Anime Introduction
Anime (アニメ) is the Japanese word for cartoon. It is a Japanese adaptation of the word animation. Japanese cartoons are increasingly popular in asia and the west for their original style and imaginative characters and storylines. In recent, years Anime has become an English word referring to the Japanese style of cartoon.
In the 1970s and 1980s Japanese cartoons started to get noticed in the west. Back then people called it Japanimation but this word is rarely used anymore. In the 1970s master animator Osamu Tezuka became popular
when he introduced the Mecha (giant robot) genre of anime. Since then the popularity of anime in the west has steadily increased and many genres have been introduced such as:
action
adventure
children's stories
comedy
crime stories
drama
erotica (hentai)
medieval fantasy
occult/horror
romance
science fiction
sports
There are also many recurring themes in anime that could also be considered genres in themselves:
Bishōjo (pretty girl)
Bishōnen (beautiful boy)
Sentai (fighting team such as Cyborg 009 and Voltron)
Robot/Mecha (robots or giant robots)
Post-Apocalyptic (e.g. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind)
Mahō shōjo (magical girl stories such as Sailor Moon)
Mahō shōnen (magical boy stories such as Fullmetal Alchemist)
Moé (cute and naïve characters eg. A Little Snow Fairy Sugar)
Sports (Eyeshield 21 football)
Cooking (Yakitate!! Japan bread making)
Lolicon (under age sex stories e.g. Kodomo no Jikan)
Shotacon (under age male characters in sextual stories)
Harem (a male character is surrounded by the romance of many females e.g. Love Hina)
Reverse Harem (reverse of above e.g. Fruits Basket)
Magical girlfriend (guy has supernatural or alien girlfriend)
Hentai (pornography or erotica e.g. Sex Taxi)
Shōjo-ai (lesbian love stories e.g. Kannazuki no Miko)
Shōnen-ai (gay love stories)
Yaoi (gay erotica)
There are two other major categories of Anime: hand drawn and computer animated. Anime is traditionally hand drawn but in recent years computers have been increasingly used.
Anime has become internationally popular and titles are now normally given English subtitles and exported around the world. Anime has dramatically increased interest in Japanese culture and language. It is surprising how many people will learn Japanese just for their love of anime. Many claim that if you watch enough Anime you can pick up the language quite easily.
For more information check out the Anime Guide.
