Anime: A Critical Introduction maps the genres that have thrived within Japanese animationculture, and shows how a wide range of commentators have made sense of anime throughdiscussions of its generic landscape. From the battling robots that define the mecha genrethrough to Studio Ghibli's dominant genre-brand of plucky shojo (young girl) characters, thisbook charts the rise of anime as a globally significant category of animation. It further thinksthrough the differences between anime's local and global genres: from the less-consideredniches like nichijo-kei (everyday style anime) through to the global popularity of sciencefiction anime, this book tackles the tensions between the markets and audiences for animetexts.Anime is consequently understood in this book as a complex cultural phenomenon: not simplya genre, but as an always shifting and changing set of texts. Its inherent changeability makesanime an ideal contender for global dissemination, as it can be easily re-edited, translated andthen newly understood as it moves through the world's animation markets. As such, Anime: ACritical Introduction explores anime through a range of debates that have emerged around itskey film texts, through discussions of animation and violence, through debates about thecyborg and through the differences between local and global understandings of animeproducts. Anime: A Critical Introduction uses these debates to frame a different kind ofunderstanding of anime, one rooted in contexts, rather than just texts. In this way, Anime: ACritical Introduction works to create a space in which we can rethink the meanings of animeas it travels around the world.