It looks to be a very helpful book. Unfortunately I didn't know it was in Japanese.... Besides that though it looks like it could be really helpful. It shows different body positions, and how to draw certain actions with 1,2,3 type steps. As usual some vaguely suggestive art in it; I guess it's hard to find anything about Anime without that in it. :(

This manga is one of my favs. this story never gets old, the animation is a little hard to tell whats happening but its not that bad. the manga is much less modest that the anime, alot of panty shots in this one. it has the same shoujo-ai as the anime but it also has some shonen-ai with was kind of a turn off, the kurumi sense of humor is in full bloom with this one. the series has no lag in it and damn near no wasted time. the time that they spend introducing the characters is well spent and not to long (unlike the lord of the rings). the anime is still my favorite, i recomend watching it first. FYI the storys are different.

Anyone who wants to make manga too serious is just plain crazy. This series does have a lot of fan service, panty shots, straight and gay/lesbian come on's and so on and so forth. It is also completely adorable with the steel angels and how they relate to each other and the human beings around them. If you've read a lot of manga and want something new, I'd recommend it. I wouldn't however, recommend it to a newbie manga fan, as the drawing can be a little difficult to make out for a newcomer, especially the action scenes. The basic plotline is that this is an alternative version of the past, in the early 1900's (I think). The boy who is the main character is a young mystic who stumbles upon the body of a defunct robot (Steel Angel Kurumi) and wakes her up with the infamous "Japanese accidental kiss." Even though her creator is there in the building with the boy she of course immediately declares that the young boy is her master and then they get into a fight with a bunch of soldiers who are after her and the scientist who created her. That's how it starts. There's a lot of plot twists, and interesting and surprising developments along the first two volumes of this series (the only ones I've read so far) such as people you thought were bad ending up good and people who were good ending up bad. Even with the conventional antics of the angels, obsessed with those they care about, I found this series different enough to be a interesting read.

I read the Maico 2010 series before I read this, and that may have tainted my judgment somewhat. But to me, this series is nothing new, and not as interesting as Maico was to me. Kurumi feels rushed, like the author was trying to put it out before the deadline and didn't bother to really concentrate on it. So much more could have been done with it, especially once the sister angels arrived. The premise is much like Maico, Oh My Goddess, or AI Love You in that a young, inhuman girl (a robot) falls for the first man she sees and pledges to be with him and protect him forever. That plotline has been overdone. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing--I love Maico and Oh My Goddess, and I DID buy Steel Angel Kurumi. But I found that Kurumi has too many unaddressed issues and a rushed plot, so it failed to grab my attention for long.

Title says it all. Pretty drawing style, lots of fan service (including some shounen-ai amasingly enough - in the US they would never mix straight and gay eye candy). No plot really, no point on getting it for any other reason. For those that like that sort of thing, enjoy.

I've been a major Kurumi fan from the beginning, and this is even better! Though I prefer the anime because it's a lot more amusing, the manga does it total justice. So if you loved to anime, you have to get the manga, it's great! THe art is good, and well...okay there is a scene about Nakahito that's totally wrong...but who cares it's manga! So buy it!

It's a shame that the manga is only two volumes long. It's a great follow-up to the anime, but I'm not sure how someone who hasn't seen at least some of the anime episodes will understand the manga series. If there's a quibble, it's that the art is different from the anime, so takes a little getting used to. Otherwise, if you liked the anime, pick up the two-volume series!

Abenobashi: Magical Shopping Arcade is one of the strangest manga books I have ever read since FLCL. But unlike FLCL, I understood this book! The story jumps around alot and you need to read it a couple times in order to understand what's going on.

Sasshi is a young boy who is into books, videogames and trading cards. But when his friend, Arumi's, grandfather breaks the family gardian statue, everything goes nuts! Transporting them into different versions of their shopping mall. Along the way they meet different versions of their family members and friends in these worlds and also must complete strange, meaningless and even bizzare tasks!

Full of comedy, love and a little of drama and sci-fi this book covers all forms of genres! And, much like FLCL, it makes fun of alot of other anime and manga series and also has alot of...mature comments and pictures *wink*!

My friend gave me this book and I liked it very much, but not being able to understand it was a little troublesome, but overall this series gets 5 stars out of 5 and is a buy for all manga readers!

My name is Amone! Adios!

Abenobashi Shopping Arcade in Osaka is undergoing a major facelift. Actually, it's going through more than that, because after 50 years its prosperity is dwindling. Evictions and closings have become commonplace. Childhood friends Sasshi and Arumi's lives are about to change forever. Sasshi's family store has been closed and Arumi's family has also received their eviction notice and she is moving away. Sasshi will lose his most precious friend. Adding to the plot is the fact that 4 omamori (protective charms) were placed in four stores around town, and when the last charm is destroyed, chaos breaks loose! Arumi and Sasshi find themselves swept from one alternative Abenobashi universe to another, from space mecha to dinosaur to shojo romance settings, all peopled with residents of the Abenobashi they know and love. So begins their quest to return to their own time and space!

This is pretty much a gag manga with all kinds of references to anime and manga that any fan will enjoy. The humor is pretty toilet, actually, below in the pipes of the toilet, but it's pretty funny. And pretty explicit too. There is nudity, crude sexual innuendo and very suggestive art, but never tilting to the erotic. It's all in the name of humor! The slight problem with this book is that there is very little progression since it's really just an assemblage of jokes. The only thing that brings a sense of honesty to the whole thing is the relationship between Arumi and Sasshi. If you are a fan of the anime version, you will find some new storylines here.

to quote Douglas Adams: "Mostly Harmless"

I'm a parent. I'm "left of center". And this review is from the perspective of a father of two teenage boys.

The older boy (19) would find it amusing, if he didn't have to pay for it. The younger boy(14), would probably "go steady" with this particular tome until he started to shave on a regular basis.

The Pros: Fan Service!, Anime "in" jokes, Japanese cultural jokes. Good art. Interesting scenarios. Well endowed "maidens".

The Cons: One suspects the dialog was funnier in Japanese. as somebody fameous once said: "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." There's quite a bit of nudity and, ah, "adult situations" in this one (more like "male fantasy sequences").

Think: Fooli Cooli with "babes", a more coherent "plot", and lest angst.

Buy If: you're into anime, don't like thinking too much, and well endowed (semi) naked women is your thing. And 14. And have parents with a sense of humor.

Otherwise, I'd have to give this 3 stars.

This book is in the form of cine-manga when a tv show gets made into a comic book, so it's like photos of the anime in the book add with little speech bubbles. What I don't like though is that in this style it doesn't really look like the words are coming from the charaters mouth and the storys get shortend up and doesn't have all the anime in it. So what I say is buy the manga get the anime but don't buy the cine-manga, it isn't worth it.

~*~Purin~*~

I like this book! I like the part when kero tells the kid when the kid says to him" ooh neat toy!" Kero says "Look at me again and i'll bite your nose!" Keros joking its so funny whhen he says "Remember kid..the nose" It seems that kero would be winking at the little boy at minute then.

This is a good review of the cardcaptors TV serise. Dont get it expecting "Cardcaptor Sakura", but it is still a extremly good, better than some other comics I have read.

I personally found this book to be a horrible waste of bookshelf space. I really like the original Japanese version Cardcaptor Sakura much better. This book is very good for young children, because of some parts in the other version, it is also good for people that are not used to Japanese culture or Japanese names. But I still find it very offensive that they credit the story to Clamp, because they totally cut up the American version. Any real fan of Clamp should get the Japanese version Cardcaptor Sakura.

I'll be short, and to the point. Eureka Seven is an amazing anime. One of the best, I think. The manga, is a different story.

Volume 1 starts off mostly the same as the series, but there are things "amiss" here. Eureka, seems more like a doll than she ever did in the series. Renton, who fell in love with the girl at first sight and vowed to protect her seems like he's been downgraded to that of a boy with a simple crush. There is also no antagonism from Holland towards Renton in the beginning, and Renton's sister is also vaguely mentioned. I could go on with all the differences in the manga, but that would be too much of a spoiler.

Did I mention Renton can't ref/lift even if his life depended on it? It's ridiculous.

Anyway, if you're a hardcore Eureka Seven fan like myself, you'll ultimately find this first volume lacking and will be disappointed as the manga continues in later volumes. If you haven't seen Eureka Seven before, maybe you might like it. Maybe. Overall, I don't really recommend this either way. Sure the art is detailed, but in the end, isn't it the well developed story with interesting characters that made Eureka Seven the excellent series that is was? None of that here.

Young Renton is sick of his life in a do nothing town, slaving away for his cranky mechanic grandpa. The only joy he gets is riding his ref board, a device used to surf the trapar winds, energy waves in the air. He dreams of joining Gekkostate, a rebel organization that lives to defy the official city governments. Not only are they a bastion of counter-culture, they are also a symbol to the young to go against the system and live their lives on their own terms. Of course, the government's main priority is to crush them. That's what they're in the course of doing when a mecha, called an "LFO", crashlands on Renton's home! Once he gets over the initial shock, his emotions run the other way, when a strange but beautiful looking young girl named Eureka steps out of its hatch. Renton is instantly a slave of love! The forces of Gekkostate have come to Renton's grandfather in search of a device called an "Amita Drive" which grants an LFO incredible powers and was created by Renton's dad, who is currently missing and presumed dead after saving the world. Will Renton's dreams finally be fulfilled even as he falls deeper in love and gets a reality check when he meets the rest of the Gekko's crew?

This first volume of the manga Eureka Seven is based on the anime of the same name and serves as pretty much a summary of the first DVD volume. That doesn't make it bad. I really liked the anime and found the manga just as enjoyable. Some plot points are cut short and some are added so you get a different experience here. The concern of Volume 1 is really about Renton getting his dream of joining Gekko State to come true, but finding that the dream leaves a bit to be desired as he becomes the whipping boy of the Moonlight's crew. Also, his view of the members has to be adjusted a bit from the photos and articles he's read about them, as up close, he finds their personality flaws on display. They're really not flaws, it's just the difference between their image and the real person. I do feel that the manga version can be enjoyed without having seen the anime. The only complaint I have with this book and any manga featuring mecha is that it's hard to tell one mech from the other. In anime you have colors and voices that let you tell the difference. In manga, you only have shading to help you out, unless you radically differentiate the robot designs from each other. A good read.

Eureka Seven Volume 1 isn't a bad manga: it contains good artwork and a solid translation. What brings it down is the anime counterpart which it is based off of. For whatever inexplicable reason, the manga feels weighted down with the task of outdoing the original it is trying to recreate as a graphic novel. It follows the anime somewhat closely in the beginning and thus, it is "more of the same." Generally, I don't have a problem with getting more of the same of a series that I greatly enjoy. But there is an odd feel to this manga, and, unfortunately, it comes across as a lesser series in this first installment.

Enter Renton Thurston, our 14-year-old protagonist who is the grandson of a mechanic and lives in a boring city where his only means of enjoyment is "lifting," surfing in the air on "trapar" (transparent light particles). A beautiful girl who goes by the name of Eureka crashes into his house while surfing on a special LFO (light finding operation--basically a gigantic mecha that can also ride the trapar with the assistance of a surfboard). She asks them to help repair the Nirvash (the LFO's name). Renton falls in love with Eureka at a glance and so, when she leaves for battle alone as a military attack ensues their meeting, he leaves his grandfather in order to help her by giving the Nirvash its missing component--the Amita Drive. The battle ends in a surprising fashion and it is revealed that Eureka is a member of "Gekkostate," a group of radicals fighting the government whom Renton idolizes. And so the chapter closes with Renton being asked if he is willing to join Gekkostate and stay with them on their airship, Moonlight. Needless to say, he accepts their offer and his adventure begins.

That is the premise of the Eureka Seven. There are many things that could be added to the summary, but I do not wish to disclose other details that involve more complex plotlines.

It doesn't sound bad on paper, and the manga is actually quite good. There are some glaring negatives, however: The action can be hard to follow at times and there are moments when it's a chore to continue reading. Even for a die-hard Eureka Seven fan, this may be pushing it a bit too much. I must also add the characters feel like stereotypes and come across as shallow. Renton is the teen who falls in love and emerges the hero. Eureka is the girl the boy falls in love with but doesn't return the boy's feelings. The manga follows the anime, but neglects the characteristics that make the anime an outstanding show: character development.

Sure, there are differences between the mediums (the anime and the manga), but the anime stands out as the product to buy with its fantastic cast of characters, beautiful animation, good music, and high episode count per DVD. I can understand the characters in the manga filling a stereotypical role so that their drastic changes and maturation throughout the course of the series are more apparent, but they are barely holding my interest as they are now.

For the fan of the Eureka Seven anime looking for something to satisfy their hunger while waiting for the release of the next DVD, by all means pick this up. But I personally feel that this volume lacks some key components of a quality series and so will not appeal to many casual manga fans. However, check it out before purchasing or even crossing it off your list, because there is a high chance you will enjoy it. There is a reason to buy this volume, and that is because volume 2 breaks the monotonous trend of following the anime closely. From there, the manga decides to interpret the stories differently and present them in a fantastic format.

Volume 1 lacks many things, but sets the stage for a phenomenal ensuing volume.

NOTE: on page 75, on the lower left panel with Eureka and Renton, their lines are switched. Besides this one mistake, Bandai has a great presentation with color pages and original sound-effects.

the manga is very different then the anime, but in a good way. in fact i enjoyed the manga more then the anime. i recomend both reading and watching Eureka Seven. they both have there strong points and both make very good stories.

From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Cult in the Mind of the West This book provides an illuminating history and analysis of the interactions of Japan and the West in the realm of the arts, literature, and film, yielding insights and assessments that are original and on the mark. It also explores the ways in which these aesthetic creations affect individual artists, viewers, readers, and fans, resulting in a virtual reality which is not just an escape but also an imaginary realm in which problems and possible solutions can be experimented and played with until they are ready for prime time in the real world. Reading it was a pleasurable and stimulating experience.

Review of Susan J. Napier's "From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Cult in the Mind of the West".

Professor Napier has disproved Kipling's aphroism -"The east is east, and the west is west, and never the twain shall meet". In her latest book, Professor Napier establishes the long and impressive history where the east meets the west - specifically, how the images and fantasy of Japonism were reflected in the Western intellectuals' minds.

When the bamboo curtain was forcefully drawn open by Commodore Perry in 1853, Japan didn't lose its mystery; in fact, the glimpses of Japan magnified its exotic allure to the Western intellectuals. This book is not only a tour de force, it is a tour d'horizon - introducing us to those whose works were influenced profoundly by their ideas (fantasies) of Japan - from the Impressionists (e.g., Monet and Van Gogh), to playwrights (e.g., Gilbert and Sullivan), to architects (e.g., Frank Lloyd Wright), to contemporary writers and film-makers (Quentin Tarantino). This cultural influence is what Prof. Napier refers to as "soft power" of Japonism. Contemporary popular Japanese culture vernacularized by anime has brought Japonism to millions to youths in the West.

I give this book four stars rather than five, because I feel forced to take away a star due to the unfortunate editing. First of all, the cover is ghastly. The photo itself is ridiculous, and its washed-out color makes it look like it went through the washing machine. Second, the quality of the photo illustrations are so pathetic - mostly black and white when the color may be the most important aspect of the Japonism to be illustrated, and even the colored illustrations are too small to appreciate. Lastly, the editor must have been asleep - the index paginations are all two or more pages off as he/she forgot to count the illustrated pages. One suspects that the publisher was trying to publish the book on the cheap, when the book is so rich, not only in textual content, but also begs for visual illustrations as they are the visions of the fantasies fancied by the Western mind.

Ko-Yung Tung, Yale University

I'm a little confused by this book. Taken in the context of professor Napier's other books, it is difficult to place. A few finished and thoughtful essays are embedded in a matrix of tentative and poorly developed filler. I can see that the intention was to place the study of anime and manga fandom into a broader context including art-historical and anthropological analysis, but the effort falls well short of the mark. A well-considered and interesting essay on Pierre Loti's Madame Chrysanthemum rubs elbows with a feeble name-drop style entry on Frank Lloyd Wright.
The bibliography is useful. The cover design is HORRIBLE. The typography is surprisingly bad. The illustrations in the book are printed so poorly that they have become pointless.
All of the index entries that I checked referred to the wrong page numbers.

To be honest, Megatokyo Volume 5 was disappointing for me. I've always looked forward for the new MT books and I had height expectations for this one. I wish I didn't. The so called extras are okay at best. There was no real bonus stuff in this one. The MT timeline and character bois are nothing any special. You could get a better writes ups from a MT fan site. At this point the story is getting long wined and so far from the earlier story lines. I say borrow it from a friend or read while in a book store before buying it. I might also be bitter because I was and idiot and bought it from the MT store when they had the limited time thing where Fred said that the MT Vol. 5 would come signed by him and with a doodle. I paid more for it just to get it signed because Fred didn't realize how many people would buy them so there were no doodles. I ordered it for the doodle. I should of just got if for cheaper from some where else. >_< Silly me. So I paid to much for something that just need up disappointing me. I loved the first few volumes and I will end up buying the next volume, but if it the story doesn't pick up soon or have great extras that make up for the story flaws I might stop following this series. The only good thing I can say is the art work is beautiful.

Megatokyo was the brainchild of two rather different creators, who since fell out in 2002, and Megatokyo 5 shows this. The rather chaotic Largo has been gone from the series for a few years, and the more angsty Piro has given emo scenes to pretty much every main character in the book. Still, the art is getting better and better. Longtime Megatokyo readers will find subtle foreshadowing and other nuances reading an entire chapter that they may have missed when reading the online site every other day. Highly recommended, but watch out for the tears in your b33r.

For first-time readers -- start with this one. For old fans -- this is probably the best book yet. It has the regular two chapters, 7 and 8, plus omakes, Dead Piro Art Days, and all that jazz. What really sets this book apart from the others is a mind-blowingly comprehensive reader's guide with character summaries and pictures and the plot so far.

All of the regular stuff, of course, is excellent, with the eighth and ninth chapters (numbered 7 and 8, just to make it confusing), with the greatest section of the plot so far and probably the best-drawn manga that I have ever seen. There's also the "Shirt Guy" Dom pullout section (perforated for removal) and the Dead Piro Art Days, single-shot panels that are amazingly drawn.

The book's real hit, however, is the reader's guide, prfect for a first time reader. Any person could probably, after reading the guide, simply pick up the story from chapter 7 and be able to understand anything that happens. The reader's guide is what makes a great four-star book into an amazing "I loved it!" five star book.

There was a time when this was the best book on anime published outside Japan. Sadly, that time was some point in 1992, and before long, the whole thing was blown out of the water by Trish Ledoux and Helen McCarthy in quick succession. Now, a whole decade along, this Italian classic has finally been translated for the American market, but the age shows. So, too, does the low quality of the production -- parts of this book aren't even in English, but in a weird French-Candian-Italian dialect that makes no sense. Very, very out of date, very very incomplete, and completely superceded by the Stone Bridge Anime Encyclopedia just months after its US publication.

At last the old protoculture book, with Astroboy in the cover like in the original italian version.

You only can call to a book of this kind in this form: a Labour of Love. Really is plenty of information, I was looking for certain obscure reference about the serie "Angel: the girl of the flowers" or the film "The treasure Island", and all was there. You have several indexes: Name in Japanese, Name in English and an Guide index for North America (very usefull all of them) and 1238 films, series & oav to search.

The entries have the following information:
1) Original Title
2) Literal Translation of the original title
3) Production House
4) Category ( adventure, comedy, sci-fi, etc.)
5) Number of episodes (tv series only)
6) Release-date (for movies and OAV), or airing date (series-Tv specials)
7) Distribution house
8) English title ( if translated and available in NorthAmerica) or French
9) Summary, facts, description

In my first appreciation of the book I don't find any mistake, but certainly I'm not a master Otaku, some entries are very basic, but others are very complete, there are more of 400 photos in b&w enough to give you an idea but nothing great, sadly many Japanese Studios doesn't gave the permission to use more. All the years from 1958 to 1988 have a summary that give us an appreciation of the action in Japan and the impact mainly in Italy (we have plenty of references to the anime in Italy but nothing very extent to worried).

I'm sure that this book is not going to disapoint you, this work deserves the congratulations and the support of all the people who love those old series and want a good place to begin a research.

IF you liked The Orginal Bondage Fairies then you should love this one. Even though it is not as good, there are about 5 short stories and the balck and white pictures are nicely done. It is NOT as good as the first.

The Bondage Fairies seem to exist because of an extreme dare between cartoonists. Be prepared for something that's simultaneously perverted, funny, appalling, goofy, raunchy, sexually explicit and weirdly innocent all at once. I can't rate this book in comparison to other Bondage Fairies books, but I was personally very happy with this purchase.

The black and white manga-style graphic artistry is fluid, quite energetic, hard-core erotic and still quite fun to look at. The book itself is a collection of short stories that follow the adventures of two mouse-sized flying fairies. The bondage fairies are actually responsible for protecting the forest and its smallest creatures, but this never gets accomplished without our heroines either ravishing each other, or getting ravished by various insects and small mammals. Of course, these encounters are all straightforward metaphors for recognizable erotic fetishes and BDSM fantasies. This may sound grotesque, to say the least, but the preposterous story set-ups and illustrations actually pull off the trick of keeping the mood erotic and even funny. The bondage fairies definitely have an oddly compelling appeal because these stories never take themselves seriously or come across as dark. No matter what the peril, our faerie protagonists always come away enthusiastically satisfied, without shame and ready for the next adventure.

But be warned: if you are at all offended by domination and submission, stiletto heels, latex, rape fantasies, bondage, underwear sniffing, talking dirty, spanking, masturbation, or the objectification of nubile fairies, save your money.

I bought this for my daughter and she was so very happy to get it. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. Excellent for anyone who wants to learn how to draw anime.

This is a picture book that discusses, in very general terms, anime drawing. It does not teach anything. There are no outlines of how certain anime staples are created, etc, etc. A waste of money.

I think the manga mania books are better though because they provide better examples though a little lacking in instruction.
My chief complaint about this book is the lack of animation instruction I figure since this book is about Anime it would provide some lessons in animation as it's done in Japan.

I do find the the instruction in character design and drawing to be average at best. This book gives you some examples and some useful advice for entering the animation industry but so very lacking when it comes to the imparting of useful information of the animation process that the title Anime mania is a misnomer. Most people buy how to Animation books to learn animation techniques and I for one as an aspiring animator don't want to see more animation outsourced to foreign countries seeing as animation is declining in quality in this country I see outsourcing to foreign nations as a primary culprit in that respect second only to cheap producers and uncreative executives!

Anime mania is however a nice book to have as a collector's keepsake and the illustrations are quite inspiring one of the few reasons that makes this book worth buying.

dont buy this book. buy a book from someone who actually draws manga or animates for a living. worst anime style ever!!!!

Yes millions of anime fans hate his Manga Mania because he can't do the art right and they hate his books because he hires people to do the art for him but........THIS IS THE WORST YET! Last year one of my friends showed me this book. I felt like laughing Chistopher Hart really doesn't know what anime is! He hired the worst people yet! There is like only two or three good artist (one was the one the one that did the front)and the rest of them were terrible.Most of the book is terrible mabye like ten pages are good but the rest how sad! Even if this books cover looks good don't judge a book by its cover.