アニメanime
Quick definition:Anime is the term for animation made in Japan, or in the Japanese style, covering television series, films and shorts for audiences of every age and with stories in almost every genre.
Meaning
Anime refers to animated works produced in Japan, whether they are television series, feature films or short releases made for home video and streaming. Inside Japan the word simply means animation of any kind, including cartoons from other countries. Outside Japan it usually points to the distinctive style associated with Japanese studios, with its expressive characters, large eyes and dramatic visual effects.
The range of stories is very wide. Action adventures, romantic comedies, sports dramas, horror, science fiction and gentle children's tales all have their own audiences, and many series are adapted from manga, which are Japanese comics, or from novels. New television series arrive in seasons throughout the year, and episodes are typically designed to fit a half-hour broadcast slot.
Streaming services have made anime available in most parts of the world, and fans now often watch new episodes within hours of their Japanese broadcast, subtitled or dubbed in their own language.
Origin:The Japanese word anime is a shortened form of animeshon, a borrowing of the English word animation, written in katakana, the script Japan uses for foreign words. It came into common use in Japan during the twentieth century and later spread overseas as a name for Japanese animation specifically, gradually replacing the older English label Japanimation.
Example:Spirited Away, the 2001 film from Studio Ghibli, is a well-known example, following a girl who wanders into a world of spirits and bathhouses. Astro Boy, a robot-boy television series from the 1960s, is often counted among the earliest famous anime and helped set the pattern for weekly animated series.
Did you know?Most television anime is made with a limited number of drawings per second, a technique that saves time and money and shapes the look of the medium. Skilled directors turn that limitation into a style, using held poses, bold camera moves and dramatic effects.
