Describes the history of anime, covering its influences, its arrival in the United States, what sets it apart from other types of animation, the role of women in anime, and messages in anime.

When a witch's curse turns young Sophie into an old woman, she leaves home and finds work as a cleaning woman in the moving castle of the mysterious wizard Howl. She makes a deal with Calcifer, a fire demon, to free him from his magical contract with Howl in return for which he will remove Sophie's curse.

"From mecha robots to shojo anime's hearts and flowers, Anime: A Critical Introduction investigates the wild, wonderful and often misunderstood worlds of Japan's animation genres"-- Anime: A Critical Introduction maps the genres that have thrived within Japanese animation culture, and shows how a wide range of commentators have made sense of anime through discussions of its generic landscape. From the battling robots that define the mecha genre through...