“It was the best of shows. It was the worst of shows. Whenever I had to cover my tracks, I simply called it Schoolgirl Milky Crisis…”
So begins Jonathan Clements personal journey into the world of Anime and Manga, and much more besides!
A fluent student of the Japanese language, Jonathan was thrust into the world of Anime behind the scenes before he’d even completed his course. His regular columns and articles for Manga Max, Newtype USA, and Judge Dredd magazine, amongst many other titles and formats, have opened up the world of Anime from behind-the-scenes. Well, sort of…
His features are entertaining, well written, and manage to be inclusive to those with little knowledge of Manga and Anime, without patronising the rest. From interviews, to profiles, reviews, commentary, lectures, essays and even experiences – it’s all dealt out with a light but well-informed touch.
There’s the time he met Tomo, the Anime voice actress; the slightly bewildering interview with Ghost In The Shell director Mamoru Oshii; and views and information on how Anime is produced and marketed to the world, not to mention plenty of insider gossip, of course!
The only thing is that Schoolgirl Milky Crisis pseudonym – sometimes you’d just wish he’d dish the dirt! Come on, surely now you can tell us exactly which director or anime you were talking about? But no, not one word. Mind you, as someone so heavily involved in the industry, as a translator, critic and (occasional) voice actor, I guess you can’t blame him for that.
For a collection of articles, the book has been well edited and paced – grouping chapters and themes without much repetition in subjects. Snapshots begat longer articles and essays, then are followed by a few bite-sized chunks. Often it’s engaging enough to wish he’d work on something far greater in length, but some of the longer, more serious articles don’t share the charm of his personal experiences. One particularly unimpressive example being the chapter on Chinese animation – it just feels like a regurgitation of the (albeit well-researched) facts, somehow lacking in personality.
On the whole, though, this is a fine, entertaining piece of work.
And don’t forget, there’s still a chance to win one of three copies of this book – click here to enter!
