Why Is Anime Not Cartoon? The General Misconceptions

By Author: Heather Protz
Total Articles: 46
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It’s Not Cartoon, It’s Anime. Some of you may ridicule and yet many of you may not even know what anime means. It’s not Japanese for cartoon fellas. It’s the new definition of fantasy. Contrary to popular belief, anime does not mean or specify animations produced in Japan.
Although, anime originated in Japan, it is being produced in different parts of the world. Anime also does not refer to cartoon for children. In Japan and other East Asian countries, anime is largely popular among adults. The term anime originated from the word animeshon (the word used for animation in Japan) and originated in the early nineteenth century.
In fact, the idea of anime developed from manga (Japanese comics). The difference between anime and western cartoons mainly depend on the visual characterization. Typically, anime characters have unrealistically colored hair and large, wide eyes. Most anime artists however have distinctive styles; hence all anime characters don’t have peculiar eyes or hair. A lot of anime artists are known for their wild and outrageous stylizations.
The second major difference between anime and ...
... cartoon is that anime characters are noted for their predetermined facial expressions. For example characters that are portrayed as emotionally constipated have their eyes, the color of the pupils and have an uncannily straight face. This is called as the death effect and those characters that are portrayed as lively and joyful seem to have transparent pupils or an ever present glare. Sweat drops are another common visual convention. Characters are drawn with one or more prominent beads of sweat on their brow or forehead (or floating above the hair on characters whose back is turned). This represents a broad spectrum of emotions, including embarrassment, exasperation, confusion, and shock, not all of which are considered to be sweat inducing under normal conditions. Actual physical perspiration in manga is signified by even distribution of sweat drops over the body, occasionally on top of clothing or hair.
The audience that is marketed to categorizes anime and manga. Shoujo, shonen and seinen are the main categories classified on the basis of gender and age group of the audience. Shoujo manga/anime is mainly marketed to a female audience of the adolescent age group. It uses flowery, overly romanticized and cute ideas that appeal to teenage girls. Shonen manga/anime is the counterpart of shoujo and is for male adolescents. It has a lot of fighting and adventure sequences, with a dose of romance and is usually decked with humor. Seinen manga/anime belongs to the adult category and deal with the hardships of life and adulthood etc., Seinen anime is not very popular around the world.
The most well-liked anime all over the world include a lot of shonen anime. Although, there are many differences in the plots, there are a few underlying similarities in the recent popular anime. For example, the protagonist is personified as being clumsy, irresponsible and idiotic. The antagonist appears to be moody, brooding with social reservations but extremely intelligent. The anime world is usually set in some alternative universe. Like in Naruto, a shonen anime based on ninja villages, that gained instant popularity not only in Japan, but also in the States, the protagonist Uzumaki Naruto was a dumb student and was shunned by many. He gradually starts progressing and gains the acceptance of his peers and superiors. Whereas the antagonist Uchiha Sasuke, then considered prodigy of the village turned out to be driven by power and betrayed his village. One piece is another anime that has a dumb antagonist, with an innocent heart. But one piece is based entirely on pirates and has no connection to ninjas whatsoever.
Many psychologists believe that the childish and mystical appeal of the characters draw many to the world of anime. Anime has become commercially profitable in western countries, as early commercially successful western adaptations of anime. In fact, statistics says that an increasing number of Americans switch to cable operators like Time Warner’s through cheap deals like the Time Warner Cable Offers just so that they can tune into anime broadcasters. Since the 19th century, Westerners have expressed a particular interest towards Japan. Anime dramatically exposed more Westerners to the culture of Japan. Aside from anime, other facets of Japanese culture increased in popularity. Worldwide, the number of people studying Japanese increased. In 1984, the Japanese Language Proficiency Test was devised to meet increasing demand.

Heather is an otaku who watches anime on her cable TV purchased through the Time Warner Cable Offers