The Anime Companion 2: More What's Japanese in Japanese Animation?

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 176 pages
• Published by: Stone Bridge Press June 1, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1880656965
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1880656969
• Book Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.8 x 0.5 inches
• Weighs: 6.4 ounces

Product Description


This long-awaited "companion" volume boasts over 500 all-new glossary-style entries to help you decipher anime's distinctive content, images and cultural motifs. Ranging from Aikido to Zero fighters (with Japanese Mountain Vegetables in between), Gilles Poitras covers the minutiae of anime in fascinating detail, including illustrations, anime images, film citations and numerous references to the related art of manga. More than a guide, The Anime Companion 2 is a pop survey of Japanese art, kitsch, history, food and daily life. Now with entries in kanji and English, the Anime Companion remains the best friend an otaku ever had. Volume 1 was chosen for New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age List.

Gilles Poitras is a librarian in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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.

Reader Reviews
Written by the author of "The Anime Companion", The Anime Companion 2: More... What's Japanese In Japanese Animation? is a reference especially for hardcore fans and casual viewers alike of Japanese animated movies and television shows, usually called "anime" for brevity. Both The Anime Companion and The Anime Companion 2 are arranged encyclopedia-style, but each one has its own list of A-Z entries; they are independent collections of entries gathered over the course of years. Like its predecessor, The Anime Companion 2 consists of entries, each one a few paragraphs in length, that define a specific Japanese geographical location, historical event or thing that often appears in anime and may well be unfamiliar to Western viewers. From the names of districts of Tokyo and other populous cities, to famous historical revolts, to foods commonly eaten in Japan, religious customs, and much more, the entries in The Anime Companion 2 give the casual browser a better understanding of Japanese daily life and culture roots. Entries are listed in alphabetical order according to the Romanized form of the Japanese words, but each one is also written in the traditional Japanese writing system of kanji, both the modern and old forms if applicable. All words that have an entry are in boldface for easy cross-reference, and icons show the reader at a glance the general facet of life that each word refers to: food, geography, religion, etc. The Anime Companion 2 especially focuses upon Japanese historical references, which were more scarce in anime when the first volume was published but seem increasingly common in modern anime, plus the author's sidebars and comments about anime fandom in general are intriguing. Highly recommended, especially for anime and Japanese popular culture fans.