anime. [ah-nee-meh] also known as japanese animation and janimation, it's become increasingly popular in america. as its other names suggest, anime is a japanese innovation [duh!] and comes to americans in two different forms. first, there's the dub version. nearly every american is familiar with this since it's the stuff we get on cable. y'know, where the characters speak in english. second, there's subtitles. the more serious anime viewer goes after these because they are higher in quality in the respect that they're as close to the original japanese speaking version as you can get without having to learn japanese. this form of animation can be anywhere from cute and happy [hamtaro] to sadistic and perverted [angel of darkness] and everything in between, so it's basically impossible escape the opiate known as anime.
genres. the following are terms that describe some of the many different aspects of anime.
magical girl. focuses on one or more girls that possess magic powers for some reason or another.
hentai. every pervert's favorite. it's what i like to call animated porn. it can be anywhere from comical to sadistic. and somewhere in there it can be considered an artform.
yoai. focuses on homosexual relationships between male characters.
kawaii. this word is often translated as "cute," sometimes used to refer to anime that focuses on the cute, simple stuff in life.
mecha. term for a mobile suit in an anime. also used to refer to anime that revolves around the usage of mecha.
kokaii. any anime that is just too cool to be defined by an english word. can also describe anything that's just as awesome.
