Japanese Cartoon Art

Anime are Japanese animated productions featuring hand-drawn or computer animation. The word is the abbreviated pronunciation of "animation" in Japanese. The term, "anime", itself did not emerge until the mid-1980s,and its intended meaning of the term sometimes varies depending on the context.Among Japanese, the term references all animation.In English, the term is defined as a Japanese-disseminated animation style often characterized by colorful graphics, vibrant characters and fantastic themes.Arguably, the stylization approach to the meaning may open up the possibility of anime produced in countries, other than Japan. Yet, for simplicity, many Westerners strictly view anime as an animation product from Japan.

The earliest commercial Japanese animation dates to 1917 and developed steadily. The characteristic anime art style developed in the 1960s with the works of Osamu Tezuka. Anime would spread internationally in the coming decades, developing a large domestic and international audience. Anime is distributed theatrically, by television broadcasts, directly to home media, and over the internet. Anime can be classified by demographic and a range of genres or multiple genres.

Anime is a diverse art form that has its own methods and techniques for production that have adapted to the times and moving into the digital age. The production of anime differs from Disney animation, focusing on limited animation techniques and the use camera effects, including panning, zooming and angle shots. No single art style exists and character proportions and features can be quite varied, including characteristically large emotive or realistically sized eyes.

The anime industry consists of over 430 production studios including major names like Studio Ghibli, Gainax and Toei Animation. Despite having a fraction of the domestic film market, anime achieves a majority of DVD sales and has been an international success after the rise of televised English dubs. The international popularly has resulted in non-Japanese productions using the anime art style, but these works have been defined as anime-influenced animation by both fans and the industry.