1 : Anime
2 : Anime characteristics
3 : Outside Japan
3.1 : Growth in North America
4 : Notable names in Anime
5 : Types of Anime
5.1 : by Target audience
5.2 : Genres
6 : Several Well-Known Japanese Animation Studios
7 : List of non-Japanese Anime Distributors
8 : See also
9 : External links
9.1 : General sites
9.2 : Specific pages/articles
9.3 : Specific anime companies
Category:Anime
The term anime in English refers to Japanese animation. The word appears in written form in three katakana characters a, ni, me (アニメ). Japanese prounciation is /ɑnimɛ/ , but in the United States speakers typically pronounce the word as /ænɪmei/ and in England it is generally pronounced /ænɪmi/.
The English word transliterates a Japanese term. General etymological belief traces it in its turn to an abbreviation of the Japanese transliteration of the English word "animation" (shortened, as many foreign words appear in Japanese). Some anime fans claim the Japanese word comes from the French animé, ("animated"). Most Japanese do not believe this derivation.
Internationally, anime once bore the popular name "Japanimation", but this term has fallen into disuse. Fans preferably pronounced the word as though it abbreviated the phrase "Japan Animation". It saw the most usage during the 1970s and 1980s, which generally comprise the first and second waves of anime fandom. The term survived at least into the early 1990s but seemed to fade away shortly before the mid-1990s anime resurgence.
In general, the term "Japanimation" now only appears in nostalgic contexts (although anime itself has revived the name again quite recently).
Interestingly the term Japanimation is much more common in Japan to describe their own animation, since anime or animeshon is used to describe all forms of animation, Japanimation is meant to distinguish their work from that of the rest of the world.
The voice actors for anime usually bear the Japanese equivalent designation: seiyuu.
Anime characteristics
Anime features a great variety of genres, and a unique artistic style. As with live-action cinema, it spans: adventure, science fiction, children's stories, romance, medieval fantasy, erotica (hentai) and others. Anime has become an expressly commercial art form; producers and marketers aim for very specific audiences, with well-defined categories for shonen (boys) and shoujo (girls) genres, as well as for teenagers and adults.
Critics contend that the name "anime" seems very appropriate, for the cartoons appear "almost animated". Most anime makers shoot their films with 8 frames per second, the minimum number needed to make an object appear to move. (Live-action television uses either 25 or 30 frames per second; movie films 24 frames per second.) Osamu Tezuka adapted and simplified many Disney animation principals to reduce the budget and number of frames. His intent was to use it as a temporary measure to allow him to produce one episode every week with inexperienced animation staff. Anime studios have perfected techniques to draw as little new animation as possible, using scrolling or repeating backgrounds, still shots of characters sliding across the screen, and dialogue which involves only animating the mouths while the rest of the screen remains absolutely still. Some fans argue that the best anime emphasizes sophisticated direction over actual animation (character movement), providing an illusion of motion where none exists. For more information, see Cheats,.
An exception to this rule are big budget films usually from Studio Ghibli. While the animation is still more limited than Disney, its much closer to their normal framerates. A second exception would be the animatrix where the budget was large enough to allow for full animation, this is one of the only examples of truly full animation produced by Japanese animators.
Outside Japan
Traditionally, boys and young men comprise the main audience outside Japan, so most translated anime tends to belong to the shonen style, such as Bubblegum Crisis, ''Tenchi Muyo! and Gundam. However, shoujo anime has had some recent success in the West in the form of Sailor Moon, Card Captor Sakura, and Revolutionary Girl Utena. Anime fans hope that the positive publicity surrounding Hayao Miyazaki's acclaimed film Spirited Away, which won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, may spur further mainstream acceptance of the form.
Growth in North America
In North America public reaction to anime remains mixed, with lingering negative memories of television series like Speed Racer'' combining with sensationalized reports of the more risqué adult entertainment productions. However, anime series have gradually become a staple of cable television such as the Cartoon Network for both their children's and adult programming blocks. Local networks in the United States, such as Fox and the WB, have (dubbed) Japanese series in their Saturday morning children's television blocks. The Action Channel frequently shows anime movies. YTV and Teletoon in Canada also have a few anime programs on their schedules. The Video on Demand service "Anime Network", the first channel in North America wholly dedicated to anime, started operations in late 2002.
Anime has in the last few years become an extremely strong seller on home video, with many major retailers now carrying and displaying anime as a distinct genre. Strong North American sales of anime (such as Spirited Away) have encouraged Disney to make home video releases of other Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli features to which it owns distribution rights.
Print publications focused on the world of anime have also become increasingly popular in the United States, with Newtype USA (the English-language version of the Japanese magazine Newtype) the circulation leader.
Many of the more serious anime, and many of the direct-to-video productions called OVA (Original Video Animation) or OAV (Original Animation Video), originate with an American anime fan audience in mind. In Japan these more mature series lack the popularity of the more child-focussed productions, although in Japan adults also greatly appreciate these seemingly child-oriented series.
Of late, anime has become so popular in North America (specifically, the United States) that some cartoon shows are now imitating the style of drawing in what is known as amerime.
Anime conventions form an important focus for the anime fan base. Often annual, these conventions allow fans of anime to come together and socialize on a large scale. Many conventions invite guests from overseas. Some of the longer-established and larger conventions include:
Notable names in Anime
- Hayao Miyazaki has achieved general respect as director/producer of many important anime works such as Kaze no Tani no Naushika'' (Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind), ''Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro), Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke), Laputa: The Castle in the Sky and Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi'' (Spirited Away). He also worked on other famous early anime like ''Lupin III and early World Masterpiece Theater television shows (with his long time friend Isao Takahata). His works typically feature elaborate and painterly background drawings combined with animation that has higher framerates (and budgets) than most anime.
- Go Nagai's contributions to anime/manga compare with Jack Kirby's work in comic books. Nagai pioneered several genres of anime/manga, and for years many producers imitated his style. His action-packed science fiction series featured among the first anime widely broadcast in the United States (under the American titles ''Force Five and Tranzor Z). Most of these works Nagai originally wrote as manga prior to their later adaptation into anime.
- Shinichi Watanabe, also known as "Nabeshin," who directed and appeared in the popular parody anime Excel Saga, well-known for both his gonzo animation style and his large afro hairdo.
- Rumiko Takahashi, one of the wealthiest women of Japan, is the mind behind the popular Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura and InuYasha'' manga. These titles were brought into anime to enjoy even more success. Nearly all of her series are long-running, spanning many volumes and episodes upon television adaption.
Types of Anime
by Target audience
Genres
(lolicon/Shota/yaoi/yuri are also used to talk about pornographic material)
Several Well-Known Japanese Animation Studios
List of non-Japanese Anime Distributors
See also
External links
General sites
- ANI-DB
- Anime: searchable database of anime titles
- Anime
- Anime: searchable archive of anime lyrics
- Anime: reviews of anime DVD discs, web forums, online chat, articles.
- Anime: articles, encyclopedia/lexcion, forums and chat
- Anime: anime reviews and articles
- AnimeNfo: anime and manga reviews
- Animerica
- Animetric.com: reviews of anime, manga and bishoujo games; shopping guide and forum.
- Anime: comprehensive link collection, articles, forums and chat.
- Newtype
- EX:: news, reviews, columns, and shopping guide.
- TechTV: a lot of noise but some good posts
Specific pages/articles
- What by Eri Izawa: some of whose essays appeared on EX
- Grand: list of anime that's recently been licensed by U.S. commercial anime companies.
Specific anime companies
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