I spent almost $300 on a 'definitive' anime guidebook series that was out of date the second it shipped

3 comments

3 Comments

Man, that's rough. I've seen that happen with those big art books too, where they announce a new season after the book goes to print. Did your guide at least cover the classics well, or was it missing major stuff from even a few years ago? What series did you hope it would have?

jade472mo ago

Oh totally, it's like that time I bought a movie guide that came out right before the last Lord of the Rings film, so it just had a weird blank spot. @craig.grace, you're right about the classics though, this one did okay on the old stuff, like the big 90s series everyone knows. But it completely whiffed on some amazing shows from like five years back that are already considered must-watch. I was really hoping to see a section on that one space western that got huge, but nope, not a single page. Makes the whole book feel kinda useless for finding anything new.

the_miles1mo ago

Honestly the bigger issue @craig.grace is that these books create a false canon. They pick what's "important" based on what was big when the writer was 20, so newer stuff gets left out even if it's way better. It's not just being out of date, it's like a time capsule of one person's taste being sold as fact. That's why that space western isn't in there, some editor probably decided it wasn't "real" anime yet. Feels like paying for a snapshot of someone's bias, not a real guide.