Anime

 Marcovitz, Hal. Anime. Part of the Eye on Art series. 2007. 104p. ISBN 978-1-59018-995-5. Available at 791.43 MAR on the library shelves.

Anime, from the French word for animation, was adopted by the Japanese to name a phenomenon of illustrating movies. So much more than comics or animated movies like those produced by Disney, anime is a pervasive genre of entertainment widely distributed in Japan, but which has reached international fame. Born from the illustrative art and techniques of the 1800s, manga, a type of comic book with roots in Japanese folklore and mythology, evolved with the advent of the cinema into animated features on the screen.

Very popular in Japan, anime was brought to the American market and was heavily edited to remove Japanese culture, leading to some shows whose storyline were choppy. This didn't stop children's enthusiasm for anime offered during the Saturday morning cartoons, and interest grew. Now a multi-billion dollar industry, anime remains a staple of Japanese culture that is hard to replicate elsewhere but that is consumed worldwide. Anime explains the history behind the rise of this popular art form, and the impact it had on Japanese society. It provides cultural interpretation of images and symbols, and it gives biographic information on some of the most popular anime features of all time, and the creators behind them. Fans of manga and of anime will appreciate how the art changed over the last century and will enjoy revisiting the history of some of their favorite shows!