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is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of the English word ''animation'') describes all animated works, regardless of style or origin. Animation produced outside of Japan with similar style to Japanese animation is commonly referred to as
anime-influenced animation Anime-influenced animation refers to non-Japanese works of animation that are similar to or inspired by anime. Generally, the term ''anime'' refers to a style of animation originating from Japan. As Japanese anime became increasingly popular, Wes ...
. The earliest commercial Japanese animations date to 1917. A characteristic art style emerged in the 1960s with the works of cartoonist Osamu Tezuka and spread in following decades, developing a large domestic audience. Anime is distributed theatrically, through television broadcasts, directly to home media, and over the Internet. In addition to original works, anime are often adaptations of Japanese comics ( manga),
light novels A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a '' wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...
, or
video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedbac ...
. It is classified into numerous genres targeting various broad and niche audiences. Anime is a diverse medium with distinctive production methods that have adapted in response to emergent technologies. It combines graphic art, characterization, cinematography, and other forms of imaginative and individualistic techniques. Compared to Western animation, anime production generally focuses less on movement, and more on the detail of settings and use of "camera effects", such as panning, zooming, and angle shots. Diverse art styles are used, and character proportions and features can be quite varied, with a common characteristic feature being large and emotive eyes. The anime industry consists of over 430 production companies, including major studios such as
Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It is best known for its animated feature films, and h ...
,
Kyoto Animation , often abbreviated , is a Japanese animation studio and light novel publisher located in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture. Founded in 1985 by Yoko and Hideaki Hatta, it has produced anime works including '' The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'' (2006), '' ...
,
Sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon and its accompanying atmospheric effects. Terminology A ...
,
Bones A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, a ...
,
Ufotable is a Japanese animation studio founded in October 2000 by former staff of the TMS Entertainment subsidiary Telecom Animation Film and located in Suginami, Tokyo. A unique hallmark seen in many of their works ('' Ninja Nonsense'', ''Futakoi Altern ...
, MAPPA, Wit Studio,
CoMix Wave Films is a Japanese animation film studio and distribution company based in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The studio is known for its anime feature films, short films, and television commercials, particularly those made by director Makoto Shinkai. It was fo ...
, Production I.G and
Toei Animation () is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including ''Sally the Witch,'' '' GeGeGe no Kitarō,'' '' Mazinger Z'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', '' Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Slu ...
. Since the 1980s, the medium has also seen widespread international success with the rise of foreign dubbed, subtitled programming, and since the 2010s its increasing distribution through streaming services and a widening demographic embrace of anime culture, both within Japan and worldwide. As of 2016, Japanese animation accounted for 60% of the world's animated television shows.


Etymology

As a type of animation, anime is an art form that comprises many
genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
s found in other mediums; it is sometimes mistakenly classified as a genre itself. In Japanese, the term ''anime'' is used to refer to all animated works, regardless of style or origin. English-language dictionaries typically define ''anime'' () as "a style of Japanese animation" or as "a style of animation originating in Japan". Other definitions are based on origin, making production in Japan a requisite for a work to be considered "anime". The etymology of the term ''anime'' is disputed. The English word "animation" is written in Japanese ''
katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived f ...
'' as () and as (, ) in its shortened form. Some sources claim that the term is derived from the French term for animation ("cartoon", literally 'animated drawing'), but others believe this to be a myth derived from the popularity of anime in France in the late 1970s and 1980s. In English, ''anime''—when used as a common
noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, ...
—normally functions as a mass noun. (For example: "Do you watch anime?" or "How much anime have you collected?") As with a few other Japanese words, such as '' saké'' and '' Pokémon'', English texts sometimes spell ''anime'' as ''animé'' (as in French), with an acute accent over the final ''e'', to cue the reader to pronounce the letter, not to leave it silent as English orthography may suggest. Prior to the widespread use of ''anime'', the term ''Japanimation'' was prevalent throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In the mid-1980s, the term ''anime'' began to supplant ''Japanimation''; in general, the latter term now only appears in period works where it is used to distinguish and identify Japanese animation.


History


Precursors

''
Emakimono or is an illustrated horizontal narration system of painted handscrolls that dates back to Nara-period (710–794 CE) Japan. Initially copying their much older Chinese counterparts in style, during the succeeding Heian (794–1185) and Ka ...
'' and ''kagee'' are considered precursors of Japanese animation. ''Emakimono'' was common in the eleventh century. Traveling storytellers narrated legends and anecdotes while the ''emakimono'' was unrolled from the right to left with chronological order, as a moving panorama. ''Kagee'' was popular during the Edo period and originated from the shadows play of China.
Magic lantern The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a si ...
s from the Netherlands were also popular in the eighteenth century. The paper play called ''
Kamishibai is a form of Japanese street theater and storytelling that was popular during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the post-war period in Japan until the advent of television during the mid-20th century. were performed by a (" narrator") w ...
'' surged in the twelfth century and remained popular in the street theater until the 1930s. Puppets of the ''
bunraku (also known as ) is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre, founded in Osaka in the beginning of the 17th century, which is still performed in the modern day. Three kinds of performers take part in a performance: the or (puppeteers ...
'' theater and ''
ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk t ...
'' prints are considered ancestors of characters of most Japanese animations. Finally, mangas were a heavy inspiration for anime. Cartoonists Kitzawa Rakuten and Okamoto Ippei used film elements in their strips.


Pioneers

Animation in Japan began in the early 20th century, when filmmakers started to experiment with techniques pioneered in France, Germany, the United States, and Russia. A claim for the earliest Japanese animation is '' Katsudō Shashin'' (), a private work by an unknown creator. In 1917, the first professional and publicly displayed works began to appear; animators such as Ōten Shimokawa, Seitarō Kitayama, and Jun'ichi Kōuchi (considered the "fathers of anime") produced numerous films, the oldest surviving of which is Kōuchi's '' Namakura Gatana''. Many early works were lost with the destruction of Shimokawa's warehouse in the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. By the mid-1930s, animation was well-established in Japan as an alternative format to the
live-action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...
industry. It suffered competition from foreign producers, such as
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
, and many animators, including Noburō Ōfuji and
Yasuji Murata was a pioneering animator who helped develop the art of anime in Japan. Studying the animation techniques of Sanae Yamamoto, Murata produced dozens of mostly educational films at the Yokohama Cinema studio featuring such characters as Momotar ...
, continued to work with cheaper
cutout animation Cutout animation is a form of stop-motion animation using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric or photographs. The props would be cut out and used as puppets for stop motion. The world's e ...
rather than
cel animation Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation. Proc ...
. Other creators, including Kenzō Masaoka and
Mitsuyo Seo was a Japanese animator, screenwriter, and director of animated films who played a central role in the development of Japanese anime. He was born in Himeji, Hyōgo Prefecture. Career Initially working as a sign painter, Seo began dabbling in ...
, nevertheless made great strides in technique, benefiting from the patronage of the government, which employed animators to produce educational shorts and propaganda. In 1940, the government dissolved several artists' organizations to form the The first
talkie A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...
anime was '' Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka'' (1933), a short film produced by Masaoka. The first feature-length anime film was '' Momotaro: Sacred Sailors'' (1945), produced by Seo with a sponsorship from the
Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...
. The 1950s saw a proliferation of short, animated advertisements created for television.


Modern era

In the 1960s, manga artist and animator Osamu Tezuka adapted and simplified Disney animation techniques to reduce costs and limit frame counts in his productions. Originally intended as temporary measures to allow him to produce material on a tight schedule with an inexperienced staff, many of his
limited animation Limited animation is a process in the overall technique of traditional animation that reuses frames of character animation. Early history The use of budget-cutting and time-saving animation measures in animation dates back to the earliest commerci ...
practices came to define the medium's style. '' Three Tales'' (1960) was the first anime film broadcast on television; the first anime television series was '' Instant History'' (1961–64). An early and influential success was ''Astro Boy'' (1963–66), a television series directed by Tezuka based on his manga of the same name. Many animators at Tezuka's Mushi Production later established major anime studios (including Madhouse,
Sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon and its accompanying atmospheric effects. Terminology A ...
, and
Pierrot Pierrot ( , , ) is a stock character of pantomime and '' commedia dell'arte'', whose origins are in the late seventeenth-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne. The name is a diminutive of ''Pi ...
). The 1970s saw growth in the popularity of manga, many of which were later animated. Tezuka's work—and that of other pioneers in the field—inspired characteristics and genres that remain fundamental elements of anime today. The giant robot genre (also known as "
mecha In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines controlled by people, typically depicted as humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japanese is ...
"), for instance, took shape under Tezuka, developed into the
super robot Mecha anime and manga, known in Japan as and , are anime and manga that feature robots (mecha) in battle. The genre is broken down into two subcategories; "super robot", featuring super-sized, implausible robots, and "real robot", where robots are ...
genre under
Go Nagai , better known by the pen name , is a Japanese manga artist and a prolific author of science fiction, fantasy, horror and erotica. He made his professional debut in 1967 with ''Meakashi Polikichi'', but is best known for creating popular 1970s ...
and others, and was revolutionized at the end of the decade by
Yoshiyuki Tomino is a Japanese mecha anime creator, animator, director, screenwriter, songwriter and novelist best known for creating the ''Gundam'' anime franchise. He was born in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, and studied at Nihon University's College of Art ...
, who developed the real robot genre. Robot anime series such as ''
Gundam is a Japanese military fiction media franchise. Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise (now Bandai Namco Filmworks), the franchise features giant robots, or mecha, with the name "Gundam". The franchise began on April 7, 1979, with ''Mobile ...
'' and ''
Super Dimension Fortress Macross is an anime television series from 1982. According to story creator Shoji Kawamori, it depicts "a love triangle against the backdrop of great battles" during the first Human-alien war. It is the first part of two franchises: The ''Super D ...
'' became instant classics in the 1980s, and the genre remained one of the most popular in the following decades. The
bubble economy An economic bubble (also called a speculative bubble or a financial bubble) is a period when current asset prices greatly exceed their intrinsic valuation, being the valuation that the underlying long-term fundamentals justify. Bubbles can be ...
of the 1980s spurred a new era of high-budget and experimental anime films, including '' Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind'' (1984), '' Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise'' (1987), and '' Akira'' (1988). '' Neon Genesis Evangelion'' (1995), a television series produced by Gainax and directed by
Hideaki Anno is a Japanese animator, filmmaker and actor. He is best known for creating the anime series ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' (1995)''.'' His style is defined by his postmodernist approach and the extensive portrayal of characters' thoughts and emotio ...
, began another era of experimental anime titles, such as ''
Ghost in the Shell ''Ghost in the Shell'' is a Japanese cyberpunk media franchise based on the seinen manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. The manga, first serialized in 1989 under the subtitle of ''The Ghost in the Shell'' ...
'' (1995) and '' Cowboy Bebop'' (1998). In the 1990s, anime also began attracting greater interest in Western countries; major international successes include '' Sailor Moon'' and '' Dragon Ball Z'', both of which were dubbed into more than a dozen languages worldwide. In 2003, ''
Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Tohokushinsha Film, and Mitsubishi and distrib ...
'', a
Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It is best known for its animated feature films, and h ...
feature film directed by
Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films, and is widel ...
, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the
75th Academy Awards The 75th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) took place on March 23, 2003, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly ...
. It later became the highest-grossing anime film, earning more than $355 million. Since the 2000s, an increased number of anime works have been adaptations of
light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a '' wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...
s and
visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...
s; successful examples include ''
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a Japanese light novel series written by Nagaru Tanigawa and illustrated by Noizi Ito. It was first published in 2003 by Kadokawa Shoten in Japan with the novel ''The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'', and has since been followed ...
'' and ''
Fate/stay night ''Fate/stay night'' is a Japanese visual novel developed by Type-Moon and originally released as an adult game for Windows on January 30, 2004. A version of ''Fate/stay night'' rated for ages 15 and up titled ''Fate/stay night Réalta ...
'' (both 2006). '' Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train'' became the highest-grossing Japanese film and one of the world's highest-grossing films of 2020. It also became the fastest grossing film in Japanese cinema, because in 10 days it made 10 billion yen ($95.3m; £72m). It beat the previous record of ''
Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Tohokushinsha Film, and Mitsubishi and distrib ...
'' which took 25 days.


Attributes

Anime differs from other forms of animation by its art styles, methods of animation, its production, and its process. Visually, anime works exhibit a wide variety of art styles, differing between creators, artists, and studios. While no single art style predominates anime as a whole, they do share some similar attributes in terms of animation technique and character design. Anime is fundamentally characterized by the use of limited animation, flat expression, the suspension of time, its thematic range, the presence of historical figures, its complex narrative line and, above all, a peculiar drawing style, with characters characterized by large and oval eyes, with very defined lines, bright colors and reduced movement of the lips.


Technique

Modern anime follows a typical animation production process, involving storyboarding,
voice acting Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...
, character design, and cel production. Since the 1990s, animators have increasingly used computer animation to improve the efficiency of the production process. Early anime works were experimental, and consisted of images drawn on blackboards,
stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...
animation of paper cutouts, and
silhouette animation Silhouette animation is animation in which the characters are only visible as black silhouettes. This is usually accomplished by backlighting articulated cardboard cut-outs, though other methods exist. It is partially inspired by, but for a ...
. Cel animation grew in popularity until it came to dominate the medium. In the 21st century, the use of other animation techniques is mostly limited to independent short films, including the stop motion puppet animation work produced by Tadahito Mochinaga,
Kihachirō Kawamoto was a Japanese puppet designer and maker, Independent film, independent film director, screenwriter and animator and president (corporate title), president of the Japan Animation Association from 1989, succeeding founder Osamu Tezuka, until his ...
and Tomoyasu Murata. Computers were integrated into the animation process in the 1990s, with works such as ''
Ghost in the Shell ''Ghost in the Shell'' is a Japanese cyberpunk media franchise based on the seinen manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. The manga, first serialized in 1989 under the subtitle of ''The Ghost in the Shell'' ...
'' and ''
Princess Mononoke is a 1997 Japanese animated epic historical fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Nippon Television Network and Dentsu. The film stars the voices of Yōji Matsuda, Yuriko Ishida ...
'' mixing cel animation with computer-generated images. Fuji Film, a major cel production company, announced it would stop cel production, producing an industry panic to procure cel imports and hastening the switch to digital processes. Prior to the digital era, anime was produced with
traditional animation Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation. Proc ...
methods using a pose to pose approach. The majority of mainstream anime uses fewer expressive key frames and more in-between animation. Japanese animation studios were pioneers of many
limited animation Limited animation is a process in the overall technique of traditional animation that reuses frames of character animation. Early history The use of budget-cutting and time-saving animation measures in animation dates back to the earliest commerci ...
techniques, and have given anime a distinct set of conventions. Unlike
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
animation, where the emphasis is on the movement, anime emphasizes the art quality and let limited animation techniques make up for the lack of time spent on movement. Such techniques are often used not only to meet deadlines but also as artistic devices. Anime scenes place emphasis on achieving three-dimensional views, and backgrounds are instrumental in creating the atmosphere of the work. The backgrounds are not always invented and are occasionally based on real locations, as exemplified in '' Howl's Moving Castle'' and ''
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a Japanese light novel series written by Nagaru Tanigawa and illustrated by Noizi Ito. It was first published in 2003 by Kadokawa Shoten in Japan with the novel ''The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'', and has since been followed ...
''. Oppliger stated that anime is one of the rare mediums where putting together an all-star cast usually comes out looking "tremendously impressive". The cinematic effects of anime differentiates itself from the stage plays found in American animation. Anime is cinematically shot as if by camera, including panning, zooming, distance and angle shots to more complex dynamic shots that would be difficult to produce in reality. In anime, the animation is produced before the voice acting, contrary to American animation which does the voice acting first.


Characters

The body proportions of human anime characters tend to accurately reflect the proportions of the human body in reality. The height of the head is considered by the artist as the base unit of proportion. Head heights can vary, but most anime characters are about seven to eight heads tall. Anime artists occasionally make deliberate modifications to body proportions to produce
super deformed Chibi, also known as super deformation, or S.D. is a style of caricature originating in Japan, and common in anime and manga where characters are drawn in an exaggerated way, typically small and chubby with stubby limbs, oversized heads, and m ...
characters that feature a disproportionately small body compared to the head; many super deformed characters are two to four heads tall. Some anime works like '' Crayon Shin-chan'' completely disregard these proportions, in such a way that they resemble caricatured Western cartoons. A common anime character design convention is exaggerated eye size. The animation of characters with large eyes in anime can be traced back to Osamu Tezuka, who was deeply influenced by such early animation characters as Betty Boop, who was drawn with disproportionately large eyes. Tezuka is a central figure in anime and manga history, whose iconic art style and character designs allowed for the entire range of human emotions to be depicted solely through the eyes. The artist adds variable color shading to the eyes and particularly to the cornea to give them greater depth. Generally, a mixture of a light shade, the tone color, and a dark shade is used. Cultural anthropologist
Matt Thorn Rachel Thorn (formerly Matt Thorn; born May 12, 1965) is a cultural anthropologist and an associate professor in the Department of Manga Production at Kyoto Seika University's Faculty of Manga in Japan. She is best known in North America for ...
argues that Japanese animators and audiences do not perceive such stylized eyes as inherently more or less foreign. However, not all anime characters have large eyes. For example, the works of
Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films, and is widel ...
are known for having realistically proportioned eyes, as well as realistic hair colors on their characters. Hair in anime is often unnaturally lively and colorful or uniquely styled. The movement of hair in anime is exaggerated and "hair action" is used to emphasize the action and emotions of characters for added visual effect. Poitras traces hairstyle color to cover illustrations on manga, where eye-catching artwork and colorful tones are attractive for children's manga. Despite being produced for a domestic market, anime features characters whose race or nationality is not always defined, and this is often a deliberate decision, such as in the '' Pokémon'' animated series. Anime and manga artists often draw from a common canon of iconic facial expression illustrations to denote particular moods and thoughts. These techniques are often different in form than their counterparts in Western animation, and they include a fixed iconography that is used as shorthand for certain emotions and moods. For example, a male character may develop a
nosebleed A nosebleed, also known as epistaxis, is bleeding from the nose. Blood can flow down into the stomach, and cause nausea and vomiting. In more severe cases, blood may come out of both nostrils. Rarely, bleeding may be so significant that low bl ...
when aroused. A variety of visual symbols are employed, including sweat drops to depict nervousness, visible blushing for embarrassment, or glowing eyes for an intense glare. Another recurring sight gag is the use of chibi (deformed, simplified character designs) figures to comedically punctuate emotions like confusion or embarrassment.


Music

The opening and credits sequences of most anime television series are accompanied by
J-pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the ...
or J-rock songs, often by reputed bands—as written with the series in mind—but are also aimed at the general music market, therefore they often allude only vaguely or not at all, to the thematic settings or plot of the series. Also, they are often used as incidental music ("insert songs") in an episode, in order to highlight particularly important scenes.


Genres

Anime are often classified by target demographic, including , , and a diverse range of genres targeting an adult audience. Shoujo and shounen anime sometimes contain elements popular with children of both sexes in an attempt to gain crossover appeal. Adult anime may feature a slower pace or greater plot complexity that younger audiences may typically find unappealing, as well as adult themes and situations. A subset of adult anime works featuring pornographic elements are labeled "R18" in Japan, and are internationally known as '' hentai'' (originating from ). By contrast, some anime subgenres incorporate ''
ecchi is a slang term in the Japanese language for playfully sexual actions. As an adjective, it is used with the meaning of "sexy", "dirty" or "naughty"; as a verb, means "to have sex", and as a noun, it is used to describe someone of lascivious ...
'', sexual themes or undertones without depictions of sexual intercourse, as typified in the comedic or
harem Harem ( Persian: حرمسرا ''haramsarā'', ar, حَرِيمٌ ''ḥarīm'', "a sacred inviolable place; harem; female members of the family") refers to domestic spaces that are reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A har ...
genres; due to its popularity among adolescent and adult anime enthusiasts, the inclusion of such elements is considered a form of fan service.Ask John
Why Do Americans Hate Harem Anime?
. animenation.net. May 20. 2005. ''Note: fan service and ecchi are often considered the same in wording.''
Some genres explore homosexual romances, such as ''
yaoi ''Yaoi'' (; ja, やおい ), also known by the '' wasei-eigo'' construction and its abbreviation , is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created ...
'' (male homosexuality) and ''
yuri Yuri may refer to: People and fictional characters Given name *Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given name Yuri, Yury, etc. *Yuri (Japanese name), also Yūri, feminine Jap ...
'' (female homosexuality). While often used in a pornographic context, the terms ''yaoi'' and ''yuri'' can also be used broadly in a wider context to describe or focus on the themes or the development of the relationships themselves. Anime's genre classification differs from other types of animation and does not lend itself to simple classification.
Gilles Poitras Gilles Poitras is a Canadian author of books relating to anime and manga. He is a librarian at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. In addition to the books he has authored, Poitras also regularly contributed columns to '' Newtype USA'', a for ...
compared the labeling '' Gundam 0080'' and its complex depiction of war as a "giant robot" anime akin to simply labeling ''
War and Peace ''War and Peace'' (russian: Война и мир, translit=Voyna i mir; pre-reform Russian: ; ) is a literary work by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy that mixes fictional narrative with chapters on history and philosophy. It was first published ...
'' a "war novel".
Science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
is a major anime genre and includes important historical works like Tezuka's ''
Astro Boy ''Astro Boy'', known in Japan by its original name , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka. It was serialized in Kobunsha's ''Shōnen'' from 1952 to 1968. The 112 chapters were collected into 23 '' tankōbon'' ...
'' and Yokoyama's ''
Tetsujin 28-go , known as simply ''Tetsujin 28'' in international releases, is a 1956 manga written and illustrated by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, who also created '' Giant Robo''. The series centers on the adventures of a young boy named Shotaro Kaneda, who ...
''. A major subgenre of science fiction is
mecha In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines controlled by people, typically depicted as humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japanese is ...
, with the ''Gundam''
metaseries A media franchise, also known as a multimedia franchise, is a collection of related media in which several derivative works have been produced from an original creative work of fiction, such as a film, a work of literature, a television program or ...
being iconic. The diverse fantasy genre includes works based on Asian and Western traditions and folklore; examples include the Japanese feudal fairytale ''
InuYasha is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It was serialized in Shogakukan's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' from November 1996 to June 2008, with its chapters collected in fifty-six '' ...
'', and the depiction of Scandinavian goddesses who move to Japan to maintain a computer called
Yggdrasil Yggdrasil (from Old Norse ), in Norse cosmology, is an immense and central sacred tree. Around it exists all else, including the Nine Worlds. Yggdrasil is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'' compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional ...
in ''
Ah! My Goddess , or ''Ah! My Goddess!'' in some releases, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kōsuke Fujishima. It was serialized in Kodansha's Seinen manga, ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Monthly Afternoon'' from September 1988 to ...
''. Genre crossing in anime is also prevalent, such as the blend of fantasy and comedy in ''
Dragon Half is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ryūsuke Mita. The manga was serialized in Fujimi Shobo‘s ''Dragon Magazine'' from January 30, 1988 to April 30, 1994 and the chapters collected into 7 ''tankōbon'' volumes. It was adap ...
'', and the incorporation of slapstick humor in the crime anime film '' Castle of Cagliostro''. Other subgenres found in anime include magical girl, harem, sports, martial arts, literary adaptations,
medievalism Medievalism is a system of belief and practice inspired by the Middle Ages of Europe, or by devotion to elements of that period, which have been expressed in areas such as architecture, literature, music, art, philosophy, scholarship, and variou ...
, and war.


Formats

Early anime works were made for theatrical viewing, and required played musical components before sound and vocal components were added to the production. In 1958, Nippon Television aired ''Mogura no Abanchūru'' (" Mole's Adventure"), both the first televised and first color anime to debut. It was not until the 1960s when the first televised series were broadcast and it has remained a popular medium since. Works released in a direct-to-video format are called " original video animation" (OVA) or "original animation video" (OAV); and are typically not released theatrically or televised prior to home media release. The emergence of the Internet has led some animators to distribute works online in a format called "
original net animation An original net animation (ONA), known in Japan as , is an anime that is directly released onto the Internet. ONAs may also have been aired on television if they were first directly released on the Internet. The name mirrors original video animati ...
" (ONA). The home distribution of anime releases were popularized in the 1980s with the VHS and LaserDisc formats. The VHS
NTSC The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...
video format used in both Japan and the United States is credited as aiding the rising popularity of anime in the 1990s. The LaserDisc and VHS formats were transcended by the DVD format which offered the unique advantages; including multiple subtitling and dubbing tracks on the same disc. The DVD format also has its drawbacks in its usage of
region coding A regional lockout (or region coding) is a class of digital rights management preventing the use of a certain product or service, such as multimedia or a hardware device, outside a certain region or territory. A regional lockout may be enforce ...
; adopted by the industry to solve licensing, piracy and export problems and restricted region indicated on the DVD player. The
Video CD Video CD (abbreviated as VCD, and also known as Compact Disc Digital Video) is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard optical discs. The format was widely adopted in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the ...
(VCD) format was popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but became only a minor format in the United States that was closely associated with bootleg copies. A key characteristic of many anime television shows is serialization, where a continuous
story arc A story arc (also narrative arc) is the chronological construction of plot in a novel or story. It can also mean an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, board games, vid ...
stretches over multiple episodes or seasons. Traditional
American television Television is one of the major mass media outlets in the United States. , household ownership of television sets in the country is 96.7%, with approximately 114,200,000 American households owning at least one television set as of August 2013. ...
had an episodic format, with each episode typically consisting of a self-contained story. In contrast, anime shows such as '' Dragon Ball Z'' had a serialization format, where continuous story arcs stretch over multiple episodes or seasons, which distinguished them from traditional American television shows; serialization has since also become a common characteristic of American
streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air a ...
shows during the " Peak TV" era.


Industry

The animation industry consists of more than 430 production companies with some of the major studios including
Toei Animation () is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including ''Sally the Witch,'' '' GeGeGe no Kitarō,'' '' Mazinger Z'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', '' Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Slu ...
, Gainax, Madhouse,
Gonzo Gonzo may refer to: People * Gonzo (nickname), a list of people with the nickname * Radislav Jovanov Gonzo (born 1964), Croatian music video director Radislav Jovanov, also known as Gonzo * Matthias Röhr (born 1962), German musician whose sta ...
,
Sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon and its accompanying atmospheric effects. Terminology A ...
,
Bones A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, a ...
,
TMS Entertainment , formerly known as the , also known as or , is a Japanese animation studio established on October 22, 1946. TMS is one of the oldest and most famous anime studios in Japan, best known for numerous anime franchises such as '' Lupin the Third' ...
,
Nippon Animation is a Japanese animation studio. The company is headquartered in Tokyo, with chief offices in the Ginza district of Chūō and production facilities in Tama City. Nippon Animation is known for producing numerous anime series based on works of ...
, P.A.Works, Studio Pierrot, Production I.G,
Ufotable is a Japanese animation studio founded in October 2000 by former staff of the TMS Entertainment subsidiary Telecom Animation Film and located in Suginami, Tokyo. A unique hallmark seen in many of their works ('' Ninja Nonsense'', ''Futakoi Altern ...
and
Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It is best known for its animated feature films, and h ...
. Many of the studios are organized into a
trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. An industry trade association partic ...
,
The Association of Japanese Animations The Association of Japanese Animations (AJA; , ) is an industry group consisting of 52 affiliate animation production companies. AJA's duties AJA's scope of duties are to work on various issues concerning the Japanese animation industry, w ...
. There is also a labor union for workers in the industry, the
Japanese Animation Creators Association The or JAniCA, is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving working conditions for workers in the anime industry. The group was formed in June 2007. History On October 15, 2007 over 500 animators gathered together to announce the formatio ...
. Studios will often work together to produce more complex and costly projects, as done with Studio Ghibli's ''
Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Tohokushinsha Film, and Mitsubishi and distrib ...
''. An anime episode can cost between US$100,000 and US$300,000 to produce. In 2001, animation accounted for 7% of the Japanese film market, above the 4.6% market share for live-action works. The popularity and success of anime is seen through the profitability of the DVD market, contributing nearly 70% of total sales. According to a 2016 article on Nikkei Asian Review, Japanese television stations have bought over worth of anime from production companies "over the past few years", compared with under from overseas. There has been a rise in sales of shows to television stations in Japan, caused by
late night anime In Japan, refers to anime series broadcast on television late at night or in the early hours of the morning, usually between 10 PM and 4 AM local time. Overview Late night anime is targeted towards Otaku from teens to adult audiences. One of the ...
with adults as the target demographic. This type of anime is less popular outside Japan, being considered "more of a niche product". ''
Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Tohokushinsha Film, and Mitsubishi and distrib ...
'' (2001) is the all-time highest-grossing film in Japan.''Gross'' * ::North American gross: $10,055,859 ::Japanese gross: $229,607,878 (March 31, 2002) ::Other territories: $


Japanese gross

* ::End of 2001: $227 million * ::Across 2001 and 2002: $270 million * ::As of 2008: $290 million
It was also the highest-grossing anime film worldwide until it was overtaken by
Makoto Shinkai , known as , is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, author, and manga artist. Shinkai began his career as a video game animator with Nihon Falcom in 1996, and gained recognition as a filmmaker with the release of the original video animation (OVA) ' ...
's 2016 film ''
Your Name is a 2016 Japanese animated romantic fantasy film produced by CoMix Wave Films. It depicts a high school boy in Tokyo and a high school girl in the Japanese countryside who suddenly and inexplicably begin to swap bodies. The film was commis ...
''. Anime films represent a large part of the highest-grossing Japanese films yearly in Japan, with 6 out of the top 10 in 2014, in 2015 and also in
2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...
. Anime has to be licensed by companies in other countries in order to be legally released. While anime has been licensed by its Japanese owners for use outside Japan since at least the 1960s, the practice became well-established in the United States in the late 1970s to early 1980s, when such TV series as ''
Gatchaman is a Japanese animated franchise about a five-member superhero ninja team created by Tatsuo Yoshida and produced by Tatsunoko Productions. The original anime series, which debuted in 1972, was eponymously entitled ''Kagaku Ninja-tai Gatcham ...
'' and ''
Captain Harlock is a fictional character and protagonist of the '' Space Pirate Captain Harlock'' manga series created by Leiji Matsumoto. Harlock is the archetypical Romantic hero, a space pirate with an individualist philosophy of life. He is as noble as ...
'' were licensed from their Japanese parent companies for distribution in the US market. The trend towards American distribution of anime continued into the 1980s with the licensing of titles such as ''
Voltron ''Voltron'' is an animated television series franchise that features a team of space explorers who pilot a giant Super Robot known as "Voltron". Produced by Peter Keefe (Executive Producer) and Ted Koplar through his production company World ...
'' and the 'creation' of new series such as ''
Robotech ''Robotech'' is a science fiction franchise that began with an 85-episode anime television series produced by Harmony Gold USA in association with Tatsunoko Production and first released in the United States in 1985. The show was adapted from ...
'' through use of source material from several original series. In the early 1990s, several companies began to experiment with the licensing of less children-oriented material. Some, such as A.D. Vision, and Central Park Media and its imprints, achieved fairly substantial commercial success and went on to become major players in the now very lucrative American anime market. Others, such as
AnimEigo AnimEigo is an American entertainment company that licenses and distributes anime, samurai films and Japanese cinema. Founded in 1988 by Robert Woodhead and Roe R. Adams III, the company was one of the first in North America dedicated to lic ...
, achieved limited success. Many companies created directly by Japanese parent companies did not do as well, most releasing only one or two titles before completing their American operations. Licenses are expensive, often hundreds of thousands of dollars for one series and tens of thousands for one movie.
ADV Court Documents Reveal Amounts Paid for 29 Anime Titles
''
The prices vary widely; for example, '' Jinki: Extend'' cost only $91,000 to license while ''
Kurau Phantom Memory ''Kurau Phantom Memory'' (stylized as ''KURAU Phantom Memory'') is a Japanese science fiction anime series, produced by Bones and Media Factory, which was broadcast in Japan by the anime television networks Animax and TV Asahi from June to Dec ...
'' cost $960,000. Simulcast Internet streaming rights can be cheaper, with prices around $1,000-$2,000 an episode, but can also be more expensive, with some series costing more than per episode. The anime market for the United States was worth approximately $2.74 billion in 2009, today in 2022 the anime market for the United States is worth approximately $25 billion. Dubbed animation began airing in the United States in 2000 on networks like
The WB The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on terrestrial television, broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture be ...
and Cartoon Network's
Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...
. In 2005, this resulted in five of the top ten anime titles having previously aired on Cartoon Network. As a part of localization, some
editing Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, o ...
of cultural references may occur to better follow the references of the non-Japanese culture. The cost of English localization averages US$10,000 per episode. The industry has been subject to both praise and condemnation for fansubs, the addition of unlicensed and unauthorized subtitled translations of anime series or films. Fansubs, which were originally distributed on VHS bootlegged cassettes in the 1980s, have been freely available and disseminated online since the 1990s. Since this practice raises concerns for copyright and piracy issues, fansubbers tend to adhere to an unwritten moral code to destroy or no longer distribute an anime once an official translated or subtitled version becomes licensed. They also try to encourage viewers to buy an official copy of the release once it comes out in English, although fansubs typically continue to circulate through file-sharing networks. Even so, the laid back regulations of the Japanese animation industry tend to overlook these issues, allowing it to grow underground and thus increasing the popularity until there is a demand for official high-quality releases for animation companies. This has led to an increase in global popularity with Japanese animations, reaching $40 million in sales in 2004. Since the 2010s anime has become a global multibillion industry setting a sales record in 2017 of ¥2.15 trillion ($19.8 billion), driven largely by demand from overseas audiences. In 2019, Japan's anime industry was valued at $24 billion a year with 48% of that revenue coming from overseas (which is now its largest industry sector). By 2025 the anime industry is expected to reach a value of $30 billion with over 60% of that revenue to come from overseas.


Markets

Japan External Trade Organization is an Independent Administrative Institution established by Japan Export Trade Research Organization as a nonprofit corporation in Osaka in February 1952, reorganized under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) in 1958 (later the ...
(JETRO) valued the domestic anime market in Japan at (), including from licensed products, in 2005. JETRO reported sales of overseas anime exports in 2004 to be (). JETRO valued the anime market in the United States at (), including in
home video Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming me ...
sales and over from licensed products, in 2005. JETRO projected in 2005 that the worldwide anime market, including sales of licensed products, would grow to (). The anime market in China was valued at in 2017, and is projected to reach by 2020. By 2030 the global anime market is expected to reach a value of $48.3 Billion with the largest contributors to this growth being North America,
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
, China and
The Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europea ...
. In 2019, the annual overseas exports of Japanese animation exceeded $10 billion for the first time in history.


Awards

The anime industry has several annual awards that honor the year's best works. Major annual awards in Japan include the
Ōfuji Noburō Award The is an animation award given at the Mainichi Film Awards. It is named after Japanese animator Noburō Ōfuji. History Following the death of pioneering animator Noburō Ōfuji in 1961, Mainichi established a new award in his honour to recogni ...
, the
Mainichi Film Award for Best Animation Film The is an award given to the best animated feature film at the Mainichi Film Awards. The award was established to reward large scale cinematic animation, enabling the Ōfuji Noburō Award to focus on shorter pieces. This award was first presented ...
, the
Animation Kobe The was an event established by Kobe in 1996 to promote anime and other visual media. The were given annually until 2015 by Kobe and the Organising Committee to creators and creations. Event Animation Kobe has been held annually in Kobe since ...
Awards, the
Japan Media Arts Festival The Japan Media Arts Festival is an annual festival held since 1997 by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. The festival begins with an open competition and culminates with the awarding of several prizes and an exhibition. Based on judging by a ...
animation awards, the
Tokyo Anime Award The Tokyo Anime Awards started in 2002, but was named in 2005. The first, second and third award ceremonies were simply named 'Competition'. The award ceremonies were held at the Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF) until 2013. In 2014, after th ...
and the
Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. In the United States, anime films compete in the
Crunchyroll Anime Awards The Crunchyroll Anime Awards, also known simply as The Anime Awards, are awards given annually by the anime streaming service Crunchyroll to recognize the best anime of the previous year. Announced in December 2016, the awards were first presen ...
. There were also the American Anime Awards, which were designed to recognize excellence in anime titles nominated by the industry, and were held only once in 2006. Anime productions have also been nominated and won awards not exclusively for anime, like the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature or the
Golden Bear The Golden Bear (german: Goldener Bär) is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival. The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin, featured on both the coat of arms and flag of Berlin. History The win ...
.


Working conditions

In recent years, the anime industry has been accused by both Japanese and foreign media for underpaying and overworking its animators. In response the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida promised to improve the working conditions and salary of all animators and creators working in the industry. A few anime studios such as MAPPA have taken actions to improve the working conditions of their employees. There has also been a slight increase in production costs and animator pays during the COVID-19 pandemic.


Globalization and cultural impact

Anime has become commercially profitable in
Western countries The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.
, as demonstrated by early commercially successful Western adaptations of anime, such as ''
Astro Boy ''Astro Boy'', known in Japan by its original name , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka. It was serialized in Kobunsha's ''Shōnen'' from 1952 to 1968. The 112 chapters were collected into 23 '' tankōbon'' ...
'' and ''
Speed Racer ''Speed Racer'', also known as , is a Japanese media franchise about Auto racing, automobile racing. ''Mach GoGoGo'' was originally serialized in print in Shueisha's 1966 ''Shōnen Book''. It was released in tankōbon book form by Sun W ...
''. Early American adaptions in the 1960s made Japan expand into the continental European market, first with productions aimed at European and Japanese children, such as ''Heidi'', ''
Vicky the Viking ''Vicky the Viking'', known as ''Wickie und die starken Männer'' () in Germany and Austria and in Japan, is an animated television series which tells the adventures of Vicky, a young Viking boy who uses his wits to help his Viking fellows. It ...
'' and ''
Barbapapa ''Barbapapa'' is a 1970 children's picture book by the French-American couple Annette Tison and Talus Taylor, who lived in Paris, France. Barbapapa is both the title character and the name of his "species". The book was the first of a series of ...
'', which aired in various countries.
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
,
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...
, and
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
grew a particular interest into Japan's output, due to its cheap selling price and productive output. In fact, Italy imported the most anime outside of Japan. These mass imports influenced anime popularity in
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
n,
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
and German markets. The beginning of 1980 saw the introduction of Japanese anime series into the American culture. In the 1990s, Japanese animation slowly gained popularity in America. Media companies such as Viz and Mixx began publishing and releasing animation into the American market. The 1988 film '' Akira'' is largely credited with popularizing anime in the Western world during the early 1990s, before anime was further popularized by television shows such as '' Pokémon'' and '' Dragon Ball Z'' in the late 1990s. By 1997, Japanese anime was the fastest-growing genre in the American video industry. The growth of the Internet later provided international audiences an easy way to access Japanese content. Early on, online piracy played a major role in this, through over time many legal alternatives appeared. Since the 2010s various streaming services have become increasingly involved in the production and licensing of anime for the international markets. This is especially the case with net services such as
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
and Crunchyroll which have large catalogs in Western countries, although as of 2020 anime fans in many developing non-Western countries, such as
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
, have fewer options of obtaining access to legal content, and therefore still turn to online piracy. However beginning with the early 2020s anime has been experiencing yet another boom in global popularity and demand due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
and streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video,
HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...
, Hulu and anime-only services like Crunchyroll, increasing the international availability of the amount of new licensed anime shows as well as the size of their catalogs. Netflix reported that, between October 2019 and September 2020, more than member households worldwide had watched at least one anime title on the platform. Anime titles appeared on the streaming platforms top 10 lists in almost 100 countries within the 1-year period. As of 2021, Japanese anime are the most demanded foreign language shows in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
accounting for 30.5% of the market share(In comparison, Spanish and Korean shows account for 21% and 11% of the market share). In 2021 more than half of Netflix's global members watched anime. In 2022, the anime series '' Attack on Titan'' won the award of "Most In-Demand TV Series in the World 2021" in the Global TV Demand Awards. ''Attack on Titan'' became the first ever non-English language series to earn the title of "World's Most In-Demand TV Show", previously held by only '' The Walking Dead'' and '' Game of Thrones''. Rising interest in anime as well as Japanese video games has led to an increase of university students in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
wanting to get a degree in the
Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ...
. Various anime and manga series have influenced Hollywood in the making of numerous famous movies and characters. Hollywood itself has produced
live-action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...
adaptations of various anime series such as ''
Ghost in the Shell ''Ghost in the Shell'' is a Japanese cyberpunk media franchise based on the seinen manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. The manga, first serialized in 1989 under the subtitle of ''The Ghost in the Shell'' ...
'', '' Death Note'', ''
Dragon Ball Evolution ''Dragonball Evolution'' is a 2009 American science fantasy superhero-martial arts film directed by James Wong, produced by Stephen Chow, and written by Ben Ramsey. It is based on the Japanese ''Dragon Ball'' manga series created by Akira Toriyam ...
'' and '' Cowboy Bebop''. However most of these adaptations have been reviewed negatively by both the critics and the audience and have become box-office flops. The main reasons for the unsuccessfulness of Hollywood's adaptions of anime being the often change of plot and characters from the original source material and the limited capabilities a live-action movie or series can do in comparison to an animated counterpart. One particular exception however is '' Alita: Battle Angel'', which has become a moderate commercial success, receiving generally positive reviews from both the critics and the audience for its visual effects and following the source material. The movie grossed $404 million worldwide, making it directors Robert Rodriguez's highest-grossing film. Anime alongside many other parts of Japanese pop culture has helped Japan to gain a positive worldwide image and improve its relations with other countries. In 2015, during remarks welcoming Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍 晋三, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 20 ...
to the White House, President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
thanked Japan for its cultural contributions to the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
by saying: In July 2020, after the approval of a Chilean government project in which citizens of
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
would be allowed to withdraw up to 10% of their privately held retirement savings, journalist Pamela Jiles celebrated by running through Congress with her arms spread out behind her, imitating the move of many characters of the anime and manga series ''
Naruto ''Naruto'' is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, a young ninja who seeks recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village. T ...
''. In April 2021,
Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
vian politicians Jorge Hugo Romero of the PPC and Milagros Juárez of the UPP cosplayed as anime characters to get the ''
otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in '' Manga Burikko''. may be used as a pejorat ...
'' vote. A 2018 survey conducted in 20 countries and territories using a sample consisting of 6,600 respondents held by
Dentsu Dentsu Inc. ( ja, 株式会社電通 ''Kabushiki-gaisha Dentsū'' or 電通 ''Dentsū'' for short) is a Japanese international advertising and public relations joint stock company headquartered in Tokyo. Dentsu is currently the largest advertis ...
revealed that 34% of all surveyed people found excellency in anime and manga more than other Japanese cultural or technological aspects which makes this mass Japanese media the 3rd most liked "Japanese thing", below
Japanese cuisine Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan (Japanese: ) is based on rice with miso soup and oth ...
(34.6%) and Japanese robotics (35.1%). The advertisement company views anime as a profitable tool for marketing campaigns in foreign countries due its popularity and high reception. Anime plays a role in driving tourism to Japan. In surveys held by
Statista   Statista is an online platform specialized in market and consumer data, which offers statistics & reports, market insights, cosumer insights and company insights in German, English, Spanish and French. In addition to publicly available thi ...
between 2019 and 2020, 24.2% of tourists from the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, 7.7% of tourists from China and 6.1% of tourists from
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
said they were motivated to visit Japan because of
Japanese popular culture Japanese popular culture includes Japanese cinema, cuisine, television programs, anime, manga, video games, music, and doujinshi, all of which retain older artistic and literary traditions; many of their themes and styles of presentation can be ...
. In a 2021 survey held by Crunchyroll market research, 94% of Gen-Z's and 73% of the general population said that they are familiar with anime.


Fan response

Anime clubs gave rise to
anime convention An anime convention is an event or gathering with a primary focus on anime, manga and Japanese culture. Commonly, anime conventions are multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels or college campuses. They feature a wide variety of activ ...
s in the 1990s with the "anime boom", a period marked by anime's increased global popularity. These conventions are dedicated to anime and manga and include elements like cosplay contests and industry talk panels. Cosplay, a
portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsotaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in '' Manga Burikko''. may be used as a pejorat ...
'', an unflattering Japanese term commonly used in English to denote an obsessive fan of anime and/or manga. Another word that has arisen describing obsessive fans in the United States is ''wapanese'' meaning 'white individuals who want to be Japanese', or later known as ''weeaboo'' or ''weeb'', individuals who demonstrate an obsession in Japanese anime subculture, a term that originated from abusive content posted on the website 4chan.org. While originally derogatory, the terms "Otaku" and "Weeb" have been
reappropriated In linguistics, reappropriation, reclamation, or resignification is the cultural process by which a group reclaims words or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group. It is a specific form of a semantic change (i.e. ...
by some in the anime fandom overtime and today are used by some fans to refer to themselves in a comedic and more positive way. Anime enthusiasts have produced fan fiction and
fan art Fan art or fanart is artwork created by fans of a work of fiction and derived from a series character or other aspect of that work. They are usually done by amateur artists, semi-professionals or professionals. As fan labor, fan art refers t ...
, including computer wallpapers and
anime music video An anime music video (AMV) is a fan-made music video consisting of clips from one or more Japanese animated shows or movies set to an audio track, often songs or promotional trailer audio. The term is generally specific to Japanese anime, howev ...
s (AMVs). Many fans will visit sites depicted in anime, games, manga and other forms of otaku culture, this behavior is known as Anime pilgrimage As of the 2020s, many anime fans use social media platforms like
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
,
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
,
Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, imag ...
and
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
(which has added an entire "anime and manga" category of topics) with online communities and databases such as MyAnimeList to discuss anime, manga and track their progress watching respective series as well as using news outlets such as Anime News Network. Due to anime's increased popularity in recent years, a large number of celebrities such as
Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The ...
,
BTS BTS (), also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2010 and debuting in 2013 under Big Hit Entertainment. The septet—consisting of members Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook—co-writes and co-pr ...
and Ariana Grande have come out as anime fans.


Anime style

One of the key points that made anime different from a handful of Western cartoons is the potential for visceral content. Once the expectation that the aspects of visual intrigue or animation being just for children is put aside, the audience can realize that themes involving violence, suffering, sexuality, pain, and death can all be storytelling elements utilized in anime just as much as other media. However, as anime itself became increasingly popular, its styling has been inevitably the subject of both satire and serious creative productions. '' South Park''s "
Chinpokomon "Chinpokomon" is the eleventh-aired and the tenth-produced episode of the South Park (season 3), third season of the American animated television series ''South Park''. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on November 3, 1999 ...
" and "
Good Times with Weapons "Good Times with Weapons" is episode 112 of ''South Park''. The first episode of season 8, it originally aired on March 17, 2004. In the episode, the boys are transformed into Japanese warriors after they buy martial arts weapons at a local marke ...
" episodes,
Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...
's ''
Perfect Hair Forever ''Perfect Hair Forever'' is an American adult animated television series created by Mike Lazzo, Matt Harrigan, and Matt Maiellaro for Cartoon Network's late night programming block Adult Swim. The series revolves around a young boy named Gerald ...
'', and
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...
's ''
Kappa Mikey ''Kappa Mikey'' is an American animated television series created by Larry Schwarz. The show was created by Schwarz's studio Animation Collective. The series premiered on February 25, 2006 and ended on September 20, 2008. 52 episodes were produced ...
'' are examples of Western satirical depictions of Japanese culture and anime, but anime tropes have also been satirized by some anime such as ''
KonoSuba is a Japanese light novel series written by Natsume Akatsuki. The series follows Kazuma Sato, a boy who is sent to a fantasy world with MMORPG elements following his death, where he forms a dysfunctional adventuring party wi ...
.'' Traditionally only Japanese works have been considered anime, but some works have sparked debate for blurring the lines between anime and cartoons, such as the American anime-style production ''
Avatar: The Last Airbender ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' (abbreviated as ''ATLA''), also known as ''Avatar: The Legend of Aang'' in some regions or simply ''Avatar'', is an American anime-influenced animated television series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and ...
''. These anime-styled works have become defined as
anime-influenced animation Anime-influenced animation refers to non-Japanese works of animation that are similar to or inspired by anime. Generally, the term ''anime'' refers to a style of animation originating from Japan. As Japanese anime became increasingly popular, Wes ...
, in an attempt to classify all anime styled works of non-Japanese origin. Some creators of these works cite anime as a source of inspiration, for example the French production team for ''
Ōban Star-Racers is a French-Japanese anime television series created by Savin Yeatman-Eiffel of Sav! The World Productions in association with multiple international companies. Originally produced as a short movie titled ''Molly Star Racer'', a television series ...
'' that moved to Tokyo to collaborate with a Japanese production team. When anime is defined as a "style" rather than as a national product, it leaves open the possibility of anime being produced in other countries, but this has been contentious amongst fans, with John Oppliger stating, "The insistence on referring to original American art as Japanese "anime" or "manga" robs the work of its cultural identity." A
U.A.E. The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
-
Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...
produced TV series called ''Torkaizer'' is dubbed as the "Middle East's First Anime Show", and is currently in production and looking for funding. Netflix has produced multiple anime series in collaboration with Japanese animation studios, and in doing so, has offered a more accessible channel for distribution to Western markets. The web-based series ''
RWBY ''RWBY'' (pronounced "Ruby") is an American Anime-influenced animation, anime-influenced Computer animation, computer-animated web series created by Monty Oum for Rooster Teeth. It is set in the fictional world of Remnant, where young people tr ...
'', produced by
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
-based company
Rooster Teeth Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC is an American digital media company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2003 by Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, Gus Sorola, and Joel Heyman, Rooster Teeth is a subsidiary of Warner ...
, is produced using an anime art style, and the series has been described as "anime" by multiple sources. For example, ''Adweek'', in the headline to one of its articles, described the series as "American-made anime", and in another headline, ''HuffPost, The Huffington Post'' described it as simply "anime", without referencing its country of origin. In 2013, Monty Oum, the creator of ''RWBY'', said "Some believe just like Scotch needs to be made in Scotland, an American company can't make anime. I think that's a narrow way of seeing it. Anime is an art form, and to say only one country can make this art is wrong." ''RWBY'' has been released in Japan with a Japanese language dub; the CEO of
Rooster Teeth Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC is an American digital media company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2003 by Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, Gus Sorola, and Joel Heyman, Rooster Teeth is a subsidiary of Warner ...
, Matt Hullum, commented "This is the first time any American-made anime has been marketed to Japan. It definitely usually works the other way around, and we're really pleased about that."


Media franchises

In Japanese culture and entertainment, media mix is a strategy to disperse content across multiple representations: different broadcast media, gaming technologies, cell phones, toys, amusement parks, and other methods.Henry Jenkins, ''Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide''
p. 110
/ref> It is the Japanese term for a Media franchise#Transmedia franchise, transmedia franchise.Marc Steinberg, ''Anime's Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan'' The term gained its circulation in late 1980s, but the origins of the strategy can be traced back to the 1960s with the proliferation of anime, with its interconnection of media and commodity goods.Steinberg
p. vi
A number of anime and manga media franchises such as ''Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba'', ''Dragon Ball'' and ''
Gundam is a Japanese military fiction media franchise. Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise (now Bandai Namco Filmworks), the franchise features giant robots, or mecha, with the name "Gundam". The franchise began on April 7, 1979, with ''Mobile ...
'' have gained considerable global popularity, and are among the world's List of highest-grossing media franchises, highest-grossing media franchises. '' Pokémon'' in particular is estimated to be the highest-grossing media franchise of all time.


See also

* Animation director * Chinese animation * Cinema of Japan * Cool Japan * Culture of Japan * History of anime * Japanophilia *
Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ...
*
Japanese popular culture Japanese popular culture includes Japanese cinema, cuisine, television programs, anime, manga, video games, music, and doujinshi, all of which retain older artistic and literary traditions; many of their themes and styles of presentation can be ...
* Korean animation * Lists of anime * Manga * ''Mechademia'' * Otaku * Vtuber * Voice acting in Japan


Notes


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links

* * {{Authority control Anime, 1917 introductions Anime and manga terminology Japanese inventions