If by now you have not heard of anime, you are truly talented. But if you have, and you’ve wondered what exactly all the buzz is about, well, I’ve done some research into the matter. Here is everything I’ve found, and when you are done here, I bet you won’t have to go anywhere else for more answers.
Here we will be discussing:
- What is Anime?
- What Makes Anime Special?
- How Popular is Anime?
- Is Anime a Cartoon?
- Caution
- How to Watch Anime?
- What writers can Learn From Anime?
What is Anime?
Anime is a style that features big, expressive eyes, it is animation produced in Japan, and anime is all animation, regardless of style or from where it comes from. How is that possible? It’s time for some light history!
The word “Anime” has an interesting etymology. The Japanese were introduced to animation when Osamu Tezaku, known as the “God of Anime” would start using Walt Disney’s style to produce animation. The Japanese called it, “animeshon”. Japan then introduced their own successful animeshon titles, such as Akir, Dragon Ball, Fist of the North Star, and Astro boy, which exploded in international popularity. Since it was made by Japanese, for Japanese, it had a unique style to people, and they wanted to mark it out. So they called it, “anime”, a colloquialism from animeshon.
Today, while internationals would not consider The Amazing World of Gumball to be anime, the Japanese do. To internationals, the only anime is Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, One Piece, Demon Slayer, and all big-eyed Nakama Lovers
What Makes Anime Special?
There are a couple of distinct features that mark out anime to the observer.
1. Anime Style
The anime style is the most common differentiator. Primary, the difference between Japanese works and other works is that the Japanese are fond of exploring the deepest psychological parts of humanity, unlike Westerners fondness of exploring the mythical parts of human experience. This is reflected in Japanese works.
The Japanese characters have massive eyes in order to properly convey every emotion that the character is feeling every moment. Additionally, there is the weird way that time works in Japanese anime. Such as 5 minutes being 10 episodes.
The reason for this is that anime wants to express every emotion that a character feels in that moment, and show how they progress. While these emotions connect with viewers the difference is that humans feel all those emotions within that 5 minutes. Something impossible to convey in animation without stretching time.
2. Storylines
Another unique trait of anime is the diversity of storylines. Because of how big the market for anime is, it is not uncommon for anime to be able to experiment with strange plot lines. For example, a boy who can’t sleep and needs to be bitten by a vampire to sleep. Or maybe a boy whose sole powers is that he can turn into a chainsaw.
While on surface level these seem rather bizarre and foreign, it is in watching these that you come to learn how deeply these story’s explore human psyche and problems. In both the previously listed anime, the concept of loneliness, and helplessness was explored deeply. That’s why anime can have such strange storylines, and elevator pitches. Because at the heart of it, there will be an exploration of something most familiar. The human struggle.
3. World
Another element of anime that separates it from other medium is the focus on the world. While most international works likes to animate character movement, Anime will focus more on the details of the settings, and use the effects of the camera like zooming, and angling. This is better discussed in Timothy J. Craig’s “Japan pop!: Inside the world of Japanese popular culture.” So check that out if you want to learn more about the technical aspect of it all. But as for the literary aspect, you have me for that.
While it can be said that the focus on the world is good in that it allows us to explore more of the character’s mentality through symbolisms (raining showing sadness, or relaxed coziness, sunny showing carefreeness, or a corruption hidden underneath the presence), there is a different reason anime focuses so much on the world. They are reusing frames to save time, and money from animating. Less exciting but hey, you wanted a simple guided, didcha?!
4. Character
Finally, the most unique trait of anime, the characters. The character designs in anime can be the most bizarre there is in all animation. They can have the biggest eyes, arms, or breasts. And on top of the striking physical designs, you have the fascinating personalities. Characters with the strangest and quirkiest traits. In spite of all this bizarreness, people grow to love anime characters. This is again due to the connection the people can form with these characters. (Attack on titan season 3, episode 11)
Behind every big eye, or loud, hot-head, there is a human being, as normal, real and helpless as you, trying to make it an a world that seems set up against them, and getting up each time they are knocked down. How could you not connect to that?
How Popular is Anime?
So. Just how popular is this human exploration formula that anime uses and can we even quantify that? I think so. I think, if we could figure out just how much impact and popularity anime has garnered, then it will show us the true weight of anime. So, let me show you a couple of graphs that give a taste of just how big anime is. Use these to show of to your friends.
Anime Search History over the past 20 years
The simplest way to understand the popularity of anime is by observing its search trends on Google. In the early 2004, anime was barely searched in the internet. The graph shows us that at January 2004, the search volume over total searches at the same time left anime at only 53. Then, for the next 15 years, the results even dipped to 47 in November 2019. But that was the beginning of the rise for anime. By July 2021, anime search worldwide reached 100. As fate would have it, not only does it seem that this growth is going to be sustained, but it seems as if it might even grow.
Anime Future Projection
Grand view research performed an anime market analysis for 2022-2030. Report overview concluded that “The global anime market size was valued at USD 24.80 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.7% over the forecast period.” Thus showing that anime’s ascension was no fluke. It is about to grow even further, until there are few forms of animated industry that can compete with it. Already anime is out doing other animation sectors in certain ways.
Anime Industry vs Other Animation Industries
The global market size for anime is estimated to be around 24. 8 billion dollars by the research. In contrast, IBIS world has calculated that the film animation services in the US industry have a market size of 247 million dollars. The closest that an American animation industry gets close to anime industry is with their 3d animation sector.
The Global 3D animation market for the US has a global market size of 18.4 billion dollars. But that is still outdone by anime’s 24.8 billion dollars. So anime is already outdoing other animations, and this is not even the last of it. Anime has shown that its growth can even extend to the cultural sphere, as anime has began to be more prominent in global culture too.
Anime Cultural Impact
Statista released comic sales revenue in North America and these were the results they found. “The revenue from comic and graphic novel sales in North America reached 2.075 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, up significantly from the 1.28 billion U.S. dollars in 2020.” This is of course a good amount, and as shown by the graph above, it is a rise from all the previously years since 2012. But, when compared to manga, which has grown due to the influence of anime, it is not as impressive.
Manga has managed another growth spurt in the past 4 years, “The sales value of comics, or manga, in Japan was estimated at almost 676 billion Japanese yen in 2021, up by more than 63 billion yen compared to the previous year”. For reference, that amount would be 4 744 392 432,00 billion dollars. There may be a number of reasons for the spike of manga popularity these days, but one of the most obvious is anime’s popularity.
In conclusion, anime absolutely has become an absolute jugger-naught.
Is Anime A Cartoon?
Yes, anime is a cartoon but not all anime are cartoons.
As initially stated, to the Japanese, anime refers to all forms of animation. So while you may not consider something that Tangled to be a cartoon, but would consider something like Sponge bob to be a cartoon, to the Japanese, Spongebob would be seen as anime, and so would Tangled. Internationally, people have a different image of what constitutes anime, and that is different from cartoons.
The anime of population features much more complex stories than cartoons. These complex stories also have complex themes, which more often than not tend to lean on the darker side of things.
Seeing that, there are some words of caution I’d like to give.
Caution
While anime can be a cartoon, there are some elements about anime that differentiate anime from cartoons which all people who wish to start consuming anime must be aware of.
1. Age appropriation
Anime covers a lot of heavy themes, and even the most colorful anime stories could have the most tragic things happen to the characters/ This of course is good for the characters in the story, as it helps them explore their humanity, but for little children who were expecting to see butterflies, and rainbows, maybe not so much so. So gage the age appropriation of the anime before handing it to young ones.
2. Cultural Sensitivity
One of the best thing about anime is its diversity. In its diversity, anime will explore many different cultures, and some exploration of those cultures are more successful than others. So if you happen to see your own culture referenced in an anime, try not to lose your mind when you see certain inaccuracies.
3. Addiction
As covered in another post of mine, anime can be addictive. And anime’s addiction can be serious. So please look out for that.
4. Prison Time
I should also mention that if you happen to pirate anime, you will certain be arrested. So please, try to not be arrested.
5. Heavy themes
Once more, i must stress that anime can have rather deep themes. If you find that some character’s experience disturb you, do not be a trooper and tread on. Take a break before continuing again. Better yet, go see a psychiatrist.
Best Way to Consume anime
The best way to watch anime is with friends on forums, with app/website blocks, and with caution.
People do not talk about this step much, but it is important that you watch how you consume your anime. Make sure you are consuming it, and it is not consuming you. The best way to avoid that is to watch anime with a website blocker. Set the website blocker to activate at a certain time, that way you are forced to stop watching the anime.
Furthermore, you could use an app blocker. You could watch an anime with an app that will be blocked of after a certain amount of time, and will only open after a certain amount of time. Once more, this is to guarantee that you watch anime appropriately, and you have time for other things in your life.
Finally, join an online forum. This one is for the funsies, but there is little more fun than speaking to people who share your interests online. So give it a shot. What’s the worst that could happen? A stalker finding your IP address, following you to your school, and peeking into your window at night but you ignore it because you think its your mother and when you look up, it is already too late? Nahhhh.
What Writers can Learn from Anime guide: An All Encompassing Introduction?
Medium is does not matter; connection does
The one thing that has been constantly in my mind as I was doing research for this article is how different anime is to different people. One would think that since anime is merely cartoons to most Westerners that they would not grow to love it as they had, but not only did they watch it, but they also went on to fall in love with anime. And this confirms a theory i have had.
The medium of the story you are telling is not what makes the people watch the story.
But then what does make people watch/read the story? Well, connection. Though the medium may be unrecognizable and foreign, people can connect to a story if the story has plot beats that connect to the consumer of the story. There are two types of plot patterns that a story can have which connects to the consumer of the story; spiritual (mythological) and human (psychological stories).
At first, I’d considered adding an emotional story pattern, but I realized that these two are what create the emotions in the reader. Mythological stories are stories that take the characters through virtue testing experiences; things like glory, honor, and basic power fantasies. For example, Lord of the Rings. Then there are the human stories, where the characters are taken through mentally testing experiences; things like insecurities, anxieties, regret, and pride. For example, Naruto.
So look at your story again, whether it is a comic story, a novel, or even film, and ask yourself; which plot pattern does it follow?