The Anime Encyclopedia: Revised & Expanded Edition Review

Hi guys. As I said in my little post last night, I was way too tired, and I'm hot enough to the point where I do something, I keep sweating, and I don't want to constantly wipe sweat off my face every few seconds as I’m reviewing something. Luckily, I’m not that tired, and I’m not really hot, and I’m in the mood to review something. Like I said in my last review, this one’s is another first for me. So without delaying any further, here’s my review for The Anime Encyclopedia: Revised & Expanded Edition.

Published on November 1, 2006, this encyclopedia is (as the title says) a revised & expanded of the original 2001 edition. Unlike a normal encyclopedia, this is filled with every known anime to have ever come out of Japan (up until 2006), as well as titles that stayed in the country (up until 2006). Popular or obscure, this book also contains backgrounds on the typical anime genres, as well as famous animators, studios, and obscure pieces of information most anime fans might not know about. Even hentai is covered is this encyclopedia, often in very graphic detail. Whether you’re interested in some anime history, or you’re a hardcore otaku, you’ll appreciate the knowledge within this book.

The first positive of this book is it’s length. Measuring in at 867 pages, this is one big encyclopedia. Due to the length, it can take quite a while to read, but because there’s a lot of info in here, taking a while to read it isn’t such a bad thing.

This encyclopedia’s second positive is the information. Just like a typical encyclopedia, this book is crammed with a massive amount of knowledge. There’s all sorts of tidbits that most of us know, and there’s also obscure pieces of info that most anime fans don’t know about. Some of the descriptions are short & quick to remember, while many others (especially the highly popular shows) have descriptions that sometimes measure in at a 1 ½ pages. Even some of the more infamous hentai series have some in-depth coverage. Despite the occasional error in the information present, there’s a lot to learn when you read this.

The encyclopedia’s final positive is the cover. Composed of a black background with the names of various anime & hentai on top of the background. On the back there’s a description of what’s inside, some positive quotes from the first edition. On the side & front cover is the title in red, green, and white letter, and the front cover has a colored picture of Astro Boy looking like he’s going to fly off the cover. Nothing like a picture of an iconic anime character to attract & tempt otaku to buy the book.

Now we go onto the negative aspects of this encyclopedia. Keep in mind, these negatives (with the exception of one) are highly obvious, and they really damage this encyclopedia’s reputation. The biggest negative is when it was published. This was published back in 2006, and I got this back in the Christmas of 2008, and it wasn’t that outdated at the time. It was relatively current at the time, and I knew about many of the series within it. Now it’s 2012, and the book is very outdated. For example, Satoshi Kon in this encyclopedia is still considered to be alive, but now has been dead for 2 years (he died in 2010 due to pancreatic cancer).

The second negative is the occasional bit of misinformation. Given the amount of anime & hentai within, it’s understandable, but it’s not an excuse. For example, in the first edition of this book, it was stated that "Otaku no Video" was created in 1985, two years before the creator of this anime (Gainax) was founded. On top of that, in the first edition, series are given the wrong year of release, the wrong number of episodes was put in, and frequent plot descriptions that are so distorted, one wonders how well the authors paid attention to the series in question. Given that the 2006 version is a revised edition, many of these errors are gone, but there’s still a few small ones that they missed in the revision, and that’s a shame.

The final negative of this encyclopedia is that it can be a little difficult to find. Given the fact it was published in 2006, it’s understandable. Over on amazon, there’s only 11 new copies still for sale, and the pricing starts at 60 dollars, which is a big dent in one’s wallet. Luckily, there’s almost 3 dozen used copies (34 copies, to be specific) for sale, and the pricing starts at 6 dollars. It’s a much cheaper price that won’t make your wallet bleed, and it’s quite worth it in the end.

The Anime Encyclopedia: Revised & Expanded Edition gets a 7 to 7.5 out of 10. It’s big, crammed with information, and has a nice cover, but it’s very outdated, the info is occasionally wrong, and it’s a little tricky to locate.

See you all next week, when I’ll be traveling with a punk in the desert. Until then, stay Otaku!