Anime Essentials: Every Thing a Fan Needs to Know [Paperback]

Gilles Poitras (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2000

What makes Japanese animation Japanese? What are the top, not-to-be-missed films? Who’s got the anime goods? What’s it all mean anyway? Answering just about every question a fan (or curious parent) has, Anime Essentials is an easy-to-read and fun-to-look-at overview of the pop culture phenomenon sweeping America. It discusses the major players, where to get your anime fix, otaku (devoted fan) etiquette, how to run an anime club (and get pre-release screenings!), how to "talk" anime to outsiders, and lots more of interest both to veterans and newcomers.

One of the New York Public Libary's 2001 Books for the the Teen Age List.

"Overall, this book opens its welcoming arms wide to newcomers, so that more people can enjoy anime's story qualities, human element and cinematic, artistic effects. A valuable book!" -- Protocultue Addicts

"For the anime beginner, this is a great place to start." -- Dreamwatch

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Attention all otakus! Check out other great anime books from Stone Bridge Press, including Fred Schodt's classic DREAMLAND JAPAN: WRITINGS ON MODERN MANGA, Helen McCarthy's HAYAO MIYAZAKI: MASTER OF JAPANESE ANIMATION, Ryan Omega's ANIME TRIVIA QUIZBOOKS, EPISODES 1 & 2, and of course, Gilles Poitras's THE ANIME COMPANION: WHAT'S JAPANESE IN JAPANESE ANIMATION.

About the Author

Gilles Poitras is a California librarian who first discovered anime in 1977. As a fan of films he was attracted by the use of cinematic efffects in ways that he had never seen in animation. He has been interviewed in several documentaries on anime and writes a monthly column on anime for Newtype USA magazine. He is also author of Anime Essentials.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Stone Bridge Press (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1880656531
• ISBN-13: 978-1880656532
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #872,366 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book for Initiates AND Otaku!, July 30, 2001

By 

James M. Stafford III (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anime Essentials: Every Thing a Fan Needs to Know (Paperback)

I already owned Poitras' The Anime Companion and regularly visit his Web site, so I knew Anime Essentials would be a great book. Anime Essentials has A LOT of great, useful information for those just beginning to learn about anime beyond the Sailor Moon and Pokémon crazes, covering many facets from history to distribution to making connections to merchandise. Also included are 41 recommended anime titles (films, series, and OAVs), as well as various anime resources.

As an otaku, I still found plenty of new information in this book, as well as a fresh new perspective on several anime titles. Of the 41 recommended titles, I have seen all but five, which I suppose marks my "status" as an otaku. Poitras' insights into the famous Otaku no video were especially interesting, and can teach even diehard anime otaku more about this great series.

This is a great book for parents, teachers, and anyone else who deals with children who regularly watch CardCaptors, Sailor Moon, Pokémon, and other anime what anime is really about, and this information will be especially useful as these children grow and move on to more "sophisticated" anime. (If only this book had been available when I first discovered anime.....)

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nothing new for me, but valuable for some, February 5, 2001

By 

Brian Ruh (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anime Essentials: Every Thing a Fan Needs to Know (Paperback)

I was sincerely looking forward to this book, as any new addition to the body of literature on anime is a good one. However, the first thing I noticed is how small the book is; it barely squeaks over 125 pages. At the same time, the font used for the main text seems excessively large. What this means is that there was far less actual reading material in this book than I had originally hoped for?

And the content? I didn't find much new in this book, which was another disappointment; I was hoping to discover some great insider information and maybe a few fan secrets. Admittedly, this book isn't written for fans like me. Rather, this is a fairly painless entry into the world of Japanese animation, and with that in mind it serves its purpose very well. Still, it should have been titled "A Basic Primer" rather than "Every Thing a Fan Needs to Know."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent starting place, March 14, 2005

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Anime Essentials: Every Thing a Fan Needs to Know (Paperback)

I'm too old to have discovered Japanese manga and anime in my youth, but I've made up for that the past few years. Being interested in Japanese culture and literature generally, I had some understanding of why anime is the way it is, and why it's so much different from American or European graphic art, but reading this well-written book, I found there was a great deal I had missed. Poitras writes from the fan's point of view, so he knows what questions he should be addressing -- everything from the "big eye" mania, to the difference between hentai and mainstream manga, to the nervousness among the U.S. morals police about "foreign" art, to actually setting up and publicizing a fan group, plus the ins and outs of model kits, imported publications, and so on. There's also an excellent rundown of recommended anime titles and series, which I've photocopied as a checklist. This book doesn't tell you everything you need to know, but it's a good place to start.