The Anime Phenomenon
Anime is technically just Japanese for 'animation' and in Japan is used to apply to all animation, including Western animation such as Disney. But most other places, anime is usually used to apply to commercial Japanese animation.
Why is anime so popular with many people nowadays? To understand this, it's necessary to understand the difference in how animation is regarded in Japan. In much of the Western world, animation is considered to be for children only, despite the fact that animation is just another medium of expression, such as books or live film. (It doesn't help that much of the Western animation industry fosters this impression by only producing animation for children.) In Japan, animation is just another valid medium-and it's as varied as books or live film.
The range of anime runs from serious modern social commentary to grand space-opera to goofy and comedic to fantasy to... your imagination is the limit. Because of the huge variety of fields covered by Japanese animation, you find a diverse audience of fans. Some are fond of martial-arts series, while others are fond of series focusing on complex machinery (mecha). But almost all are drawn together by their common like of the media.
For many, the first introduction to anime came with older cartoons that they weren't even aware were Japanese animation. Speed Racer (a.k.a. Mach Go Go Go! in the original Japanese) provided English audiences with an (admittedly badly dubbed) version of the adventures of Go Hibiki (better known to American audiences as Speed) and his family and friends, while Battle of the Planets and G Force both provided English versions of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (Ever wonder what that G stood for?). If you're even a little older, you may remember Astro Boy. Slightly younger fans such as myself can often point to either Star Blazers (originally Space Battlecruiser Yamato) or Robotech (which admittedly was three completely unrelated series put together into one story arc).
But these don't provide a good cross-section of anime as a whole. None touch on the deep meaning of the recent Shoujo Kakumei Utena, a series which borrows symbolism from the author Herman Hesse. Or the simple innocence in the films of Hayao Miyazaki (which have recently been purchased by Disney). Or even the huge, sweeping space opera-easily the equal of Star Wars-in Legend of the Galactic Heroes, where there is no 'good' or 'evil', merely two sides in a war.
