Watching Anime, Reading Manga: 25 Years of Essays and Reviews

by Fred Patten, Carl Macek (Foreword)

Anime’s influence can be found in every corner of American media, from film and television to games and graphic arts. And Fred Patten is largely responsible. He was reading manga and watching anime before most of the current generation of fans was born. In fact, it was his active participation in fan clubs and his prolific magazine writing that helped create a market and build American anime fandom into the vibrant community it is today. Watching Anime, Reading Manga gathers together a quarter-century of Patten’s lucid observations on the business of anime , fandom, artists, Japanese society and the most influential titles. Illustrated with original fanzine covers and archival photos. Foreword by Carl Macek ( Robotech ). Fred Patten lives in Los Angeles. " Watching Anime, Reading Manga is a worthwhile addition to your library; it makes good bathroom browsing, cover-to-cover reading, and a worthwhile reference for writing or researching anime and manga, not to mention a window into the history of fandom in the United States." -- SF Site  

Genres: Manga, Nonfiction, Anime, History, Essays, Comics

360 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2004

About the author

Fred Patten was an American writer and historian known for his work in the science fiction, fantasy, anime, manga, and furry fandoms through both print and online books, magazines, and other media.

Reviews

[Eskil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was quite impressed by the level of research Patten did in the pre-internet era, and I've got a lot of insight into the early years of anime fandom, at least in the United States. I'd love an equivalent book about the European countries...

[Rindis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fred Patten has been in SF fandom since the 1960s, and was there at the starts of current anime and furry fandom. I barely know Fred (several of my friends know him much better however), but he has been an influence in many of the circles I have been in.

And during that time he wrote a large number of articles for various venues, with sixty-three of them on various anime-related subjects collected here. In a way, it is a sort of retrospective of his work, as he suffered a stroke not too long after this volume was produced.

Because it is different articles on similar subjects written for different magazines, many articles repeat each other in part. Fred has also included commentary on many of them, pointing out errors in the original texts and where most of them stemmed from.

Fred's style is fairly straightforward (a plus in criticism to me), but he can certainly write and he presents some good analyses of various titles (in fact, I would like to see more of those).

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always fear that Fred Patten will be forgotten as western fandom moves more toward the digitally inclined. However, I was glad when this item was first released, because it established something permanent: once upon a time there was such a thing as become a master of your hobby by merely engaging your hobby to the fullest; no flame wars, no illegal downloads, no over-the-top marketing schemes, just a guy and his hobby.

[fee · Rating 3 out of 5]

not as helpful as one would think