CULTJAPAN!

Anime is animation originating in Japan. Anime, like manga (Japanese comics), is extremely popular in Japan and well known throughout the world. Distributors can release anime via television broadcasts, directly to video, or theatrically, as well as online. Both hand-drawn and computer animated anime exist. It is used in television series, films, video, video games, commercials, and internet-based releases, and represents most, if not all, genres of fiction.

Japanese anime began at the start of the 20th century. By the 1930s, animation became an alternative format of storytelling to the underdeveloped live-action industry in Japan.

In the 1960s, manga artist and animator Osamu Tezuka adapted and simplified many Disney animation techniques to reduce costs and number of frames in the production. He intended this as a temporary measure to allow him to produce material on a tight schedule with inexperienced animation staff.

The 1970s saw a surge of growth in the popularity of manga—which were often later animated—especially those of Osamu Tezuka. His work and that of other pioneers in the field, inspired characteristics and genres that are fundamental elements of anime today. The giant robot genre (known as “Mecha” outside Japan), for instance, took shape under Tezuka, developed into the Super Robot genre under Go Nagai and others, and was revolutionized at the end of the decade by Yoshiyuki Tomino who developed the Real Robot genre. Robot anime like the Gundam and The Super Dimension Fortress Macross series became instant classics in the 1980s, and the robot genre of anime is still one of the most common in Japan and worldwide today.

In the 1980s, anime became more accepted in the mainstream in Japan (although less than manga), and experienced a boom in production. Following a few successful adaptations of anime in overseas markets in the 1980s, anime gained increased acceptance in those markets in the 1990s and even more at the turn of the 21st century.

Anime is widely considered an art form. As a visual medium, it naturally places a large emphasis on visual styles. The styles can vary from artist to artist or by studio to studio. Some titles make extensive use of common stylization: FLCL, for example, is known for its wild, exaggerated stylization. In contrast, titles such as Only Yesterday or Jin-Roh take much more realistic approaches, featuring few stylistic exaggerations.

Despite differing individual artistic styles, many stylistic elements have become so common that they are described as being definitive of anime in general. However, this does not mean that all modern anime share one strict, common art style. Many anime have a very different art style from what would commonly be called “anime style”, yet fans still use the word “anime” to refer to these titles. Generally, the most common form of anime drawings are “exaggerated physical features such as large eyes, big hair and elongated limbs… and dramatically shaped speech bubbles, speed lines and onomatopoeic, exclamatory typography.” [http://animeworld.com/howtodraw/bodies1.html]

The influences of Japanese calligraphy and Japanese painting also characterize linear qualities of the anime style. The round Ink brush traditionally used for writing Kanji and for painting produces a stroke of widely varying thickness.

Anime also tends to borrow many elements from manga including text in the background, and borrowing panel layouts from the manga as well. For example, an opening may employ manga panels to tell the story, or to dramatize a point for humorous effect. A well-known anime that uses this is Kare Kano.

Like all animation, the production processes of storyboarding, voice acting, character design, cel production and so on still apply. With improvements in computer technology, computer animation increased the efficiency of the whole production process.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Anime“.