Click the image to view a early edition anime note obtained by Anime Maru
The popular student resource CliffsNotes, a longtime resource used by students to bluff book reports and literature exams, has announced that they will launch a new guide to popular anime. Every week, the site will publish or update a one-page summary of a popular and currently airing show. The guide will include major plot synopsis, an explanation of crucial memes, generally accepted opinions on best girl, and a standard hot take.
According to the product description, this material gives the subscriber “sufficient information to discuss the anime with friends and online.”
“Our new product is especially targeted at busy students, who may not have time to balance studying with watching anime,” Houghton Mifflin Harcourt product director Steven McWaney told Anime Maru. “These new anime guides has enough detail for someone to fully bluff that they are watching a show, without having to spend time watching any anime.”
“I wonder how no one else has ever thought about reading anime instead of watching it.”
Citing licensing costs, company officials noted that unlike the rest of the services on CliffsNotes, anime notes will not be free. While the cost has not been announced, one source estimated it will cost around as much as a Crunchyroll subscription.