Anime is the Japanese version of the Western world of animation and the style is applied to almost all forms of Japanese animation. In Japan, they tend to use the word Anime to refer to all kinds of animated media including western animations. Yet in the western world, Anime is used to refer to animated material originating from Japan.
Anime has been traditionally hand-drawn, but like the modern animated movies of Disney or DreamWorks, are now being created using more and more CGI aspects. Although the uptake hasn't been quite as radical or monumental as American animation studios have undertaken, the shift from traditional to computer generated is still very much in progress in Japan.
One of the major factors that separate Japanese Animation from other animations is the prevalence and abundance of Anime itself. In Japan, there is Anime that caters for people across the social, economic and cultural boundaries. They range from wholesome family films such as titles from Studio Ghibli through to extreme acts of sexual and violent behaviour for those 18 or over. It's this wide range of titles that has garnered Anime such an enormous fan base both in Japan and around the world.
A lot of Japanese Anime are animated versions of popular Japanese Manga's. Again, something that separates them from the rest of the world's animated media. Manga can be seen as the Japanese version of what the western world would call comics. Amazingly, Manga is more popular in Japanese society than Anime and makes up a tremendous amount of the book industry over there. In fact, Manga made over $4.4 Billion US Dollars in sales in 2007 alone, something that western comic book industry can only dream of.
Much like Anime, Manga is viewed as more acceptable and mainstream than would be seen outside of Japan. Indeed it's not uncommon to see crowds of people, of all ages and backgrounds, converging upon the local convenience store and browsing the huge selection of Manga every night. And again the content of the titles are all over the demographic scale, with adult oriented Manga sitting next to Pokemon and Doraemon on the shelf.
Anime has been traditionally hand-drawn, but like the modern animated movies of Disney or DreamWorks, are now being created using more and more CGI aspects. Although the uptake hasn't been quite as radical or monumental as American animation studios have undertaken, the shift from traditional to computer generated is still very much in progress in Japan.
One of the major factors that separate Japanese Animation from other animations is the prevalence and abundance of Anime itself. In Japan, there is Anime that caters for people across the social, economic and cultural boundaries. They range from wholesome family films such as titles from Studio Ghibli through to extreme acts of sexual and violent behaviour for those 18 or over. It's this wide range of titles that has garnered Anime such an enormous fan base both in Japan and around the world.
A lot of Japanese Anime are animated versions of popular Japanese Manga's. Again, something that separates them from the rest of the world's animated media. Manga can be seen as the Japanese version of what the western world would call comics. Amazingly, Manga is more popular in Japanese society than Anime and makes up a tremendous amount of the book industry over there. In fact, Manga made over $4.4 Billion US Dollars in sales in 2007 alone, something that western comic book industry can only dream of.
Much like Anime, Manga is viewed as more acceptable and mainstream than would be seen outside of Japan. Indeed it's not uncommon to see crowds of people, of all ages and backgrounds, converging upon the local convenience store and browsing the huge selection of Manga every night. And again the content of the titles are all over the demographic scale, with adult oriented Manga sitting next to Pokemon and Doraemon on the shelf.
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