Animation became popular in Japan as it provided an alternative storytelling compared to the underdeveloped live-action industry in Japan.

During the 1970s, there was a surge of growth in the popularity of manga comics — which were often later animated . the mainstream in Japan, and experienced a boom in production (It should be noticed that, Manga has significantly more mainstream exposure than anime in Japan). The mid-to-late '90s, on into the 2000s, saw an increased acceptance of anime in overseas markets.

Terminology

Etymology and pronunciation

The Japanese term for animation is アニメーション (animēshon, pronounced /ɑnime:ɕoɴ/), written in katakana. It is a direct transliteration and re-borrowed loanword (see gairaigo) of the English term "animation." The Japanese term is abbreviated as アニメ (anime, pronounced /ɑnime/). Both the original and abbreviated forms are valid and interchangeable in Japanese, but as could be expected the abbreviated form is more commonly used.

The pronunciation of anime in English differs significantly from Japanese. The first vowel is further forward in English than Japanese: /æ/ is more likely than /ɑ/. As English stresses words differently than Japanese, the second vowel is likely to emerge as an unstressed schwa /ə/ or /I/ in English, whereas in Japanese each mora carries equal stress. 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 a Japanese /e/. However, this accent does not appear in any commonly used system of romanized Japanese, and English native speakers may produce /eI/.

Definition

Synonyms

Anime is sometimes referred to as Japanimation, but this term has fallen into disuse. Japanimation saw the most usage during the 1970s and 1980s, which broadly comprise the first and second waves of anime fandom, and had continued use up until before the mid-1990s anime resurgence. In general, the term now only appears in nostalgic contexts. The term is much more commonly used within Japan to refer to domestic animation. Since anime or animēshon is used to describe all forms of animation.

In more recent years, anime has also frequently been referred to as manga in European countries, a practice that may stem from the Japanese usage: In Japan, manga can refer to both animation and comics (although the use of manga to refer to animation is mostly restricted to non-fans). Among English speakers, manga usually has the stricter meaning of "Japanese comics".

Characteristics

Anime features a wide variety of artistic styles. They vary from artist to artist or by studio to studio. They are generally characterized by detailed backgrounds and stylized characters in a variety of different settings and storylines, aimed at a wide range of audiences.

Genres

Anime has many genres typically found in any mass media form. Such genres include action, adventure, children's stories, comedy, drama, erotica (hentai), medieval fantasy, occult/horror, romance, and science fiction.

Style

Emotions in manga and anime

While different titles and different artists have their own artistic styles, many stylistic elements have become so common such that they are described as being definitive of anime in general. These elements have been given names of their own. The anime drawing style can be learned, particularly with the aid of books such as How to Draw Manga. Such books come complete with information and instructions on the styles used in anime.

A common approach is the large eyes style drawn on many anime characters, credited to the influence of Osamu Tezuka, who was inspired by the exaggerated features of American cartoon characters such as Betty Boop and Mickey Mouse and from Disney's Bambi. Tezuka found that large eyes style allowed his characters to show emotions distinctly.

Other stylistic elements are common as well; often in comedic anime, characters that are shocked or surprised will perform a "face fault", in which they display an extremely exaggerated expression. Angry characters may exhibit a "vein" or "stressmark" effect, where lines representing 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 and cartoon physics. Male characters will develop a bloody nose around their female love interests (typically to indicate arousal, based on an old wives' tale).^[8] Embarrassed characters will invariably produce a massive sweat-drop, which has become one of the most widely recognized stereotype motifs of anime.

Anime beyond Japan

Early anime in the United States

The United States saw its first exposure to anime in June of 1961, when Shônen Sarutobi Sasuke (Magic Boy) was released by MGM, followed a few weeks later by Hakuja den (Panda and the Magic Serpent, or The Tale of the White Serpent). Anime then got its running jump in September of 1963, when NBC syndicated a dubbed version of the Japanese series Astro Boy. Not counting such Japanese/American co-productions as The King Kong Show and Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero[1], only seven more anime TV series were released in the United States in the 1960s. These were 8 Man (1965), Gigantor (1966), Kimba the White Lion (1966), Prince Planet (1966), Marine Boy (1966), The Amazing 3 (1967) and Speed Racer (1967). Speed Racer would be the last anime series released in the United States until 1978 when the 1972 series Kagaku ninja tai Gatchaman was adapted for American audiences as Battle of the Planets.^[9] Many anime series that made it to American television from the 1960s through the 1980s tended to be science fiction or action-oriented, such as Star Blazers (the English dub of Space Battleship Yamato) and Robotech and Voltron (both Americanized amalgamations of unrelated anime series cobbled together into a single story).

Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Gundam Wing, achieved mainstream popularity on American television. Although many of these shows did undergo some kind of "Americanization" in the form of character name changes.