Samurai from Outer Space: Understanding Japanese Animation

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Summary: the cultural underpinnings of those crazy Japanese cartoons
Review: "Samurai From Outer Space" is the first book-length discussion of anime (pronounced AH-nee-may)or Japanese animation in the United States. Anime is probably the fastest growing cultural import to hit America since PBS discovered British programming. Yet it is astonishingly hard for Americans to understand. While subtitles and dubbing take care of the language problems, they do nothing to explain the cultural assumptions that underly this incredibly creative art form. Anime was written for Japanese by Japanese. It contains numerous references to ancient mythologies, warrior sagas, religious beliefs, and customary practices that are completely unfamiliar to most Americans. "Samurai from Outer Space" explains many of these cultural assumptions using examples drawn from popular anime available in the United States. The discussion looks at anime from two perspectives: first, the historical, mythological and cultural roots of anime, and second, why this uniquely Japanese art form is suddenly so appealing to Americans in the 1990's. The author (me) holds a Ph.D. in Japanese history from Stanford University, has lived in Japan for many years, and has been an "otaku" (Japanese animation fan) for longer than she cares to admit.

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Summary: a history, both pleasurable and exciting
Review: Back when I first did not know much of anime, I saw this book and thought, wow! What a great book. And I was v. right. Not only is it very interresting, but it is teaches you about anime by understanding their culture and history. I would personally recomend this book to anyone!

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Summary: A book on the symbols and stories that are a source...
Review: for anime and manga. Over 160 pages full of information on Shinto, Buddhism, Samurai legends, Japanese art and history and how Japanese animation uses it. Chapters also on the women of anime, death and the afterlife in animation and a glossary of anime terms. Add 20 full color pictures and lots of humor, and you have a not-so-serious study about the subject. Only problem is that the book was first published in 1996 and, while the newest printing was 2001, has not been updated and therefore still outdated.

Rating:
Summary: A book on the symbols and stories that are a source...
Review: for anime and manga. Over 160 pages full of information on Shinto, Buddhism, Samurai legends, Japanese art and history and how Japanese animation uses it. Chapters also on the women of anime, death and the afterlife in animation and a glossary of anime terms. Add 20 full color pictures and lots of humor, and you have a not-so-serious study about the subject. Only problem is that the book was first published in 1996 and, while the newest printing was 2001, has not been updated and therefore still outdated.

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Summary: Very interesting book
Review: Good for me: I'm Italian and I'm doing some studies about otaku in my country: it's useful to understand difference between Usa and Italy, for example about otaku. For me otaku are one of the most interesting youth group: I'm an otaku myself and I would like to discuss about otaku in the world

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Summary: Good, interesting
Review: I believe that Antonia Levi's book is very interesting, expecially for me that I'm very interested in this subject. I would also write a book like this about anime in Italy, and I would contact Antonia to tell with her about this phenomen. Thank you, and congratulation for the site!

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Summary: This book was insightful in exposing Animé's cultural roots.
Review: I found Ms. Levi's assessment of Animé to be very eye opening. She explained many visual cues in the genre which are idiosyncratic and would otherwise be unrecognizable, particularly concerning Animé's relation to the religous influences of Shinto and Buddhism. Although I did not agree with all of the conclusions the book presented, in particular those regarding the influence of Animé upon the youth of America, I found that the insights which she did share were far outweighed this factor. This book is a must for Otaku who wish to truly understand the art.

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Summary: No reference book--but a fine general overview of anime
Review: I read this book while working on a college paper comparing Manga and American Comic books, for a class which focused on American Culture influences on American comics. I found this book to be informative and useful in the respect that it helped me see where japan's culture has influenced its anime and manga. As a college student myself, I'd have to say the book read like a college paper, with some loose ends and a few contradictions, but overall I thought it was much more helpful and informative than troubled. I was a little irked that the author chose only to use older translated titles for examples, but I can see her point in doing this, ie, it's too hard for the casual reader to get ahold of the newer or non-commercially released titles. to me it seems like this book was written by an otaku primarliy for anime newbies, who have just gotten a tiny glimpse of anime and want to better understand it. In this respect I think it works really well, if I knew someone who had just gotten into the hobby I would highly reccommend it. Also, I really liked the author's writing style; it was not dryly academic, but rather, personable and entertaining, and I liked that (though other people may not appreciate that, since they like their info cold and hard). It made the book a very quick read, and it was easy to absorb the information. This is no reference book, by any means, but it's a good general overview of anime.

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Summary: This is an excellent book
Review: I really thought this book was good. It explained alot of symbolism in anime, things that most americans wouldnt understand. It used examples from translated anime that almost anyone can get access to, It was really great

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Summary: Snob
Review: I'm Japanese and knew of this book in 1996. Many people applauded it, but I'm against them. I thought the authour seemed as if she had knew everything on anime, assuming an authority on Japanese culture. Ms. Levi takes a superficial view of anime.