Anime: A History

A thoroughly researched, socio-economic historiography that is surprisingly condensed. Although its scholarly writing style makes it a difficult read, its evidentiary conclusions will be widely quoted.

For us manga readers, it's useful to know about the history of anime because manga--as are light novels--is so often used as the source material for anime--and they are intertwined in so many other ways. Art isn't created in its own genre nor material medium nor should it be appreciated or critiqued in isolation from its economic drivers.