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| Magna Impact!, which features cover art from 2004's Bakurets Tenshi by the Gonzo production company, bursts with six decades of fantastical graphics. Image courtesy Phaidon Press |
Saucer-eyed, button-nosed child heroes monopolized Japanese comic book culture for half a century, but juvenile action stars share equal page time with mecha bots and cybernetic sex dolls in Manga Impact!. The encyclopedic new book compiles 500 color illustrations populated with the insanely diverse spectrum of fantasy figures drawn from manga comic books and their cinematic counterparts.
Subtitled “The World of Japanese Animation,” Phaidon Press’ 304-page softcover volume contains 350 alphabetically ordered entries for artists, films, TV series, graphic novels and videogames rooted in manga and anime traditions. They range from pint-size anime godfather Astroboy to the steampunk-influenced Howl’s Moving Castle and Ghost in the Shell’s world-weary man-versus-machine smackdowns.
Additionally, 13 essays include a think piece by comics expert Paul Gravett, who writes: “The goal [for manga comics] became … to create a sense of involvement of stepping inside the body and participating rather than merely observing.”
