What is “Anime”?
Alright, alright, I know that this is a very broad question to ask. If you ask different people this particular question, you would get answers ranging from “ohh it’s just a show for kids”, “those things they make in Japan right?” and so on and so forth. Here in North America, the word anime has been generalised as a genre, rather than treating it what it actually is: a medium.
There are a lot of ways we can tell a story; books, movies, television, radio broadcasts, and through these mediums we can either watch a blockbuster thriller action movie or a sci-fi themed novel that can span different books. Anime is the same. You are able to tell a wide variety of stories through animation, whether it be a very calming slice-of-life or an action packed thriller. It’s just in animated form, and most of the time, Japanese dubbed, but that’s beside the point.
Below are 2 examples of very different animes:
The picture on the left is from an anime called “A Place Further than the Universe” and the premise of the story is 4 group of girls travel together on an expedition to Antarctica. While on the right is “My Hero Academia”, an action show that is set in a world where “Quirks” or superpowers are prevalent in society and superheroes are normal.
And that is the crash course of how Anime is a medium!
