Overview

S'ok, maybe you've heard of this crazy stuff. It's a cartoon, only, it's not cartoony. There's something different, something off, something that just doesn't fit in with your standard Saturday morning fare. Well, for one thing, the eyes are all wrong, way too big, and the mouth is too small - unless the character is shouting, in which case it's probably bigger than the character's head would be normally. And then there's the technicolor rainbow of hair colors, from your basic black to neon pink - sometimes on the same character! And then, there's one other thing, something that really stands out amongst the SatAM crowd... You see, most these strange, not-cartoony cartoons have stories that you are quite certain would curl the toes of your cute little toddler brother. In fact, it's even fair to say that a lot of them seem to be aimed toward adults - especially those naughty ones by that Pink Pineapple studio.

DON'T PANIC!

You see, you've just taken your first step toward the world of Anime, or Japanese Animation. Someday, should you choose to continue down this path, you may reach the venerable rank of Otaku! So what, exactly, IS anime? Well, the simple explanation is this: It's animation that was written, animated and produced in Japan, for Japanese viewers. Unlike American Animation, the target audience of anime is most often adults in the 16-40's range, though just like American Animation there is some anime aimed at children as well. Many anime characters often have one particular, readily noticeable trait: they usually have very large eyes, and small mouths. This is because in Japan, large eyes suggests innocence.

Because most anime is aimed not toward children, but at young adults instead, the storylines are quite different from the Saturday AM cartoons and Disney Toons that most State-siders of the same age grew up with. Often times an anime story deals with the same sort of issues that are usually reserved for drama shows in the US. But that's the first big draw of anime - even though it's animation, it's made for mature viewers, meaning that viewers can enjoy it for something more than nostalgia and slapstick humor. This is also the first real disconnect that you probably felt the first time you saw genuine anime as opposed to American animation - for most Americans, the idea that animation is for children has been ingrained in us since our first Looney Toons short.

Anime != SatAM Toons

Ok, let's review - so far we've learned that Anime is Japanese Animation, that it's aimed toward young-adults, and that animation isn't necessarily for children. Everybody taking notes? Good!

One of the fundamental differences between Japanese and American animation is that anime plotlines are usually infinitely more complex than their American counterparts. The typical SatAM toon usually has a fairly simple story - Good guy fights bad guy over control of something - generally the something spells the end of the world should the bad guy get it. Each episode rehashes the same basic can the hero defeat the latest attempt to gain the upper hand by the bad guy, with some token character development that gets reset in the next week's episode to spruce up the episode a little. Most episodes wrap up 'clean', with all questions answered, nothing left open to debate - unless it's a two parter.

Anime, on the other hand, often have layers of plot that rival those of the great writers - Terry Brooks, JRR Tolkien, Robert Jordan, and so on. Good guy fights bad guy plus his own inner demons while squaring off with a rival that's secretly in love with his female best friend who has a crush on the bad guy's second henchman who's really been helping the good guy all along and sacrifices himself to save good guy's cute little sister who turns out to be the only... well, you get the idea. Rarely does an episode wrap up 'cleanly' - instead, there are often more questions than at the beginning, and it's the story itself that keeps drawing you back.

Because of this difference, anime can be every bit as plot driven as, say, Law & Order, and because it's animated, there are no human limitations built in - the massive wars that cost mega-bucks to film are easy to animate. Need a character to fly? No problem, just draw them off the ground. Blood? A dab of paint goes a long way. Because characters can be animated to fit the personality, rather than trying to find an actor to squeeze into the role, writers can spend more time on the actual story.

Was that Nudity I Saw?

Here's the second major disconnect of anime: Though Americans are long used to the idea of artistic nudes, animated nudity just does not fit in with Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse. This is related to the whole animation is for kids thing State-siders grew up with. The Japanese are not nearly so prudish as Westerners are when it comes to nudity, and this shows through even in their animation. From fan service to impossible clothing, onsen scenes to out and out hentai, the animated human form can be found all throughout anime. Far from the Barbie-Doll figures of American animation, women in anime come in as much variety as humans ourselves do, and the animators and writers aren't afraid to show their characters off. Some writers, in fact, are very cavalier about it - as can be seen in Ranma ½.

You'll also see guys as beautiful as the girls in some series. You can look to Card Captor Sakura and Inu Yasha for an example of this, and a lot of Gundam. They're called Bishounen, and they're in there for the girls, guys. Better get used to them while you can, because you never know where they'll pop up. Heaven help you if you manage to find yourself a fangirl that's truly into one of these pretty boys, because nothing gets between a fangirl and her Bishounen. Oh, and if she asks you to find her a Yaoi doujinshi about one of these series, just smile weakly and say yes, dear, if you want to hang onto her.

Ok, So What Else Should I Expect?

The unexpected, for one. You have to remember, anime wasn't created for a Western market - it was created for the Japanese mindset, which means that things that might be taboo or uncomfortable in the West could be perfectly commonplace in anime. One such example is the nudity discussed above, but that's only one of many. Some anime make perfect sense in their context - a good example of this is Ah! My Goddess! by Kousuke Fujishima. That multi-layered plot is there, but it's fairly transparent, allowing you to just sit back and enjoy the ride through the storyline. Others - for instance, Furi Curi, or Fooly Cooly here in the States, make absolutely no sense what so ever on the first watching. Once you see it through three or four times you start to get it, but at the cost of a certain measure of your sanity. That's the third major disconnect of anime, by the way - we tend to assume that just because it's in English that it's made for us. But you've gotta remember - not only was it not made for us, but Japanese isn't the easiest language to translate to English.

As long as we're on the subject, you should also expect to find some things you don't like. I'm not going to lie to you - some anime just will not be to your liking, the same way that you jump to change the station the second you hear the first few notes of a show or song you hate. Anime isn't perfect - but nothing is.

What's This Fan-Subbing I've Heard About?

Because anime is Japanese in origin, before you can watch it here, in the West, in English, a company has to buy the licensing rights to the series, import it, and dub over the new voices. Now, a lot of Otaku will tell you that the only way to watch anime is sub-titled, in Japanese, and that dubs are inferior. Personally I say to go with what you're comfortable with. The companies that dub anime are generally pretty good about their job.

Unfortunately, this means that not all of the really good series make it over. Some just aren't picked up by the companies, others are rejected as being outside of the Western Market's interest. That's where fan-subbers come in. You see, these are groups of dedicated Otaku who use tapes and DVDs of the animes raw from Japan, and translate everything for us hapless Westerners that can't speak Japanese. Then they subtitle it up, encode the video into a computerized format, and distribute it so that we can see what we'd be missing out on otherwise.

Alright! I'm Interested! What's Next?

In this chapter, I've gone over the basics with you - what anime is, why it's different, where some of the major disconnects in understanding it are, and what you should expect if you want to delve deeper into anime. From here, the easiest thing to suggest is to just look around. Anime is out there in a big way. Use the forums here at Dragon's Anime - see if anything grabs your interest. Look through the reviews and do the same. But the best way to go forward is to just close your eyes, hold your breath, and get some anime. You can find it everywhere online, and we provide links to many of the major US distributing companies in the directory, as well as some of the best Fan-Subbing groups. You should also check at your local mall, Best Buy, or similar type stores that sell videos - most of them will have entire sections devoted entirely to anime.