The art of masamune shirow, Jeremy Mark Robinson, Robinson

Hayao Miyazaki's movies include Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Laputa: Castle In the Sky and My Neighbor Totoro.

Hayao Miyazaki may be the most talented fantasy filmmaker of his generation: not even the finest filmmakers of Hollywood can rival his films when it comes to creating fantasy worlds, and fantastical characters and events. Miyazaki has millions of fans around the world, not least among fellow animators and filmmakers, for whom he is a genius.

What Hayao Miyazaki's films do is to bring you completely into a fantasy world that is instantly recognizable and familiar. It's as if these fantasy realms have always existed - very much like J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth or Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea (both influences on Miyazaki). The visionary and magical elements are fused with the domestic and familial and social elements, so that it seems completely ordinary and believable that, say, flying machines soar overhead which have flapping wings like an insect, or that little white creatures pop up out of trees and make strange clicking noises.

To write one hit animation movie is amazing, to write eleven is remarkable. To write and direct one spectacular animated picture is very impressive, to write and direct eleven features is unheard-of in the world of contemporary commercial animation.

This new study of Hayao Miyazaki considers all of his films and TV shows (and his manga work). It also includes chapters on Studio Ghibli - on fellow director Isao Takahata - Miyazaki's influences - his contemporaries and colleagues - his characters - his movies' relation to Western animation (including the Walt Disney Company) - his unmade films - and his themes and motifs.

The Cinema of Hayao Miyazaki also explores Japanese animation, its production and style, some classics of anime, and digital animation.

Includes quotes by Miyazaki; fans on Miyazaki; and resources.

The second edition has been completely updated and revised. There is a new chapter on The Wind Rises, and Ghibli's latest films, including The Tale of Princess Kaguya.

Fully illustrated. With filmography, bibliography and notes. 664 pages. ISBN 9781861715159.

THE ANIME TV SERIES AND MOVIE

by Jeremy Mark Robinson

Sex + drugs + rock music + comedy + Westerns + crime + drifter lifestyles + space battles + bars + casinos + fashion - and more music - what's not to like in Cowboy Bebop? - and how it wittily and cleverly mixes all of those elements, and many more.

This book focusses on the celebrated, hugely entertaining, cult 26-episode Japanese anime TV series Cowboy Bebop (1998), as well as the 2001 movie of the series. Cowboy Bebop is one of the masterpieces of animation of recent times.

That Cowboy Bebop (first broadcast in 1998, and produced by Sunrise (a subsidiary of Bandai) and TV Tokyo), is a fan favourite goes without saying. It is a masterpiece of storytelling, invention, design and production on every level. It is unique. It regularly features in top ten lists of anime favourites, and sometimes tops the lists. Easy to see why: it's got everything, and then some.

Includes chapters on the Japanese animation industry; on the personnel and the production of Cowboy Bebop; on the style, world and music of the series; and its many cultural links.

At the centre of this book is an episode guide to Cowboy Bebop, running through every show in great detail.

There is a chapter on the movie of Cowboy Bebop, released in 2001.

The appendices include accounts of shows and manga linked to Cowboy Bebop (such as Macross Plus, Samurai Champloo and samurai manga).

Includes: filmographies; resources; video and DVD availability; quotes from fans on Cowboy Bebop.

Fully illustrated, including many images of the series and the movie, the actors and personnel, and related anime shows. Bibliography and notes.

The hardcover edition comes in a smart case laminate cover, with a matte finish, in full colour.

ISBN 9781861715678. 436 pages. www.crmoon.com

Hayao Miyazaki's movies include Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Laputa: Castle In the Sky and My Neighbor Totoro.

Hayao Miyazaki may be the most talented fantasy filmmaker of his generation: not even the finest filmmakers of Hollywood can rival his films when it comes to creating fantasy worlds, and fantastical characters and events. Miyazaki has millions of fans around the world, not least among fellow animators and filmmakers, for whom he is a genius.

What Hayao Miyazaki's films do is to bring you completely into a fantasy world that is instantly recognizable and familiar. It's as if these fantasy realms have always existed - very much like J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth or Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea (both influences on Miyazaki). The visionary and magical elements are fused with the domestic and familial and social elements, so that it seems completely ordinary and believable that, say, flying machines soar overhead which have flapping wings like an insect, or that little white creatures pop up out of trees and make strange clicking noises.

To write one hit animation movie is amazing, to write eleven is remarkable. To write and direct one spectacular animated picture is very impressive, to write and direct eleven features is unheard-of in the world of contemporary commercial animation.

This new study of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away includes chapters on Miyazaki's influences - his contemporaries and colleagues - his characters - his movies' relation to Western animation (including the Walt Disney corporation) - and his themes and motifs. The book also explores Japanese animation, its production and style, some classics of anime, and digital animation.

Includes quotes by Miyazaki; critics and fans on the movie; and resources.

This book offers an all-round introduction to the cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky. It explores every aspect of Tarkovsky's output, including scripts, budget, production, shooting, editing, camera, sound, music, acting, themes, symbols, motifs, and spirituality. Tarkovsky's films are analyzed in depth, with scene-by-scene discussions for some famous sequences. Fully illustrated.

Andrei Tarkovsky is one of the most fascinating of filmmakers. He is supremely romantic, an old-fashioned, traditional artist - at home in the company Leonardo da Vinci, Pieter Brueghel, Aleksandr Pushkin, Fyodor Dostoievsky and Byzantine icon painters. Tarkovsky is a magician, no question, but argues for demystification (even while films celebrate mystery). His films are full of magical events, dreams, memory sequences, multiple viewpoints, multiple time zones and bizarre occurrences.

As genre films, Andrei Tarkovsky's movies are some of the most accomplished in cinema. As science fiction films, Stalker and Solaris have no superiors, and very few peers. Only the greatest sci-fi films can match them: Metropolis, King Kong, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Tarkovsky happily and methodically rewrote the rules of the sci-fi genre: Stalker and Solaris are definitely not routine genre outings. They don't have the monsters, the aliens, the visual effects, the battles, the laser guns, the stunts and action set-pieces of regular science fiction movies.

No one could deny that Andrei Roublyov is one of the greatest historical films to explore the Middle Ages, up there with The Seventh Seal, El Cid, The Navigator and Pier Paolo Pasolini's 'Life' trilogy. If you judge Andrei Roublyov in terms of historical accuracy, epic spectacle, serious themes, or cinematic poetry, it comes out at the top. Finally, in the religious film genre, The Sacrifice and Nostalghia are among the finest in cinema, the equals of the best of Ingmar Bergman, Luis Bunuel, Robert Bresson and Carl-Theodor Dreyer.

The text for this new edition has been updated and revised.

Includes illustrations, bibliography, filmography and notes. ISBN 9781861714336.

EXTRACT FROM THE INTRODUCTION

Philip Toynbee declared, in 1961, that Tolkien's 'childish books had passed into a merciful oblivion', a wonderful statement, just a tad inaccurate. In 1997, The Lord of the Rings was voted the top book of the 20th century by readers in a British bookstore's poll (Waterstone's). 104 out of 105 stores and 25,000 readers put The Lord of the Rings at the top (1984 was second).

Around 100 million copies of The Lord of the Rings had been sold by the end of the twentieth century, and 60 million copies of The Hobbit, with sales of around 3 million per year of the two books combined. Readers just love reading Tolkien's books. It's that simple. You can't force people to buy books or go see movies; there's isn't a magic formula (or ruling ring) to hypnotize readers and consumers (if there was, it'd be worth billions). And the Tolkien phenomenon began with readers. Back in 1937, 1954 and 1955, the publishers Allen & Unwin did their bit, of course, with reviews, blurbs, advertizing and so on, promoting The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, as did the critics, but it was readers who first started the phenomenon that has become truly global. Tolkien's influence on literature has been considerable, too, and not just in the realm of fantasy, sci-fi, fairy tales and related genres. As fantasy author Terry Brooks said, Tolkien 'was the premier fantasy writer of the last century, and all of us writing today owe him a huge debt.' No other writer W.H. Auden reckoned had 'created an imaginary world and a history in such detail'. Colin Wilson agreed that only a few writers have concocted a total universe, and that Tolkien's was very impressive. Tolkien's mythological writings may be the 'largest body of invented mythology in the history of literature', according to David Day. Invented, that is, by one person. It's also 'certainly the most complex and detailed invented world in all literature'.

Jeremy Robinson has written many critical studies, including Steven Spielberg, Arthur Rimbaud, Jean-Luc Godar, and The Sacred Cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky, plus literary monographs on: Samuel Beckett; Thomas Hardy; Andre Gide; Robert Graves; and Lawrence Durrell.

Includes bibliography, illustrations, appendices and notes. ISBN 9781861714763. 272 pages.

Born on January 5, 1941 in Tokyo, Hayao Miyazaki is known as the 'Japanese Disney', a filmmaker as revered - and as popular - as Walt Disney or Steven Spielberg. Miyazaki, in short, is a true phenomenon in contemporary animation and in world cinema.

Hayao Miyazaki's movies include Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Laputa: Castle In the Sky and My Neighbor Totoro.

Hayao Miyazaki may be the most talented fantasy filmmaker of his generation: not even the finest filmmakers of Hollywood can rival his films when it comes to creating fantasy worlds, and fantastical characters and events. Miyazaki has millions of fans around the world, not least among fellow animators and filmmakers, for whom he is a genius.

What Hayao Miyazaki's films do is to bring you completely into a fantasy world that is instantly recognizable and familiar. It's as if these fantasy realms have always existed - very much like J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth or Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea (both influences on Miyazaki). The visionary and magical elements are fused with the domestic and familial and social elements, so that it seems completely ordinary and believable that, say, flying machines soar overhead which have flapping wings like an insect, or that little white creatures pop up out of trees and make strange clicking noises.

To write one hit animation movie is amazing, to write eleven is remarkable. To write and direct one spectacular animated picture is very impressive, to write and direct eleven features is unheard-of in the world of contemporary commercial animation.

Includes quotes by Miyazaki; reviews by fans; and resources.