In case you’re wondering, it never gets old. It’s been thirty years since I opened the package containing my first book, and it’s just as exciting to open a package containing my umpteenth. Anime: A History is particularly dear to me because it was built around my doctorate, and represents the culmination of probably thirty years in and around the anime industry.

At 430+ pages, the 2023 edition is twice the size of its predecessor.

I fretted that everyone asked if they would prefer it to be in full-colour throughout just nodded and said that sounded nice, instead of considering what that would do to the price. But Bloomsbury assured me that they would keep the cover price down, and indeed they did.

Here and there in the earlier chapters, there are little shunts and upgrades, such as the saga of Chappy the Space Squirrel, the Nagasaki Flag Incident, and Justin Sevakis on the horrors of digipaint.

And then there are three new chapters, focussing on new developments in the anime industry.