The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation since 1917
In this important book, Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy present an  enormous amount of information about 2,000 series and features, detailing  their plots and relationships to other anime properties. In these areas, the  book is definitive, and readers can only wish a comparable volume  existed for American animation. The authors are less sure about non-Japanese  influences (Cowboy Bebopowes more to noir detective films than toRoute 66), and they focus more on storylines and the business of anime than on visuals. They don't discuss the influence of American Saturday morning TV on early anime designs (Speed Racer, the component series ofRobotech) or the art nouveau styling inRevolutionary Girl  Utena. The editorial evaluations are much harsher than McCarthy'sThe Anime Movie Guide: some of the most popular anime series in America--Tenchi,Evangelion,Ranma 1/2--receive sharp criticism. The result is a book that anime fans will either love or love to argue with.--Charles Solomon