Anime

Anime is a type of animation mainly popular in East Asia. However since the word so closely resembles animation and any animation is cartoon, reactions such as, “You watch anime? Grow up”, “Anime is for kids”, “We are adults, we don’t watch cartoons!” and so on, are faced by people who watch anime.

Anime and cartoons are different. Cartoons are mainly aimed at children of up to 14 years. There are different stories in a cartoon. Anime, on the other hand, is one story told in episode form.

Anime is intended for much older audience. In fact there are anime which are not suitable for children. Of course, there are anime which are aimed at kids, but they are few and far between. Most anime have varied genres such as sports, thriller, fantasy, romance, horror, comedy, music etc. And they are aimed at young adults.

Anime originated in Japan, where it constitutes almost 50% of television entertainment, in 1917 with a two-minute clip of a samurai.[1] By 1930s it was seen to be an alternative to live action form of story-telling. Most anime is adapted from manga – “Japanese comics”, which feature each episode in one issue of a particular manga.

Essentially, anime is animated serial. There is a plot and the story spans many episodes. With the help of technology, the characters demonstrate real human emotions. They feel anger, confusion, love, just as humans do. This makes anime and its characters so relatable. Just as one series’ characters are popular, anime characters are popular among anime-lovers. Just as serial watchers come back every week for a new episode, so do anime-lovers.

Any anime-lover will tell at least one thing - “Do not compare anime with cartoons, compare it with live-action”. In fact, Japanese take it as an offence if you do so. For anime-lovers, cartoons are for kids and anime is on a whole, different level. It is on the same rank as any popular live-action series.

Anime is popular in many countries such as Japan, Korea, and Indonesia etc. In India, though, it is popular mainly in metro cities, that too, in young adults. It was brought in India by Sony Pictures Entertainment through its channel, Animax. However, as expected, it was put under kids channel. Another attempt is made by Colors with its show Suraj-The Rising Star, an anime based on the Japanese anime, Kyojin no Hoshi.

Worldwide, popular anime include Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, Fairy Tail.

Deepali Mehta

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[1] Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime