What is Anime?

Anime is a recent genre of moving image that evolved from the drawing style of manga. Mostly popular with young teens, anime has expanded to appeal to older teens and adults, making it a new phenomenon.

It has only been in the last twenty years that anime has really taken off in the West. Japan produces anime that appeals to Japanese audiences; this is evident from the plots surrounding the animes, such as feudal Japan, Japanese schooling etc. These plots can be seen the animes InuYasha and Love Hina.

However, Japanese anime has its own distinguishing features, which makes it instantly recognisable.

Anime drawings have certain features that distinguish them from other animation genres. One of the most obvious features is the big, child-like eyes. The eyes are used to portray personality and emotions in the anime genre, and add a sense of innocence to the characters, especially young teenage girls.

Another recognisable feature in anime drawing is the facial expressions. Referring back to what I said about anime characters looking innocent because of their eyes, facial expressions help make situations humorous, which is why many anime programmes or films are associated with the comedy genre. Such examples of humorous facial expressions are, 'sweatdrop', 'wide-eyed'

The rise of ‘Pokémon’ and ‘Digimon’ was the beginning of animes popularity, but only targeted children and young teens. This was in competition with other animations made by Disney, who also make animations that appeal to children.

Japanese institutions started to target older audiences, and released animes like Love Hina, Azumanga Daioh and Chobits, which portray older teen situations and use adult puns. The animes became successful and became popular in the USA and UK (usually only on satellite channels).

Also, Japanese institutions decided to push the boundaries on animation, and so they started to produce hentai. Hentai is the anime form of pornography; such examples are La Blue Girl, which focuses largely on tentacle rape. However, hentai isn't as taboo as pornography, because comical connotations, which makes it more socially acceptable amongst teen and adult couples.

If this Japanese creation continues to develop, we might start seeing anime taking over our television screens here in Britain; on terrestrial television.