Anime

   

Still from the movie Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Enlarge
Still from the movie Ghost in the Shell (1995)
This article is about Japanese animation. For the oleo-resin, see Animé.

Anime (アニメ) is Japanese animation, often characterized by stylized colorful graphics depicting vibrant characters in a variety of different settings and storylines, aimed at a variety of different audiences.

Terminology

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 /ˈćnɪˌmei/ and in England it is generally pronounced /ćnɪmi/.

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 fans claim the word comes from the French animé ("animated"). Occasionally in English the word is seen written as animé, with an acute accent on the final e to let one know that it is pronounced, but this follows no standard transliteration scheme for Japanese.

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 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, seiyū.

Characteristics

Astro Boy, star of the long-running science fiction series Astro Boy.
Enlarge
Astro Boy, star of the long-running science fiction series Astro Boy.

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 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.

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 Cheats, Cliches, Cartoons, Anime... (http://robkelk.ottawa-anime.org/hoffmann-faqs/cheatsandcliches.html).)

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", 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, often from 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 using 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 OA series also forego shortcuts found in most other anime. 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 of 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.

For long there has been anime in the US and Europe. People usually refer to anime as the dubbed versions of these series, which are no longer available on mainstream television nowadays. One reason for the dominance of anime in the US and Europe is the editing in most or some of the scenes. While the Japanese versions are offered as they are, the US versions are somewhat edited, with changes to the scenes and dialog. Probably this also explains its inavailability in mainstream television. Furthermore the inclusion of anime on DVD offers a great way to enjoy these anime series again and again, all with crystal clear digital picture and sound. And with the complete collections anime fans won't settle for less than the best!

Anime in the US and Europe has improved vastly over Japan possibly because of the dialog and scene editing as explained before or maybe because of other reasons but the main reason for its improvements is that the creators have continued to create new and original things(creative). For example, most scenes are different from those previously seen. To the right is an image of the famous film Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki. That film could've been different 5 or 6 years ago than the japanese version.

With the advent of anime on DVD, US anime fans can enjoy their favourite series over and over again, without fear of being interrupted.

Notable names in anime

The following section is devoted to those artist 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

Scene from Cowboy Bebop (1998)
Enlarge
Scene from Cowboy Bebop (1998)
  • Shōji Kawamori is a renowned mecha designer, having received awards even from Japanese industries and companies.
  • 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.

Manga artists

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

  • 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 Chrono Trigger. His work has also inspired other manga artists in their creations.
  • 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 mana.
  • Rumiko Takahashi, one of the wealthiest women of Japan, is the mind behind the popular Ranma ˝, 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.


Others who have influenced anime

  • Satoshi Tajiri's game series, Pokémon, inspired the famous anime series of the same name, with over six seasons on television and seven movies. Pokémon has also spawned an entire genre of imitators to cash in on the success of the series.
  • Yoko Kanno is a celebrated musician and is known well in the anime community. She has done many soundtracks, but is best known for her work with Cowboy Bebop

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 budget 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.
  • OVA (Original Video Animation; sometimes OAV, or Original Animated Video) anime is often similar to a television miniseries. OVAs can have from two to twenty episodes; 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, so viewers can enjoy the show even if an episode is missed. All TV series anime epsiodes will have opening credits, closing credits, and often an "eyecatch", a very short scene, often humourous 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, two television series, and well as several spinoff titles and specials.

By target audience

Shoujo anime is intended for girls. Most anime is assumed to be shounen, intended for boys, so it is usually not necessary to label it. While seinen (intended for men) and josei (intended for women) anime does exist, anime that fall specifically and exclusively into those genres is rare. The only one of these terms in common use is shoujo.


Genres

The following are genres and designations that are specific to anime and manga. (For other possible genres, see list of movie genres.)

Several well-known Japanese animation studios

List of non-Japanese anime distributors

See also

External links

  • AnimeNfo.Com (http://www.animenfo.com/) Database of Anime series and manga
  • AniDB (http://www.anidb.net) Database of Anime series, files (hashes), fansub groups, dvdrips, etc.
  • a.scarywater.net Anime Bittorrent tracker that hosts most of the major fansub group's latest releases. Only hosts unlicensed anime.
  • Crystal Acids: English Voice Actor & Production Staff Database (http://www.crystalacids.com/database/): database logging the English production staffs who work on anime titles
  • Anime on DVD.com (http://www.animeondvd.com/): reviews of anime DVD discs, web forums, online chat, articles.
  • Anime News Network (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/): articles, encyclopedia/lexicon, forums and chat
  • Newtype USA (http://www.newtype-usa.com)
  • Anipages Daily (http://www.pelleas.net/aniTOP/) A comprehensive blog/site that focuses on the production aspects of anime over the fannish aspects.
  • Noated (http://noated.net) Anime and Manga Community Site.



ar:انيمي ca:Anime de:Anime el:Anime es:Anime eo:Animeo fr:Anime ko:재패니메이션 it:Anime nl:Anime ja:アニメ no:Anime pl:Anime pt:Anime ru:Аниме

fi:Anime sv:Anime th:อะนิเมะ zh:日本动画

Retrieved from "http://www.mywiseowl.com/articles/Anime"

This page has been accessed 5955 times. This page was last modified 22:00, 23 Nov 2004. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights for details).