Anime Glossary: Defining our terms

In order to have a common frame of reference, some terms need to be defined in order that our billions of online fans (hi mom!) who read our anime reviews can understand what's going on. A very good anime dictionary resides here. You can also use wikipedia to get some good definitions. However, I'll define what I mean when I use some of the more common terms right here.

Anime -- (Pronounced "ANN-eee-may" or "AHN-eee-may") -- Simply put, Japanese Cartoons. However, in Japan, animation is not merely for children. A very big industry has developed over there creating animated stories directed at specific demographic groups. There's animation for young kids, animation for teens, animation aimed at adults, animation for teenaged girls, teenaged boys...pretty much every demographic group has an anime show aimed at them.

Anime Series or just "Series" -- A televised anime series. Anime series usually have a beginning, a middle, and an end. An entire story cycle is told in either 13 or 26 30-minute episodes. Sometimes you have anime anthology series that contain multiple episodes of different anime that are much shorter in length, like 7 or 15 minutes.

OAV/OVA Series -- stands for Original Animation Video or Original Video Animation. I generally use the term "OVA". These are anime series that are released directly to home video/DVD. That is, they aren't shown on television. Because of this, a lot more liberty can be taken as far as content and length goes. They don't have to take into account commercial breaks, and they can show nudity and use strong language if they wish, and they're not constrained to the 13 or 26 episode format for the series like they would be if it were televised. In Japan, an OVA generally has a higher budget and a longer deadline than a televised series. Therefore, the animation quality is higher. Also, as a general rule, OVA releases generally cost more for the consumer. Sometimes, a popular OVA will either be remade as a televised series or the plot started in the OVA will be continued in a televised series. Also, if a television series is really popular, after its 13 or 26 episode run the creators of the series sometimes release extra OVA episodes of the series in order to milk it for all it's worth (which is not necessarily a bad thing).

Anime Feature -- This is an animated movie. We have these in the USA, but the way Japan differs is that they'll release a movie which can be a standalone episode of an anime television series. It's kind of like the Star Trek movies in the United States. If you never watched the Star Trek television series, you're probably not going to "get" any of the "inside jokes" or subplot threads in the Star Trek movies.

Manga -- (Pronounced "MANG-ga"; "MANG" rhymes with "FANG" or "MAN-ga") Japanese comic books. Most of the time, an anime series or feature is based on a successful or groundbreaking manga. As a general rule, the manga comes first, followed by the anime version of the manga. The format of a manga is generally the same as a paperback book. A certain issue of a manga series will have a couple of hundred pages and be roughly the size of a paperback book and contain multiple chapters/stories. Also, the art tends to be in black and white, with only a few colored pages, if any. There exist in Japan monthly anthology magazines that contain a few chapters of different manga series.

Hentai -- (Pronounced "HEN-tie") -- A pornographic anime. "Hentai" means "pervert" in Japanese. There exist both hentai manga and hentai anime. A hentai anime is generally a cheaply-produced OVA release and can either be softcore, depicting sex and nudity but no penetration, or hardcore, depicting sex and everything it entails. Hentai anime is pretty much like American porn: any plot contained within only serves to string together the sex scenes. You can pretty much rule out any Hentai reviews appearing here!

Ecchi -- (Pronounced "ET-chee" or "EH-chee") -- It's the way the Japanese pronounce the English letter "H". "H" stands for "Hentai" in this case. In Japan, the two terms are synonymous. "Ecchi" is just a hip way to call someone a pervert. However, in American anime fandom, it has been changed to refer to R-rated nudity in a sensual context. For example, a scene of a naked woman taking a shower in an anime would be considered "ecchi" because of the nudity but not "hentai" because there's no actual sex involved. However a woman getting assaulted and having her top ripped off would not be considered ecchi (unless you're a "hentai"!!).

Fanservice -- This was originally considered to be any animated sequence that would particularly appeal to fans of a character. For example, if you're a big fan of giant robots, a long, lingering animated sequence of a particularly cool giant robot striking a fighting stance would be considered "fan service" or "fanservice" because the animators took the time to animate it for the fans. Included in this would be long, lingering animated sequences of female (and sometimes male) characters in an anime, usually in some state of undress (but no full frontal nudity). In American anime fandom, this term is used to encompass depictions of sexuality that don't fall into the "hentai" or "ecchi" categories, generally something that wouldn't be objectionable in a PG or PG-13 movie. Typically this includes female characters in their underwear, a swimsuit, or in some kind of sexy costume. Generally, in a 26 episode anime series, there's an episode where all the characters go to the beach or go to a hot spring spa so that the female characters appear in swimsuits or nude but with their "key areas" covered up in some way.

Shoujo Anime -- (Pronounced "SHOW-joe") -- This is a special genre of anime. In Japanese, "shoujo" means "girl". Therefore a shoujo anime is an anime aimed at teenaged girls, usually featuring non-threatening male romantic leads and a lot of high school type dramatic situations. "Sailor Moon" was a popular shoujo anime series that found a measure of success here on American television.

Shounen Anime -- (Pronounced "SHOW-nen") -- This is a special genre of anime. In Japanese, "shounen" means "boy". Therefore a shounen anime is an anime aimed at teenaged boys, usually featuring a video game-like plot. Basically, the lead character fights a battle, beats his opponent, and works his way up tougher and tougher opponents, episode by episode, until he meets the big boss during the last episode. This genre is much more prevalent in America. Common examples familiar to Americans are "Pokemon", "Dragonball Z", "Yu-Gi-Oh", and the current fan favorite, "Naruto". Generally there's a lot of action in these shows and a couple of obligatory fanservice-oriented female characters.

Seinen Anime -- (Pronounced "SAY-nen") -- This is a special genre of anime. It's anime intended for an 18-30 male audience. Probably the most famous Seinen anime would be the movie "Akira" followed by the anime television series "Cowboy Bebop". There's usually a mix of action and mature character development as well as some fanservice. This is pretty much the largest genre of anime and manga as the intended demographic is the one that spends the most money.

Bishoujo -- (Pronounced "bee-SHOW-jo") -- This means "Young and Pretty Girl". In anime, most main female characters are bishoujos.

Bishounen -- (Pronounced "bee-SHOW-nen") -- This means "Beautiful Boy" in Japanese. In most shoujo anime and manga, the romantic leads are mostly bishounen. This isn't as straightforward as bishoujo. Basically, a bishounen is a "pretty boy", usually very gangly and thin, with delicate almost feminine facial features: pretty much the opposite of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Essentially, a bishounen is the anime equivalent of a boy band member. These types of visual characters are popular with the young girl fans of shoujo anime and manga because they are non-threatening physically, yet still physically attractive. Unfortunately, there's a large secondary audience for bishounen characters in pedophilic men. If you are a guy, this is why you hate shoujo anime.

Bishie -- (Pronounced "BISH-ee") -- This term generally is a contraction of "bishounen". You'll see it a lot on anime and manga forum message boards. Personally, people using this term are like nails running accross a chalkboard for me; probably because I'm not a fan of bishounen in anime or manga.

Harem Anime -- This is a particularly popular sub-genre of anime in Japan. It is usually a comedy with a young teenaged boy, who is "average" in every way, surrounded by young pretty girls (bishoujos), all of whom "want" the boy in some way. Usually the plot entails this "harem" of pretty girls throwing themselves at the central male character repeatedly over the course of the entire series, with the central male character being too immature or too befuddled/wimpy/stupid to respond to the girls' romantic advances. There exist many variations on this theme, such as a central female character being pursued by a "harem" of male characters. Also, the central male's or central female's harem can contain some (and unfortunately in some cases ALL) characters of the SAME sex.

Mecha -- (Pronounced "MECK-ah") -- This is a particularly geeky term for a giant robot. It's also a very popular genre of anime. Remember "Gundam Wing"? That was a mecha anime featuring bishounen characters; the creators were trying to get both male and female teenage viewers in this case.

Miyazaki -- (Pronounced "MEE-yah-ZAH-key") -- This is the last name of Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki, along with his friend Isao Takahata, founded a famous animation studio in Japan called Studio Ghibli (Ghibli is pronounced "JIB-lee" or "JEEB-lee" depending on who you talk to). Miyazaki is responsible for some of the best and most famous anime features from Japan, some of which were widely released in theaters here in the United States: "Princess Mononoke", "Spirited Away", and "Howl's Moving Castle" to name a few. Miyazaki is considered to be the "Walt Disney" of Japan and mainly works on feature anime films. If you are a fan of any of the Pixar films like "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles" or latter-day Disney features like "The Little Mermaid" and "The Lion King", the makers of these films pretty much worship at the altar of Hayao Miyazaki and consider him to be a very major influence on their work. As Miyazaki once said, his movies are for "those who will be ten years old and those who have been ten years old."

SD or Super-Deformed -- This term applies to a certain slapstick-type situation that arises frequently in anime. Usually the anime in question is a comedy. A character is frustrated or angry and, in addition to vocalizing their anger/frustration by screaming out something (e.g.: "You stupid idiot!"), their physical representation becomes physically distorted (or "super deformed") to enhance the slapstick or non-serious nature of the outburst. The intent of this is to make the anger of the character non-threatening to smaller viewers. Super deformed versions of characters in an anime can also appear in interstitial connecting scenes and/or during the end credits of an anime episode. In my experience, anime fandom is kind of polarized on super deformed elements in anime. Some consider it cute while to others, it is annoying and detracts greatly from the anime. Therefore, people generally like to know if an anime comedy incorporates super deformed character representations ahead of time so they can avoid paying money to watch it on DVD if that sort of thing annoys them.