Roresishms

A Virtual World of Live Pictures.

INnime – Anime is the affectionately shortened name for animation in Japan. It is written in katakana, as a derivative of English and generally refers to any animation conceived and drawn in Japan. However, there is a certain style and method in anime that can be recognized worldwide as unique to Japanese animation. Simple, over-the-top character traits and surprisingly detailed settings coupled with actual thematic content, usually a coming-of-age story of some sort. The development of some characters through a series of tests through the unique Japanese morality of perseverance and strength.

B.alias – Japanese slang for stupid. It is used affectionately to describe all the silly, weird, and old characters in an anime. Usually applied by a woman towards a man, it is best defined as the general insult to a nerdy, insecure man (and sometimes a woman) who consequently does something stupid. Therefore, Baka.

againstosplay – the unique and overwhelming practice of anime fans around the world dressing up as their favorite anime and video game characters to meet other extreme fans and compare their realism. Because the anime is (mostly) drawn to scale, and the clothing is generally brightly colored and completely impractical, the characters are easily recognized as those who are particularly talented in this field. Exhibitions for cosplayers are held annually, as well as competitions. It’s something of an underground phenomenon in culture that has become much less underground in recent years.

D.oujinshi – The Japanese word for fan-made manga based on existing characters. Pretty much the anime equivalent of the Star Wars novels. There is a huge market for these fan fictions in Japan, and due to the sheer amount of talent, they are often of equal or higher quality than the source material. Seems like a good way to do it. Keep your future employees outside by drawing for free.

mycchi: a Japanese word that roughly translates to ‘pervert’. Basically, it’s used to describe all those schoolgirl anime where the skirts stop about two inches above the underwear line, and yet somehow magically stays on. It’s not Hentai caliber as it tries not to be pornographic, but the fan service and suggestive subject quotient is pretty much off the map.

Fan – Especially for connoisseurs of American anime, fandom is one of the only ways to access some anime, and until recently, pretty much the only way. Fan stands for Fansubbing (the fan-produced subtitling of shows taken directly from Japanese television), Fandubbing (the fan-made dubbing of the same material that is slightly less done and often much funnier), Fanfiction (the written form Doujinshi, which often involves a whole lot of Ecchi), and Fan Service (where a show will do something over the top or suggestive on purpose because they know that’s what their fans are looking for). The fanbase is what floats the anime market, especially in America, where until very recently the market was primarily a black market.

GRAMundam – One of the original parents from the anime. For 25 years or more, Gundam has produced more than 25 series and movies since its debut in 1979, and continues to be one of the most popular series every year, with productions growing exponentially in recent times. The show was one of the pioneers of giant mech anime and an underground favorite in America for years… and makes some pretty fun cosplayers.

hentai – And of course with any art form, when you have a big enough fan base, someone perverts it. However, anime porn has something that regular porn doesn’t, lots of weird and creepy tentacles and occasionally a plot. Yes, in line with much of Japan’s fine art, Hentai occasionally tries to inject a bit of intelligence into its mindless sex. And the production quality tends to be higher than even normal productions. Talk about the nature of porn, I guess. He runs the industry.

Yodol – The idol mentality runs the sphere of Japanese pop culture. Their singers are everywhere, their movie stars are singers, their singer-movie stars are TV presenters. Its movie stars, singers and TV presenters are voice actors. Everything is cyclical and means massive exposure in an overpopulated country of 140 million. And it seeps into the shows that they do, and the mass production of the shows (usually one a week every week until the show ends… for some shows it’s years) and the production values ​​speak to this.

jump – Shonen Jump is the monthly manga publication in Japan that broke some of the biggest names in anime. Dragonball, Naruto, One Piece, Kenshin, etc. The super popular kid-oriented anime that rules the charts comes out of this little gem repeatedly. And now it’s here in the United States. Power in circulation.

whatawaii – Japanese adjective for cute. And that’s how half of what they produce is described. Super cute, to the point of nausea at times. The ability to turn the ugliest and most disturbing things into cute and cuddly pets is a distinctly Japanese skill. Just look at half of the Pokémon. Ugly butt, but cute nonetheless.

Yoove Hina – Love Hina didn’t invent it, but it did better: the bedroom fantasy anime that it is. And it’s her own subgenre now. A foolish young man who has no luck with the ladies finds himself in a situation where he is surrounded by women every day, who eventually attack him and make his life hell, all the while falling in love with him. Ecchi moments abound, and often our altruistic hero ends up with a bloody nose on the rocks outside a hot spring somewhere.

METERanga – Ah yes, the biological father of the whole thing. Manga is the comic, the hand-drawn formula for all fashion. Starting out as an offshoot of 19th century woodblock print art forms and before that, Manga took compelling stories and serialized them into easy-to-read, fun comics. Not to say that the Supermans and Detective Comics of America didn’t contribute to this fad.

NOeon Genesis Evangelion: A spinoff of the giant mech anime, Evangelion broke into new legions of fans by being what some anime had dared before, but few had succeeded: mature and intelligent. A fairly common theme these days, Evangelion managed to take complicated biblical, social, and personal issues and turn them into an apocalyptic and often hilarious epic 24-episode, 2-movie series.

EITHERtaku: in what is actually a slur in Japan, which roughly translates to ‘you’… but more commonly known as ‘lifeless geek who spends all his time building GUNDAM models…’ The definition is a bit less caustic on our Pacific side, it usually refers to someone who simply enjoys the depths of Japanese pop culture, watching anime after school, and drawing characters from their favorite shows in their notebooks. More of a clique at school than a mocking subculture. But of course, that is changing rapidly, as the anime arena is growing very quickly here in the United States.

Pokemon – Pokemon is the new generation of kid-oriented anime born out of marketing necessity, used to sell video games, used video games to sell the show. It has been running for almost 10 years and new episodes are still coming out. If the Japanese do anything right, it’s selling things, and Pokemon continues to sell, actually marketing to a whole new generation of kids these days.

whatHey Emeralds – I’m sneaking around a bit here because Q, as we all know, is the meanest letter in the alphabet to make an ABC list. However, Queen Emeralds is a good anime. An OAV produced in 1998 as an offshoot of the Harlock and Galaxy Express 999 series, Queen Emeraldas continues the story of a popular character who, if you haven’t watched any of the previous shows, won’t make sense to you.

R.urouni Kenshin – Kenshin is the epic story of a wandering samurai in Japan’s Meiji era known as Kenshin. He finds a small martial arts school in the new capital and, after saving the young heiress, stays with her and undertakes various missions to help the government he helped form a few years earlier survive. He is an incredibly badass swordsman and attracts a nice little following of characters. I don’t know if it’s the biggest thing in the world in terms of anime, but it’s one of my favorite shows, so it’s on the list.

Shoujo – The term used to describe anime aimed at young girls. All Sailormoons and Cardcaptor Sakuras fit here. It’s actually a good niche and it works very well here as well as in Japan. It’s a testament to the popularity of a subculture when it actually takes the time to stop spawning violent battles between half-dumb men in order to attract girls as well.

youezuka Osamu – The Walt Disney of anime, Dr. Tezuka created Astroboy, Kimba the White Lion, Metropolis, and many more anime classics that more or less established the art form. He’s the guy you want to look at every time you ask, “who’s responsible for all this?”

youRusei Yatsura – A freakishly popular franchise from the ’70s and ’80s that spans nearly 200 episodes, 10 movies, and a handful of OVAs. It’s more or less about a group of “nasty aliens” (the actual translation) invading and mocking earth. They’re all girls, and they were part of the beginnings of what made Love Hina happen, a lustful teenager surrounded by strange and sexy women. Yeah, they sure know how to put on shows there.

VVoice acting – Come on. it’s animation right? Unlike the animation industry in the US, Japan’s voice acting group is huge and really talented. American companies use the same people over and over again and pay them a pretty penny, and they generally suck at what they do. In Japan, the respect for doing what they do is much more pronounced… and they don’t suck.

Wings of Honneamise – Another landmark anime, this is the first movie produced by the super studio Gainax (the guys who made Evangelion, among others). It’s essentially science fiction, military fantasy with a few twists in history and technology. One of my favorite examples of how anime also changes the genres in which it operates. It’s out there and that’s why we love it.

X – Yes, only X. From Clamp, a group of female artists whose fan base (and quality of workmanship) is obscene, X is one of their first films, later made into a series. The style is best described as Shoujo without the girls-only service.

ANDaoi – The slightly gay version of Ecchi, Yaoi is usually a homoerotic fanservice of male characters in typical situations acting sexually ambiguous and often getting pretty close to each other. When the production is this good, you can expect anything good, and Yaoi’s gay-chic is immensely popular in Japan.

z, Dragon Ball – I cheated again, so what? After all, Dragon Ball Z was one of the key reasons the anime spread to the mainstream here in the United States, with a couple hundred episodes and memorably long (and I mean looong) fights, Dragon Ball Z captured the fan base of all the young violence. prone kids across the country and kept them captivated well into their 20s (yeah yeah…stop looking at me).

And there you have it. 26 keys to understanding the anime subculture, a true AZ of what you need to know… minus Q and Z.

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