Anime

130 languages
 Article
 Talk
 Read
 View source
 View history
Tools



















From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not to be confused with Amine.

Part of a series on

Anime and manga

hide
Anime

 History
 Voice acting
 Companies
 Studios
 Original video animation
 Original net animation
 Fansub
 Fandub
 Lists
o Longest series
o Longest franchises

show

Manga

show

Demographic groups

show

Genres

show

People

show

Fandom

show

General

Anime and manga portal

 v
 t
 e

Part of a series on the

Culture of Japan
 show

History

show

People

show

Languages

show

Traditions

show

Mythology and Folklore

show

Cuisine

show

Festivals

show
 Religion

show

Art

show

Literature

show

Music and Performing arts

show

Media

show

Sport

show

Monuments

show

Symbols

show

Organisations

 Japan portal
  v
 t
 e

Anime (Japanese: アニメ, IPA: [aꜜɲime] ⓘ) is hand-drawn and computer-generated anim

ation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, anime refers specifically to
animation produced in Japan.[1] However, in Japan and Japanese, anime (a term derived
from a shortening of the English word animation) describes all animated works,
regardless of style or origin. Many works of animation with a similar style to Japanese
animation are also produced outside Japan. Video games sometimes also feature
themes and art styles that can be considered as anime.
The earliest commercial Japanese animation dates 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, or video games. It is classified into numerous genres targeting
various broad and niche audiences.[2]
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.
[3]
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.[3] Diverse art styles are used, and character
proportions and features can be quite varied, with a common characteristic feature
being large and emotive eyes.[4]
The anime industry consists of over 430 production companies, including major studios
such as Studio Ghibli, Kyoto Animation, Sunrise, Bones, Ufotable, MAPPA, Wit
Studio, CoMix Wave Films, Production I.G, and Toei Animation. 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.[5] As of 2016, Japanese animation accounted for 60%
of the world's animated television shows.[6]
Etymology
As a type of animation, anime is an art form that comprises many genres found in other
mediums; it is sometimes mistakenly classified as a genre itself.[7] In Japanese, the
term anime is used to refer to all animated works, regardless of style or origin.[8] English-
language dictionaries typically define anime (/ˈænɪmeɪ/)[9] as "a style of Japanese
animation"[10] or as "a style of animation originating in Japan".[11] Other definitions are
based on origin, making production in Japan a requisite for a work to be considered
"anime".[12]
The etymology of the term anime is disputed. The English word "animation" is written in
Japanese katakana as アニメーション (animēshon) and as アニメ
(anime, pronounced [a.ɲi.me] ⓘ) in its shortened form.[12] Some sources claim that the term
is derived from the French term for animation dessin animé ("cartoon", literally
'animated drawing'),[13] but others believe this to be a myth derived from the popularity of
anime in France in the late 1970s and 1980s.[12]
In English, anime—when used as a common noun—normally functions as a mass noun.
(For example: "Do you watch anime?" or "How much anime have you collected?")[14][15] 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,
a portmanteau of Japan and animation, was prevalent throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
In the mid-1980s, the term anime began to supplant Japanimation;[16] in general, the
latter term now only appears in period works where it is used to distinguish and identify
Japanese animation.[17]
History
Main article: History of anime
Precursors
Emakimono and shadow plays (kage-e) are considered precursors of Japanese
animation.[18] Emakimono was common in the eleventh century. Traveling storytellers
narrated legends and anecdotes while the emakimono was unrolled from the right to left
in chronological order, as a moving panorama.[18] Kage-e was popular during the Edo
period and originated from the shadow plays of China.[18] Magic lanterns from the
Netherlands were also popular in the eighteenth century.[18] The paper play
called kamishibai surged in the twelfth century and remained popular in the street
theater until the 1930s.[18] Puppets of the Bunraku theater and ukiyo-e prints are
considered ancestors of characters of most Japanese animation.[18] Finally, manga were
a heavy inspiration for anime. Cartoonists Kitzawa Rakuten and Okamoto Ippei used
film elements in their strips.[18]
Pioneers

A frame from Namakura Gatana (1917), the oldest

surviving Japanese animated short film made for cinemas
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.[19] A claim for the earliest Japanese animation is Katsudō Shashin (c. 1907),[20] a
private work by an unknown creator.[21] 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.[22] Many early works
were lost with the destruction of Shimokawa's warehouse in the 1923 Great Kantō
earthquake.[23]
By the mid-1930s, animation was well-established in Japan as an alternative format to
the live-action industry. It suffered competition from foreign producers, such as Disney,
and many animators, including Noburō Ōfuji and Yasuji Murata, continued to work with
cheaper cutout animation rather than cel animation.[24] Other creators, including Kenzō
Masaoka and Mitsuyo Seo, nevertheless made great strides in technique, benefiting
from the patronage of the government, which employed animators to produce
educational shorts and propaganda.[25] In 1940, the government dissolved several artists'
organizations to form the Shin Nippon Mangaka Kyōkai.[a][26] The first talkie anime
was Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka (1933), a short film produced by Masaoka.[27][28] The
first feature-length anime film was Momotaro: Sacred Sailors (1945), produced by Seo
with a sponsorship from the Imperial Japanese Navy.[29] The 1950s saw a proliferation of
short, animated advertisements created for television.[30]
Modern era

Frame from the opening sequence of Tezuka's 1963 TV

series Astro Boy
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.
[31]
Originally intended as temporary measures to allow him to produce material on a tight
schedule with inexperienced staff, many of his limited animation practices came to
define the medium's style.[32] Three Tales (1960) was the first anime film broadcast on
television;[33] the first anime television series was Instant History (1961–64).[34] 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,
and Pierrot).
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"), for instance, took shape under Tezuka, developed into the super
robot genre under Go Nagai and others, and was revolutionized at the end of the
decade by Yoshiyuki Tomino, who developed the real robot genre.[35] Robot anime series
such as Gundam and Super Dimension Fortress Macross became instant classics in
the 1980s, and the genre remained one of the most popular in the following decades.
[36]
The bubble economy 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).[37]
Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995), a television series produced by Gainax and directed
by Hideaki Anno, began another era of experimental anime titles, such as 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, a Studio Ghibli feature film directed by Hayao
Miyazaki, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy
Awards. It later became the highest-grossing anime film,[b] earning more than
$355 million. Since the 2000s, an increased number of anime works have been
adaptations of light novels and visual novels; successful examples include The
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Fate/stay night (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.[38][39] It also became the fastest
grossing film in Japanese cinema, because in 10 days it made 10 billion yen ($95.3m;
£72m).[39] It beat the previous record of Spirited Away which took 25 days.[39][40][41][42][43]
In 2021, the anime adaptations of Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no
Yaiba and Tokyo Revengers were among the top 10 most discussed TV shows
worldwide on Twitter.[44][45] In 2022, 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.[46]
Attributes
 Anime artists employ many distinct visual
styles.
Clockwise from the top left: Dead Leaves, Flag, Serial Experiments
Lain, Monster, Mind Game, Lucky Star, Cat Soup, and Gurren Lagann.
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.[47] 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.[48][49]
Technique
Modern anime follows a typical animation production process,
involving storyboarding, voice acting, 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 animation of paper cutouts, and silhouette
animation.[50][51] 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,[52] including the stop motion puppet animation work produced
by Tadahito Mochinaga, Kihachirō Kawamoto and Tomoyasu Murata.[53][54] Computers
were integrated into the animation process in the 1990s, with works such as Ghost in
the Shell and Princess Mononoke mixing cel animation with computer-generated
images.[55] 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.[55]
Prior to the digital era, anime was produced with traditional animation methods using a
pose to pose approach.[50] The majority of mainstream anime uses fewer expressive key
frames and more in-between animation.[56]
Japanese animation studios were pioneers of many limited animation techniques, and
have given anime a distinct set of conventions. Unlike Disney 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.
[57]
Anime scenes place emphasis on achieving three-dimensional views, and
backgrounds are instrumental in creating the atmosphere of the work.[19] 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.[58]
[59]
Oppliger stated that anime is one of the rare mediums where putting together an all-
star cast usually comes out looking "tremendously impressive".[60]
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.[61][62][63] In anime, the animation is produced before the voice
acting, contrary to American animation which does the voice acting first.[64]
Characters

Anime character design is diverse, but often incorporates

common elements depending on the target demographic and era. These are
representative samples.
Clockwise from the top left: Ashita no Joe (1970), Macross: Do You Remember
Love? (1984), Ghost in the Shell (1995), K-On! (2009), Your Name (2016), The Hidden
Dungeon Only I Can Enter (2021), Fruits Basket (2001), and Rurouni Kenshin (1996).
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.[65] Anime artists occasionally make deliberate
modifications to body proportions to produce super deformed 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.

Wikipe-tan (#1) portrayed in various anime

art styles. Counting from No. 2 to 9, each art style base: original work, Kyoto
Animation, Naruto, Type-Moon, Case Closed, Sailor Moon, Fujiko Fujio, Studio Ghibli,
and Makoto Shinkai.
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.[66] 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.[67] 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.[68][69] Cultural
anthropologist Rachel Thorn argues that Japanese animators and audiences do not
perceive such stylized eyes as inherently more or less foreign.[70] However, not all anime
characters have large eyes. For example, the works of Hayao Miyazaki are known for
having realistically proportioned eyes, as well as realistic hair colors on their characters.
[71]
Hair in anime is often unnaturally lively and colorful or uniquely styled. The movement of
hair in anime is exaggerated and "hair actions" is used to emphasize the action and
emotions of characters for added visual effect.[72] Poitras traces hairstyle color to cover
illustrations on manga, where eye-catching artwork and colorful tones are attractive for
children's manga.[72] 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.[73]

Anime and manga artists often draw from a shared iconography to represent particular emotions.

Anime and manga artists often draw from a common canon of iconic facial expression
illustrations to denote particular moods and thoughts.[74] 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.[75] For
example, a male character may develop a nosebleed when aroused.[75] A variety of
visual symbols are employed, including sweat drops to depict nervousness, visible
blushing for embarrassment, or glowing eyes for an intense glare.[76] Another recurring
sight gag is the use of chibi (deformed, simplified character designs) figures to
comedically punctuate emotions like confusion or embarrassment.[75]