In terms of books on anime/manga, whether written by single authors, or collecting essays by several, 2006 was simply like no year that came before. In fact, I would be comfortable saying that it marked the point when the academic study of Japanese animation and Japanese comics could really be thought of as a discreet academic field or area. Of course, academic authors had been writing books, chapters, and articles on anime/manga for years already, but, by 2006, it was clear that there was now enough interest in these topics to support a book from a major publisher claiming right in its title that “Japanese pop culture has invaded the U.S.“, dedicated essay collections such as Cinema Anime and Reading Manga, as well as, for the first time, an ongoing series of volumes that would explore a new general theme every year – Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga, and the Fan Arts. And it’s also worth noting that both the essay collections and the first Mechademia volume drew contributions from authors, such as Susan Napier, Anne Allison, Jaqueline Berndt, Antonia Levi, Thomas Lamarre, Sharalyn Orbaugh, and Brian Ruh, who were already at the forefront of writing about anime and manga – and who have continued playing major roles in how the field has developed since. In addition, the 2006 list of new academic publications on anime/manga includes 14 individual chapters in other general essay collections, as well as a pair of entries (“manga” and “yaoi”) in the scholarly Encyclopedia of erotic literature.
As always, the full list of books, book chapters, and academic journal articles on anime/manga that appeared in 2006 is permanently archived as a separate page. Any new addition will be reflected on that page only. And, also as always, if you have any additions to this list, please do not hesitate to let me know!
English-language books and book chapters on anime (Japanese animation) and manga (Japanese comics): 2006
Books (Total published: 8)
Allison, Anne. Millennial monsters: Japanese toys and the global imagination. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Cavallaro, Dani. The anime art of Hayao Miyazaki. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Cavallaro, Dani. The cinema of Mamoru Oshii: Fantasy, technology, and politics. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Clements, Jonathan, & McCarthy, Helen. The anime encyclopedia: A guide to Japanese animation since 1917, Revised and expanded edition. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge.
Kelts, Roland. Japanamerica: How Japanese pop culture has invaded the U.S. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lankshear, Colin, & Knobel, Michelle. New literacies: Everday practices and classroom learning, Second Ed.. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press.
McCarthy, Helen. 500 manga heroes and villains. London: Collins & Brown.
Pawuk, Michael. Graphic novels: A genre guide to comics books, manga, and more. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.
Essay Collections (Total published: 4)
Mechademia, Volume 1: Emerging worlds of anime and manga
Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga and Fan Arts is a unique ongoing “monographic series” of essay collections. Every year’s volume is based around a specific theme, and includes original peer-reviewed essays as well as non-scholarly content such as interviews, comics, and photography. Many (though not all) volumes also feature translations of materials originally published in Japanese, both stand-alone articles, and excepts from longer works.
Berndt, Jaqueline, & Richter, Steff (Eds.), Reading manga: Local and global perceptions of Japanese comics. Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag.
Brophy, Philip (Ed.), Tezuka: The marvel of manga. Victoria, Australia: National Gallery of Victoria.
Brown, Steven T. (Ed.), Cinema anime: Critical engagements with Japanese animation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Book Chapters (Total published: 14)
Allison, Anne. New-age fetishes, monsters, and friends: Pokemon in the age of millennial capitalism. In Tomiko Yoda & Harry Harootunian (Eds.), Japan after Japan: Social and cultural life from the recessionary 1990s to the present (pp. 331-357). Raleigh, NC: Duke University Press.
Boss, Joyce E. Hybridity and negotiated identity in Japanese popular culture. In William M. Tsutsui & Michiko Ito (Eds.), In Godzilla’s footsteps: Japanese popular culture icons on the global stage (pp. 103-110). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
[Blood: The Last Vampire]
Donovan, Maureen H. Accessing Japanese digital libraries: Three case studies. In Shigeo Sugimoto, Jane Hunter, Andreas Rauber, & Atsuyuki Morishima (Eds.), Digital libraries: Achievements, challenges and opportunities (pp. 410-418). Berlin: Springer.
Gan, Sheuo Hui. Prefiguring the future: Tezuka Osamu’s adult animation and its influence on later animation in Japan. In Joel David (Ed.), Proceedings of the Whither the Orient: Asians in Asia and non-Asian Cinema conference (pp. 178-191). Seoul: Asia Future Initiative.
Ito, Mizuko. Japanese media mixes and amateur cultural exchange. In David Buckingham & Rebekah Willett (Eds.), Digital generations: Children, young people, and new media (pp.49-66). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Lamarre, Thomas. Otaku movement. In Tomiko Yoda & Harry Harootunian (Eds.), Japan after Japan: Social and cultural life from the recessionary 1990s to the present (pp. 358-394). Raleigh, NC: Duke University Press.
Leheny, David. A narrow place to cross swords: Soft power and the politics of Japanese popular culture in East Asia. In Peter J. Katzenstein & Takashi Shiraishi (Eds.), Beyond Japan: The dynamics of East Asian regionalism (pp. 221-233). Ithaka, NY: Cornell University Press.
Mikhailova, Yulia. Apocalypse in fantasy and reality: Japanese pop culture in contemporary Russia. In William M. Tsutsui & Michiko Ito (Eds.), In Godzilla’s footsteps: Japanese popular culture icons on the global stage (pp. 181-200). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ono, Yoko. Listen to me: Influence of shojo manga on contemporary Japanese women’s writing. In Rui Carvalho Homem & Maria de Fatima Lambert (Eds.), Writing and seeing: Essays on word and image (pp. 323-329). Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Rosenbaum, Roman. Historical revisionism in contemporary manga culture: From subculture to mainstream art. In Adrian Vickers & Margaret Hanlon (Eds.), Asia reconstructed: Proceedings of the 16th Biennial Conference of the ASAA. Canberra: Asian Studies Association of Australia.
*** ARCHIVED VERSION ***
Shapiro, Jerome F. Ninety minutes over Tokyo: Aesthetics, narrative, and ideology in three Japanese films about the Air War. In Wilfried Wilms & William Rasch (Eds.), Bombs away!: Representing the Air War over Europe and Japan (pp. 375-394). Amsterdam: Rodopi.
[Isao Takahata, Grave of the Fireflies]
Sunaoshi, Yukako. Who reads comics? Manga readership among first-generation Asian immigrants in New Zealand. In Matthew Allen & Rumi Sakamoto (Eds.), Popular culture, globalization and Japan (pp. 94-113). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Vender Stichele, Caroline, & Penner, Todd. Terminatrix: Visualizing the end of creation in The Animatrix. In Caroline Vander Stichele & Alastair G. Hunter (Eds.), Creation and creativity: From Genesis to genetics and back (pp. 142-162). Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Phoenix Press.
Welker, James. Drawing out lesbians: Blurred representations of lesbian desire in shojo manga. In Subhash Chandra (Ed.), Lesbian voices: Canada and the world: Theory, literature, cinema (pp.156-184). New Delhi, India: Allied Publishers.
Encyclopedia Entries (Total published: 2)
Gaetan Brulotte & John Phillips (Eds.), Encyclopedia of erotic literature. New York: Routledge.
McLelland, Mark. Manga (pp. 849-851).
McHarry, Mark. Yaoi (pp. 1445-1447).