Thursday, August 7, 2008

What is Anime?

Anime. We know it, we love it.

But what exactly is it?

Anime is, in its simplest sense, Japaneese cartoons. Its name comes from what it was origionally called, Japanimation, which eventually was just shortened to anime, although how they got the 'mey' sound, I don't know.

Anime is used in many things - TV shows being the most common example. They can also be used in some movies, and if you want to stretch it a bit, computer games.

Anime got its start in the 1920s, when Japaneese people decided to experiment with - guess what - animation. It then quickly grew in the 1930s as a way to make settings and have plots that simply were not possible given technology. It further grew as a simplication of American animation techniques, to make things even cheapter. This has been continueing to this day, with alot of anime being drawn by computers nowadays instead of by hand.

Anime is a way to show things that couldn't be possible in this world, or even just elaborate on this world. Many times, there will be plots where someone gets magical powers, or gigantic robots come and fight. Anime is just a different form of story telling, that can cover wide ranges of subjects. These can include shonen [male stuff], shoujo [female stuff], romance, action, drama, comedy, bits of everyday life [which probably similar to a sitcom], and many more things.

There is a certain 'art' to anime. Every artist in cubism draws slightly differently, yet they are all still considered to be cubists. It is much the same way for anime. There are great similarities in most anime works - however, each has its own unique style. Many times people will watch an anime just for its glorious artwork, and discard another for its horrible one. The artwork can greatly affect the mood of the scene, amplifying the viewer's emotions.

A picture from Angelic Layer, depicting the so called 'chibi'[childish] side to anime. Note how the person in the back isn't well defined line-wise, and lighting falls pretty much uniformly on him.

Two images from Death Note, depicting a more dramatic style of drawing. Note how the light falls across the face, and how there is much more detail in order to give a more evil, dramatic feel to the images.

Asides from those points, most people watch anime because its fun to watch. You can immerse yourself in another world, with a whole other set of characters, and live through them things that you could never do yourself. [Much like little kids who play superhero after watching superman, but most of the time people don't do that. Unless they're at conventions. But conventions break all known rules of life because they're that awesome.]

People from all walks of life watch anime. Most people don't admit it, however, in America, because its considered 'uncool'. Well, I assure you, it isn't. Many people that say it is such havn't actually watched anime, but they've been told its bad so they don't even try it. Alot of people that watch it get hooked, and continue to watch anime and immerse themselves in fantastic worlds of adventure, drama, romance, and all that sort of stuff. [Kind of makes you wish that it was like that every day.]

Anyways, I hope that that has slightly cleraed up what Anime is. Soon I'll post a post saying what manga is, then I'll get to the actual reviews.


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