Anime - A Basic Understanding

Anime

Anime expands upon themes and stories once only depicted by live filming. Anime typically incorporates heavy themes of drama, character development and relationships, as well as strong emotional conflicts. Anime usually puts the good guys into odd situations, and often the main character is somewhat normal, reacting to unusual events.

Storylines

Anime and western cartoons also handle the storylines differently most of the time. Western cartoons are based more upon the story itself, with the characters often having to take actions against their personality because of the story. Anime and manga are based upon the character(s) and the story is developed from the characters personality and actions.

Drawing

Big eyes, bright colored hair, well endowed female characters and over exaggerated emotions and gestures are typical of anime and manga characters. Traditionally, anime and manga have been drawn by hand, however, in recent years, computers have taken a much larger role in the creation of anime including characters.

Anime fan base

Obviously, as anime and manga have their roots in the east, this is where the very first fans were. Over the past several years, anime and manga have grown in popularity and have gained fans and followers in the US, UK, and many other countries. One such original anime that helped spur the movement in western countries and particularly the US was called Astro Boy, which NBC aired in 1963. Anime is now also shown in the US on the Sci-Fi channel, usually late nights. There are many English speaking fan groups active on the internet, and there are also conventions which are held in the United States and United Kingdom.

Anime target audience

While many may think at first, without proper knowledge, that most or all anime is targeted at younger audiences, there is much anime for older audiences. Actually, there is a style of anime for just about any particular crowd. There is anime for younger kids, boys (shounen), girls (shoujo), and adults. Within the adult group of anime, there are several sub groups, such as hentai, ecchi, and a few others.

Conclusion

While anime and manga were born in the east many years ago, they have caught on in western countries and continue to grow in popularity with an ever growing base of fans and followers. Only the future knows what it holds for anime and its characters as advances are made in computer and animation technology.

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Anime vs Manga

If you are a magna fan and reading up on the latest anime and manga releases and the history of the subject, you will find there has been a lot of confusion between anime and manga.

Oftentimes, fans will ask others on forums or on blogs or in chat rooms what the difference is. But this is like having the blind lead the blind in most cases.

There are experts who visit these sites and can answer questions intelligently, but since they do not usually leave links to back up their claims, it can be unclear if what they say is true or if they are really experts. If you go to an online encyclopedia, you often find so much information to wade through with so many big words, it's hard to fully make sense of it all.

Suffice it to say that manga means Japanese comic books, or in other words, those drawn-on-paper cartoons originating in Japan. Similar to the American comics with Superman and Spiderman, these comics were often made into different series and are still produced in quantity. Anime is animation, or you could say, the animated versions of manga.

Any animation actually needs to start out as a cartoon drawing of some kind. Manga artists create the characters and story line, then their drawings are made into animated film. The animation process is long and detailed, and takes a number of talented people to bring off the final product. The artists who originally create the character, his personality and the scene where the action takes place play a large part in the production of the anime.

Sometimes, besides the creator of the manga itself, studios take the artwork and make the backgrounds and other details with the labors of other animators. These drawings are combined and photographed or scanned as one piece, making an entire scene with the character, extras and the sights of a modern city or whatever is being portrayed. Thus anime is created.

Rumko Takahashi created the popular series, Inuyasha and Ranma ½. She does the original drawings and assists in the animation process along with other artists in the studio that produce the final anime. And so it is with many manga-kas (manga writers).

Which came first, manga or anime? That is easy to answer in studying the history of cartoon drawing. In Japan, the most famous manga artists were in production in the 1940s, for they were producing cartoons regarding the World War in progress at the time. That doesn't mean there weren't other cartoonists prior to this time. Certainly there were.

In the U.S., comics were in vogue early on. As early as the late 1700s, Benjamin Franklin started the first editorial cartoon. This soon expanded to the longer comic strips, the first of which was drawn by Richard Outcault in 1895. Then in the 1930s there were the debuts of such heroes as Superman and Batman.

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Japanese Anime and Its Growth in Western Culture

Japanese anime has been around for years and years. Anime itself spawned from manga (japanese comics) which began life around the 19th Century. The first style of manga was created by Japanese artist Hokusai. From Hokusai's original creations, manga developed into the style that we see today, artists using thick lines and vivid colours. The storylines of early manga were fantastical, often involving space ships, superheros, gods, dragons and alike. In the 1990's, anime left Japan, and its distribution became rather wide-spread over the western world - the Americas in particular. From then on, anime and japanimation went from strength to strength.

The 1990's and 2000's saw a rapid increase in demand for anime across western countries. Around 1993, the anime industry in America was worth mere thousands, but 10 years later, we saw the the industry go from being worth thousands, to being worth over 100 million dolars.
Spawning from anime, shows such as Power Rangers and VR Troopers exhibited similar ideas to those found in classic animated shows - fantasy stories about superheros, monsters, and evil villains. It is worth mentioning at this point that these shows, Power Rangers in particular, were hugely successful, airing nicely in America, Canada, Japan, and Europe.

Even though these TV shows weren't anime in the classic sense, there is clearly a link between the ideas presented in these shows, and those found in traditional anime. Companies like Bandai (the makers of Power Rangers) put an 'American spin' on an already successful 'method' of producing quality entertainment, and then reaped the profits.

Since that time, we have seen more traditional type anime creep ever so quickly into the western world due to the increased acceptance of it in western civilisation. Animated shows with traditional stylings such as Dragon Ball, Gundam, and Hamtaro, are almost household names in the Americas and Canada. The same is true in Britain and Europe.

With new technology on the horizon, better animation software and more powerful hardware, we can expect to see yet another rise in the fundraising power of the anime industry in the near future.

This information was provided by David Reed, who regularly contributes at the Titanime Blog for anime, manga, and japanimation.
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Japanese Anime - The Explosion

Although Japanese Anime seemingly sprang on the scene from nowhere, it has actually been around formany years.

Japanese anime has an fairly ancient history, infact. Anime itself began if through manga which began to surface in Japan in the 19th Century. The first manga, and the ideology behind the manga of today was first conceived by a Japanese artist named Hokusai. The Hokusai manga was a collection of sketches, and as time went on, more and more artists took Hokusai's idea and amplified it. Soon a new style of drawing emerged - the style moved away from the 'sketchings' and moved into thick lines and clear colours.

The storylines however, remained as fantasy as ever - manga at this point frequently involved space ships, mythical creatures, superheroes, gods, dragons, and other such fantasy things.
Early in the 1990's manga began its expansion into western culture. Its distribution spread gradually at first, with very few if any manga style comics being available in western countries. But soon after this, the world of anime and japanimation was set to see a huge explosion.
Eventually manga was adopted by now 'big name' companies such as Bandai, and the 'farout' ideas that came with traditional manga was introduced to mainstream western society. It is a fact that in 1993, the manga and anime industry was worth a mere few thousand dollars, and that 10 years later the industry went from this poorly figure, to being worth just over 100 million dollars.

The reason for this vast increase in revenue was due to anime and manga being formally adopted by western society. Popular TV shows like Power Rangers (I'm sure we've ALL heard of them at some point) were massively successful. Power Rangers is a perfect example of how the the ideology of anime spread throughout the western society - the show itself aired all over Europe, Canada, America, and Japan.

Granted, shows like Power Rangers weren't anime in the traditional sense, but there is quite obviously a link between the things presented in these TV programmes and those that are still found in traditional anime.

Since then we have seen many more traditonal (actually animated) anime worm its way into the western world. Essentially the non-animated anime paved the way for the traditional type to come in and make a small fortune. Ever heard of Dragon ball? How about Gundam or Hamtaro? If you haven't, where have you been these past few years :)

Animated shows such as those above are practically household names in the west now, which just goes to show the sheer explosion the anime industry produced. In 20 years the anime industry in the west has grown from only being worth thousands, to being worth multi-multi-millions.

This information was provided by David Reed, who regularly contributes at the Bondanime Blog for anime, manga, and japanimation.

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