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The term anime in English refers to Japanese animation, often characterized by stylized colorful graphics depicting vibrant characters in fantastic or futuristic action-filled plots.
The word anime appears in written form in three katakana characters a, ni, me (アニメ). Japanese pronunciation is /ɑnimɛ/, but in the United States speakers typically pronounce the word as /ˈænɪˌmei/ and in England it is generally pronounced /ænɪmi/.
The English word transliterates a Japanese term. The etymology is generally traced to an abbreviation of the Japanese transliteration of the English word "animation" (shortened, as many foreign words appear in Japanese). Some non-Japanese anime fans claim the Japanese word comes from the French animé, ("animated").
Internationally, anime once bore the popular name "Japanimation", but this term has fallen into disuse. Fans tended to pronounce the word as though it abbreviated the phrase "Japan Animation". 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 "Japanimation" now only appears in nostalgic contexts (although anime itself has revived the name quite recently).
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.
The voice actors for anime usually bear the Japanese equivalent designation: seiyuu.
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 shojo (girls) genres, as well as for teenagers and adults.
While there are many different types of anime and many, if not most, titles do have an obvious and distinct theme or target audience, most anime does tend to include 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. Likewise, many romance themed anime may involve a strong action element as well.
Osamu Tezuka adapted and simplified many Disney animation precepts 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, a technique not wholly unfamiliar to Western animation. Some fans argue that the best anime emphasizes sophisticated direction over actual animation (character movement), providing an illusion of motion where none exists. 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. For more information, see .
In addition there are scenes oftentimes where the frame rate of the animation far exceeds the norm of the rest of the work. These are commonly called "money shots" where more effort is put into the animation of one scene to give it emphasis over the rest of the work. Animator Yasou Otsuka was the pioneer of this technique.
Exceptions to these rules are big budget films usually from Studio Ghibli. These movies have much higher production values, due to their success at the box office. Also some animators in Japan can overcome production values by using different techniques than Disney or the old Tezuka/Otsuka norms of anime. Directors such as Koji Morimoto's Eternal Family in particular) use Squash and stretch an animation technique not used by Japanese animators often to save money, Tanaka makes other shortcuts to compensate for this. Some higher-budgeted TV and OA series such as Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex also forego shortcuts found in most other animes. The 2003 version of Astro Boy, despite being a Tezuka creation, was also very well animated as Sony claims to have spent three times as much per episode compared to other series.
In short anime tends to be dominated by a school on animation thought that emphasies 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 than those that follow a general normal style of animation.
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, shojo anime has had some recent success in the West in the form of Sailor Moon, Card Captor Sakura, and Revolutionary Girl Utena. The recent success of anime in mainstream film awards, such as Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away winning the 2002 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and the featuring of Innocence: Ghost in the Shell at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, have helped spur mainstream and critical acceptance.
In Europe, public interest in anime is growing rapidly. Television companies all around Europe are embracing anime, providing mostly old series. Dragon Ball, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ranma ½ and Sailor Moon are popular series. Anime and manga conventions are celebrated all around Europe, with an increasing rate of attendance.
Individual anime shows have been shown in America since the 1960s? Alakazam the Great, but with no more popularity than normal cartoon shows in the US. Anime as a genre was only recognized in America as early as the 1990?s. In a recent issue of ?Animation World Magazine?, Fred Patten explains that anime began with a cult following, available only through mail order video and comic book stores. Then, in 1994, the SciFi channel began showing mature-themed animated movies from Japan. These were classics, such as Akira and Vampire Hunter D, that had done well in Japanese box offices. Soon anime series directed at pre-teens were being shown alongside American cartoons in the Saturday morning line up. Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, and Transformers were among them.
The release of the first Pokémon (anime) movie in the United States made $10.1 million in ticket sales on its first day, setting a new record for a Japanese production being shown in the United States. This marked the beginning of a spurt of growth in anime's popularity in the America. Since then, anime TV series and movies have begun to creep slowly onto the American screen, and have slowly been welcomed, especially by television networks and production companies, for several financial reasons: First, the average number of episodes made for U.S. or European animated series is 26, while Japanese companies tend to make 52 to 150 episodes. An American company can simply purchase rights to the series and only has to re-dub the voices, rather than animate the whole thing themselves. This cuts production costs down to less than a quarter of what it would take to make the cartoon from scratch. This is also highly attractive to newly formed networks, just starting out, who don?t have much money to spend. Another high point for investors was anime?s marketability. In Japan, nearly every show has hundreds of other goods that go along with it. Endless amounts of candy, key chains, and plush toys, among other things proclaim a fan's love of a particular show or character.
While American consumers aren?t as big on plushies or candy, its obvious they aren?t immune to the other onslaughts of goods American marketing has brought over. The ever-popular kid?s TV series Pokemon (short for Pocket Monster) has spun off more than a billion dollars in merchandise, in the US alone. Six video games, a comic book series, McDonalds toys, several soundtracks, 4 theatrical release movies, and a card game (with some cards valued enough to be sold at $100 each) are only the most prominent of the money-making goods. And with more than 300 ?monsters? on the show, and the show?s slogan ?Gotta catch em all? plastered on every package, there?s no end to the market for action figures and character collectibles.
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 and later spun-off into a 24/7 cable format in mid-2004.
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.
Manga is also appearing quickly as more and more companies start releasing their own lines. Among the most popular companies are Viz and Tokyopop.
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 even 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:
Most anime can be categorized as one of three types:
It should be noted that the only one of these terms in common use is "shoujo". Most anime is assumed to be "shounen", so it usually goes without saying that a given title is "shounen". While seinen and josei anime do exist, anime that fall specifically and exclusively into those genres is rare.
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