laborpilot86
09-05-2007, 09:16 AM
Since historical and cultural forces in Japan shape anime and manga so much, i figured I might as well make some recommendations about what the curious might want to read to find out more about Japan and its history.
The dean of historians of the samurai, Stephen Turnbull, has numerous books about the warriors who appear so often in action anime. His Warriors of Medieval Japan, Samurai Warfare and Samurai: The Story of Japan's Great Warriors are all excellently written and lavishly illustratrated. He has also written several volumes of Osprey's Campaign and Warrior series.
The late George Sanson has a large three-volume History of Japan, which is considered the go-to history on Japan.
World War Two adds several excellent titles to the mixer, with Edwin Hoyt's Japan's War and Paul Dull's Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy offering new facts and reinterpations from the perspective of the loser of the Pacific War.
Most of the old folk tales that appear in such anime as Ayakashi have been translated several times over the past a hundred years or so, While the Tale of Genji, the Kojiki, the Hagakure, the Taiheiki, and many other classic novels and histories have all been translated into English and other languages.
Feel free to add asnything I may have missed.
The dean of historians of the samurai, Stephen Turnbull, has numerous books about the warriors who appear so often in action anime. His Warriors of Medieval Japan, Samurai Warfare and Samurai: The Story of Japan's Great Warriors are all excellently written and lavishly illustratrated. He has also written several volumes of Osprey's Campaign and Warrior series.
The late George Sanson has a large three-volume History of Japan, which is considered the go-to history on Japan.
World War Two adds several excellent titles to the mixer, with Edwin Hoyt's Japan's War and Paul Dull's Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy offering new facts and reinterpations from the perspective of the loser of the Pacific War.
Most of the old folk tales that appear in such anime as Ayakashi have been translated several times over the past a hundred years or so, While the Tale of Genji, the Kojiki, the Hagakure, the Taiheiki, and many other classic novels and histories have all been translated into English and other languages.
Feel free to add asnything I may have missed.