Late this month Collins Design is publishing 500 Essential Anime Movies: The Ultimate Guide ($24.95), a sagacious survey of the best anime feature films written by Helen McCarthy, the co-author of the authoritative Anime Encyclopedia (published by Stonebridge Press).  500 Essential Anime Movies covers only films that have been released in English, something that should minimize the frustration of reading about films that are not available. 

Feature length anime movies certainly deserve the kind of recognition that McCarthy’s volume gives them.  They have dominated the anime DVD sales charts in recent years, in part because pricing on these stand-alone features is comparable with the cost of movies released on DVD in other categories, but also because of the wide range of subject matter they explore (especially in comparison to American animated films), and the superb skills of the filmmakers involved.  A number of the masterful films of Hayao Miyazaki remain in the top ten in the VideoScan anime DVD lists every year, while the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children anime movie sold over a million units in North America in 2006, and anime compilation feature films such as the Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knight have also done very well.

McCarthy’s new 528-page compendium of information on anime features is organized by genre and includes helpful, if sometimes controversial, “10 Best” lists for each genre.  It also includes Top Ten lists for kids under five and for older children as well.  In addition to a plot synopsis (and age ratings when available), this volume (already available in the U.K.) includes information on writers, directors, and designers associated with each film along with a complete index to aid readers in tracking down their favorite films and creators.

500 Essential Anime Movies: The Ultimate Guide is a companion volume to 500 Essential Graphic Novels: The Ultimate Guide by Gene Kannenberg, which Harper Collins published here in the U.S. earlier this month.