Rating: 
Summary: I read this book all the way through...
Review: I do belive that the other reviews of this book only looked through it a little bit, it took me a few months but i read every single entry. and as far as giving a far synapsis of everything it does a good job. also it often tells of a history of the show, such as Robotech, or why its hard to see all of lupin the 3rd. the book is up-to-date as far as early 2001, including "Metropolis" entires and a little about "spirited away". it is also well cross-referanced if u want to see what other works ur fav series and movie creators have. if u want a quick overview (relitive to actually watching all this), or just a referance for something ur thinking about watching, definatly a good buy for the devoted anime fan.
Rating: 
Summary: A Perfect Collection of Anime from 1917-2001
Review: I have read many anime books that mention some of the more popular anime titles out there, but never have I seen a book that catalogs every anime from the 20th century. The way the book was setup was pretty cool also. It lists the credits, type of feature, running time for all related features to it and a content warning on some of them. Every anime is covered in this book. Nothing is overlooked. They even included the wartime anime cartoons and the long forgotten Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors that told the story of cute animals of Japan attacking the British. Some of the comments made to some of the anime in here may be debatable to some, but that doesn't really bother me. If I had one nitpick about this book, it would be that pictures appear on random pages with a caption on the title of it, even though that title is not listed on the current page. However, they do list which page you can find it on so that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Overall, I don't think any anime fan should be caught dead without this book. It is a must for anyone who is a die-hard fan. You can't say you are an anime expert without having this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Unprofessional and grossly inaccurate information
Review: I must say that I had very negative impressions of the Anime Encyclopedia. To start things off, the authors make a large number of mistakes when talking about shows, so many that I get the disntinct impression they are talking from hearsay rather than personal experience. Secondly, they give out plot spoilers with abandon. Thirdly, they give out plot spoilers which are incorrect. Fourthly, they delight in launching into pompous expositions on titles, even the ones in which they have already made numerous errors and given away the spoilers (incorrectly).However, the most damning point about the Anime Encyclopedia was the sheer amount of unprofessional criticism that the authors revel in. One does not have to look hard to find a slew of negative reviews, criticisms and diatribes. If something is traditional, it is derivative. If something is creative, it is incomprehensible. The authors give the impression that they do not enjoy the vast majority of the shows they catalog, which begs the question of why they took up the project in the first place. And to put a final nail in the coffin, "Cardcaptor Sakura" is referenced under its English dub title "Cardcaptors", and no mention that the show is available uncut with English subtitles is made. Some anime fans I know have mentioned that they appreciate the information presented behind the scenes, but with the sheer number of errors in the text, can you actually trust any of them?
Perhaps the book should be retitled "Anime Conjectopedia - collating half-rememberd myths and rumors since 1917." Not recommended to intelligent anime fans.
Rating: 
Summary: In need of serious revision
Review: I preordered this book and now after a few months, I have to say I'm disappointed yet satisfied. First, the good. For the price I paid for it, the book has a large amount of information on production credits and show lengths that is all in one nice volume. Looking up this information is a breeze and while it might be availabe somewhere online, it certainly isn't this complete or in one organized place. On rare occasions the information is a bit off or a show is missing, but this is a helluva lotta anime and a good effort for a first volume. Now the content offered up by the author is a different story altogether. The author has obviously not seen all of these shows. He's no Leonard Maltin, that's for sure. He's either seen so little he has to rely on the hearsay of others, or he's seen so much he's been jaded by the whole animated medium to the point of libelous misconceptions on many shows. After a several page diatribe on the magnificence of Evangelion, one in four "encyclopedia entries" somehow strains to needlessly link that show back to Evangelion. I have to agree with another reviewer's opinion that the author's words are anything BUT encyclopedic in their editorializations like: "Compare to other apocalyptic tales of androgynous young men pouting sulkily, such as..." OR "Considering the output of [USMC's] sister-brand Anime 18, it must be a refreshing change for a voice actress to shout 'Get on your knees, pussies' to an audience that genuinely does consist of cats." I wouldn't trust this book too much in its current edition. And I'd keep an eye out for spoilers if I did. Many shows seem to have summaries that go right up to the "surprise ending". I'd say it's worth the price (at least to me) for the harder-to-screw-up production information. A new version with some of the minor errors and missing shows fixed would make this book recommendable to the collector as a sort of "checklist". If you're looking for a guide on what to watch next or whether to get something, I'd advise this only as a very, very, very, very last resort.
Rating:
Summary: I really wanted to like this book!
Review: I really wanted to like this book. After all, it is an supposed to be a guide to Japanese animation since 1917. Clements and McCarthy were editors of British anime magazines, which should lend creditablity to this encyclopedia. One of the problems that I had with this book is that it combines the reviews and descriptions of an anime series with its respective movies. For example, the three different Tenchi series are all listed in the same entry and very little information is given about the individual series. Instead the authors of this book would rather editoralize about how awful they think the Tenchi series is, and and compare other series to it, none of which far any better in the authors eyes.
Entries in this encyclopedia range from a paragraph to a few pages. The entries will either give very a very detailed history of the series/movie, or it will contain the authors opinion of the series, which is mostly negative and led me to question if Clements and McCarthy really like anime. Sometimes I had a hard time figuring out if they were reviewing the America dub or British dub, which could account for some of the inaccuracies.
You will either love this book or hate it. The authors opinions on many popular anime series are negative, and will not be welcomed by fans whose favorite series has just been trashed. Buy this book if you want detailed production staff information. Don't buy this book if you want information on anime.
Rating:
Summary: Anime Grows Up
Review: I thought I knew about anime until I saw this book. It's only now that I'm starting to appreciate just how big and broad a medium it really is. Unlike so many others, the authors do not patronise anime or indulge its weaknesses. They are happy to admit when something is of poor quality, making this book invaluable for the non-fan who genuinely wants to know which shows stand up on their own merits.
They point out both the shortcomings in supposed "fan favourites" (the inane Tenchi Muyo gets a long-deserved drubbing) and the forgotten merits of unpopular shows (the much-derided Fist of the North Star nevertheless contains innovative animation techniques in its later episodes). There is a massive index (bigger than some other *books* on anime itself) listing all title variants, but the main text sensibly files anime by their English-language names. Synopses are highly detailed and criticism is sternly, ruthlessly objective -- the authors describe the English release of Beast Warriors (produced by McCarthy herself) as a "failure" and the subtitling for Salamander (translated by Clements) as "the worst in anime history." Best of all, the book is packed with witty comments laying into bombastic press releases, pretentious fans, and daft production decisions without fear or favour.
I can think of no other reference work that can actually be laugh-out-loud funny, and some of the revelations are eye-opening -- the book introduces hundreds of new anime never discussed before. I'm sure there are plenty of fans who will throw tantrums when their favourite shows are not forgiven their failings, but the Anime Encyclopedia effortlessly demonstrates that recent "hits" are mere dots on the landscape of anime in all its glory. Now at last, anime can grow up.
Rating: 
Summary: Not really an encyclopedia.....
Review: I was a bit disappointed in how this book is more a review guide and less of an encyclopedia. There are lots of personal opinions and bias in the articles about each series. Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy also suffer from what I like to call "Otaku Elitism"... basically meaning that nearly all "older" series are fantastic (read: the ones they grew up with) and newer series that have brought 90% of people to anime in America are bad ...etc.... I gave this book 3 stars because of the depth and breadth of how many series are covered... but I could really care less what the authors thought or felt about the series.
Rating:
Summary: Not an Encyclopedia as such
Review: I was really looking forward to reading this book. It was advertised as a complete encyclopedia to anime. With Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy as writers, I should have known better. Both are better known in British anime circles as journalists and writers for such defunct magazines such as Anime UK (later renamed Anime FX) and Manga Mania (later renamed Manga Max). The book is really an excuse for them to bag out any anime they don't like, which at times seems to be most anime. When they were writing reviews for anime magazines, it seemed that Clements and McCarthy wanted to criticise as much anime as possible. And for really stupid reasons. One review of a DVD had McCarthy complaining about the amount of producers for the English language version. A fair amount of their magazine reviews actually reappear in this book as synopsis'. I found that a bit lazy. I already have most of these magazines. I don't want to pay for something I already have. For most of the book it's just an excuse to bash whatever anime they happen not to like. Sometimes you get the feeling they don't know what they're talking about. They criticise Spriggan for have a low cel count, while obviously it has a very high cel count. The rest of the synopsis are probably taken from Japanese animation magazines. Some just don't make any sense. The Galaxy Fraulein Yuna entry does not even sound remotely like the series at all. Some of the facutal information such as episodes counts are wrong, and some series such as Gundam which have many different series involving hundreds of charcters, streaching over 20 years, are lumped into one section, rather than seperating them into series such as G Gundam, Gundam X, Gundam Wing etc. This makes it hard to figure out what one of these series is actually like. If you want to find out how many episodes a series has, or other factual information, this is a good book to have. If you want to find out what a particular series is about, you may want to buy another book. I would recommend "Anime: A Guide To Japanese Animation (1958-1988)" over this book. The only problem is that doesn't cover recent anime.
Rating:
Summary: the best
Review: If ever proof was needed about the high dedication of anime fans, it's the Anime Encyclopedia, which wipes the floor with works on other aspects of Japan. It makes you wonder, if a maligned medium like anime can produce such a detailed and fascinating work of reference, why can't the world's Japanese live-action movie lovers produce a tome of equivalent standing? The Anime Encyclopedia has over 500 pages covering 85 years of anime history, from 1917 to 2000. The book also has mentions of several 2001 anime, but these are based on press releases of the period, and are understandably less comprehensive (better this than simply leaving out the last decade, like that Protoculture Addicts book did). The attention to detail is incredible, and the authors have done their homework in several languages. It's amazing enough that they have examined so much in the original Japanese, yet more so when they refer to materials in French, German and Chinese. Did you know that Conan the Boy Detective has already been broadcast in the US, but only in Spanish? That Ranma was approved by the Chinese Communist party? That Fly Peek came before Free Willy? It's astonishing to see the breadth of the anime medium itself - who would have thought that there were anime versions of Anne of Green Gables, Manxmouse and Cinderella? And an anime Les Miserables, available in Quebec? It is also an eye opener to see how many "American" dubs were actually recorded in the UK. The British contribution towards a supposedly American translation industry is much higher than I previously imagined. If you know nothing about anime, the Anime Encyclopedia will turn you into an overnight expert. If you already think of yourself as an expert, you're in for a shock when you find out just how much you don't know, even about subjects you thought you had down pat. The index alone has opened up an entire new area in anime criticism by fixing animators' entire careers for the first time. As someone else said, the Anime Encyclopedia is cheaper than a high-end DVD, and worth every cent.
Rating:
Summary: the seventh wonder of the anime world
Review: if the first wonder of the anime world is astro boy
osamu tezuka the second
akira the third
hayao miyazaki the fourth
ninja scroll the fifth
ghost in the shell the sixth
then this book is the seventh.
full of useful and really appreciated information about the diverse and colorful world of anime. you'll get mostly everything you want to know about your favourite anime. from writer to director to animator to studios to the english and japanese titles and date of production.plus the enjoyable and amazing information of the cross-references. every few pages you turn in this book you discover an anime you saw ,heard about or looking for.which makes reading this book a long and very enjoyable read.
written by jonathan clements. a former editor of manga max magazine and contributing editor to the online edition of newtype.
and helen mccarthy .a founding editor of anime uk/fx magzine and subsequently editor of manga mania. she is also the author of anime! a beginners guide.which was the first english language book on the medium.
both authors won the japan festival award for outstanding contribution to the understanding of japanese culture.
the writers deserve more credit than the half page about the authors ,in the last page of this book.
this book is a cherished property no anime fan can resist owning.
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