by Andrea Baricordi, Massimiliano De Giovanni, Andre Pietroni, Barbara Rossi and Sabrina Tunesi. Preface by Go Nagai. Italian language. 319 pages. 1991 Granata Press, Bologna. 35,000 lira.
It is difficult to praise this book too highly - and I don't even speak or read Italian. However, I hope I can convince you that you should add it to your bookshelves.
First of all, it is the first index to anime productions in a European language, and as such deserves all our support. This book was written by a highly skilled and dedicated team of fan/semi-pro translators who were working at that time with Granata Press on MANGAZINE (not the Manga Video one, the Italian version, which has a much longer pedigree as well as far more accurately researched contents). Just after it appeared, the whole team left Granata following a dispute with the management and went to Star Comics, where they now work for the excellent KAPPA MAGAZINE and known collectively as the Kappa Boys (two of them are in fact girls, but it's a great name, so why quibble?)
In Cartoonia Anime they set out to produce a handbook of use to the large Italian fan market. Since the 1970s anime has been aired on Italian TV; translated manga are also enormously popular and there is a sizeable indigenous video and publishing industry in the anime and manga field. No attempt had previously been made to list a sizeable proportion of the anime available to fans and provide background information about it, and this book does precisely that.
The format is spectacularly easy to follow; the first chapter covers the history of anime from its beginnings to the end of 1962, and each subsequent chapter focuses on one year. There is a short introduction giving a historical overview of the year and highlighting major developments in anime, then a number of films are listed in order of release date, followed by TV series on order of first episode screening. 'Specials' items falling outside these two categories, e.g. made-for-TV movies follow each chapter, therefore you can review the year's films, TV series and other productions, each in chronological order, right up to the end of 1988, the book's cut-off date.
To help you find a particular title there are two indices. One lists all the original Japanese titles in romanji, the other wither the title under which the work was release in Italy, or if it hasn't had an Italian release, the Italian translation of the title. This can make life a little difficult if you don't know either the precise Japanese title of the Italian version. Minky Momo is indeed found under 'M' in both the Japanese and Italian indices, but not 'Mi', because the show's full title is '(Il) Magico Mondo Di Gigi', while Zillion is at the opposite end of the index to where you might expect under its full name of 'Akai Kodan Zillion', and is omitted from the Italian index altogether.
Apart from a few minor cross-referencing errors and omissions, the book has only two major faults - the amount and type of information supplied for each title is not consistent, and the listing is not comprehensive. The best entries include the names of the director, writer, and perhaps a few other staff, any manga associations, some story notes and a few of the character's names plus comments on what makes this production noteworthy. The worst entries are no more than scrappy story synopses, and some of them not even that. However, it must be borne in mind that the writers were working on a huge mass of productions, many almost unknown not only in Italy, but elsewhere in the West, with widely varying amounts of background material available to them. This probably also accounts for the productions completely ommited from the book. It is, however, churlish to complain when there is so much rare and excellent material here.
What about the language problem? Well, as I said earlier, I don't read of speak Italian. I have a good command of Latin and that helps a bit, but Italian verbs are a law unto themselves and I won't pretend that this book is easy going, even with patience and the help of a good dictionary, unless you are fluent in Italian. It's time well invested though; and even if you feel you can't struggle through some of the language, the romanji title listing alone justifies buying the book, unless, of course your kanji skills are stronger than your Italian. The pictures are also a help here; although every show isn't pictured, there is a good chance that looking at the black and white illustrations may let you put titles to productions that have hitherto only been incomprehensible squiggles in NEWTYPE. If you are interested in the earlier series say, the development of the giant robot of the team show then this book is essential to any serious research, since there is little material available in any European language other than synopses of varying accuracy or very old and hard-to-get fanzines.
If I've convinced you that this book is essential, ask Forbidden Planet or Sheffield Space Centre to order it for you. Both have previously stocked the Granata Press English-language publications so this shouldn't be too hard for them to get. Or write directly to the publisher at via Marconi no. 47, 40122 Bolongna, Italy, for mail order details and postage and packing costs.