What is anime?

Anime is a term for a specific style of animation or cartoon produced or inspired by Japanese animation. This term is used as an abbreviation of “animation” and is pronounced ah-nee-may. However, in Japan, the word “anime” generally refers to any kind of animation no matter where it is from.

Features of anime

While both anime and cartoons are caricatures, anime has distinct features that make animated productions “anime” style. Firstly, the physical features of anime characters are exaggerated to make them look good. For example, they have large eyes with long eyelashes, small mouths, thin and long legs and various hair colors. Secondly, anime’s target audience includes adults as well as children while cartoons are primarily designed to entertain children. And so, anime sometimes has mature content such as violent and sexual images. Lastly, the length of anime varies from just a few minutes for TV broadcasts to feature-length for movies.

History of anime and its evolution

Anime dates back to a hundred years ago, but it was in the1960s when Osamu Tezuka, the God of manga, started to change the world of animation in Japan. He was inspired by Disney animation and created countless epic anime works such as “Astro Boy,” “Black Jack” and “the White Lion,” all of which are still famous even these days. Along with the rising popularity of manga and anime among the young generation from the 1980s to the 1990s, two kinds of trends started to lead the industry: making manga into anime, and producing feature-length animation.

While “Dragon Ball” and “Pokemon” started airing on TV around the 1990s, Studio Ghibli established by Hayao Miyazaki released 2-hour-long animated films such as “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)” and “Castle in the Sky (1986).” In the beginning of the 2000s, feature-length animations were mostly based on manga stories such as “One Piece” and “Naruto.” However, since the 2010s, Mamoru Hosoda and Makoto Shinkai have become Japan’s most popular animators/directors after releasing “Summer Wars (2009)” by Hosoda, and “Your Name (2016)” by Shinkai.

Why is Japanese anime popular?

Although many possible reasons why Japanese anime is popular have been discussed, it is said that Japanese anime has as powerful messages and relatable characters that make the audience cry, feel happy and even think deeply, as Hollywood movies do. For example, Studio Ghibli produces many movies with themes relating to wars and environmental destruction. Anime is not just entertainment designed for children but a genuine artistic genre that influences people and culture worldwide.