From the Bookshelf: Anime: A History

Reading an interview on Anime News Network with Jonathan Clements about a "history of anime" he'd just written piqued my interest. While I'm not as familiar with his previous work as some, the thought of adding another volume to my small number of actual books about anime did interest me. I went ahead and ordered it, but even as I did I might have been wondering just what I would be getting into, whether I would be informed and interested or finish with the uncomfortable feeling of having read a very extended introduction to the sort of "portents of doom" forecasts made by those who seem convinced the stuff they're interested in isn't being made any more.
( Numerous parenthetical asides )