Anime

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

A scene from Cowboy Bebop (1998)

Anime (アニメ) is Japanese animation, sometimes billed in the west under 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 variety of different audiences. Anime is influenced by the drawing style of manga, or Japanese comics.

History

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Astro Boy, star of the long-running science fiction series Astro Boy. (1963-1966)

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 found itself accepted in the mainstream in Japan, and 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 2003, 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.

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. 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 series (Original Video Animation) 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.

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Lum from Urusei Yatsura is one of the most iconic anime characters

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. 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. 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. 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 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 as a result of the tremendous growth of the art form.

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 Japanese animators and audiences do not perceive them as being inherently more or less foreign. Kyoto Seika University associate professor and translator Matt Thorn examines these perceptions as an anthropological issue in The Face of the Other (http://www.matt-thorn.com/mangagaku/faceoftheother.html) essay.

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.

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 most commonly released directly to video. As a general rule OVA anime tends to be of high quality, approaching that of films. Titles tend often have a very regular, continuous plot which is best enjoyed if all episodes are viewed in sequence. Popular OVA titles include Bubblegum Crisis and Tenchi Muyo.

Television series anime is syndicated and broadcast on television on a regular schedule. Television series are generally low quality compared to OVA 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. It is common for subsequent episodes to be completely unrelated to each other (as seen in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex), so viewers can enjoy the show even if an episode is missed. All 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. "Eyecatch" scenes are only found in TV series anime. Opening credits may be found in OVA releases, but that is not a certainty. These features are not found in movies.

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.)

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)
Ecchi (Japanese for 'perverted'. Contains mild sexual humor, example: Love Hina)
Hentai (Japanese for 'sexual perversion'. Pornographic anime, erotica)
- Yaoi (Homo-erotic hentai featuring men, indended for females)
- Yuri (Homo-erotic hentai featuring women)
- Shota (As in 'shotaro complex' - young boys)
- Lolicon (As in 'lolita complex' - young girls)
Josei (Japanese for 'young woman', this is anime or manga that is aimed a young women, and is one of the rarest forms)
Mecha (Anime or manga featuring giant robots, example Neon Genesis Evangelion)
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)
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)
Sentai (Japanese for 'taskforce', refers to any show that involves a superhero team, example Cyborg 009)
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)

Notable names in anime

The following section is devoted to those artists who made an impact through direct contributions to anime as opposed to other artists who were in manga and other fields that had an impact on the development of Japanese animation.

Production of anime

Osamu Tezuka directed the first fictional anime television series Astro Boy and pioneered many conventions of the Japanese style of animation. He is also known for his highly acclaimed work in independent animation. His iconic work Kimba the White Lion may have been an influence on Disney's The Lion King.

Leiji Matsumoto is commonly credited for starting the Golden Age of Anime in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He achieved fame for creating several interconnecting space opera series.

Monkey Punch wrote the original manga of Lupin III in late 60s/early 70s, arguably the first manga and later, anime, with adult theme. The story revolves around the exploits of Lupin the Third, Grandson of the French gentleman thief, Arsene Lupin.

Yoshiyuki Tomino was the principle creator of the various Mobile Suit Gundam series which re-defined the giant robot genre in the 1970s and 1980s.

Hayao Miyazaki has achieved general respect as director and producer of many important anime works such as Kaze no Tani no Naushika (Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind), Majo no Takkyuubin (Kiki's Delivery Service), Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke), Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away), and Hauru no Ugoku Shiro (Howl's Moving Castle). His works typically feature elaborate and painterly background drawings combined with animation that has higher framerates (and budgets) than most anime productions.

Shōji Kawamori is a renowned mecha designer, having received awards even from Japanese industries and companies.

Yoshitaka Amano's flowing artwork has spread widely in the west; as well as being responsible for anime features such as Angel's Egg and Vampire Hunter D, he has produced concept art for Squaresoft, including character designs for the Final Fantasy series of games. He has also collaborated with Neil Gaiman on Sandman: The Dream Hunters.

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Still image of Batou from the movie Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Mamoru Oshii gained notoriety and worldwide popularity through his two Ghost in the Shell movies. He also created Dallos, and was a former member of Headgear involved in creation of the Patlabor series. Considered a "genius" by Stanley Kubrick himself, he has directed a number of anime projects and live action films including Avalon in 2001. His film Innocence: Ghost in the Shell (Inosensu: Kokaku Kidotai) was selected to compete at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

Hideaki Anno, a controversial figure, directed the Neon Genesis Evangelion series and three live-action movies. He also directed the first part of the television adaptation of the manga His and Her Circumstances (Kareshi Kanojo no jijou).

Shinichiro Watanabe is a well-known young director who has overseen such projects as Macross Plus, Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo.

Satoshi Kon, director of Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress, is often seen as the most promising young director of anime.

Shinichi Watanabe, also known as "Nabeshin", directed and appeared in the popular parody anime Excel Saga, and is well-known for his gonzo animation style.

Yoshitoshi ABe is an artist who lent his unique design to progressive works such as Serial Experiments Lain, Haibane Renmei, and Texhnolyze.

Manga artists

The work of prominent manga (Japanese comics) artists often has an impact on anime, even when they are not themselves directly involved in anime.

Shotaro Ishinomori, considered the Steve Ditko of Japan, has created some of Japan's most famous superheroes. He is best known for creating Cyborg 009, the first superpowered hero team, and the manga/tokusatsu action series, Masked Rider, which spawned a popular wave of similar "henshin" superheroes since the 70s (Yoshiki Takaya's Guyver, for example, was said to be inspired by Masked Rider). His style is somewhat similar to that of his mentor, Osamu Tezuka.

Tatsuo Yoshida, one of the first manga artists to employ a "realistic" drawing style with children's comics, has also revolutionized superheroes in Japan. Besides creating manga and anime such as Speed Racer and Judo Boy, he created Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, a "superhero opera". He created other similar masterpieces (Casshan, etc.) before he passed away in 1977.

Go Nagai's contributions to anime and manga compare with Jack Kirby's work in comic books. Nagai pioneered several genres 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 were originally written by Nagai as manga. He has also collaborated with Ishinomori.

Jiro Kuwata has started out as a manga artist at the very young age of 13. Although he started out with a style no different from that of Osamu Tezuka, it wasn't until the 1960s when he developed an exceptional trademark style, one rarely imitated by manga artists. He draws with a pop art comic-book style similar to American artists like Jack Kirby, and uses very sharp lines and angles. He also created superheroes similar to the kind Shotaro Ishinomori would later do, and is best known as the co-creator of the popular manga 8 Man, Japan's earliest cyborg superhero.

Rumiko Takahashi, one of the wealthiest women of Japan, is the mind behind the popular Maison Ikkoku, 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.

Akira Toriyama is the author of the Dragon Ball manga, which was later adapted into the incredibly popular Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z anime series. He is also known for his character design in Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger. His work has also inspired other manga artists in their creations.

CLAMP is a team of four female manga artists whose distinctive work has contributed to the development of the shōjo genre. Their influential output includes Cardcaptor Sakura, Chobits, X/1999, and Magic Knight Rayearth.

Kenichi Sonoda, the creator of Gunsmith Cats, has lent his skills as a character designer to several anime, including Gall Force, Bubblegum Crisis, and Otaku no Video. He was also the production designer on Wings of Honneamise.

Masamune Shirow is the artist behind the original manga of Ghost in the Shell, basis of the renowned film adaptation by Mamoru Oshii.

Ken Akamatsu created Love Hina A romantic comedy where a boy ends up being the manager of an all girls dormitory. Love Hina was voted best manga for the year 2002. Ken is now currently working on his new manga Negima.

Others who have influenced anime

Satoshi Tajiri's game series, Pokémon, inspired the famous anime series of the same name, with over seven seasons on television and eight movies.

Yoko Kanno is a celebrated composer/musician and is well-known in the anime community. She has arranged musical scores for many different anime, working with the most prominent names in the industry, including: Shinichiro Watanabe on Cowboy Bebop; Mamoru Oshii on Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex; and Shōji Kawamori on Macross Plus and Earth Girl Arjuna.

Megumi Hayashibara is a highly-prolific seiyū (voice actress) who has played the roles of a great many important anime characters, including Hello Kitty, Rei Ayanami (Neon Genesis Evangelion), female Ranma (Ranma ½), Faye Valentine (Cowboy Bebop), Lina Inverse (Slayers), Anna Kyōyama (Shaman King), Ky Lime (Saber Marionette J), and others—too many to mention.

Notable works

What follows is a short list of influential anime. Any names cited beside a title refer to the original creators, unless otherwise noted. A more comprehensive list can be found at List of anime.

Lupin III

Groundbreaking anime

Astro Boy (1963), Osamu Tezuka (director and original manga)
Gigantor (1963), Mitsuteru Yokoyama (original manga)
Kimba the White Lion (1965), Osamu Tezuka (original manga)
Speed Racer (1967), Tatsuo Yoshida (director and original manga)
Cyborg 009 (1968), Shotaro Ishinomori (original manga)
Lupin III (1971), Monkey Punch (original manga)
Gatchaman (1972) aka Battle of the Planets, Tatsuo Yoshida (original manga)
Devilman (1972), Go Nagai (original manga)
Future Boy Conan (1978), Hayao Miyazaki (director)

Space opera anime

Space Battleship Yamato (1974) aka Star Blazers, Leiji Matsumoto (director)
Captain Harlock (1978), Rintaro (director), Leiji Matsumoto (original manga)
The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982), Noburo Ishiguro (director)
Gunbuster (1988), Hideaki Anno (director)
Legend of the Galactic Heroes (1988), Noburo Ishiguro (director), Yoshiki Tanaka (original story)
Crest of the Stars (1999), Morioka Hiroyuki (original novels)

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A mecha from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Giant Robot (Mecha) anime

Mazinger Z (1972), Go Nagai (original manga)
Mobile Suit Gundam (1979), Yoshiyuki Tomino (director)
Patlabor (1983), Mamoru Oshii (director), Masami Yuuki (original manga)
Transformers (1984)
Bubblegum Crisis (1987), Kenichi Sonoda (character design)
Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995), Hideaki Anno (director)
RahXephon (2002), Yutaka Izubuchi (creator)

Sci-fi anime

Wings of Honneamise (1987), Hiroyuki Yamaga (director)
Akira (1988), Katsuhiro Otomo (director and original manga)
Ghost in the Shell (1995), Mamoru Oshii (director)
Cowboy Bebop (1998), Shinichiro Watanabe (director)
Trigun (1998), Yasuhiro Nightow (original manga)
FLCL (2000), Kazuya Tsurumaki and others (director)
Metropolis (2001), Rintaro (director), Osamu Tezuka (original manga)

Fantasy anime

Angel's Egg (1985), Mamoru Oshii/Yoshitaka Amano (character design)
Record of the Lodoss War (1990)
Magic Knight Rayearth (1994), CLAMP
The Vision of Escaflowne (1996)
Ah! My Goddess (1991), AIC
Princess Mononoke (1997), Hayao Miyazaki

Horror anime

Blood: The Last Vampire (2000), Mamoru Oshii (story), Hiroyuki Kitakubo (director)
Hellsing (2002), Kohta Hirano

Samurai-era anime

The Hakkenden (1990), Takashi Anno (director) and Yukio Okamoto (director)
Ninja Scroll (1995), Yoshiaki Kawajiri (director)
Rurouni Kenshin (1996), Nobuhiro Watsuki (original manga)
Samurai Deeper Kyo (2002), Akimine Kamijyo (original manga)

Romance anime

The Rose of Versailles (1979), Riyoko Ikeda (original manga)
Maison Ikkoku (1986), Rumiko Takahashi (original manga)
Kimagure Orange Road (1987), Izumi Matsumoto (original manga)
His & Her Circumstances (1998), Masami Tsuda (original manga), Hideaki Anno (director)

Harem anime

Tenchi Muyo! (1991), Masaki Kajishima
Love Hina (2000), Ken Akamatsu (original manga)

Comedy anime

Urusei Yatsura (1981), Rumiko Takahashi (original manga)
Dr. Slump (1981), Akira Toriyama
Excel Saga (1999), Koshi Rikido

Drama anime

Perfect Blue (1997), Satoshi Kon
Revolutionary Girl Utena (1997), Kunihiko Ikuhara (director)
Jin-Roh (1998), Hiroyuki Okiura (director)
Serial Experiments Lain (1998), Chiaki J. Konaka
Boogiepop Phantom (2000), Takashi Watanabe (director)
Millennium Actress (2001), Satoshi Kon (director)

Sports anime

Ashita no Joe (1970), Osamu Dezaki (director)
Touch (1985), Mitsuru Adachi (original manga)
Battle Athletes OVA (1997), Kazuhiro Ozawa (director)
Hikaru no Go (2001), Yumi Hotta (original manga story), Takeshi Obata (original manga artist)
Prince of Tennis (2001), Takeshi Konomi (original manga)

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My Neighbor Totoro

Studio Ghibli anime

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Hayao Miyazaki (director and original manga)
Castle in the Sky (1986), Hayao Miyazaki (director)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Isao Takahata (director)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Hayao Miyazaki (director)
Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Hayao Miyazaki (director)
Princess Mononoke (1997), Hayao Miyazaki (director)
Spirited Away (2001), Hayao Miyazaki (director)
The Cat Returns (2002), Morita Hiroyuki (director)

Shōjo anime

Ribbon No Kishi (1967), Osamu Tezuka
Aim for the Ace! (1973), Sumika Yamamoto
Sailor Moon (1992), Naoko Takeuchi
Cardcaptor Sakura (1998), CLAMP
Fruits Basket (2001), Studio Deen

Shōnen anime

Dragon Ball Series (1986), Akira Toriyama
Ranma ½ (1989), Rumiko Takahashi (original manga)
Yu Yu Hakusho (1990), Yoshihiro Togashi
Yu-Gi-Oh! (1996), Kazuki Takahashi
One Piece (1999), Eiichiro Oda
Naruto (2002), Masashi Kishimoto (original manga)

Doraemon

Kodomo (children's) anime

Panda! Go, Panda! (1972), Isao Takahata
Doraemon (1979), Fujiko F. Fujio
Anpanman (1988), Takashi Yanase
Pokémon (1997), Satoshi Tajiri
Hamtaro (2000), Ritsuko Kawai

Contemporary classics

Bleach (2004), Abe Noriyuki (director)
Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Hayao Miyazaki (director)
Samurai Champloo (2004), Shinichiro Watanabe (director)
Steamboy (2004), Katsuhiro Otomo (director)

Terminology

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A life-size model of a robot from the animation Laputa on top of the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo

The Japanese term for animation is アニメーション (animēshon, pronounced: ), written in katakana. It is a direct transliteration of the English term "animation." The Japanese term is abbreviated as アニメ (anime, pronounced: ). 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 . 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 . For example, "Abé" can be mistaken as a nickname for Abraham without the accent, which wouldn't pronounce the last letter.

Internationally, 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 in Japan to describe all forms of animation regardless of national origin, 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 distibutor 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.

References

Clements, Jonathan and Helen McCarthy. The Anime Encyclopedia. Berkeley, Calif.: Stone Bridge Press, 2001. ISBN 1880656647.
Poitras, Gilles. Anime Companion. Berkeley, Calif.: Stone Bridge Press, 1998. ISBN 1880656329.
Poitras, Gilles. Anime Essentials. Berkeley, Calif.: Stone Bridge Press, 2000. ISBN 1880656531.
Baricordi, Andrea and Pelletier, Claude. Anime: A Guide to Japanese Animation (1958-1988). Montreal, Canada.: Protoculture, 2000. ISBN 2980575909.

External links

Anime Web Turnpike (http://www.anipike.com/)
Anime Lyrics (http://www.animelyrics.com/)
Anime News Network (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/): one of the premiere anime news sources on the net. Also has weekly columns, an extremely extensive encyclopedia of series, companies, and industry professionals, lexicon, forums and a chat room.
Anime on DVD (http://www.animeondvd.com/): a site with extensive reviews of anime DVDs. Their web forums are also frequented by industry professionals.
AniDB (http://www.anidb.net/): database of anime series, files (hashes), fansub groups, DVD rips, etc.
Anime News Service (http://www.animenewsservice.com/): news site dedicated to offering news items, press releases and interviews.
Crystal Acids: English Voice Actor & Production Staff Database (http://www.crystalacids.com/database/): database logging the English production staff who work on anime titles.
Anime Tropes (http://tvwiki.sytes.net/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AnimeTrope): common cliches and visual cues.
Anime-Source (http://www.anime-source.com/): a major anime community. has almost regular previews of DVDs to be released, hosted scanlation of manga and highly active forums.ar:أنيمي

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