Austin Anime Guide | Buy Anime Online | Essential Anime Links | Recommended Anime | Anime Terms

What is Anime?

Anime is technically just Japanese for 'animation' and in Japan is used to apply to all animation, including Western animation such as Disney. But most other places, anime is usually used to apply to commercial Japanese animation, which is sometimes referred to (generally by non-otaku) as "Japanimation".

Anime tends to differ in general from Western/American animation largely due to cultural differences. Anime, and Manga (essentially Japanese comic books, though they tend to be much longer than Western comics, and are usually in a different size/format) in Japan are just other valid mediums like books or live film. Anime is just as varied as any other media, with Anime oriented towards children, Anime centering around martial arts battles, space operas, big combat machinery or robots (mecha), serious social commentary, comedies, and even adult Anime that is essentially animated pornography (generally referred to as hentai). Western animation (cartoons) is generally viewed as being for children only, and this impression is fostered by the Western animation industry that generally produces animation for children, though a few rebel influences are helping to change that (Todd McFarlane's Spawn as an example).

My Introduction to Anime

I've actually been exposed to Anime or Manga since I was quite young. At around 7 or 8 years of age, I remember buying a few issues of a multi-part Akira graphic novel at a flea market. Then there was Robotech, which is one of the things a lot of Americans in my generation tend to think of if someone says "Japanimation." Like most people, I wasn't aware that Robotech is actually a combination of three entirely unrelated Japanese series that were patched together into one story arc and remarketed for the Western world.

My first real, formal introduction to Anime was when I lived in Phoenix, however. One of my friends there, Chris Preiser, had a fairly significant collection of Anime and was a very big fan of Anime (or otaku as some of us prefer to be called). I borrowed his tapes of Oh! My Goddess (or Aa! Megami-sama) and Record of Lodoss Wars. I watched these, and was instantly hooked. I started off with Record of Lodoss Wars, and purely by happenstance, I decided to turn on everything in my patched-together home theater system, and almost fell out of my chair when I heard stuff coming out of the surround sound speakers. I was enraptured, and spent several hours watching the mini-series almost straight through in one viewing. Over the next couple of days, I watched all of Oh! My Goddess, and loved it even more. In the week I borrowed those tapes from Chris, I watched Record of Lodoss Wars twice, and Oh! My Goddess three times. I also asked to borrow some more from Chris, and in time went through nearly his entire collection (which was fairly varied, with both good and bad), borrowing something different every week or two.

Since that night I first put in that first tape of Record of Lodoss Wars, I've been a huge fan of Anime. I'm fortunate to have found the UT Anime Club where I live here in Austin, Texas. The UT Anime Club holds weekly screenings which I attend, and I've met a couple of very nice and cool people there. I've also been exposed to some Anime I'd never even previously heard of, most of which I've enjoyed immensely. There are Anime Clubs to be found in most large cities, and in most decent universities, and I highly recommend finding one if there is one in your area.

Sub vs. Dub

97% (or more) of all Anime (or all GOOD Anime, at any rate) is of course written and voiced in Japanese. This makes viewing it (or more accurately, listening to it) somewhat difficult unless you happen to comprehend Japanese, and to a lesser extent can read Kanji. Since that excludes most otaku, there are two ways to deal with this so that we can understand what the heck the characters are saying: subtitling (subbing), and dubbing (re-recording the dialogue in a language other than Japanese, generally English).

There are people who prefer dubbing (freaks) and people who know wisely that subbing is vastly superior. There are several major problems with dubbing. First, the voice actors chosen to revoice the dialogue often are ill-chosen, and there's a particular tendency in a lot of dubbed Anime of the characters ending up sounding like sterotypical hicks. Second, a lot of the vocal emphasis and more subtle nuances of expression tend to be lost with dubbing. Third, the meaning of the dialogue is often altered - sometimes in minor ways, but sometimes entire references are changed or omitted.

Subbing, while not perfect, is tremendously better than dubbing. The original dialogue and captions are preserved, with English (or other language) subtitles displayed on the screen to read. The meaning of the dialogue is generally more accurate in subbed Anime than in dubbed, though there do tend to be some alterations from time to time (but not nearly as much, or as frequently, as with dubbing). Since the original dialogue is still there for you to listen to, you can often pick up on vocal emphasis, and when you watch enough, you even begin to pick up bits and pieces of Japanese. To be fair, occasionally the subtitles can obscure a bit of the image on screen, but it's pretty rare that something important is covered up by the text.

A large portion of Anime isn't available from commercial sources at all, or isn't available with subtitles from commercial sources. Since this obviously won't do, there is the fansub movement. Fansubs are simply Anime that has been translated and subtitled by fans so that other fans can experience good Anime. Some fansubs are good, some are excellent, and some aren't so good, as they vary with the skill and knowledge of the translator. If you're interested in fansubs, check out fansubs.net.

Got a question about Anime you think I might be able to answer, a suggestion for something you think should be added to this section, a cool Anime-related web site to tell me about, or just want to tell me about some cool Anime title I haven't mentioned yet? E-mail me at zoas@yggdrasil.net.