The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917

by Jonathan Clements, Helen McCarthy

Bigger and better! Our first edition rocked the anime world with its in-depth entries on anime famous and obscure and its superb index/film finder. Now this fantastic book is 40 percent larger—with all-new entries on hundreds of anime released after 2001, updates on older entries, and over fifty thousand words on anime creators (like Tezuka and Otomo) and genres (“Early Anime,” “Science Fiction and Robots,” etc.). An absolute must-have for every anime shelf! "If I only had space on my overcrowded shelf for one book on anime, this would be it. If I had no space on my shelf I'd select two books at random and drop them into the bin, just to make room-- it's that indispensable."-- Paul Jacques, Anime on DVD
"While you may not agree with their opinons on a given anime, they are informative and entertaining, especially when skewering a really bad anime." -- Frames Per Second

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Anime, Japan, Manga, Film, History

867 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2001

About the author

Jonathan Clements is an author, translator, biographer and scriptwriter. His non-fiction works include biographies of Confucius, Marco Polo, Mao Zedong, Koxinga and Qin Shihuangdi. He also writes for NEO magazine and is the co-author of encyclopedias of anime and Japanese television dramas.

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 3 out of 5]

favorites

1. Hunter x Hunter (2011)
pure-hearted Gon follows in his father's footsteps by kicking ass

2. Death Note
when manipulative teen Light writes down your name, you die

3. Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
woman warrior protects a child prince

4. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
plucky humans fight off various oppressors to reclaim Earth

5. Kids on the Slope
jazz, romance, school life, and angst in small town 60s Japan

6. Baccano!
Prohibition bootleggers and immortal alchemists cause a ruckus

7. Mob Psycho 100
teen psychic only wants what's best for everyone, plus muscles

8. Attack on Titan
sturm und drang in a walled country under siege

9. Mononoke
traveling medicine-seller solves supernatural mysteries

10. Fullmetal Alchemist
in a steampunk world, two brothers try to literally become whole

11. Humanity Has Declined
...and so cute, sinister little fairies have inherited the earth

12. Mushi-Shi
the mushi live beside us; the mushi-shi Ginko studies them

13. Haibane Renmei
wings and a halo and somewhere to go, eventually

decent

Another overrated but the unnerving premise fascinates
Assassination Classroom
Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror
Berserk (1997) good, despite the incredibly jarring "ending"
Black Butler: Book of Circus & Book of the Atlantic
Boogiepop Phantom incredibly complex & layered - rewatch!
Elfen Lied
Ergo Proxy fascinating visuals but the story became boring af
Flowers of Evil intense & eerie but the two leads are annoying af
From the New World
Fruits Basket (2001) the most doormatty of doormats
Future Diary genuinely repulsive, but still, what a spectacle
Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet
Junji Ito Collection
Knights of Sidonia
Lychee Light Club
Made in Abyss so beautiful, so grueling
One-Punch Man affectless hero finds fighting villains to be... eh
Paranoia Agent insecure? Lil' Slugger will beat your fears away!
The Perfect Insider
The Promised Neverland
Rance: Desert Guardian (hentai)
Saga of Tanya the Evil
Soul Eater
Terror in Resonance
Utakoi
Whey They Cry: Higurashi cycles of bloody slaughter in a village

disappointments or unfinished

Aoharu x Machinegun
Black Butler & Black Butler: Book of Murder
Blood-C fantastic monsters but nauseatingly insipid & sadistic
Btooom!
Bubuki Buranki
A Certain Magical Index
Classroom☆Crisis
Corpse Party
Eden of the East
Fencer of Minerva (hentai)
Genesis of Aquarion
Heroic Age
Higurashi: When They Cry - Gou completely unnecessary
Higurashi: When They Cry - Sotsu slightly better than Gou
The Irregular at Magic High School quite stylish though
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure OTT fun but just too stupid
K
Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress
Little Witch Academia
Nagi-asu/A Lull in the Sea
Overlord
Planetes
Polar Bear Cafe super super sweet but eventually too too much
Psycho-Pass
Shiki
Shomin Sample
Summer Time Rendering
Terra Formars
To Love-ru so this is what ecchi is like. weird. porn for kids??
Umineko: When They Cry

currently watching

Parasyte: The Maxim
Fairy Tail
The Tatami Galaxy
Hunter x Hunter (rewatching)

there's an excess of shounen but I've always been an emotionally immature sort of guy and hey it gives me something to excitedly discuss with one of my nephews. it is important to have some interests in common! I plan on prioritizing the josei titles that catch my eye because Kids on the Slope was amazing. seinen fits squarely within my own tastes so no challenge there in finding titles. although I liked Fruits Basket, it has been tougher finding shoujo that interests me - but if I can enjoy YA, I know there must be more out there that I'd like.



February 2017:

Anime is one of my favorite things so I've been considering off and on whether to buy the hardcover or kindle version of this book. My main experience is with anime films; tv anime is a more recent love, thanks to services like Hulu and Crunchyroll (and of course torrents, but shhh), so I've wanted to arm myself with a good reference tool. I'm glad I didn't choose the actual book and its high price tag because this has been a bit of a disappointment so far. I've read better reviews on websites like Anime Review, Them, Anime Network, Anime Now, and Lost in Anime; I've found better recommendations on My Anime List. It probably is just a case of wishing the authors spent more time on shows that I like or am interested in. My understanding of this third edition is that it has excised the rating system and some of the stronger opinions in favor of more neutral language, and that it has corrected a lot of mistakes. I wonder if I would have preferred an edition with those strong opinions intact because the dryness makes the writing rather uninteresting, especially after reading the passionate entries on the websites I've mentioned. Also there are just too many hentai reviews! I'm not against the genre by any means but the guide reads like an encyclopedia on tv series that also includes every adult cable show ever made. It is a bit laughable and eventually wearying. Still, I've appreciated many of the entries, particularly the thematic ones, and I've picked up a handful of recommendations.

I'm not sure when or if I will ever finish this one, so I think I will use this review to hold a space for lists of favorites and the like. Television series only, at least for now. I guess I could just use My Anime List, but because I tend to get excited about websites and then completely forget about them a few months later, Goodreads it is.

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a fan of anime since 1999 now so I have had some time to familiarise myself with quite a few titles, from fairly well known ones like Ghibli's to lesser knowns I've stumbled across from friends or random showings at conventions. This book's listed all the one's I can think of, and plenty more besides. Not all get pages and pages of text, but hey, you can't expect the authors to have watched and deeply analysed EVERYTHING, and there's a lot of interesting and enlightening stuff here.
There's a slight review in many of the descriptions, usually enough to serve as a warning or reccomendation. Personally I'm really enjoying the commentary, I think it's quite funny in parts... but then if you've watched much anime you'll know it can be quite hard to do a significant number of descriptions seriously, and when you include more adult anime - well, it was surreal enough already.
There's also some commentry on themes of anime and other stuff, which is probably really interesting and useful for people properly interested, but I've spent most of my time looking up anime I've watched so far. I did read a bit about ratings of anime (as in people tuned in, or however it's measured these days). That was very illuminating, I'd always assumed anime must be highly rated in Japan, and also I completely bought that GTO (live action) was the highest rated series in Japan. Surprise!
But really, this is a very good book, and VERY UP TO DATE considering others I've read. It's up to sometime in 2006: 1917 to 2006 doesn't seem a bad span to me!
I can imagine a book like this might confuse a newcomer to anime, given the amount of content. But also, each description will ususally contain a mention of an anime of similar plot or style, giving thozse exploring the genre a bit of a tour, without having to ask the advice of someone else who m,ight have COMPLETELY different tastes?
Anyway, like I've said, I've only had this book a day, so maybe I'm speaking to soon. All I know is that having had it this long has given me more motivation to write a review than I think I've had in a long time.

[#ReadAllTheBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I love my encylopedia to tatters, I will give the average reader some warnings about this book & a bit of history. In the past this encyclopedia was a bit lambasted for having a ratings scale, which not all fans agreed upon. (Because hey... just because I think that one anime is terrible doesn't mean that it actually is.) Then there were "weasel words" tucked into other reviews, which was far from being as unbiased as an encyclopedia should be. (I have to admit, I didn't see them until someone else pointed them out to me.)


In any case, most of this has been addressed. There's still some opinions in the reviews, which I dislike, but it's not as overly blatant as it was in the past. The average reader will have to be careful to take some of the reviews with a grain of salt, as like I said above- just because one person didn't like it doesn't mean that you won't. (Even if that person is writing an encyclopedia.) That being said, the book is far more efficient than it was in it's first few incarnations. You'll have to keep an eye out for errors, since there are some entries that apparently don't match up with the proper info such as episode numbers & such. (This actually isn't all that terrible, as many series start off saying they'll have X episodes but then are either cut or lengthened to X episodes.)

I recommend this for most anime fans out there. The die-hards probably won't need this, but this should be a nice addition for the new anime fans out there!

[Jonah · Rating 1 out of 5]

From the wikipedia entry on the encyclopedia: Generally speaking, unlike dictionary entries, which focus on linguistic information about words, encyclopedia articles focus on factual information to cover the thing or concept for which the article name stands.

Indeed, factual information is what I was expecting, and it was the reason I purchased this tome, sight-unseen, from amazon some time ago. What I found instead are biased, snide capsule reviews.

I understand how touchy fans get about things like this, having their favourite shows dismissed as rubbish, or the viewers themselves dismissed as "...old enough to vote, but somehow cursed with the emotional maturity of a child.", and if I had known I was buying a book of dismissive opinions, I wouldn't feel inclined to scorn it as I do.

Another very dissatisfied reviewer on amazon suggested that it is a useful tool for finding new shows based on the production staff listed in the index, if nothing else.

I recommend sticking with the online version of what I wanted: aniDB

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ensiklopedi ini sangat cocok jadi primbon para anime-otaku, meskipun data terbaru hanya sampai tahun 2005 (tentu saja, kalau mau update terus setiap saat mendingan langganan majalah Newtype atau majalah lokal Animonster sekalian). Buat mereka yang awam anime, buku ini bisa menambah wawasan dan pengetahuan agar tidak menganggap animasi hanya tontonan bagi anak-anak.

Industri anime sudah menjadi industri raksasa di Jepang, hingga pangsa pasarnya bukan hanya anak-anak dan remaja, tapi juga dewasa. Bahkan sampai ada anime porno (baca: Hentai) segala, yang baru baca sinopsisnya di ensiklopedi ini saja para feminist bisa murka, saking jalan ceritanya selalu 100% merendahkan kaum wanita.

Membaca setiap entry-nya dari A sampai Z, kita juga bisa mengetahui bahwa ternyata budaya animasi Jepang dan AS masih sangat berbeda, di mana seperti di Indonesia, di AS animasi masih dianggap tontonan khusus anak-anak. Anime yang lolos standar tontonan anak-anak dan remaja di Jepang seperti Detektif Conan, One Piece dan Naruto misalnya, di AS harus disensor ketat karena banyaknya adegan kekerasan dan berdarah-darah (sudah pasti, karena Detektif Conan kan rata-rata investigasi pembunuhan, jadi banyak mayat berdarah-darah, dan One Piece/Naruto kan pertarungan antar bajak laut/ninja, tentu full kekerasan dan banyak yang mati juga). Mungkin di Indonesia sensornya tidak seketat AS, tapi ada saja yang mengecam tayangan One Piece dan Naruto, yang dianggap membawa pengaruh buruk buat anak-anak (yang masih belum bisa membedakan fiksi dan kenyataan, barangkali). Sementara tayangan anime yang di Jepang ditujukan buat kalangan dewasa macam Crayon Shinchan malah tidak dikritik, padahal bisa saja anak-anak Indonesia meniru kenakalan dan pervert,-nya... XD

Anyway, ensiklopedi ini mengingatkanku pada masa aku masih tergila-gila pada anime, rajin mengumpulkan dan menonton fansubnya. Fullmetal Alchemist, Gungrave, Hellsing, Srcyed, Gundam, Trigun, Bleach, Naruto, and many many more... Hanya karena faktor waktu yang terbatas sekarang aku cuma mengumpulkan manga saja (tapi tetap update berita anime dari majalah sih). Jadi kepingin nonton ulang semuanya ...

*just wishful thinking...*

[L · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clements is not shy about sharing his opinions of the entries.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 2 out of 5]

the opinions are bizarre and loopy
the mistakes in the first two editions were massive

they eliminated the ratings system, because they were so lousy at it, which sadly makes this book mediocre at best.

Basically the book is the opinions of what one guy thinks is what good animation should be.

As long as you understand what's culturally siginificant and what's popular on different levels.

pretty much, everything the guy writes lacks nuance

[Francine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the 2006 edition, so as happens with any encyclopedia, it became outdated. I guess for what it is, it's pretty good, but also a little lackluster: I would have preferred more colour and/or more pictures. It could've been a great coffee table book if they had had a bigger budget.

[Ronald McCoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic work! A bit addictive as it has a lot fo great suggestions for new topics

[Amilcar Mosquera · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a comprehensive compendium on the anime industry and essential works of the media. I bought it for my theses, but I kept it for the sheer amount of information and knowledge it has.

[Ilib4kids · Rating 3 out of 5]

791.4334 CLE 2015

This is 3rd Revised Edition on 2015, it is for anime, not for manga books. I did not finished it, just look at some recent anime I watched, like Paprika (2006 film), Code Geass, Nabari. See evernote.

[Ghassen Faidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's very helpful, especially when I want to learn more about hidden gems and forgotten animes

[Casey Browne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book's listed all the one's I can think of and plenty more besides. Not all get pages and pages of text, but hey, you can't expect the authors to have watched and deeply analysed EVERYTHING, and there's a lot of interesting and enlightening stuff here. But really, this is a very good book and VERY UP TO DATE!
There's a slight review in many of the descriptions, usually enough to serve as a warning or recommendation. Personally, I'm really enjoying the commentary, I think it's quite funny in parts... but then if you've watched much anime you'll know it can be quite hard to do a significant number of descriptions seriously, and when you include more adult anime - well, it was surreal enough already. There's also some commentary on themes of anime and other stuff, which is probably really interesting and useful for people properly interested, but I've spent most of my time looking up anime I've watched so far. I did read a bit about ratings of anime (as in people tuned in, or however it's measured these days). That was very illuminating, I'd always assumed anime must be highly rated in Japan, and also I completely bought that GTO (live-action) was the highest-rated series in Japan. Surprise!
Anyway, as I've said, I've only had this book a day, so maybe I'm speaking too soon. All I know is that having had it this long has given me more motivation to write a review than I think I've had in a long time.

[The Scribbling Man · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wide range of information on, quite literally, EVERY anime up until 2006. Feature Lengths, series, OVA's, specials, shorts ect... even the ones you don't really want to know about. My only qualm is that it's now quite a few years out of date. It's taken a while, but I think another revised edition was released just this year.

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of stuff I didn't know about

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides]

Date of first consultation approximate. I received this as a gift at one point.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should get a more updated version, but I enjoy this.

[Eric Orchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating to flip through the synopsis of many anime I've never even heard of.

[Skrivena stranica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Odlična pomoć ako se bavite ovom temom.