This list covers the few English-language books, book chapters, and journal articles on anime/manga that were published before the 1990’s – the earliest ones that I have been able to locate so far are a pair of chapters in an essay collection that appeared in 1959. As with all editions of the Annual Bibliography of Anime and Manga Studies, recommendations or suggestions for additional entries to add are always welcome.

Last Updated: January 26, 2019

Books
Total published: 2

1988

Schodt, Frederk L. Inside the Robot Kingdom: Japan, mechatronics, and the coming robotopia. Tokyo: Kodansha International.

1983.

Schodt, Frederik L. Manga! Manga!: The world of Japanese comics. Tokyo: Kodansha International.

Manga! Manga! was the first English-language book on Japanese comics. Since its original publication, it has been reprinted in 1986 and 1998, and once again, in 2013, with slight changes in each one, primarily in the introductions. The core of the book, including over 90 pages of excepts from four major manga works (Phoenix, Ghost Warrior, Rose of Versailles, and Barefoot Gen) has remained unchanged over these.

Book Chapters

1989

*** NEW ***
Lent, John A. Japanese comics.
In Richard Gid Powers & Hidetoshi Kato (eds.), Handbook of Japanese popular culture (pp. 221-242). Greenwood, CT: Westwood Press.

1988

Aoyama, Tomoko. Male homosexuality as treated by Japanese women writers.
In Gawan McCormack & Yoshio Sugimoto (eds.), The Japanese trajectory: Modernization and beyond (pp. 186-204). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

*** NEW ***
1959

Imamura, Taihei. Comparative study of comics: American and Japanese – Sazae-san and Blondie (pp. 87-102)
Hatano, Kanji. Children’s comics in Japan (pp. 103-108)
In Hidetoshi Kato (ed.), Japanese popular culture: Studies in mass communication and cultural change. Burlington, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Co.

Articles
Total published: 7

1988

*** OPEN ACCESS ***
Port, Kenneth L. Copyright protection of fictional characters in Japan. Wisconsin International Law Journal, 7(1), 205-229.

This article, in a legal journal, analyzed the “first case in Japan to extend copy-right protection to fictional characters independent of their original work”. The case, decided by the Tokyo District Court in 1976, involved a tour bus company that used images of characters from the manga Sazae-san on its buses without authorization from the manga’s creator. The decision found it liable for copyright infringement, and awarded Sazae-san’s creator damages in the amount of 18,244,099 yen.

1987

Ledden, Sean, & Fejes, Fred. Female gender role patterns in Japanese comic magazines. The Journal of Popular Culture, 21(1), 155-176.

Otsuka, Eiji. Comic-book formula for success. Japan Quarterly, 35(3), 287-291.

1985

Schodt, Frederik L. Reading the comics. The Wilson Quarterly, 9(3), 57-66.

1981

Loveday, Leo, & Chiba, Satomi. At the crossroads: The folk ideology of femininity in the Japanese comic. Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research, 7(2-3), 135-150.
[In 1983, this article was also published in Fabula: Journal of Folktale Studies, 24(3-4), 246-263.]

1979

Skinner, Kenneth A. Salaryman comics in Japan: Images of self-perception. The Journal of Popular Culture, 13(1), 141-151.

1977

Sanches, Mary. Contemporary Japanese youth: Mass media communication. Youth & Society, 8(4), 389-416.
[archived version]