Forum - View topicNEWS: Stone Bridge Press Announces Anime Encyclopedia 2nd Edition
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MiwaSatoshi
Old Regular
 Posts: 81 Location: Austin, Texas, USA |
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Hopefully this time they'll avoid placing value judgments on the anime and actually release an encyclopedia rather than a book of mini-reviews.
Or, maybe they might skip out on reviewing stuff they haven't seen (ie the complete botch job on I MY ME STRAWBERRY EGGS which called it a "harem show"!). Well, one can dream, right? |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10460 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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Nope, no such luck.
That's my one gripe with the book as well. It's a great information source, and I wish they'd leave it at that. But if you read the second part of the sample entry here you'll see that it's rife with subjective commentary. For some, the commentary might be appreciated, but for me, what I want is information. And what I expect from something called an encyclopedia, is information. True that all encyclopedias are somewhat subjective in their entries, but there's a big difference between attempting to inform the reader about a series, and attempting to tell them whether it is good or not. Still, I will be buying this. As I said, reviews aside, it's a great resource. -t |
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RabbitRevolution
 Posts: 218 |
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I have the first edition as well, and it's definitely been a great resource. When I was an anime newbie, I would use it to look up the shows all the otaku were talking about. Now I use it to look up all of those obscure anime that nobody knows about
 I don't mind the subjective commentary too much-a plain synopsis of a series isn't as interesting to read anyway.
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Greboruri
Posts: 387 Location: QBN, NSW, Australia |
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Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy may have written great articles in old anime magazines like Anime UK/Anime FX and Manga Mania/Manga Max, but their reviews were bloody shocking. I often wondered if they actually liked anime at all. I note that a number of reviews from these old magazines actually appear as encyclopedia entries in the first edition.
Some of them are just damn stupid. Jubei-chan the Ninja Girl gets a doing over because of the amount producers the English language version had, then they have a go at the obscure historical references. Well I, like a number of people, enjoyed it a lot without knowing any of the references in the show. I couldn't give a stuff if the English version of an anime had one producer or a thousand. They miss the point time and time again. Both of them come off as rather jaded and bitter at their experiences in the UK scene (especially with their dealings with Manga, Western Connection and Titan). Otherwise I agree that's a good reference book, except there are a number of obvious mistakes in it. |
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minakichan
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Oh gosh, no...
I made the very bad decision of wasting my money on that book once... and they're going to try to force their completely subjective bias on anime newbies once more? Can we write them or something? If they quit being such elitist asshats, then maybe I'll buy the second volume (admittedly, it's not too sub-par of a quick reference--if I want to know how many episodes are in some obscure anime). But sheesh... such evil... |
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GATSU
Posts: 15571 |
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Miwa:
I don't see that phrase anywhere in the summary. All I see is a comment comparing it to Tenchi Muyo. Tempest: A number of people have made similar comments about Howl. Methinks there's a double standard being used against her-possibly because she's a "her"-especially since your own encyclopedia has a ranking system which is also used to tell people whether something is "good or not". Anyway, if I want summaries, I'll read the back of a dvd cover. |
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establish_1980
Posts: 12 |
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Why buy the book when Anime News Network has the best Anime Encyclopedia ever made free to view.
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Tempest
I Run this place. ANN Publisher Posts: 10460 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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You men Ms. McCarthy ? I doubt it, after all, there are two names on the book's cover, and they acknowledge that many more people helped. At least, I know I'm not discriminating against her.
Good point. I think that there's a bit of a difference though since that ranking system is a relatively small part of the encyclopedia, and that it is based on peer votes as opposed to the comments of the single person writing a particular review. But you are absolutely right that it is there (and I admit, we even intend to expand that feature a bit). -t |
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Tempest
I Run this place. ANN Publisher Posts: 10460 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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There are times that I find books more handy, and there are many people who prefer books over the internet period. My reasons fall into the first group, I prefer internet resources, but sometimes books are more convenient. It's also good to have multiple different resources on the same topic. Of course, since this is my job, my case is different from most peoples. -t |
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Raz_G
Posts: 72 Location: Israel |
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A few words in defense of the book: yes, perhaps the title "Encyclopedia" is not an accurate description - personally, I think it's more like a "guide" published by film critics (from the serious studies of Andrew Sarris to the annually-published volumes by Leonard Maltin). Such books are, by definition, subjective. Personally, I found the reviews to be the strong point of the book, even when I disagreed with them. Perhaps because it was "Manga Max" that opened the door to the anime and manga world for me (and I still haven't been able to find a decent replacement for it on the magazine shelf, by the way - and yes, I tried Newtype USA…). Yes, both Clements and McCarthy keep very high standards, and some people would call this being "elitist". I see this approach somewhat differently: when your readers sort through thousands of titles, you want to make sure they know what isn't just good, but best. Again, I don't agree with this approach completely, but it's a valid one. To say that the book "forces" an opinion on new fans is, I think, going too far. I don't remember anyone forcing anyone else to buy or read the book. I also don't think that a person new to anime would have a hard time forming his own opinion on "Tenchi Muyo" or "Ranma 1/2", even after reading the book (I assume the person in question wouldn't use the book alone in making this kind of judgment - he'll ask around, find out that there are other opinions out there…).
Interestingly, the area where I found the book to be lacking is its "encyclopedic" nature. Finding specific entry, with the entire Japanese/English title thing is a pain (even when using the index) and in general, I must say that fishing for information in a 500-pages book is somewhat anachronistic in a world where such information is usually just a mouse-click away, as in the ANN encyclopedia. Perhaps the solution would be to publish a CD-ROM edition – this would also allow including entries for people and studios (something I thought was truly missing from the book – but I suppose including such entries would push it to an insane page-count). |
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Cowpunk
Posts: 168 Location: Oakland - near the Newtype Lab |
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I know Helen has an interest in doing a volume on persons and companies. I urged her to take the idea for the Encyclopedia to our mutual publisher several years ago. I was surprised how quickly the first edition came out, she and Jon did a great job in a time frame I could not have begun to match. I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing the new edition. Gilles - why can't I write that fast? - Poitras |
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-gecko-
 Posts: 285 Location: Near Seattle, WA |
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I'm at odds with this book. I have continually checked it out of the library as a valuable resourse, however, I cannot reconcile myself to the point of opening my wallet.
Reason being it is what it is (not an encylopedia) a review book with much the same "info" entries as are in ANN, but with (IMO) rather snooty and, as others have said, elitist summaries. It rather reminds me of the news media's noxious bias. That said, it is rather handier than the ANN database, being a book with alphabetically listed entries for easy browsing if you don't know the title and are just looking for something... The most useful thing for me was that I was making my own list of anime and found that they had origins listed for almost all of their entries where ANN doesn't always have extensive info. What struck me as humorous about the book was their almost universal reference to Tenchi Muyo! as the penultimate 'harem' anime; doubtless the cause of the previous comment about I My Me. Having been considering abandoning the list I was working on (why, there's a list right here!) , I'll probably check the updated version out of the library once it's available to see what silliness they will atribute to the anime I find dear (most of which was created and released after the first volume) . The new entry in the review (of HMC) serves my point exactly; can we get a friggin break from the WMD references!?! Stick to anime... |
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GATSU
Posts: 15571 |
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I don't really see anything elitist about her commentary. It may not be popular, but it shows a lot of respect, coming from a fellow fan versus, say Charles Solomon.
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doc-watson42
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 1709 |
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Done. Also, entries on various generic topics ("Argot and Jargon", "Foreign Influences", "Puppetry and Stop-Motion", and "Sports", just to name a few). As for an "insane page-count", I can't tell because I don't know how much the formating of the actual book will affect it, but you may see 1000-plus pages (up from ~550)--I've reviewed about five hundred (mostly single-spaced, 12-point) pages of new entries so far. Regarding other complaints, I will merely note that the book has an E-mail address in the Publisher's Note for the reporting of "comments, corrections, complaints, information updates, and letters". (To cut down on the noise, I'm not going to post it here.) Using that address (politely, in great volume, and with references to back me up) is how I got to be on the second edition's proofreading team. ^_^ I will note that there are 150-plus pages of corrections and updates to be integrated into the second edition, most of them presumably from fans. |
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MiwaSatoshi
Old Regular
Posts: 81 Location: Austin, Texas, USA |
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Further edition and integration of accurate information can only improve this work. I still wish they'd either lay off on the opinions or call it a guide instead of an encyclopedia (ie Leonard Maltin). Then I'd be more than happy to throw my support behind it.
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