Niklas Richter’s Reviews > Anime Through the Looking Glass: Treasures of Japanese Animation > Status Update

transsexual person and not transgender? Noted

Often, characters' names and movie titles appear to be thrown around with no real motive. The book seems to be both in-depth and rather superficial at the same time. It is written that e.g. Kiki helps her friends with magical powers...being what? She doesn't have any, besides riding her broom. That is what makes the movie so enticig. Almost looks like some passages were written with AI

Luffy eats "the demon fruit"? Nothing said of the Marines?

Also, many formal aspects of the paragraphs are confusing, where things could have been kept shorter or cut entirely, so that disconnected ideas don't get intertwined. Another thought: I wonder if said book, as it is supposed to look at Anime 'through the looking glass', will hint at misogyny, sexualization, infantilization, as well as live-adaptations and its problems, as well as the fetishisation of German culture

To me, while many interesting and in-depth observations are made, a major problem lies in the formal editing of the book. Making sub-points when there is no need to (there is, strictly academically speaking, no logical need to have a point 3.2.1 if there is no 3.2.2 as an argument that follows said sub-point or creates a juxtaposition), throwing around mythical references with no connection or explanation..

Paved like a module paper, the book leans into dissecting overarching topoi (apocalypse now - through the looking glass - life now), instead of focusing on separate works worth to be discussed - a welcomed change from different angles. However, in its paragraphs, Anime names are lumped together without a clear distinction, which sometimes makes it harder to digest what follows and not lose one's thread

let's see if this is a 1:1 copy of every book about the history of anime i've ever read