While visiting Japan, animation writer Chris Robinson gets lost. As he drifts through Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Kyoto he happens upon a number of mysterious figures including Bob Dylan, Haruki Murakami, Sumo wrestlers, Big Bird and, by good chance, many famous Japanese animators—both living and dead. Each of these characters takes Robinson into a deep, dark, mysterious world of Japanese animation that does not include Godzilla, Akira, Anime, Manga, or Hasao Miyazaki. This inventive and unusual study rewrites the history of Japanese animation looking at the work of Atsushi Wada, Taku Furukawa, Renzo and Sayoko Kinoshita, Maya Yonesho, and many more.

Chris Robinson is an author, freelance writer and the Artistic Director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival. He writes the "gonzo" column "The Animation Pimp" for Animation World Magazine. His writing has also appeared in Salon.com, Take One, Cinemascope, Montage, Stop Smiling, the Ottawa Xpress and many international publications. His other books include Between Genius and Utter Illiteracy: A Story of Estonian Animation, Ottawa Senators: Great Stories from the NHL's First Dynasty, and Unsung Heroes of Animation. Robinson lives in Ottawa with his wife, Kelly, and son, Jarvis.

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[Japanese Animation] is an eminently readable, entertaining introduction to the world of indie Japanese animation, through the mind of one of the most honest and trustworthy champions of artistic animation in the world today.

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