HASnime – Anime is the affectionately shortened name for animation in Japan. It is written in katakana, as derived from English, and generally refers to any animation conceived and drawn in Japan. However, there is a certain style and method in anime that can be recognized throughout the world as unique to Japanese animation. Simple, over-the-top character features and amazingly detailed settings coupled with actual thematic content, usually a coming-of-age story of some kind. The development of some characters through a series of tests through the unique Japanese moral of perseverance and strength.

B.alias – Japanese slang for stupid. Affectionately used to describe all the goofy, weird, and old characters in an anime. Usually applied by a woman towards a man, it is best defined as the general insult for a nerdy and insecure man (and sometimes a woman) who consequently does something stupid. Therefore Baka.

againstosplay – The unique and overwhelming practice of anime fans around the world of dressing up as their favorite anime and video game characters to meet other extreme fans and compare their realism. Because anime is (mostly) drawn to scale, and clothing is generally brightly colored and completely impractical, characters are easily recognized in those who are particularly talented in this field. Exhibitions for cosplayers, as well as contests, are held annually. It is something of an underground phenomenon in the culture that has become much less underground in recent years.

Doujinshi: The Japanese word for fan-made manga based on existing characters. Pretty much the anime equivalent of the Star Wars novels. There is a huge market for these fan fictions in Japan, and due to the sheer amount of talent, they are often of equal or higher quality than the source material. Seems like a good way to do it. Keep your future employees outside drawing for free.

mecchi: a Japanese word that roughly translates to ‘pervert’. Basically, it’s used to describe all those schoolgirl anime where the skirts stop about two inches above the panty line, and yet they somehow magically stay on. It’s not Hentai caliber as it tries not to be porn, but the fan service and suggestive subject matter quotient are pretty off the map.

Fan – Especially for connoisseurs of American anime, the fan is one of the only ways to access some anime and, until recently, pretty much the only way. Fan stands for Fansubbing (the fan-produced subtitling of shows taken directly from Japanese television), Fandubbing (the fan-made dubbing of the same material a little less done and often much funnier), Fanfiction (the written form Doujinshi, which often involves a lot of Ecchi) and Fan Service (where a show will do something over the top or suggestive on purpose because they know that’s what their fans are looking for). The fandom is what makes the anime market float, especially in America, where until very recently the market was mostly a black market.

GRAMundam – One of the original fathers of the anime. For 25 years or more, Gundam has produced more than 25 series and movies since its debut in 1979, and continues to be one of the most popular series every year, with an exponential growth of productions in recent times. The show was one of the pioneers of giant mech anime and an underground favorite in America for years…and it makes some cosplayers pretty hilarious.

Hentai – And of course with any art form, when you have a big enough fan base, someone perverts it. However, porn anime has something that normal porn doesn’t, lots of weird and creepy tentacles and occasionally a plot. Yes, in line with much of Japan’s fine art, Hentai occasionally tries to inject a bit of intelligence into its mindless sex. And the quality of the production tends to be superior even to normal productions. Talk about the nature of porn, I guess. Run the industry.

medol – The idol mentality runs the sphere of Japanese pop culture. Its singers are everywhere, its movie stars are singers, its singer-movie stars are television hosts. Its movie stars, singers, and TV hosts are voice actors. Everything is cyclical and means massive exposure in an overpopulated country of 140 million. And it seeps into the shows that they do, and the mass production of the shows (usually one a week every week until the show ends… for some shows it’s years) and the production values ​​speak to this.

jump – Shonen Jump is Japan’s monthly manga publication that broke some of the biggest names in anime. Dragonball, Naruto, One Piece, Kenshin, etc. The super popular kid-oriented anime that rules the charts comes out of this little gem repeatedly. And now it’s here in the United States. Power in circulation.

kawaii – Japanese adjective for cute. And that’s how half of what they produce is described. Super cute, to the point of nausea at times. The ability to turn the ugliest and most disturbing things into cute and cuddly pets is a distinctly Japanese skill. Just look at the middle of the Pokémon. Ugly butt, but cute after all.

Love Hina – Love Hina didn’t invent it, but she made it better: the bedroom fantasy anime that it is. And it’s her own subgenre now. A dimwitted young man who has no luck with the ladies finds himself in a situation where he is surrounded by women every day, who eventually attack him and make his life hell while falling in love with him. Ecchi moments abound, and often our selfless hero ends up with a bloody nose on rocks outside a hot spring somewhere.

METERanga – Ah yes, the biological father of the whole thing. Manga is the comic, hand-drawn formula for all fashion. It started as an offshoot of the 19th century woodcut art forms and before that, Manga took compelling stories and serialized them into fun, easy-to-read comics. Not to say that the Supermans and Detective Comics of America didn’t contribute to this trend.

NOeon Genesis Evangelion: An offshoot of the giant mech anime, Evangelion broke into new legions of fans by being what some anime had dared before, but few had succeeded in: mature and intelligent. A fairly common theme these days, Evangelion managed to take complicated biblical, social, and personal themes and turn them into an apocalyptic and often hilarious 24-episode, 2-movie epic series.

EITHERtaku: In what is actually an insult in Japan, which roughly translates to ‘you’… but more commonly known as ‘lifeless geek who spends all his time building GUNDAM models…’ The definition is a bit less caustic on our side of the Pacific, it usually refers to someone who just enjoys the depths of Japanese pop culture, watches anime after school, and draws characters from their favorite shows in their notebooks. More of a clique at school than a subculture worthy of ridicule. But of course that is changing rapidly, as the anime arena is growing very rapidly here in the United States.

Pokemon – Pokemon is the new generation of children-oriented anime born out of marketing necessity, used to sell video games, video games used to sell the show. It has been running for almost 10 years and new episodes are still coming out. If the Japanese do anything right, it’s sell stuff, and Pokemon continues to sell, actually marketing to a whole new generation of kids these days.

whatueen Emeraldas – I’m skipping a bit here because Q, as we all know, is the baddest letter in the alphabet for making an ABC list. However, Queen Emeralds is a good anime. An OAV produced in 1998 as an offshoot of the Harlock and Galaxy Express 999 series, Queen Emeraldas continues the story of a popular character who, if you haven’t seen any of the previous shows, won’t make sense to you.

Rurouni Kenshin – Kenshin is the epic story of a wandering samurai in Meiji-era Japan known as Kenshin. He finds a small martial arts school in the new capital, and after saving the young heiress, he stays with her and goes on various missions to help survive the government he helped form a few years earlier. He is an incredibly badass swordsman and draws a nice little entourage of characters. I don’t know if it’s the biggest thing in the world in terms of anime, but it’s one of my favorite shows so it’s on the list.

yeshoujo – The term used to describe anime aimed at young girls. All Sailormoons and Cardcaptor Sakuras fit here. It’s actually a good niche and it works very well here as well as in Japan. It’s a testament to the popularity of a subculture when it actually takes the time to stop spawning violent battles between half-assed men in order to attract girls as well.

Tezuka Osamu – The Walt Disney of anime, Dr. Tezuka created Astroboy, Kimba the White Lion, Metropolis, and many more anime classics that more or less established the art form. He’s the guy you want to look at every time you ask, “who’s responsible for all this?”

yourRusei Yatsura – A monstrously popular franchise from the ’70s and ’80s spanning nearly 200 episodes, 10 movies, and a handful of OVAs. It’s more or less about a bunch of “nasty aliens” (the actual translation) invading and taunting earth. They’re all girls, and they were part of the beginning of what made Love Hina happen, a lecherous teenager surrounded by strange and sexy women. Yeah, they sure know how to put on shows there.

vVoice acting – Come on. It’s animation right? Unlike the US animation industry, Japan’s voice acting group is huge and really talented. American companies use the same people over and over and pay them a pretty penny, and they usually suck at what they do. In Japan, the respect for doing what they do is much more pronounced…and they don’t suck.

Wings of Honneamise: Another historical anime, this is the first movie produced by super studio Gainax (the guys who made Evangelion, among others). It’s essentially science fiction, military fantasy with a few twists in history and technology. One of my favorite examples of how anime also tweaks the genres it operates in. It’s out there and that’s why we love it.

X – Yeah, just X. From Clamp, a group of female artists whose fan base (and quality of workmanship) is raunchy, X is one of their first movies, which later became a series. The style is best described as Shoujo without the girls-only service.

Yaoi – The slightly homosexual version of Ecchi, Yaoi is usually a homoerotic fan service of male characters in typical situations who act in sexually ambiguous ways and often get quite close to each other. When production is this good, you can expect anything good, and Yaoi’s gay-chic is immensely popular in Japan.

Z, Dragon Ball – I cheated again, so what? After all, Dragon Ball Z was one of the key reasons the anime broke into the mainstream here in the US, with a couple hundred episodes and memorably long (and I mean loooooong) fights, Dragon Ball Z captured the fanbase of all young violence. prone kids across the country and kept them captivated well into their 20s (yeah yeah… stop looking at me).

And there you have it. 26 keys to understanding the anime subculture, a true AZ of what you need to know… minus Q and Z.