Danica Davidson
April 28, 2015 
At approximately one thousand pages, The Anime Encyclopedia is your go-to source for anime information. Written by anime academics Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy, this is the third revised edition of the book. This edition has more than a thousand brand-new entries as it gives updates to six more years of anime. If you decide to get the ebook version, it offers live hyperlinks to official pages and even forums.
The encyclopedia covers anime titles as well as important people in the industry. Entries on anime titles include details on release year, director, script writer, composer, production company and number of episodes. All the anime included have descriptions of what they’re about, and these descriptions vary in length from a brief overview to greater details on the plot and why this particular anime matters culturally/is worth a watch/has changed anime history, etc. They’ll also sneak in little tidbits of lesser-known factoids on these titles.
Other entries describe particular types of anime and there are also segments on Japanese culture and history. While the main point of the book is to be a source of information, sometimes the writers will inject their opinions, though it’s usually done in a witty, fun way. That way, even if one doesn’t agree with the opinion, it doesn’t feel preachy or take away from the information.
This is an excellent book for anime fans, and it would also be of great use for teachers, schools and libraries. People who aren’t very familiar with anime will find a mountain of information at their fingertips that they can browse through at their leisure. Likewise, even the most dedicated otaku would be hard-pressed not to learn something new in these very useful pages.
Writers: Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy
Publisher: Stone Bridge Press
For Minecraft fans, the young-at-heart and people who know young Minecraft fans, Danica Davidson’s middle grade Minecraft novel Escape from the Overworld is now available.
