The Anime Encyclopedia: A Century Of Japanese Animation

Cover to the third edition

“Impressive, exhaustive, labyrinthine, and obsessive – The Anime Encyclopedia is an astonishing piece of work.”

Neil Gaiman, English writer for Princess Mononoke

“…promises to do for anime what Halliwell did for film.”

Mark Schilling, Screen International

“A huge, exhaustive, timely, and authoritative compendium of information that will be appreciated by anime experts and neophytes alike. Recommended for all libraries and essential for film and media collections.”

Library Journal

“Landmark reference works are few and far between in the media field, but [The Anime Encyclopedia] definitely belongs on that short list.”

Video Librarian

“…there’s absolutely no way anyone’s going to top The Anime Encyclopedia … this book is very good indeed.

…Clements and McCarthy’s monumental overview of this vast and alien terrain that at the time we’d only just dipped a toe into led directly to us starting our book review section, as well as spurring us on to treat theatrical animation on an equal footage with live action movies.”

Jasper Sharp, Midnight Eye

“… the right mix of invaluable information and delightfully snarky commentary…”

Brian Ruh, AnimeResearch.com

This is the single largest and most comprehensive reference book on anime in any language, including Japanese. It is on the shelves of most major college and film school libraries, and required reading on many university courses. It’s also consulted by many film companies and distributors.

As well as giving details of titles, staff and studios, release and screening dates, editions, sources, influences and themes in Japan, it also links anime to its global influences, and tracks the exchange of ideas in a journey that has always gone both to and from the West.

Cover to the first edition

When I started researching anime in 1981, I wanted a book like this – one that would give me details of key titles, information on less-known ones, background on the industry and the key players, an overview of the whole anime medium and its links to comics, games, merchandise and live action. Twenty years later, I co-wrote it with Jonathan Clements, staff translator & writer/reviewer on Anime UK magazine, and my co-author on The Erotic Anime Movie Guide.

A second edition followed in 2006, revised and expanded to include around 3,000 titles, biographical entries for key creative and industry figures, studio histories, and thematic essays covering topics from box office and TV ratings to anime genres and stereotypes. The index provides a detailed, cross-referenced guide to Japanese and English names and titles.

In December 2014 the third edition in hardback and e-back was massively expanded – over 1,000 new entries and over 4,000 updates and corrections, taking the text over 1,100,000 words.