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anime history
What's anime?
Anime as an artform
Just by watching anime many people have noticed that the
style is like no other. The basic style of anime(created by the late Dr.Osamu
"GOD of Manga" Tezuka) has it's characters with big eyes,anatonomy that's exagerated,unique
hairstyles and indepth story telling. Unlike american cartoons and
thier candy cotted goodness and unrealistic themes of living happily ever after,
anime has complex/realistic storylines that have for decades shocked american
audiences.
Anime as a medium
American audiences have often complained
about the graphic nature of anime. There are those who would say that
anime is nothing more than sex and violence. This however is far from the truth.
What american audiences fail to understand is that in japan they don't get so
"hung up" on sex,violence,nudity or even homosexuality. Anime is considered a
medium much like the american film industry. To put it in another way, watching
anime is much like watching regular movies. As a medium anime services all genres
and all ages.From action,comedy,romance and sci-fi. Here are a few examples
of different types of anime
Kodomo(Childrens anime):This type of anime
is usually fantasies with cute characters (I.E. Hello Kitty, Toma and Friends
and Hamtaro.)
Shounen(young boys anime): Designed for young boys
and foucses on action and battling super-villains. (I.E. Dragonball Z, Yu-GI-Oh
and Street Fighter)
Seinen(young males): Directed at older men. Being
more graphic and mature than shounen with political themes. (I.E. 3x3 Eyes,Jin-Roh
and Jo Jo's Bizzare adventure)
Shoujo(young girls): Focuses
on romance,drama and emotions with females as the main characters. (I.E. Marmalade
Boy, Sailor Moon(though not a true Shoujo with it's action) and Kara Kano.
Anime
is released on both DVD or VHS. In both Subtilted(this is when
the characters speak in thier original japanese language with english subtitles)
and Dubbed(anime characters speaking in english). Most anime fans prefer sub
over dub. Dubbed anime have voice actors who sometimes do not fit an anime character.However
there are anime fans that prefer dubbed since some say they are
not able to read well, the subtitles are in the way of that beutiful animation
or the subtitles are not done very well.
Anime as a culture
There
are anime fans that not only watch anime for story and art but for japanese
culture.By wathcing anime subtitled many anime fans have picked up on a few japanese
words.It is through anime that the japanese culture has become more appealing
to anime fans.Nowadays anime fans not only watch japanese animation but wear
japanese clothing,tatoos and eat japanese food.
There are anime that
are based on japanese and even Chinese history/legends. Some examples of this
would be an anime series called "Rurouni Kenshin".The story takes place in the
Meiji-era which a real era in japanese history. Another example would be, believe
it or not, DragonBall.This ever popular anime is loosely based upon the chinese
legend of the "Monky King".Both main characters share the same name as well
as ,shall we say, "mean of transportation"(riding a cloud) both have the same
weapon(the red power poll that extends and contracts) Those are just a few of
the many anime based on japanese history.
Manga
Manga(japanese
comics) is what anime is loosly based on. Like anime, manga service all genre's
unlike american comics fuled by there capes and tights heroes. Manga is read
from right to left instead of left to right and are printed in black and white.
Manga is also printed weekly in about the size of phone books. Here in america
manga is brought overseas in the form of graphic novels at either your local
comicbook stores,anime stores or (if you live in the District of columbia)some
of your local libraries.If you live in the District take full advantage of the
libraries that have manga.
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