Anime - an Animation Style from Japan

Anime is the Japanese term for animation. Outside Japan, anime refers specifically to animation style from Japan, that’s often represented using flashy art styles, colorful characters and bizzare themes. In order to differentiate it from other animations, anime is strictly viewed as a Japanese animation product. The earliest confirmed anime dates back to 1917, and production has continued to increase since then. The modern anime art style emerged in the 1960s and spread internationally in the late twentieth century, where it developed a large domestic and international audience.

Anime is distributed by way of television broadcasts, directly to home media, and mainly over the Internet. It is classified into numerous genres to suit its large and diverse audience. It’s distinctive art styles, production methods and techniques that have been adapted to evolving technologies over time makes it a continually evolving genre. It consists of diverse story-telling, unique artstyle, characterization, cinematography, and other artistic techniques. The production of anime does not solely focus on the animation of how things move but on how realistic the settings and characters are and the use of camera effects to amplify a scenes’ atmosphere. Since anime is hand-drawn, it’s separated from reality by a crucial gap of fictional themes and characters, which audiences can immerse themselves into.

The art styles of anime can be either different or similar to each other depending on what one watches, but the surroundings and proportions of characters are in similar styles.The anime industry consists of over 430 production studios, with some major names being, Toei Animation, Madhouse and Funimation. It has also seen international success after the rise of English-dubbed programming. As a result of its rising international popularity some foreign productions have have been using anime art style, but those works are described as anime-influenced to differentiate from seperate them from actual anime.

In 1917 the first format of anime was theatrical viewing. the animated flips were originally cheap and before adding sound and vocal components to the production musical components were played. It wasn’t until the 1960s that anime was broadcast to television. The works released directly to a video format are called "original video animation" (OVA). Thanks to the emergence of the Internet, some animators distributed works online in a format called "original net anime" (ONA) The home distribution of anime releases became popular in the 1980s with the VHS and Laserdisc formats. The VHS and television video format used in both Japan and the United States and aided in the rising popularity animes 1990s. The Laserdisc and VHS formats were eclipsed by the DVD format. It offered unique advantages over the other two, including multiple subtitling and dubbing tracks on the same disc. The DVD format also had its drawbacks due to its usage of region coding. It was adopted by the industry to solve licensing, piracy and export problems and restricted region indicated on the DVD player.

Various anime are often classified by a target demographic, which include childrens', girls' (shoujo), boys' (shounen) and other genres targeting an adult audience. Shoujo and shounen anime sometimes contain elements popular with children of both sexes in an attempt to gain both genders’ appeal. Anime targeted towards adults may feature a slower pace or greater plot complexity that younger audiences might find unappealing, as well as adult themes and situations. Some anime subgenres incorporate ecchi, which are sexual themes or undertones without depictions of sexual intercourse, as it's normal in the comedic or harem genres; due to its popularity among adolescent and adult anime enthusiasts, such elements are considered a form of fan service.

Anime's genre classification is different from other types of animation and is not simple identity. Science fiction is a major anime genre and includes historical works like Tezuka's Astro Boy. A major subgenre of science fiction is mecha, with the Gundam metaseries being iconic in it. The diverse fantasy genre includes works based on Asian and Western traditions and folklore some examples include the fairy tale InuYasha, and the depiction of Scandinavian goddesses who move to Japan in Ah! My Goddess. Genre crossing in anime is also prevalent, such as the blend of action, adventure and comedy in Dragon Ball, and the incorporation of gags and slapstick humor in the action, sci-fi anime Gintama. Other subgenres found in anime are harem, sports, war, magical girl, and martial arts.

Anime is a form of animation that has very unique and specific ways of making it. It’s not about the movement of characters or background, it’s the story, unique artstyle, and realism of the environment that makes watchers get interested in what the show is about. It’s about how it appeals to the audience, and how far it dates back is also an example of how timeless it is. How it was able to go on for over one hundred years shows how its animation style has been improving to keep up with modern technology.