Anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, anime refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, anime (a term derived from a shortening of the English word animation) describes all animated works, regardless of style or origin. Animation produced outside of Japan with similar style to Japanese animation is commonly referred to as anime-influenced animation.
Anime is distributed theatrically, through television broadcasts, directly to home media, and over the Internet. In addition to original works, anime are often adaptations of Japanese comics (manga), light novels, or video games. It is classified into numerous genres targeting various broad and niche audiences.
Timeline:
1917 -- The earliest commercial Japanese animations date.
1960s -- A characteristic art style emerged with the works of cartoonist Osamu Tezuka (it spread in following decades, developing a large domestic audience).
1980s -- the medium began see widespread international success with the rise of foreign dubbed, subtitled programming.
2016 -- Japanese animation accounted for 60% of the world's animated television shows.
Anime is a diverse medium, it combines graphic art, characterization, cinematography, and other forms of imaginative and individualistic techniques. Compared to Western animation, anime production generally focuses less on movement, and more on the detail of settings and use of "camera effects", such as panning, zooming, and angle shots.
The anime industry consists of over 430 production companies, including major studios such as:
Studio Ghibli
Sunrise Bones
Ufotable
MAPPA
Wit Studio
CoMix Wave Films
Toei Animation.
Anime production encompasses such a wide spectrum that there really isn't any detailed criteria for what content should be released.
As stated earlier Anime is classified into many different genres to suit a wide variety of audiences.
Here are the top 10 genres and link to their most popular animes over the years:
- Isekai -- a genre of anime in which the main characters enter a new world unlike their own, typically resembling a MMORPG or fantasy land.
- Mecha -- known in Japan as robot anime feature robots (mecha) in battle. The genre is broken down into two subcategories; "super robot", featuring super-sized, implausible robots, and "real robot", where robots are governed by realistic physics and technological limitations.
- Sports -- they have taken over and they're not slowing down. Name any sport, whether it's soccer, ice skating, or badminton, and viewers are guaranteed to find a sports anime about it.
- Pyschological
- Horror
- Adventure
- Sci-fi
- Slice of life -- a genre that is more akin to melodrama than drama, bordering on absurd due to the large numbers of dramatic and comedic events in very short spans.
- Shoujo -- focus on human relations and emotions; characters that defy traditional roles and stereotypes surrounding gender and sexuality; depictions of supernatural and paranormal subjects.
- Shonen -- primarily focused on action, adventure, and the fighting of monsters or other forces of evil.
There are multiple platforms where one can stream these many Animes
Here is a list of some of the most popular streaming platforms: