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Welcome to the Wonderful World of Anime!!
The image to the left depicts what most people think of when they hear the word "Anime". Correction. It depicts what most people who are UNCULTURED in the world of anime think when they hear the word "ANIME". Are they wrong? Are they right? Well, yes and no. Confused? Well, this page aims to explain anime to exactly these people. And even if you're the biggest "Otaku" that ever lived, who knows, maybe you'll learn a thing or two. It wouldn't hurt to read on anyway. Maybe you'll even find yourself amused!
Well, what is anime? Simply put, it is a term used to describe Japanese cartoons. Or Japanese Animation. This term was once often replaced with the term "JapAnime". Lord knows why. Personally, I think it was just a bunch of ignorant dumbasses that decided to use this term one day and the stupidity spread like a plague of "crotch crickets". Anyway, that's what anime is. Some people think that anime is no different from traditional North American cartoons, like Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, Snow White, etc... But this is not true. First of all, in North America, cartoons are considered to be for children. There is little, if any, violence and there is always some form of happy ending. There isn't much meat in the story and there is little depth to the characters. And the animation sucks! Anime actually covers a wide variety of genres, from childrens, to action, to X-rated.
Back to the picture above. Anime is actually most often animated in this fashion. It may seem somewhat peculiar at first glance, but when you realize the intention of the animators, it all becomes clear. I can't think of the last time I watched a North American cartoon where I could clearly pick out the emotion that the characters were displaying. Oh sure, every now and then I can hear sniffling or raised voices, but its much harder to tell than in anime. The purpose of the peculiarity of the animation is to exaggerate the emotions. In the picture above, even if you have no previous experience with anime, you can clearly see that the young lady here is both upset and angry. Actually, she's probably more infuriated than angry by the looks of it. There are actually many more techniques that the anime industry utilizes to bring across the emotions clearly, and exaggeration is just one of them. Exaggeration is mainly used in the production of television series and comedic feature-length motion pictures.
But its not actually fair for this form of anime to represent the whole genre in anybody's mind. Its kind of like being racist because you had a bad experience with a member of a different race. Its really pretty dumb. But, fear not. That is why we are here. In just a few simple lessons, you could be on your way to being a well-respected otaku. But that's not going to happen unless you open your mind to new things. And, of course, you have to do exactly as we say. Remember that its important to keep in mind that anime represents several different genres; if you don't find one to your liking, try another. You wouldn't stop watching movies if you didn't like comedy, would you? Well, maybe you would, but then you would just be some kind of wierd freak.
On to Animation Techniques
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