The magic and mastery of anime springs to life in this gorgeous celebration of the genre A
uniquely powerful form of artistic expression anime has embraced complex and provocative ideas
since its inception in the mid twentieth century. This dynamic and wide-ranging book explores
eighty key themes of the genre from wars to natural disasters nature to ecology childhood to
magic dystopias to fables. It looks at more than one hundred masterpieces of Japanese
animation including Akira Ghost in the Shell One Piece Princess Mononoke Grave of the
Fireflies and Howl's Moving Castle to show how practitioners consistently balance tradition
with modernity and how anime's distinct style has influenced other forms of media such as video
games comic books and live-action films. Covering an enormous range of talent-from Isao
Takahata Katsuhiro O^tomo and Makoto Shinkai to Studio Ghibli and Mamoru Oshii-it
demonstrates how anime makes room for limitless creativity. Unfettered by the physical
constraints of nature's laws these artists realize our deepest emotions and our wildest
dreams.
