Satoshi Kon News

 Background Reading - is going to become my sporadic attempt to put together a series of articles based on various books about anime and manga - to give give long time fans like myself, burgeoning fans like our own Tom Pinchuk, and absolute newcomers something to check out to give them background on the genre, recommendations for new to watch, or general explanation of various cultural idiosyncrasies. What better way to start then a general primer on the medium, eh?

Finding a “canon” of important works in any field is generally difficult to settle on. Do you go by popularity, artistic merit, influence on other works, early works of prominent creators, or a combination thereof?

The Rough Guide to Anime, by Simon Richmond – in Penguin Books Rough Guides series, probably has the best “canon” list of anime titles available, and certainly makes for the best English language primer to anime currently in print in the US, and makes for interesting reading for long-time fans and newcomers alike.

As the title states, this book is a “rough guide” - not only in terms of the series, but in terms of the depth of the book. It's not supposed to be any sort of academic text to the appreciation of the medium. It simply tells you what you need to get your feet wet. The book opens with a brief history of animation in Japan, from before World War Two to the present, discussing the evolution of the medium and its outgrowth from manga. We get some general information on some of the big names (Tezuka in particular), and some basic background to set up, in terms of Japanese society, where we are when we get to our “Canon”

The “Fifty Greatest Anime” takes up the majority of the book. Lists tend to be generally controversial, but the list in this book manages to be successful at not only being “safe” but also “comprehensive”, a difficult task at best. Unfortunately, this also means that many titles on the list are also out of print, or will be out of print soon as of this writing. Classic works by Tezuka like Jungle Emperor Leo and Astro Boy make the list, as well as the complete filmography of the late Satoshi Kon (still alive when the book was written), and many of Hayao Miyazaki's works. Other classics like Evangelion, Mazinger Z, Cowboy Bebop and Utena have made the list as well. It's a fantastic list, and I simply cannot disagree with any of the choices on the list.

The later section of the book covers various genres, like Eastern and Western Fantasy, comedy, and historical fiction, as well as names to look for, in terms of studios, directors and writers, and voice actors, as well as a basic tourism guide. The genres and names sections include examples of works by those names, studios, and in those genres. All of that is generally useful, though unfortunately they don't do a good job of indicating whether the shows mentioned are licensed or not. While I have no doubt that Richmond would rather his book be ever-green and have to worry about license statuses of some of the works he mentions – considering that Legend of the Galactic Heroes has not been licensed and likely will never, ever be licensed, it would be probably have been helpful to mention what series would not have been available in the US at the time of the book's printing.

Nonetheless, long time fans of anime and newcomers to the fandom alike will find a lot of value in this book, both through background on the medium as well as recommendations for new series and films they might otherwise have overlooked.

 

The Canon

In The Rough Guide To Anime, author Simon Richmond lists these films and series as his "canon" of the greatest and most important anime in the history of the medium. Reasons for their inclusion are listed in the book, and they are presented in the order they are listed in the book (ISBN 978-1-85828-205-3).

	1. Akira
	2. Astro Boy All three Astro Boy series are included under one entry.
	3. Barefoot Gen
	4. Castle in the Sky
	5. Cowboy Bebop
	6. 5 Centimeters Per Second
	7. Fullmetal Alchemist The TV series and movies are included in this entry.
	8. Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo
	9. Ghost in the Shell
	10. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
	11. Grave of the Fireflies
	12. Gunbuster
	13. Howl's Moving Castle
	14. Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
	15. Kiki's Delivery Service
	16. Kimba the White Lion
	17. Little Norse Prince
	18. Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro
	19. The Super Dimension Fortress Macross
	20. Metropolis
	21. Millennium Actress
	22. Mind Game
	23. Mobile Suit Gundam
	24. My Neighbor Totoro
	25. Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind
	26. Neon Genesis Evangelion
	27. Night on the Galactic Railroad
	28. Ninja Scroll
	29. Only Yesterday
	30. Panda and The Magic Serpent
	31. Paprika
	32. Paranoia Agent (TV)
	33. Patlabor The Mobile Police (OVA)
	34. Perfect Blue
	35. Porco Rosso
	36. Princess Mononoke
	37. Puss in Boots
	38. Revolutionary Girl Utena
	39. Samurai Champloo
	40. Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal
	41. Serial Experiments Lain
	42. Star Blazers
	43. Steamboy
	44. Spirited Away
	45. Taro the Dragon Boy
	46. Tekkon Kinkreet
	47. Tokyo Godfathers
	48. Urusei Yatsura
	49. Whisper of the Heart
	50. Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise

I'm a bit surprised that I wasn't more curious about this 3 piece collection of films based on Otomo Katsuhiro's short works. Around that time I still was incredibly fond of Otomo's work, and still revered his Akira as a masterpiece.  It wasn't until someone reminded me that Memories existed by recommending I see Magnetic Rose, that I finally got acquainted with this gem of a production.  I will say, though, that its reputation as uneven, and thus flawed on the whole, is justified.  The middle work, Stink Bomb, is a single joke played out WAY too damned long.  But Cannon Fodder manages to set a distinct mood with its art style that transcends the ease with which people seem to reject it (the only thing that bothered me about it, other than the ending that seemed to lack a strong punch (though I get where it was going, so it's not so big a deal), was the lazy foley work when people walked around).
 
I understand why the two other works get mixed reviews, though.  The first piece, Magnetic Rose, overshadows the rest.  It is a tightly scripted, excellent example of science fiction done in the literary, discovery style.  I can't remember the last time I was gripped so tightly by ANY film, let alone a work of animation. It has to be experienced if you're willing to discover the potential of animation to tell a story.
 
Magnetic Rose was written by the late Kon Satoshi, with haunting music by the always masterful Kanno Yoko.