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Annual Bibliography of Anime and Manga Studies

2020’s:

*** NEW *** 2023
2022 — 2021 — 2020

2010’s:
2019 — 2018 —  2017 — 2016 — 2015 — 2014 — 2013 — 2012 — 2011 — 2010

2000’s:
2009 — 2008 — 2007 — 2006 — 2005 — 2004 — 2003 — 2002 — 2001 — 2000

1990’s:
1999 — 1998 — 1997 — 1996 — 1990 – 1995

1950’s – 1980’s

Selected academic publications on anime/manga, including books, book chapters, and articles in peer-reviewed journals that were written before 2012 (along with fan essays and newspaper items) are also listed in the Online Bibliography of Anime and Manga Research. The only portion of that site that is still being actively maintained is the Books on Anime/Manga page. The other pages are no longer updated, and remain as an archive.

In the future, the Annual Bibliography will be used to develop a comprehensive searchable database of English-language scholarship on Japanese animation and comics.

Subject Bibliographies

Legal Scholarship on Anime/Manga
Neon Genesis Evangelion: 1996-2023
Seizures Induced by Pokemon Episode: A Bibliography

Director/Creator Bibliographies

Shigeru Mizuki
Osamu Tezuka
Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli
Isao Takahata (1935-2018)
*** NEW *** Mamoru Hosoda
Mamoru Oshii
Satoshi Kon
Makoto Shinkai

About the Bibliography

Purpose: The Annual Bibliography of Anime and Manga Studies is a comprehensive listing of academic publications (books, book chapters, and journal articles) on Japanese animation, comics, and related topics that were published in English in a given year. It serves as a general overview of the “state” of scholarly writing on anime/manga over the year, and brings together materials from many different sources. While many of the individual items that are listed in the Bibliography can be located in other more broad and general information sources, it is designed and developed specifically to support the needs of an academic area that is inherently inter-disciplinary, and includes many different methods, approaches, traditions, and ways of asking questions.

Scope:

Subjects:

This bibliography is based on uses of the terms “anime” and “manga” to refer to all kinds of animation and comics created in Japan, regardless of format, style or purpose. Beyond these basic guidelines, there are no further subject restrictions or limitations. This results in a scope that accommodates a wide range of approaches, including – but not limited to – close readings and textual analysis, studies of particular directors/creators, histories and historical surveys, descriptions of how anime and manga are actually produced, distributed, presented to audiences, and perceived in Japan and in other countries, as well as how viewers/readers actually respond to anime and manga, and examinations of fan activities and practices. Ultimately, the deciding factor for whether include a particular item in the bibliography is simply whether it discusses anime/manga or related topics are  to any significant extent, or simply mentions them in passing.

Format:

The focus of the bibliography is on scholarly publications, whether peer-reviewed or not, but materials written for professional audiences such as educators and librarians may be considered. It specifically does not list:

• blog posts/personal essays
• papers written for class
• dissertations/theses
• papers presented at academic conferences (unless actually published in Proceedings)
• articles in newspapers and popular/trade/enthusiast magazines

Methodology: The Bibliography is assembled using several methods:

• Searches for ‘anime’, ‘manga’, ‘Japanese animation’ and ‘Japanese comics’ and other related keywords in various general and subject-specific academic indexing/abstracting and full-text databases.

Some of the databases used include:

– Bibliography of Asian Studies Online
– EBSCO Academic Search Premier
– Film & Television Literature Index
– Gale Academic One File
– HeinOnline
– International Index to the Performing Arts
– MLA International Bibliography
– ProQuest Research Library

• Searches in Google Scholar (in particular for access to book chapters and newer journals that are not covered by established databases)
• Searches for appropriate subject terms and Library of Congress subject headings (such as ‘Animated films-Japan’; ‘Animated television programs-Japan’; ‘Comic books, strips, etc.-Japan’) in major library catalogs.
• Whenever possible, review of works cited sections of publications that were already identified for inclusion.
• Direct contributions by authors

Organization: The Bibliography includes several different types of publications

• Books/monographs
• Essay collections on anime/manga
• Individual chapters in inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary essay collections
• Entries in specialized academic encyclopedias
• Articles published in special/theme issues of scholarly journals
• Articles published in general issues

Annotation: Each entry is listed in a “reduced” APA format, with some, but not all of the elements of a standard APA citation. As much as possible, the Bibliography provides links from individual titles to online book stores, records on publishers’ websites, or, for materials that are available online in open access, directly to them.

Note: Regardless of my editorial efforts, it is also very likely that each year’s Bibliography does not cover the entire range of scholarship on anime/manga that was published that year. It is inherently impossible to achieve a 100% recall rate in bibliographic searching without knowing beforehand the full universe of relevant results, and I’m certain that the resources, search terms, and other methods that I used did not retrieve some results that should be included. Accordingly, as the editor, I always welcome corrections or additions.