Coined in the middle of the last century, "anime" is the most common word for animation in Japan. According to Jonathan Clements, "Anime is not a 'genre'. It is a medium," and one of the things he emphasises is its sheer diversity. Rooted in Clements's doctoral research, this is the first full-length history of Japanese anime in English. He explores a century's film-making, from the early trick animated films a la George Méliès and the first domestically made cartoons in 1917, through to Japan's first full-length animated feature, Momotarō's Divine Sea Warriors, in 1945 ("the pinnacle of Japanese animation to this date"), and the TV era of now-classic serials such as Astro Boy (1963) by Tezuka Osamu, often regarded as the true creator of anime as a distinct style. Though Clements adds: "Nobody can agree, even today, exactly what 'anime' is." In the digital age anime is still "a major earner at the Japanese box office" (2006 was a boom year with 135,530 minutes of new animation produced). This study is authoritative and detailed, and will be essential reading for anime fans and scholars alike.