English-language anime and manga studies emerged in the late 1990s and 2000s and has produced a small but consolidated set of scholarly references. This page collects short profiles of the most-cited figures: Susan Napier, Thomas Lamarre, Marc Steinberg, Patrick W. Galbraith, Anne Allison, and Frederik L. Schodt.
Susan Napier
Susan Napier is professor of the Japanese Program at Tufts University. Her Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke (2001, revised 2005) was the first English-language academic monograph on anime as a subject. Subsequent books include From Impressionism to Anime (2007) and Miyazakiworld (2018), a critical study of Hayao Miyazaki.
Thomas Lamarre
Thomas Lamarre is a professor at the University of Chicago whose The Anime Machine: A Media Theory of Animation (2009) is the central monograph on the formal-mechanical specificity of anime. Lamarre's analysis attends to the multi-plane camera, layout, and the production economy of limited animation as forces that shape anime's visual register.
Marc Steinberg
Marc Steinberg is a professor at Concordia University. His Anime's Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan (2012) is the standard reference on the media-mix model — the cross-media franchising practice that connects anime, manga, toys, and games — and traces the practice to the 1960s licensing of Astro Boy.
Patrick W. Galbraith
Patrick W. Galbraith is a researcher whose writing focuses on otaku culture, doujin scenes, and the categories that organise affective response in Japanese popular media. His Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan (Duke University Press, 2019) examines the social and political contexts of otaku identity in contemporary Japan.
Anne Allison
Anne Allison is a professor at Duke University whose Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination (2006) examined the international transmission of Japanese popular culture through the lens of toy and merchandise franchises (Pokémon, Hello Kitty).
Frederik L. Schodt
Frederik L. Schodt's Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics (Kodansha International, 1983) was the first substantial English-language survey of manga as a medium. His subsequent books include Dreamland Japan (1996) and The Astro Boy Essays (2007). Schodt also worked extensively as a Japanese-English translator and is among the founding figures of English-language manga commentary.