I forgot about printed sources when writing the previous post.
If you are interested in anime movies and OVAs from 1983-1995 then “The Anime Movie Guide” by Helen McCarthy (Titan,1996) is just what you need. There’s also “500 Essential Anime Movies – The Ultimate Guide” by Helen McCarthy [2008] (not seen).
The Anime Encyclopedia by Clements & McCarthy is a larger work (pub.2001, 550pp) which claims to cover Japanese animation since 1917. Hovever its coverage of prewar anime is slight; of the first 30 titles in the AniDB list, it namechecks six and gives detail on none. It does review the famous propoganda movie “Momotaro’s Divine Sea Warriors” (1945) and its 1943 prequel, but almost all other reviews are post-1960. There’s a later edition (2006, 896pp) (not seen) which reportedly has “added quite a bit of material on prewar and wartime anime.”
Have you looked at the second (2006) edition? We added quite a bit of material on prewar and wartime anime.