Anime

This book is 104 pages in length, but only 94 pages is the actual book; the remaining ten pages are notes, other books, periodicals and websites on the subject suggested by the author, the index, picture credits, and an "About the Author" page. The book opens with a Foreward, which gives a brief history of art and explains the Eye on Art series. From there, it goes into the introduction for the book, which gives an explanation of anime and a brief history of the explosion of anime in American pop culture. The book includes six chapters: The Roots of Anime, Anime in America, What Makes Anime Different?, The Role of Women in Anime, The Messages of Anime, and Bringing Two Cultures Together. Each chapter also includes short pieces that provide additional information that is related to the topic of the chapter. These pieces include: Two Influential Europeans; The Walt Disney of Japan; Manga Cafes; Kimba and The Lion King; Spirited Away Director Hayao Miyazaki; The Pokemon Craze; Manga on Sundays; The Otaku; Naoko Takeuchi, Creator of Sailor Moon; Anime's Dark Side; Keiji Nakazawa; The Robots of Japan; Noh and Kabuki; An American in Anime; and Manga School. This book also utilizes photographs and still images from some anime titles mentioned in the book. However, my biggest disappointment is that in the captions for the anime stills, it is never mentioned what anime properties or films the stills come from. While there is a photo credits section in the back of the book, it only mentions copyright holders and what pages that copyright holder's images appear on. Outside of that issue, though, I think the images used in the book help to illustrate what the author is talking about. Overall, this book is a quick read, and is easy for anyone to understand, regardless of how much they may or may not already know about anime before reading it. I believe this book is a great resource for people who are just getting into anime. Through this book, they can learn about the history of the art form, its characteristics, as well as background on the ideals and imagery that Japanese directors and producers put into their work. Eye on Art: Anime would be a good addition to an anime fan's library.