Customer Reviews

Cruising the Anime City: An Otaku Guide to Neo Tokyo

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If I did some day get the chance to go to Tokyo, I don't think this would be the only book that I would bring, as it most likely wouldn't make for a very good stand alone travel guide.

HOWEVER, it does detail many of the essential otaku-points-of-intrest in the anime city. If anime, manga, model building, idols, cosplaying or Tokyo are subjects that grab your attention, then you won't be dissapointed.

I found this book to be exceptionally well written with detailed pictures and very informative, whether your going to Tokyo or not. In fact, It made me want to call my travel agent and start learning Japanese. Kudos to Patric Macias (and the other guy too).

This is the geek's guide to Tokyo-and much more. It is guidebook, social commentary, and a peak into the latest trends on the otaku scene. And all before they hit the shores of the West. Cruising the Anime City: An Otaku Guide to Neo Tokyo covers the studios that produce anime; includes interviews with the movers and shakers in the industry; discusses the toys, museums, film "locations," music, etc.; and has detailed maps of that otaku mecca Akihabara.
Macias has written a comprehensive guide that does not speak down to beginners. It is written in a witty style and handsomely illustrated. Then, in a piece de resistance, there is the Great Gathering, the Mythical Beast of the Otaku Calendar: the annual Comiket 65. This is the yearly "Comic Market," a three-day festival held at Tokyo Big Site. All the sub-cultures are featured here; it is geek nirvana. Macias covers this with élan and humor. For those thinking of making the trip to Comiket or Tokyo itself-or just read about this fascinating world from home-this is the indispensable guide.

Cruising The Anime City: An Otaku Guide To Neo Tokyo is a guide written especially for hardcore Japanese animation fans, video game players, and the like who want to know what to expect if they visit Tokyo in person - or who just want to armchair travel and imagine shopping! A street-smart guide in plain English, brightly illustrated with full-color photographs throughout, Cruising The Anime City discusses where to get the best deals on Japanese comics, where to find collectible toys, how to avoid cell-phone scams when crusing games from pachinko to porno and everything in between, a guide to finding memorabilia relating to one's favorite idol singer, and much more. Though basic travel information (lodging concerns, roadmaps and the like) is deliberatetly left up to more traditional guides, Cruising The Anime City is a "must-have" for the collector who needs to know "the" hottest shopping spots in Tokyo!

This book is a good read for someone interested in Anime who's planning to visit Japan. Having said that, other than the (now out of date) useful maps of Akihabara and Nakano Broadway, the book is kind of thin in content.

The paper is thick and the font is big, in addition you get lots of whitespace, all in a fairly thin package. Realistically, you would at least expect what's there to be like a proper guide, after all, that is what's advertised, right? Unfortunately, the meat of this book is basically a series of interviews with different people, and this gives you a good feeling for where the whole otaku culture comes from, and the thinking behind it. And admittedly, these are quite interesting. But for a book that tries to sell itself as a guide to Tokyo, it basically fails.

A more appropriate title for the book might have been 'a study of otaku culture in modern day Tokyo', In which case I would have rated the title 4/5. So don't get me wrong, this title does have good content, but it just isn't what the authors claim it to be. If you are interested in otaku culture in general, and like interesting stories from other otakus, then you've found your book!

We bought "Cruising..." while preparing for our third trip and first solo excursion to Japan. Not only was it an interesting read, but the neighborhood information and maps were invaluable once we arrived. The turnover for small businesses in Japan is high, however, most of the things we were looking for were still available. I highly recommend adding this book to your collection!

Awesome reference if one is coming to Tokyo, great book even if that is only a dream!

Has some interesting background information about anime/manga but it is simply not that useful for shopping.

First, any guide to Japan NEEDS to have the Japanese name of the store.
It is simply impossible to match up anything without this as the English equivalent is often not found, especially if you're going to ask someone about where a store is.

Second, there are quite a few places missing, especially of interest to any female anime fans out there. There is no mention of Ikebukuro at all, which is known as somewhat of the female equivalent to Akihabara.
And the NHK Studio Park is also missing which would be of interest to fans of Domo-kun and other NHK shows.