© Palgrave Macmillan

René Walling · From fps #7 · June 2, 2006 | People who like anime like it a lot. One of those people is Susan Napier, and, like many Westerners, she discovered anime when Akira was released and was hooked right away. Unlike most Westerners, she already knew a lot about Japan and the Japanese, being a professor of Japanese literature and culture. In many ways, this makes her the ideal person to write a book about anime, since she did not discover Japanese culture through anime, but discovered anime through Japanese culture.

Anime from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation Directed by Susan Napier Palgrave Macmillan, 2006 355 minutes Shop for Anime from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle: Amazon.ca Amazon.com

As the title implies, the book covers films, original animation videos (OAVs) and television series produced since the 1980s. It is also different from most other books on anime since it focuses less on the visual style of anime, but more on its themes, imagery, and the ideas presented in it.

Want to read the rest of this review?

You'll find it and many other articles in the March 2006 issue of fps, available for only 99 cents US.