Anime, hand-drawn or computer-animated Japanese cartoons, appears in television series, films, video, video games, and commercials, and represents most genres of fiction. This critical study explores anime's relationship with art from a twofold perspective. Drawing from categories as varied as romance, comedy, slice of life drama, science fiction, bildungsroman, and school drama, it examines anime's representation of characters pursuing diverse artistic activities and related aesthetic visions, focusing closely on the concepts of creativity, talent, expressivity and experimentation.

Untangles the web of commodity, capitalism, and art that is anime
In Anime's Media Mix, Marc Steinberg convincingly shows that anime is far more than a style of Japanese animation. Beyond its immediate form of cartooning, anime is also a unique mode of cultural production and consumption that led to the phenomenon that is today called "media mix" in Japan and "convergence" in the West.

This book describes the thematic and structural traits of a recent and popular development within the realm of anime: series adapted from visual novels. Visual novels are interactive fiction games in which players creatively control decisions and plot turning points. Endings alter according to the player's choices, providing a motivation to replay the game and opt for alternative decisions each time. Pictorial sumptuousness, plot depth and subtle characterization are vital aspects of the medium. Anime based on visual novels capitalize on the parent games' attributes, yielding thought-provoking yarns and complex personalities.

From Stone Bridge Press, award-winning publishers of The Anime Encyclopedia, Hayao Miyazaki, and The Astro Boy Essays, comes a must-have guide to 100 essential Japanese animation films, TV series, and made-for-video series, from 1950s classics to the latest Cartoon Network hits. Looking for something specific? Eight unique icons make reviews easy to browse.

The topos of memory has played a significant role in anime over the course of its evolution as an art form and as a popular form of entertainment. Anime's handling of memory is multifaceted, bringing it into collusion with diverse symbolic motifs, narrative themes, and aesthetic issues. This study aims to provide a detailed analysis of a range of anime titles wherein different aspects of this cultural phenomenon are articulated.