Schoolgirl Milky Crisis: Adventures in the Anime and Manga Trade [Kindle Edition]

Full disclosure: I've been in the manga and anime business for 25 years, and I knew Jonathan when he was a charming young fan being haplessly drunken under the table by his elders.
Jonathan has written a wide range of books (all of them worth reading) but here's where he finally gives us the long overdue data dump of his astoundingly wide-ranging experiences in the Asian entertainment business. Some of these stories I'd heard before, some I hadn't (and, alas, some of his best will probably never be published) but Jonathan writes with a wry wit that is uniquely his own and while I rarely laugh out loud at books, this one had me chucking more than once. Sometimes in amusement, sometimes in sympathetic pain. Yet some of the writing, such as his account of a day in the life of a voice actress, truly captures the bittersweet life these "stars" lead. Jon's writing is nothing if not versatile.
If you are a manga or anime fan with even the faintest interest in what goes on behind the curtain, you must buy this book. Just don't expect it to be all unicorns and butterflies. If you'd rather believe anime and manga are created in a sterile vacuum, untouched by the wicked ways of the world...this is, as the saying goes, not a book to be tossed aside lightly--it should be hurled with great force.
Jonathan also covers some subject areas that have had very little written about them in English. The sections on Chinese animation and Korean animation and movies come to mind.
I loved the book from cover to cover, and learned a lot. For one thing, I learned that if I ever have the chance to hear Jon give a speech, I'd better take it!
A great read, dead-accurate as far as I can confirm it, and worth every penny. I've ordered five more copies to give away to some of my friends and relatives who ask me "Yeah, but what is your job really like?" Hopefully, after they read this book they will buy me whiskey.
(P.S. I'm reliably informed "Schoolgirl Milky Crisis" will soon be in production. Rumor has it Miyazaki will produce. Or at least his son. Or someone called Miyazaki, anyway.)

This is a collection of past articles, reviews and essays from 2000-2008 by Jonathan Clements, originally written for some US or UK anime and scifi magazines, or DVD jackets. It also includes the transcripts of a couple of the author's lectures (one of which, a talk on computer animation, can be viewed as an extra on the DVD for the animated "A.Li.Ce"). As a collection, the subjects are quite diverse, centering on Japanese animation but including some Japanese live-action and even some Korean and Chinese subjects. Mr. Clements has observed the Japanese animation business from the perspective of Japanese, UK, and US companies. The book's weakest point is his reluctance to name real names, sticking mostly to witty pseudonyms for the names of movies, TV shows, people and companies he tells tales about (I guess he hopes to keep working for them!) Mr. Clements writes in a very entertaining style.
Strictly for fans of Japanese animation who are curious about how business decisions are made and how the properties are translated to the English-speaking markets. For those interested, it's an enjoyable read.

Schoolgirl Milky Crisis is an entertaining book. Not only does he wax on about his fictional Manga series, but he lets us 'outsiders' in on the 'inside'.

That itself is worth the price of admission at $15us.

While inside the magical, maniacal mega walls of Manga...we learn that all is not what it seems. The index is not unlike a wall that reads "Rubber chickens this way", and after you go that way, you find yourself at a restaurant that serves Liptons Chicken Noodle soup. The chapters include a wide variety of comments, interviews, reviews, and humor. We can't forget the humor and the great art by Steve Kyte.

Yeah, there really is no one paragraph review that can succinctly summarize the sense and nonsense of Schoolgirl Mily Crisis. What we can say, is that a life spent in anime and manga, both on the page and behind the microphone, can truly be capsulized in a 416 page book.

Tim Lasiuta
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