By the word anime most of us think about cartoons or more appropriately animations but they signify much more.
They are slightly different than regular cartoons. It is a form of Japanese art, portraying their life and culture. There are many amongst us who thinks of shows like Shin Chan, Doraemon or Pokemon, as cartoons but they are all animations. Shows like Tom and Jerry, Ben 10, Teen titans can be called cartoons.
True anime lovers are already familiar with the words like otaku and manga. Mangas are comic books containing vibrant pictures of the characters with speech indicators showing their dialogues. Otaku signifies a person who is obsessed with anime.
Japanese animation began in the early 20th century, when Japanese filmmakers experimented with the animation techniques that also pioneered in France, Germany, the United States and Russia.
The target audience of cartoons are generally kids but with animation that is not the same always. They are made keeping in mind the preferences of a wider audience. Animation has many genres and it is becoming the craze among many young adults.
True otakus go beyond the above mentioned and are always in search for new series like Naruto, which is a five volume manga also available in animation.
There are many other works of manga that are gaining popularity like Fairy Tail and Noragami the first season of which will be releasing soon. There are so many unseen animes like Nisekoi, Yu Yu Hakusho, Ranma ½, Inazuma eleven, Inari kon kon and so on.
Animes sound the most natural when seen in the original language with English subtitles.
Besides, the hooking stories, the opening and ending scores of these shows have huge popularity too. Sometimes the Mangas have even more demands than the animations.
They have encouraged umpteen number of fans whereby they have drawn their favourite characters from the mangas.
(Coordinator, Class IX, St Clare School)