All right, thats what the word means, so what is Anime?
To get a little more in depth, animation in Japan is a different industry than it has been in America. In Japan, although there are also animated TV series and movies made for kids, a lot of animation is created with teens and adults in mind. In recent years (spurred partly by anime) this kind of animation has become drastically more popular in the US–some examples are the Simpsons, Doctor Katz, The Venture Brothers and much of the other material on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, the old Hobbit movies, Titan AE, and the infamous Fritz the Cat. Japan, however, has been doing it for a lot longer, does a lot more of it, and (at least in the opinion of most anime fans) is generally better at it. Anime encompasses a wide range of animation produced in Japan (as well as other countries) that has a similar, relatively realistic style (you know, with the big eyes? Remember Speed Racer?), but the genres are a varied as those in live action movies. There are sci-fi stories, comedies (both of the
The anime style was pioneered by Osamu Tezuka, in particular with his seminal series Astroboy, a franchise that continues to be popular over a half-century later. He established an art style and was among the first to feature strong characterization, more emotional content, and a tendency toward fantastic settings. That style expanded into an ever-broader range of genres, and around the ’70s movies and series targeted at adults proliferated. The range of visual styles, stories, and creative visions has continued to increase since then. Anime today is no longer a genre so much as a broad artistic movement; within it you can find a representation of nearly any sort of story imaginable. There are sci-fi stories, comedies (both of the silly and more adult type), action flicks of every flavor (much anime, but by no means all of it, fits here), romance stories (from adolescent girl stuff all the way to adult romantic drama), dramas (some of very high quality), and even literary adaptations.
