Recommendations and Resources
Here you can find recommendations on what to watch, read, listen to, or find on the Net, and where to find it.
What to watch
Want to know a few good things to watch that you can get easily (and legally)? Consult the list! To find anime, you can try your local library, PBS station, or the video store in the 'animation,' 'kids,' or 'cult' sections. Video Maniacs and other small chains often have lots. You'll find that this list is skewed towards kids' anime--it's hard to find a lot of the more sophisticated titles easily. If you want those, try your local Japanese video club/store, go to Japantown, or cultivate an aquaintance with an otaku.
Dragonball Z (Violence)
This series plays on the Cartoon Network and local stations.
Kiki's delivery service (Good for kids, no nudity or violence) Released by Disney 1998.
This movie by the author of 'Nausicaa' features Kiki, a young witch. Traditionally, a witch must leave home for a year of training at age 13. Kiki takes off on her broom with her cat Jiji (Phil Hartman's voice) and struggles to establish herself in a new town. She makes friends and has serious problems, and eventually makes it on her own.
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My neighbor Totoro (Good for kids, no violence) Released by Disney 1998.
 | This movie is also by Hayao Miyazaki and is probably his best. If you watch any kids' anime at all, this is the one to see. A small family moves out to the Japanese countryside in the 50's--the two girls' mother is ill and in a hospital. The girls explore the forest and meet Totoro, the giant badger guardian of the forest.
He takes them on nocturnal adventures with magical creatures and helps them through problems.
One note: this movie has been criticized by some factions, because of a sequence in which the girls bathe with their father. In Japan, family bathing is common, and this scene should be interpreted as a loving family moment.
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Pokemon (For kids, little violence)
UPN was playing this in the afternoons; WB is showing the newest episodes on Saturday mornings. Watch for the Pokemon movie this fall!
Ranma 1/2 (Nudity, some violence)
Easy to find in video stores and libraries.
Sailor Moon (Some violence)
This series plays on television--try UPN at 3.00 weekdays--and is widely available in libraries on video. There are a few movies too.
Urusei Yatsura/Lum (Nudity, little violence)
KTEH (San Jose's PBS station) shows this series on Sunday nights, along with other anime.
 | Surfing the Web
On the Web, look for sites on any anime or manga at www.anipike.com/ for the best in anime, organized for your convenience.
If you're particularly interested in one series, there is probably at least one WebRing dedicated to it; find one site, and just go around the Ring.
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A great introductory site, with resources and select links, Gilles' service to fans, includes a guide created specifcally for librarians--Gilles Poitras is a librarian himself and is well-known as an anime expert. He gave a lecture at the Exploratorium last May that you may have heard about, and has written a book (see below).
Reading Material
You can find manga at the library (you may have to look in the fiction section under the author's name), and you can find lots of it at your friendly neighborhood comic shop. Here are a couple book titles about anime and manga that make interesting or informative reading.
Ledoux, Trish, and Ranney, Doug. The complete anime guide: Japanese animation film directory & resource guide. 2nd ed. Issaquah, WA: Tiger Mountain Press, 1997.
Levi, Antonia. Samurai from outer space: understanding Japanese animation. Chicago: Open Court, 1998. (I used this book extensively in creating this site and hereby thank the author.)
Poitras, Gilles. The Anime companion: what's Japanese in Japanese animation? Berkeley: Stonebridge, 1998.
For Your Listening Pleasure
The music written for anime shows runs the gamut from terrible to great and covers every musical genre. Otaku often enjoy listening to the soundtracks and will spend large bucks on imported CDs. It's not easy to find these CDs at your local record store, but they might have some. Usually, you have to order it online or from a catalog. However, there is an easier way! The invention of the MP3 file--a way to compress music into a very small package while keeping it really accurate--has been a great blessing to American otaku yearning for anime music. MP3 files are now everywhere on anime Web sites. You will need MP3 software, such as WinAmp, to listen to these samples:
"Dance of the Curse" from 'Escaflowne.' A Wagnerian choral piece!
Hikari No Naka E from 'Escaflowne,' a soft song that describes Hitomi's feelings for Van, the Fanelian king.
"Watashi no tamagoyaki", the theme song from the series 'Dragonhalf.' If the Animaniacs were Japanese, this is what they would have come up with. The lyrics go something like, "My egg is uncooked, what am I going to do with my egg?"
"Information High" a techno-pop song by Yoko Kanno. This one's in English.
A 'Sailor Moon' song in Japanese--light pop.