anime

Anime refers to Japanese animated cartoons. The word is written in three katakana characters A, Ni, Me (アニメ). It should be pronounced "Ah-Nee-Meh" (the "e" sound is not long, it is like a truncated pronunciation of "men"). Ironically, the word is an English transliteration of a Japanese term, which in turn is an abbreviation of the Japanese transliteration of the English word "animation" (shortened, as many foreign words are, for example "terebi" being the japanese word for television, or in Japanese pronunciation "terebishiyon".)

(Some anime fans state that the Japanese word comes from the French "Animé", meaning "animated".)

Anime is known for its variety of genres and unique artistic style. Just as with live-action cinema, it spans various genres: science fiction, childrens' stories, romance, medieval fantasy, erotica (hentai), and so forth. Anime is an expressly commercial art form, and most anime are produced and marketed for very specific audiences, with well-defined categories for shonen (boys) and shoujo (girls) genres, as well as teenagers and adults.

Outside of Japan, most of the audience for anime is among boys and young men, so most anime which is translated tends to belong to the shonen style, including titles like Bubblegum Crisis, Tenchi Muyo and Gundam. On the other hand, shoujo anime has more recently made some showing in the West in the form of Sailor Moon, Card Captor Sakura, and Revolutionary Girl Utena. Unlike American animation, there is a sizable faction of anime especially tailored to adult audiences, and numerous titles are classified in America as not suitable for minors.

Anime in America

1960s

Astro Boy
Kimba the White Lion
Speed Racer
Amazing 3
1970s

Star Blazers (Space Cruiser Yamato)
Battle of the Planets (Science Ninja Team Gatchaman)
1980s

Voltron
Force Five
Robotech

Notable Names in Anime

Hayao Miyazaki is a well respected director/producer of one genre of anime. His works are characterized by elaborate and beautiful background drawings. If one were to take a snapshot of the frame of his anime, one can see that each frame looks like an artistic painting.
Go Nagai's contributions to anime can be compared with Jack Kirby's work in comic books. Nagai pioneered several genres of anime, and his style was widely imitated by many producers for years. His action-packed science fiction series were among the first anime to be widely broadcast in the United States (under the American titles Force Five and Tranzor Z).

Notable Anime Titles

Examples of anime include:

Akira
Angel Sanctuary
Anpanman
Battle Angel Alita
Big O
Blood: The Last Vampire
Bubblegum Crisis
Celestial Legend Ceres (Ayashi no Ceres)
Cos-play complex
Cowboy Bebop
Crest of stars (1999, Seikai no Monsho) - a space opera
Digimon
Doraemon
Dragon Ball Z
El Hazard
Escaflowne
FLCL
Fruits Basket
Fushigi Yuugi
Ghost in the Shell
Gravitation
Gundam Wing
Hellsing
His and her circumstances ("Kare kano")
Hyper Police
I My Me! Strawberry Eggs!
InuYasha
Love Hina
Mahou Tukai Tai!
Marmalade Boy
Martian Successor Nadesico
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Noir
Onegai Teacher
Orange Road
Otaku no Video
Outlaw Star
Oh! My Goddess
Perfect Blue
Pokemon
Q-taro
Ranma 1/2
Revolutionary Girl Utena (Shoujo Kakumei Utena)
Sailor Moon
Sakura Wars Ouka-Kenran
Sakura Wars Gouka-Kenran
Sakura Wars TV
Science Ninja Team Gatchaman
Serial Experiments Lain (which talks about the 1940s paper As We May Think by Vannevar Bush, Dougles Engelbart, etc.)
Sister Princess
Sister Princess Re-pure
Slayers
Star Blazers
The Vision of Escaflowne
Tenchi Muyo
Trigun
Urusei Yatsura
Vandread
Windaria
Yu Yu Hakusho
Genres:

shoujo
shonen
mecha
hentai
animals
futanari
loli
shota
yaoi
yuri