What is anime? - Part I

If you're asking yourself that question, then this summary should help you.

Anime (pronounced a-neh-may) to the average viewer is just another cartoon. However, it refers specifically to Japanese animation, and calling these a cartoon would be a grave mistake. Anime is the traditional name for it around the world.

Cartoons, in most cases, are created daily and don't have some other form behind them. Most anime once started started in Japanese comics, known otherwise as manga. The differences between the two are both obvious and subtle. Drawing styles in manga tend to be highly detailed, with more care and attention being paid upon the characters and backgrounds. Most pages in manga are drawn in black and white, the covers, inserts and at least one or two of the inside pages using colours.

Anime is created another way, although the process is complicated, I will summarise it here. Key animators sketch out individual frames on paper, and these are known as genga. Other animators then take these genga and draw the in-between frames, or douga. The douga are then photocopied onto celluloid, a transparent sheet, and colours are painted onto the back of it. These cels can then be filmed in order to create a moving image.

Here is an example of the same person being represented in manga and anime:

Manga	Anime

Anime obviously gives more depth since we get to hear the characters voices, the way they move and indeed many other aspects of their life that we can't really experience via manga (fight scenes for instance are greatly enhanced in anime).

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