Opening :
Are you ready to go with me on an adventure in the world of japanese animation ? Is that a ‘yes’ you’re thinking ? Or maybe is it a ‘no’ ? Well guess what, it doesn’t matter cause you’re already here ! Fasten your seatbelt and hang on tight because the ride is about to start.
What is « anime » ?
The word anime (plural is also anime) comes from animation (who would have thought) and designs, or at least used to, any kind of work of animation made in japan. I said « used to » because the word evolved to describe any kind of animation that looks like something made from japan, in other words, anime is not japan exclusive anymore.
History of anime :
This section is gonna be quick since im not here to put you to sleep. Let’s just say that everything started in the 20th century when the japanese got to learn and use french, german and american animation techniques. They made it their own and used it to create the big eyed characters that we all know so well nowadays.
The different genres in the medium :
The general consensus on anime is that it’s all about fighting ,ninjas, pirates and bald guys. I can’t deny that the most popular ones are all about these things but that is just the tip of the iceberg, Indeed, anime has so many genres that are unkown to the large public. As a disclaimer, these genres can be directly transalted to specific audiences, for exemple shonen means young boy. This means that each genre is targeted to a certain type of demographic. These terms are still used but their meaning has changed to just design a certain genre of anime.
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Shonen(Young boy) : I’ll start with the most popular one, shonens are anime mainly around fighting and action, the story is most of the time a stepping stone for epic fights between badass characters.The biggest anime, « Naruto« , « One piece » and « Bleach« , know as the big three, are shonens. But the genre doesn’t only consists of this, shonens can also be anime that can be relatable to young boys mostly in term of school life, romance and life in general, some examples are « Nisekoi », « Daily life of high school boys » (pretty self-explanatory) and « GTO« .
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