Saturday, November 17, 2007

Welcome Newcomers To Anime animd Manga




So I heard that you were new to anime and manga well your in luck cause I am a otaku. Which is basiclly japanese for a really big fan of Anime and manga now here is what you need to KNow!




What Is Anime?
Anime is an abbreviation of the word “animation”. Outside Japan, the term most popularly refers to animation originating in Japan. To the West, not all animation is considered anime; and anime is considered a subset of animation.
While some anime is hand drawn, computer assisted animation techniques have become quite common in recent years. Like any entertainment medium, the story lines represent most major genres of fiction. Anime is broadcast on television, distributed on media such as DVD and VHS, and included in video games. Additionally, some are produced as full length motion pictures. Anime often draws influence from manga, light novels, and other cultures. Some anime storylines have been adapted into live action films and television series.
History
The history of anime begins at the start of the 20th century, when Japanese filmmakers experimented with the animation techniques that were being explored in France, Germany, the United States, and Russia.
Animation became popular in Japan as it provided an alternative format of storytelling compared to the underdeveloped live-action industry in Japan. Unlike America, where live-action shows and films have generous budgets, the live-action industry in Japan is a small market and suffered from budgeting, location, and casting restrictions. The lack of Western-looking actors, for example, made it next to impossible to shoot films set in Europe, America, or fantasy worlds that do not naturally involve Japan. The varied use of animation allowed artists to create any characters and settings.
During the 1970s, there was a surge of growth in the popularity of manga— which were often later animated — especially those of Osamu Tezuka, who has been called a “legend” and the “god of manga”. As a result of his work and that of other pioneers in the field, anime developed characteristics and genres that are fundamental elements of the art today. The giant robot genre (known as “mecha” outside Japan), for instance, took shape under Tezuka, developed under Go Nagai and others, and was revolutionized at the end of the decade by Yoshiyuki Tomino. Robot anime like Gundam and Macross became instant classics in the 80s, and the robot genre of anime is still one of the most popular in Japan and worldwide today. In the 1980s, anime was accepted in 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 (animÄ“shon, pronounced /É‘nime:É•oÉ´/), 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 /É‘nime/). 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
Linguistically, the anime definition is subject to interpretation. In Japan, the term does not specify an animation’s nation of origin or style; instead, it is used as a blanket term to refer to all forms of animation from around the world. In English, main dictionary sources define anime as “a Japanese style of motion-picture animation” or “a style of animation developed in Japan”. Thus, non-Japanese works are sometimes called anime-influenced animation if they borrow stylistically from Japanese animation.
In western countries the word is used usually only to refer to animated programming of Japanese origin, with the term “cartoon” or “animated series” used for most other visual styles. The online anime database AniDB generally defines anime (in the singular form) as “an animated, professionally produced, feature film created by a Japanese company for the Japanese market”. However, some anime are co-productions with non-Japanese companies like the Cartoon Network. Thus, anime is no longer specific to the Japanese market

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