| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
| Contents | ||
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.
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, seiyuSeiyu (, also known as Seiyuu or simply Seiyu is a Japanese term that roughly equates to a voice actor/actress for both radio and television. On television, they are mostly used in anime and commercial advertisements, and are somewhat more famous than voi.
Astro Boy, star of the long-running science fictionScience fiction generally speaking, is a form of speculative fiction which deals principally with the impact of imagined science and/or technology upon society or individuals. There are, perhaps, exceptions to (or at least, some very unusual examples of) series Astro BoyAstro Boy is the American title for the Japanese animated series Tetsuwan Atom , which roughly translates to "Mighty Atom" literally " Iron-arm Atom" first broadcast on Japanese television from 1963 to 1966. Astro Boy is the first Japanese televison serie.
Anime features a wide variety of genreThe term genre refers to the traditional divisions of art forms from a single field of activity into various kinds according to criteria particular to that form. Genre" is originally a French word meaning "kind", "sort" or "type"; in grammatical terminolos and unique artistic styles which varies from artist to artist. It can have as many genres as live action cinema, including adventureAdventure (from Latin res adventura a thing about to happen), chance, and especially chance of danger; so a hazardous enterprise or remarkable incident. Thus an adventurer from meaning one who takes part in some speculative course of action, came to mean, science fictionScience fiction generally speaking, is a form of speculative fiction which deals principally with the impact of imagined science and/or technology upon society or individuals. There are, perhaps, exceptions to (or at least, some very unusual examples of), children's stories, romanceRomance or romantic can refer to: Romantic love Romantic movements in the arts, Romanticism Romantic poetry Romantic fiction, including but not limited to Romance novels Romance genre in film Romantic comedy Romantic music A type of musical composition ca, medieval fantasyFor other definitions of fantasy see Fantasy (psychology). In literature, fantasy is a form of fiction, usually novels or short stories, though fantasy role-playing games comic books and movies are also popular. In its broadest sense, "Fantasy Fiction" co, 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....)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.