Anime Is…

An animated style of storytelling which originated in Japan. Although the word anime is derived from the word “animation”, this modern day medium relies heavily on traditional and modern literary devices to tell a story, and not exclusively on its visuals, contrary to its name.

In anime, the visual manner in which the story is told is as important as the story itself. Most anime feature exaggerated emotions, themes, facial expressions, movements and pauses. This was originally due to the low budget nature of anime when it was first created. It was expensive to animate every detail as was done in America, so pauses, large movements, and lack of details were commonplace. Although anime has become a billion dollar business, the exaggerations and large cell shading have become an integral part of anime storytelling and are hallmarks of the medium. This is an aspect of anime which may jar some American viewers, especially as even the emotions and themes tend to be drawn out.

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