Serious fans of Japanese animation have generally had difficulty finding sufficient written information and critical evaluation to help them seek out titles to match their particular tastes. Fans of the anime noir style, for instance, exemplified by the darkly atmospheric imagery and high-tech urban crime stories created by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Wicked City, Demon City Shinjuku, Cyber City Oedo), have no convenient way, other than scanning the often misleading text on the video box, to identify similarly styled efforts available in video stores. Such films as Crying Freeman, The Professional: Golgo 13, Suikoden-Demon Century, and the newly released Black Jack and Peacock King would be missed. As would be the films on the underground fan circuit like Kawajiri's unreleased Midnight Eye Goku and such recent hits in Japan as X: The Movie and the made-for-video BioHunter and Psycho Diver.

While there are slick publications aimed at the anime audience, as well as dozens of Internet web sites, the writing in these venues is too often wedded to the style of the fan press, with an emphasis on plot synopses, character descriptions and the reviewer's own intractable opinions. A particular work's artistic style or place in animation history is often overlooked. Certainly, such well-illustrated magazines as Animerica and Protoculture Addicts work hard to keep stateside anime fans informed of new releases, both here and in Japan, and include some fine staff writers. However, they lack the in-depth commentary necessary to help the more rigorous fans sort out this vast field. Animerica is particularly loaded with information and features, but only occasionally in some of the short reviews do we find anything in the way of genuine criticism ("analysis of qualities and evaluation of comparative worth; especially, the definition and judgment of literary or artistic work," as defined in Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary.)

Resource Central
The new revised, updated and expanded second edition of The Complete Anime Guide: Japanese Animation Film Directory and Resource Guide, by Trish Ledoux (editor of Animerica) and Doug Ranney, meets a significant part of the audience's need for greater information. Functioning primarily as a consumer guide, its bulk is devoted to a section of short reviews and synopses of over 1000 titles currently available on video in the U.S. These reviews offer a great deal of valuable information to those fans willing to scour them for clues to other titles they might enjoy. Some of the reviews are very well written, either very perceptive about the works (Arcadia of My Youth, Ghost in the Shell, GoShogun: The Time Etranger, Night on the Galactic Railroad, Patlabor 2) or very informative (Blue Seed, Lupin III, Macross Plus, The Professional: Golgo 13, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Wings of Honneamise) but, since they are unsigned, one can only guess as to which of the four contributing editors and 11 contributors has the most insight. A particularly helpful feature of this section is the emphasis on creative personnel, including director, animation director, character designer, mecha designer, production designer and composer; many of whom are listed in the reviews with cross references in parentheses to their additional credits. Another valuable feature is the citation of manga (comic book) sources where applicable and an indication of the manga's availability in the U.S.

The reviews, in fact, constitute the one major expansion of the book's initial 1995 edition. In the earlier volume, the capsule entries for each title were simply short synopses. There was some compensation in the 1995 version, however, in a nine-page section entitled "Thumbnail Synopses of Selected Shows" with longer reviews of 71 titles divided into ten genres like Action-Adventure, Drama, Science Fiction, Adults Only, Cyberpunk, and so on. Some of these reviews are repeated in the new edition and those that aren't repeated are often superior to their counterparts in the new book.

The other two text chapters in the first edition are repeated in the second with some new material reflecting new releases. "Animated Television Series" offers descriptions of every Japanese animated TV series to be broadcast on U.S. television from Astro Boy (1963) to Samurai Pizza Cats (1996). While highly informative, this section takes up far too much space that could have been better appropriated to an updated "Thumbnail Synopses," or "Best of Anime" section or even a historical overview. Many of these series may not be of much interest to true anime fans, because of the poor dubbing and extensive re-editing so many of them underwent.