Anime

Anime is Japanese animation, often characterized by stylized colorful images depicting vibrant characters in a variety of different settings and storylines, aimed at a variety of different audiences. Anime is influenced by the drawing style of manga, or Japanese comics.

The English word transliterates this Japanese term. The etymology is generally traced to an abbreviation of the Japanese transliteration of the English word "animation" (shortened, as many foreign words appear in Japanese). Some non-Japanese fans claim the word comes from the French animé ("animated") or "les dessins animés" (animated drawings.) Occasionally in English the word is seen written as animé, with an acute accent on the final e to let one know that it is pronounced; this is a holdover from archaic systems of transliteration which is occasionally seen in other words (e.g. Pokémon, Kobo Abé).

Internationally, anime once bore the popular name Japanimation, but this term has fallen into disuse. It saw the most usage during the 1970s and 1980s, which broadly comprise the first and second waves of anime fandom. The term survived at least into the early 1990s but seemed to fade away shortly before the mid-1990s anime resurgence. In general, the term now only appears in nostalgic contexts. The term Japanimation is much more commonly used in Japan to refer to domestic animation. Since anime or animeshon is used in Japan to describe all forms of animation regardless of national origin, Japanimation is meant to distinguish Japanese work from that of the rest of the world.

In more recent years, anime has also frequently been referred to as manga in Europe, a practice that may stem from the Japanese usage. In Japan, manga refers to both animation and comics. Among English speakers, manga usually has the stricter meaning of "Japanese comics". An alternate explanation is that it is due to the prominence of Manga Entertainment, a distibutor of anime to the US and UK markets. This term is much more common in Europe since Manga Entertainment started out in the UK.

The voice actors for anime usually bear the Japanese equivalent designation, seiyu.

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