The Essential Anime Guide Book Review
“The Essential Anime Guide” is a helpful list book.
Written by Patrick Macias and Samuel Sattin (among other contributors), “The Essential Anime Guide” (AKA “The Essential Anime Guide: 50 Iconic Films, Standout Series And Cult Masterpieces”) lists 50 essential anime films and TV shows in chronological order. Each entry contains a release date (or the years the series ran), a logline, a blurb about why the film or show is essential, sidebars about creators (sometimes), essential sidebar titles to check out within the franchise (ala other “Lupin The Third” titles), and written pieces that cover the project’s history, popularity, animation style, central story, release, tones, themes, what have you. Also included here is a foreword by Crunchyroll co-founder Kun Gao, a Q&A intro with Patrick Macias and Samuel Sattin (who talk about how they got into anime and so forth), acknowledgments, an index, and an about the authors section.
Diving into the world of anime films and television series is a daunting task to be sure. There’s so many series of various genres that it’s hard to know where to begin. Luckily, “The Essential Anime Guide” offers up 50 suggestions (and more) of where to start.
Naturally, all of the anime classics are here. Whether you are an anime expert or know little about the animation art form, you’ll likely have heard of titles like “Akira,” “Dragon Ball Z,” “Sailor Moon,” “One Piece,” “Pokėmon,” “Demon Slayer,” “Princess Mononoke,” you get the picture. Outside of those pop culture milestones though, you’ll find recommendations for lesser known titles like “Sword Of The Stranger,” “Gurren Lagann,” “Nana,” among others. It’s a fair bet that even the most avid anime fan might find a few titles that are unfamiliar to them.
As with any list book, there are some notable omissions here to be sure such as “Tokyo Godfathers,” “Perfect Blue,” “One-Punch Man,” “A Silent Voice,” “5 Centimeters Per Second,” and a whole host Hayao Miyazaki films such as the Oscar winning “Spirited Away” (although most of these titles are referenced within other entries). Really, there could be a whole book dedicated to Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s classics as they are all essential.
Whether you are a dedicated anime fan or a newbie, “The Essential Anime Guide” has something for everyone. Would the book have been better served as a top 100? For sure, but this is still a handy guide nonetheless.
Note: The review copy I received differed a bit from the final version that hit shelves, but the content (as far as I know) remains the same.
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