Anime

: This article is about Japanese animation. For the oleo-resin, see Animé (oleo-resin).

Anime (アニメ) is Japanese Animation, sometimes referred to by the Portmanteau Japanimation. It is often characterized by stylized colorful images depicting vibrant characters in a variety of different settings and storylines, aimed at a wide range of audiences. Anime is usually influenced by Japanese Comics known as Manga.

Terminology

The Japanese term for animation is アニメーション (animēshon, pronounced: /ɑnimɛːʃɔn/), written in Katakana. It is a direct transliteration of the English term "animation." The Japanese term is abbreviated as アニメ (anime, pronounced: /ɑnimɛ/ ). Both the original and abbreviated forms are valid and interchangeable in Japanese. The term is a broad one, and does not specify an animation's nation of origin or style.

In turn, the English word anime is a Transliteration of the abbreviated version of this Japanese term, and it is typically pronounced as /ˈænɪˌmei/. Some non-Japanese speakers theorize the word comes from the French animé ("animated") or "les dessins animés" (animated drawings), though the Japanese themselves deny this theory, and the fact that it is written in Japanese syllables as アニメ (anime) rather than アニメー (animei) further lowers its credibility. As with a few other Japanese words such as Pokémon and Kobo Abé, anime is sometimes spelled as animé in English with an Acute accent over the final e to cue the reader that the letter is pronounced as [e]. For example, "Abe" can be mistaken as a nickname for Abraham, in which the e is silent.

Anime once bore the popular name Japanimation, but this term has fallen into disuse. It saw the most usage during the 1970s and 1980s, which broadly 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 now only appears in nostalgic contexts. The term Japanimation is much more commonly used in Japan to refer to domestic animation. Since anime or animeshon is used to describe all forms of animation, Japanimation is meant to distinguish Japanese work from that of the rest of the world.

In more recent years, anime has also frequently been referred to as Manga in Europe, a practice that may stem from the Japanese usage. In Japan, manga refers to both animation and comics. Among English speakers, manga usually has the stricter meaning of "Japanese comics". An alternate explanation is that it is due to the prominence of Manga Entertainment, a distributor of anime to the US and UK markets. This term is much more common in Europe since Manga Entertainment started out in the UK.

The voice actors for anime usually bear the Japanese equivalent designation, seiyū.

History

: Main article: History of anime

Though filmmakers in Japan had been experimenting with animation beforehand, the first widely popular anime series was Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy in 1963. During the 1970s, anime developed further, separating itself from its Western roots, and developing unique genres such as giant robots (popularly known among English-speaking fans as Mecha). Notable shows in this period include Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, Lupin III and Mazinger Z.

In the 1980s, anime experienced a boom in production. The start of the Gundam franchise and the beginnings of Rumiko Takahashi's career have their roots here. Akira set records in 1988 for the production costs of an anime.

The 1990s and 2000s saw the increased acceptance of anime in overseas markets. Cowboy Bebop was widely popular in Japan and attracted attention in the West. Spirited Away shared the first prize at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2002, and Innocence: Ghost in the Shell was featured at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

Characteristics

Anime features a wide variety of genres and unique artistic styles which varies from artist to artist. It can have as many genres as Live action cinema, including adventure, Science fiction, children's stories, romance, medieval Fantasy, Erotica (Hentai), occult/horror, action. Most anime includes a variety of thematic elements. For example, it is not uncommon for strongly action-themed anime to involve humor, romance, and even poignant Social commentary, and romance-themed anime may involve a strong action element.

It should be noted that typically the drawing style used in anime is counter productive to the animation process, having far too many details and subsequently making it difficult to keep the number of drawings comparable to other cartoons with design ethics that stress simplicity. This may be due to a philosophy of pouring more effort into a each of a few drawings than less effort into one of many.

Anime is often an explicitly commercial art form; producers and marketers aim for very specific audiences, with focused categories for shōnen (boys) and shōjo (girls) genres, as well as for teenagers and adults.

Osamu Tezuka adapted and simplified many Disney animation precepts to reduce the budget and number of frames, though it should be noted that Disney films are not anime. This was intended to be a temporary measure to allow him to produce one episode every week with inexperienced animation staff. Anime studios have since 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, a technique not wholly unfamiliar to Western animation. The overall effect of these techniques-reduced Frame rate, many still shots, scrolling backgrounds-has led some critics to accuse anime of choppiness or poor quality in general. (See also Limited animation.)

However, there are often scenes where the frame rate of the animation far exceeds the norm of the rest of the work. These are commonly called "money shots" outside Japan, where more effort is put into the animation of one scene to give it emphasis over the rest of the work. Animator Yasuo Otsuka was the pioneer of this technique.

Exceptions to these rules are early classic films, such as those produced by Toei Animation up to the mid 1960s, and recent big budget films, such as those produced by the enormously successful Studio Ghibli. These movies have much higher production values, due to their anticipated success at the box office. Some animators in Japan can overcome production values by utilizing different techniques than Disney or the old Tezuka/Otsuka norms of anime. Directors such as Hiroyuki Imaishi (RE: Cutey Honey, Dead Leaves) simplify backgrounds so that more attention can be paid to character animation. Other animators like Tatsuyuki Tanaka (in Koji Morimoto's Eternal Family in particular) use Squash and stretch, an animation technique not often used by Japanese animators; Tanaka makes other shortcuts to compensate for this. Some higher-budgeted television and OVA (Original Video Animation) series also forego shortcuts found in most other anime.

In short, anime tends to be dominated by a school of animation thought that emphasizes direction over character motion as means to save money. Other schools of thought in animation do exist in Japan but these works are less common.

Anime has been available in the North America and Europe for some time. Anime releases there are usually dubbed into the language of the country in which they are released. Anime series are also sometimes edited by Western distributors to remove what they feel local audiences would consider to be objectionable content. This is especially true with series that are marketed to children, such as the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime (Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in Japan) produced by Nihon Ad Systems and Pokémon (both dubbed by 4kids). (The western versions of these have, in the opinions of some, been edited to be less worthy of the anime genre designation.) In other cases, editing is done to change content to make it easier for Western viewers to understand. Some anime enthusiasts object to one or both forms of editing. Those viewers often watch anime titles in DVD format, because DVD releases are typically unedited and often include both the dubbed audio and the original Japanese audio with subtitles. Another advantage of DVD releases is that there are no commercials, unlike in Television releases. Although it is a violation of Copyright laws in most countries, some fans also watch fansubs, recordings of anime series that have been subtitled by fans. Watching subtitled Japanese versions is usually seen as the "right" way to watch anime by enthusiasts. The ethical implications of producing, distributing, or watching fansubs is a topic of much controversy (See Fansub for further discussion of those ethical issues).

Mainstream anime is often very stylized. Because of this stylization certain features or concepts have become so common that they have been given names of their own. Often in comedic anime, characters that are shocked or surprised will perform a "face fault", in which they take an extremely exaggerated expression. Angry characters may exhibit a "vein" or "stressmark" effect, where four lines representing stylized bulging veins will appear on their forehead. Angry women will sometimes summon a mallet from nowhere and strike someone with it, leading to the concept of Hammerspace. Male characters will develop an inexplicable bloody nose around their female love interests (typically to indicate arousal). Embarrassed characters will invariably produce a massive sweat-drop, which has become something of a stereotype of anime.

More auteuristic schools of anime don't use such shorthands or find different but similar ways to express the same thing. FLCL (pronounced "Furi Kuri" and sometimes called "Fooly Cooly") is known for more wild exaggerated stylized emotions than in most mainstream works. In contrast an Isao Takahata film like Only Yesterday takes a much more realistic approach emphasizing realism over stylization.

Another unique aspect of anime not found in other commercial animation markets is the lack of a directoral system. In most animation produced around the world animators are all forced to conform to a set style by the director or animation director. In Japan starting with the animation director Yoshinori Kanada (as a means to save time and money) each animator brings his/her own style to the work. The most extreme examples of this can be found in Mindgame or The Hakkenden. The Hakkenden is particularly extreme showing constantly shifting styles of animation based upon the key animator that worked on that particular episode. This approach combined with Otsuka's "money shots" make key animators important individuals in the style and production of an anime film.

Many non-Japanese cartoons are starting to incorporate mainstream anime shortcuts and symbols to appeal to anime's tremendously growing fanbase and cut costs.

The "large eyes" style

Large, saucer-like eyes are a striking and common feature of anime characters. This is mainly due to the influence of Osamu Tezuka, who was inspired by the exaggerated features of Western cartoon characters such as Betty Boop and Mickey Mouse and from Disney's Bambi. Tezuka found that large eyes allowed his characters to better express their emotions. Some Western audiences have interpreted such stylized eyes as more Caucasian, but cultural anthropologist Matt Thorn argues that Japanese animators and audiences do not perceive them as inherently more or less foreign.

When he began drawing Ribbon no Kishi, the first manga specifically targeted at young girls, Tezuka further exaggerated the size of the characters' eyes. Indeed, through Ribbon no Kishi, Tezuka set a stylistic template that later shōjo artists tended to follow.

Types of anime

Production types

Most anime can be categorized as one of three types:

Films, which are generally released in theaters, represent the highest budgets and generally the highest video quality. Popular anime movies include Akira, and Spirited Away. Some anime films are only released at film or animation festivals and are shorter and sometimes lower in production values. Some examples of these are Winter Days, and Osamu Tezuka's Legend of the Forest. Other types of films include compilation movies, which are television episodes edited together and presented in theaters for various reasons, and are hence a concentrated form of a television Serial. These may, however, be longer than the average movie. There are also theatrical shorts derived from existing televisions series and billed in Japanese theaters together to form feature-length showing.

Television series anime is syndicated and broadcast on television on a regular schedule. Television series are generally low quality compared to OVA (Original Video Animation) and film titles, because the production budget is spread out over many episodes rather than a single film or a short series. Most episodes are about 23 minutes in length, to fill a typical thirty-minute time slot with added commercials. One full season is 26 episodes, and many titles run half seasons, or 13 episodes. Most TV series anime episodes will have Opening credits, Closing credits, and often an "Eyecatch", a very short scene, often humorous or silly, that is used to signal the start or end of the commercial break (as "bumpers" in the United States are used in a similar fashion). "Eyecatch" scenes are often found in TV series anime and are generally similar throughout the series.

OVA (Original Video Animation; sometimes OAV, or Original Animated Video) anime is often similar to a television Miniseries. OVAs are typically two to twenty episodes in length; one-shots are particularly short, usually less than film-length. They are most commonly released directly to video. As a general rule OVA anime tends to be of high quality, approaching that of films. Titles often have a very regular, continuous plot best enjoyed if all episodes are viewed in sequence. Popular OVA titles include FLCL, Bubblegum Crisis, and Tenchi Muyo!. Opening credits, closing credits, and eyecatches may sometimes be found in OVA releases, but not universally.

It is very common for one title to spawn several different releases. A title that starts as a popular television series might then have a movie produced at a later date. A good example is Tenchi Muyo!-originally an OVA, Tenchi Muyo! spawned three movies, three television series, and several spinoff titles and specials.

Genres

The following are genres and designations that are specific to anime and manga. (For other possible genres, see list of movie genres.) Many anime shows feature a large mix of genres, making distinguishing and categorizing difficult. For instance, a show might have a seemingly simple surface plot, but at the same time feature far more complex storyline and character development. Take for example the television series Neon Genesis Evangelion. Some people place this under the category of mecha because it features mecha-like constructs. But at the same time the focus on the Evas - the "mechas" in the show, though they are really biological living beings - is relatively minor compared to the exploration of the main characters' thought processes and personal circumstances. Thus it could also be classified as progressive, as a more philosophical/literary anime. Even then, it contains some amounts of Fan service of the prominent female protagonists, Ayanami Rei and Asuka Langley Soryu, and a few romance and comedic sections (as is often the case of Hideaki Anno's works) and thus could be "classified" under any of those genres as well.

Bishōjo: Japanese for 'beautiful girl', blanket term that can be used to describe any anime that features pretty girls.
Bishōnen: Japanese for 'beautiful boy' blanket term that can be used to describe any anime that features "pretty" and elegant boys and men, example: Fushigi Yugi
Ecchi: Japanese for 'indecent sexuality'. Contains mild sexual humor, example: Love Hina
Hentai: Japanese for 'abnormal' or 'perverted'. Pornographic anime, Erotica. Sometimes referred to as "seinen" (成年; adult).
- Yaoi: Homo-erotic hentai featuring men, intended for females.
- Yuri: Homo-erotic hentai featuring women.
- Shotacon: As in 'shotaro complex' - erotic anime featuring young boys.
- Lolicon: As in 'lolita complex' - erotic anime featuring young girls.
Josei: Japanese for 'young woman', this is anime or manga that is aimed at young women, and is one of the rarest forms.
Kodomo: Japanese for 'child', this is anime or manga that is aimed at young children, example Doraemon.
Mecha: Anime or manga featuring giant robots, example the various Gundam series.
Moé: Anime or manga featuring characters that are extremely perky or cute.
Progressive: "Art films" or extremely stylized anime, example Voices of a Distant Star.
Seinen: Anime or manga targeted at young adults, example Ghost in the Shell.
Sentai/Super Sentai: Literally "fighting team" in Japanese, refers to any show that involves a superhero team (e.g. Cyborg 009).
Shōjo: Japanese for 'young lady' or 'little girl', refers to anime or manga targeted at girls, example Cardcaptor Sakura.
- Mahō Shōjo: Subgenre of Shoujo known for 'Magical Girl' stories, example Sailor Moon.
Shōjo-ai: Japanese for 'girl-love', refers to anime or manga that focus on love and romance between female characters, example Revolutionary Girl Utena.
Shōnen: Japanese for 'boys', refers to anime or manga targeted at boys, example Dragon Ball Z.
Shōnen-ai: Japanese for 'boy-love', refers to anime or manga that focus on love and romance between male characters, example Gravitation. However it is no longer used in Japan as it refers to pedophilia in their culture. The term Boys Love or BL is now used to refer to this genre.