Rating: 
Summary: Good Bathroom Reading
Review: If you are like me, a hardcore otaku, and merely want to have a little more insight to the lesser known animes or even need help making purchasing decisions on the most current shows released in America, this book is for you. The reviews in The Anime Encyclopedia vary greatly in size, but all contain good summaries-with only minimal spoilers-and it is full of humor and the authors' own (good) opinions. I have agreed with every review in this comprehensive Encyclopedia.But even the people out there who are just starting to get into anime, or the friends and family members who are wondering just what the heck we find so cool about these shows, this book is also for you. Each review gives the Japanese, English, and many variable titles of the show, the year it was first released, major crew members, the number of episodes and their length, tells what the show is about, usually what the authors think about the show, and content descriptors for you concerned parents out there. Whether you are a veteran otaku or a newbie who just wants to learn more about anime, I highly recommend this book based on the excellent opinions, color commentary, and the vast amount of information to be gathered in its pages. Thanks go to the authors: Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy for such good bathroom reading!
Rating: 
Summary: Informative but not too interesting
Review: If you have a fairly bad memory like me, you can't remember all the titles of anime you watched. This book was helpful to me most in that respect. I recall only a few key words of the anime title, look it up and the description is there. The descriptions aren't excellently written but they get the job done. I feel the set up could be better and that it cheated at times by summing everything up similar in title in one one big description (Like Gundam for instance). The two great things about this book is if you find a title of the anime you must own, in the description of the anime it also has the companies name that owns the title. With a little research you could probably contact them or a distributor and recieve a copy of your show for an agreed upon fee. The other feature is showing the book to the a friend and haughly pointing to the pages upon pages of anime you own or have seen and feel like a true god (or geek) of otaku. I gave this book a three because it should be in your collection, even just for reference.
Rating: 
Summary: Helpfull Find
Review: If you're an anime fan, this book is for you! This book has every anime listed by ABC order. Some anime isn't available in English sadly.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive but Still Inadequate
Review: If you're just looking for a list of Anime's, this book is pretty comprehensive, including just about every Anime produced up to the year 2000. The problem is that it doesn't give you much, other than the basics of the plot and who created, produced, etc. Some films and series are given a lot of attention, some hardly at all. Some listings include reviews, some simply give the details without an opinion thrown in. Rarely is the animation quality and style mentioned, instead only the story is focused on. Buy the book as a reference tool, but don't expect it to really help you figure out which animes are worth watching.
Rating:
Summary: Anime no Subete
Review: If, like me, you are intrigued by an industry that can soar to the sublime heights of Miyazaki, and simultaneously plumb the abysmal depths of Violence Jack, the answers are all here, along with the most erudite and and entertaining criticism I have read since the demise of the great Pauline Kael. The authors include personal anecdotes about goings-on behind the scenes, and catalog many tales of heroism and incompetence on the part of anime companies. And when Clements and McCarthy are able to quote *producers* saying how bad they think their own shows are, I find it laughable that some critics deride the authors for suggesting that some anime might not be all that.
Rating:
Summary: built to last
Review: In a world up to its neck in cash-in books on cartoons, the Anime Encyclopedia is a refreshing sight to behold. Its sheer size is daunting, over 500 pages of tiny print that puts anyone who thinks there's nothing to anime to shame. The entries are funny and argumentative, but give solid details about stories and productions, none of the sleeve-note-copying so beloved of lesser authors. A wonderful book, and a mandatory purchase for any anime fan, collector or student.
Rating:
Summary: Mind Boggling
Review: In general, I avoid anime books. They seem to fall into two camps: Those by people who know nothing, and those by people who think they know everything, but see no reason to tell you. Too many are timid slaves to fan opinion, happy to be big fishes in the little pond of the convention circuit. The authors of the Anime Encyclopedia have changed all that. They honour anime by treating it was just another part of the film and TV world, but do so with years of TV experience = she as the editor of my favourite anime magazine, he as the translator of many famous shows. The result is the best ever survey of the anime medium, dwarfing even Japanese books on the subject, and listing hundreds of new titles. It is wonderful to read a book about anime that generally delivers the goods = the Anime Encyclopedia is an education, not just in anime itself, but in its cross-overs with manga, TV , film and even kabuki. Best of all, in refusing to cut bad anime any slack, the authors have done a service to fandom as a whole. Too many people give up (or grow out) of the medium because they start off on the wrong foot, but with the Anime Encyclopedia everyone now has the chance to comprehend anime in its historical context. A fascinating introduction to an incredible medium, but liable to break some fans' hearts by telling a few unwelcome truths.
Rating:
Summary: the fabric of fandom
Review: In the year that has passed since i picked up my copy at the book launch in Atlanta, the Anime Encyclopedia (AE) has become part of the fabric of fandom. I've even seen people fighting duels in newsgroups using quotes from the AE as their weapons of choice. The AE is also a hot topic and popular target for brickbats, particularly among those fans whose frames of critical reference are limited to the gushing praise of anime magazines. My well-thumbed copy still gets plenty of use, as I follow the careers of various creators through its index, look up obscure shows, or even just browse some of the wonders that lay undiscovered within its pages (The Story of Superconductors...!? Hello!?) A truly wonderful book, although i find myself wishing for mini-bios of the top 100 creators, and perhaps a Subject index, since at the moment there is no easy way of, say, winnowing out all the gangster anime, or tracking down everything that has a monkey in it.
Rating: 
Summary: A mixture of information and misinformation
Review: It is difficult being an otaku (anime fan) when it comes to finding useful source material. Most of the good information is in Japanese, and only reaches the Western viewer in a trickle-down fashion.
So, on the face of it, this would seem to be a crucial book, telling you what is out there. Alas, while this book does try to be informative and useful, it is filled with so many errors and embittered opinions, that I would not recommend using it as an authorative source. Whether it is a simple error of claiming that the anime classic "Otaku no Video" was created in 1985-- which was two years before the creator of this anime (Gainax) was founded; or the embittered opinions of attacking one series (Fushigi Yugi) merely on the grounds that it wasn't as good as another series (Escaflowne) there are many pieces of unreliable information. Series are given the wrong year, wrong number of episodes and frequently plot descriptions that are so distorted that one wonders how closely the authors followed the series in question.
Rating:
Summary: A mixture of information and misinformation
Review: It is difficult being an otaku (anime fan) when it comes to finding useful source material. Most of the good information is in Japanese, and only reaches the Western viewer in a trickle-down fashion.
So, on the face of it, this would seem to be a crucial book, telling you what is out there. Alas, while this book does try to be informative and useful, it is filled with so many errors and embittered opinions, that I would not recommend using it as an authorative source. Whether it is a simple error of claiming that the anime classic "Otaku no Video" was created in 1985-- which was two years before the creator of this anime (Gainax) was founded; or the embittered opinions of attacking one series (Fushigi Yugi) merely on the grounds that it wasn't as good as another series (Escaflowne) there are many pieces of unreliable information. Series are given the wrong year, wrong number of episodes and frequently plot descriptions that are so distorted that one wonders how closely the authors followed the series in question.
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