The newest edition of the The Anime Encyclopedia definitely earns its title. This thing is exhaustive. That’s no easy feat when it comes to a topic as sprawling - and not to mention foreign - as anime. This is a reference tool that any adventurous animation fan should have on their phone for instant access.

Half the time I’ve spent with the The Anime Encyclopedia has simply been testing to see if it has an article for every animator, series, or movie I throw at it. So far it’s got a perfect record. And I’m talking about some “Oh, it’s pretty obscure; you’ve probably never heard of it” type stuff. I’ve looked up a movie online, found next to nothing about it through Google searches, yet found an entry in The Anime Encyclopedia. A few minutes later and I was either closing the browser tab or clicking the “add to cart” button. And while every entry might not have a long-winded delve into the plot or production process, enough information is always given to help you decide if it’s something you want to hunt down.

And when the articles are fleshed out, they’re professionally written rundowns. Imagine if a professional writer and editor teamed up to rewrite all the anime entries on Wikipedia and made them actually coherent. That’s basically The Anime Encyclopedia. It gets to the point and gives you the compelling facts about the person or project you’re reading about, just like an encyclopedia should.

The Anime Encyclopedia is available as both a hardcover and digital download. Hardcore fans and collectors may want a physical edition for the shelf, but the digital version is extremely useful, and not just for its portable nature. Cross-referenced entries are linked, meaning you can travel pretty far down the rabbit hole or play Five Degrees of Hideaki Anno. If you’re thinking “I want to watch something along the lines of Evangelion.” You might get pointed to Gunbuster. But you’ve already seen that a million times. But have you seen Tytania, both of which feature character designs by Haruhiko Mikimoto? Que the popcorn.

If you’re into current or modern anime exclusively, you might not get a ton of use out of this book. But if you’re interested in exploring the anime of the ‘90s and before, this is the most efficient way of weeding out what you do and don’t want to spend your time hunting down on video and watching. Despite the dissemination of info around just about everything on the Internet, older and obscure anime can still be an opaque subject. With The Anime Encyclopedia, you’ll almost feel like you’re cheating by avoiding all the digging and research. Pick this up and you’ll be happy you can pull it out of your pocket when you find some weird looking anime DVDs at the import shop.

Check out the sample spread below or hit the link to learn more about The Anime Encyclopedia 3rd Revised Edition.