Both books are written by the same pair, one Professor Josef Steiff , a Ph.D in philosophy and associate chair of the Film & Video department at Columbia College (NOT to be confused with Columbia University), and Dr. Adam Barkman, an assistant professor of philosophy at Yonsei University in South Korea.
I know, I know, I'm being super unfair: I'm judging a book by the cover. But I also wonder at the fact that this was done as two separate books. Of the titles mentioned for the anime book-- Astro Boy, Dragon Ball Z, Ghost in the Shell, and Spirited Away --only that last one was an anime before it was a manga. If they wanted to keep on with big titles, why not replace one of those with Neon Genesis Evangelion, whose anime was created concurrently with its manga release, at least to start? I have a mildly similar complaint with the manga version, which brings up Space Battleship Yamato-- which was an anime before it was a manga.
I'm totally open to the idea that these books could turn out to be really cool. But so far, they're not doing a great job of getting me excited.
Source: @AnimeResearch
Philosophy... I don't know how this works?
I actually really loved the aspects of Ghost in the Shell. How it questions what we define as alive. Though it was an underlining theme. More often the Ghost in the Shell: SAC seemed to me to be closer to a Tom Clancy novel.
I think in this case it kind of is fair to judge a book by it's cover. There are thousands of very talented anime style artists out there. They could of commissioned one to make a cover.
@sora_thekey:
Philosophy can be really interesting if you can get into it with someone.
If I had to get a anime version it would be Ghost in the Shell and Philosophy which I'll be getting in the near future.
Which is a little silly since those philosophies vary so widely, but I suppose there could be some interesting conclusions about how it represents (or doesn't represent) mainstream Japanese philosophy as a whole.
I've been kind of skeptical about Open Court's "Popular Culture and Philosophy" brand line as a philosophy alumnus but I've never really read any of them so I can't offer a good opinion. My dad gave me the Harry Potter one a few months ago and I haven't started reading it, partly because I'm not a huge fan of the series. (I may get to it eventually.) A quick glance at the TOC shows the collection of essays touch on metaphysics, evil, discrimination, authenticity of reality, feminism, ambition as a virtue, moral obligation, and a few other things.
For the anime and manga versions, there will probably be some essays about Eastern philosophy but there could also be discussions of gender identity (e.g. Ranma, Kashimashi), many subtopics within ethics, and mind-body relationships (as in androids/robots).
I'd imagine the audience for this would the same as other armchair philosophy books like The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten and Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar, both of which I enjoyed and think could be useful entry points to philosophy for newcomers.
Those covers are terrible, terrible for conveying that the object inside is serious. I mean, it might have been better served creating a more standard, book cover, rather than a "Hey look, this is like a manga" cover.