JAPANESE ANIME ART

What comes in your mind when you hear samurai anime?!

You guessed it: SAMURAI!!!!! Samurai anime basically revolves around the idea on anime with lots of samurai action with some of the infamous samurai warriors..




By definition, "samurai" is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan.. But of course, utmost respect and high regards has been treated to samurai warriors due to their Bushido code..

Aside from their mysterious facade and their samurai techniques, there is much to be appreciated thus samurai anime is born..

Samurai anime has been created in order to give vivacity of life to a samurai warrior so we may not generally think of them as a soldier of boredom. They put some interesting plots and themes unto it making the typical samurai a very interesting character in the samurai anime world..

SOme of the famous and not so famous samurai animes are Gin Tama, Samurai 7 which tells a story of a village elder who decided to hire samurai to fight against bandits abusing their village, Samurai Champloo which is about a young lady named Fuu and Jin, a stoic young ronin in samurai garb.

There are still lots of good samurai anime out there.... Will be continually updating this site for more info!

For the typical girls next door who loves anime, the reverse harem anime would definitely be your favorite.

Sometimes the “patriarch” of a harem anime is a female and the members of her harem pool are bishounen. These shows are termed as reverse harem anime.




The themes usually are the same but in this case, the roles have been interchanged. Instead of the average teenage boy unknowing of any romance, there now is a girl-next-door type of girl who’s usually insecure of herself. She then meets handsome men who eventually help her overcome her flaws.

A popular example of this type of anime genre is Fushigi Yuugi, featuring a young girl named Miaka who is transported into a magical book where she meets Tamahome and other male knockouts who all help in empowering and encouraging her to become the Priestess of Suzaku. In the process, not only did she save the world and keep her true love, she also was molded into a more mature female individual who faces responsibilities head on.

If you are a serious anime lover, you would definitely find lots and lots of anime series and movies of this genre. You know, a typical girl being wooed by lots of cute guys and also, the not so cute ones..... Kudos to these girls,they won't have any trouble selecting the guy of their dreams!

This type of anime might probably boost a typical girl next door's ego. It could unintentionally create a psychological impact to a typical shy girl and give her the confidence she needs. So, all you girl anime lovers, you may relate with two or more of the protagonists in a harem anime show and you'll never know the next guy you bump into might fall head over heels inlove with you!!!

I'll stop now before I get all too mushy and be all over the place! Hehe!

Harem anime are pretty interesting shows. Read on to know more..

Yeap, they are indeed pretty interesting shows. Although the characteristics of this genre generally are unheard of in Western type animated shows, harem anime usually are pretty common now and attract quite a significant number of following.




This type of anime genre shows basically features a male garden variety teenager who’s not considered a bishounen (a pretty boy character) with little to no experience in love and relationships who, despite all of his flaws, manage to catch the eyes of incredibly voluptuous, cute and/or sexy female characters.

The funs in these shows usually involve the male protagonist getting into silly, awkward and embarrassing situations with the members of the “harem”. Although the protagonist usually has a few dozen girls following him around, there’s always one of them that is considered his “default” partner – and most likely the one he’s going to fall for eventually.

In such shows, you’d probably wonder how in the hell would so many perfect looking female characters become so romantically interested in an average boy. Well in most cases, one would begin to see through the course of the story that the male “patriarch” actually has some really great aspect in his personality. Most of them are kind, goody-two-shoes, who despite all of their flaws (some even have some uncontrolled perverse tendencies) are able to save the girl of his dreams doing some very selfless and inspiring acts.

One very popular example of the of this anime genre type is Love Hina. The shows revolves around a boy named Keitaro who was called by her grandma to become the next manager of the bath house family business – only to find out that the place has actually also become an all girl’s dormitory, thus setting the stage for a hilarious chaotic life with the female residents.

What’s attracting about this anime (aside from the beautiful female characters) is the fact that the show actually has some moral elements to it – like keeping a promise and being able to help a friend in need no matter the difficulties. Popular harem anime include Tenchi Muyo, El Hazard, Negima! and many others.

Slice of life anime genre is cooler than you thought! Know more about them here!

By definition, this type of story is a category for a story that portrays a "cut-out" sequence of events in a character's life. It may or may not contain any plot progress and little character development, and often has no exposition, conflict, or dénouement, with an open ending.




It usually tries to depict the everyday life of ordinary people, sometimes but rarely, with fantasy or science fiction elements involved. Its term is actually a dead metaphor: it often seems as if the author had taken a knife and "cut out" a slice of the lives of some characters, without concern for narrative form. It is sometimes called tranche de vie, from the French.

John Steinbeck is an example of someone who uses this type of genre. Steinbeck takes experiences from his own life and makes characters who could very well be real characters and turns it into a story. An example is Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.

It has also been defined as an "episode of actual experience represented realistically and with little alteration in a dramatic, fictional, or journalistic work".

Such stories appear in books, TV shows, movies and video games. Super Jinsei Game and Bakushou!! Jinsei Gekijou are two examples of "slice of life" video games. These kinds of stories may either be dramatic or otherwise presented in a very serious nature, or may be used to help frame a comedic setting. Sports may be present in "slice of life" in a thematic form in order to advance the plot of the story.

Another common trait in these genre type is emphasis on seasonality or procedures. To illustrate seasonality: a show such as Ichigo Mashimaro has an entire episode dedicated to it being summer, and therefore hot; the characters stay inside in front of the air conditioner, cicadas are heard, eventually they eat popsicles.

To illustrate procedures: a show like Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō spends significant time depicting in detail the process of brewing coffee. One example that combines seasonality and procedure: in Aria (manga) the gondolas are removed from the water once yearly and scraped to remove barnacles this is depicted in detail and constitutes the basis for an entire chapter.

Oh, and one thing, if by chance you still find all of these boring, try watching Death Note , an anime genre of this type, you'll surely be an anime lover!!

Here's a treat for Mecha Anime fans, experience the thrill of watching giant anthromorphic robots in action!

For those who are avid fans of Gundam Seed, Eureka 7, or Evangelion, you're in for a good treat! Let's talk about mecha anime.

In Japan, "robot anime" (known as "mecha anime" outside Japan) is a genre that features the vehicles and their pilots as the central plot points. Here, the average robot mecha are usually fourteen feet (4.3 m) tall at the smallest, outfitted with a wide variety of weapons, and quite frequently have tie-ins with toy manufacturers. However, the robots can get up to 500 m tall (as in Bokurano). The Gundam franchise is a prominent example: Gundam toys and model kits (produced by the Japanese toymaker Bandai) are ubiquitous in Japan.




The size of mechas can vary according to the story and concepts involved. Some of them may not be considerably taller than a tank (Armored Trooper Votoms, Megazone 23), some may be a few stories tall (Gundam, Escaflowne, Saber Rider, Code Geass) and others can be as tall as a skyscraper (Space Runaway Ideon, Genesis of Aquarion, Neon Genesis Evangelion). There are also mecha which are big enough to contain the population of an entire city (Macross), some the size of a planet (Diebuster) and some the size of a large galaxy (Getter Robo, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann). Some are even implied to be able to be as large as the universe (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen). And then there are some that are so big the universe they are in collapses and they fight in the space outside (Demonbane).

The genre started with Mitsuteru Yokoyama's 1956 manga Tetsujin 28-go (which was later animated in 1963 and also released abroad as Gigantor). Its inclusion is debatable however, as the robot was controlled by remote instead of a cockpit in the machine. Not long after that the genre was largely defined by author Go Nagai, into something considerably more fantastical. Mazinger Z, his most famous creation, was not only the first successful Super Robot anime series, but also the pioneer of the genre staples like robots being piloted by the hero from within a cockpit[1] and weapons that were activated by the hero calling out their names ("Rocket Punch!"). According to Go Nagai:

"I wanted to create something different, and I thought it would be interesting to have a robot that you could drive, like a car."

This led to his creation of the Mazinger Z, which featured giant robots which were "piloted by means of a small flying car and command center that docked inside the head."[1] It was also a pioneer in die-cast metal toys such as the Chogokin series in Japan and the Shogun Warriors in the U.S., that were (and still are) very popular with children and collectors.

Robot/mecha anime and manga differ vastly in storytelling and animation quality from title to title, and content ranges all the way from children's shows to ones intended for an older teen or adult audience.

Some robot mecha are capable of transformation (Macross, Zeta Gundam) or combining to form even bigger ones (Beast King GoLion and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann). Go Nagai is also often credited with inventing this in 1974 with the television series Getter Robo.

The mecha genre, one of the oldest genres in anime, is still alive and well in the new millennium, with revival OVAs like Getter Robo: Armageddon and Mazinkaiser from the Super Robot tradition, the recent Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Macross Frontier, Code Geass, Basquash! and Rideback from the Real Robot genre, and Reideen, a recent remake of the 1975 hit series Brave Raideen. Other recent anime series in the mecha genre include Heroic Age and particularly Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, a Super Robot anime with a few elements from the Real Robot genre.

Not all mechas need be completely mechanical. Some have biological components with which to interface with their pilots, and some are partially biological themselves, such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Eureka Seven, and Zoids. In film

Perhaps the most well-known example of mecha in Western culture are the Walkers such as the AT-AT and AT-ST from the Star Wars series of films.

The Hollywood movie Aliens featured a cargoloader as a civilian mecha (although this instance blurs the line between being a mecha or an exoskeleton). The film Robot Jox, featuring two giant mech fight scenes, or Japanese live-action Gunhed are another examples.

In Matrix Revolutions Captain Mifune leads the human defense of Zion, piloting open-cockpit mecha-like machines called APUs against invading Sentinels.

The tripods featured in The War of the Worlds, with advanced weaponry and dedicated piloting stations, are perhaps the forerunners of modern mecha.

In Starship Troopers 3: Marauder, mechas with rapid-fire, machine gun and flame-thrower arms were used near the end of the film, and were under the command of the main character, Johnny Ricco.

Mechagodzilla, from the Godzilla series, is a rather famous mech.

In James Cameron's 2009 film Avatar, mecha are used as instruments of war called AMPs.

A heavily weaponized powered exoskeleton that envelops the operator and resembles the above mecha/exoskeletons in Aliens and The Matrix Revolutions is used in the 2009 film District 9.

Ever wonder what is SHOUJU ANIME? You might be surprised on little you know about it but how much you love the anime series and movies associated to it..

Shoujo is the word used to describe anime that specifically appeals to young girls. The shows are usually deeper in content, focusing on romantic interests and friendships rather than action and ending with some kind of personal growth and development. They of course still contain their fair share of action (See Magical Girl genre) but tend to go beyond the Shonen approach to strength and defeat as sole motivators. This, like Shonen is more or less a demographic - the rules tend not to be absolute

Another definition for shoujo refers to manga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10 and 18. The name romanizes the Japanese "little female".


Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative and graphic styles, from historical drama to science fiction - often with a strong focus on human and romantic relationships and emotions.[1] Strictly speaking, shōjo manga does not comprise a style or a genre per se, but rather indicates a target demographic

Japanese magazines specifically for girls, known as shōjo magazines, first appeared in 1903 with the founding of Shōjo kai (少女界?, Girls' World), and continued with others such as Shōjo Sekai (少女世界?, Girls' World) (1906) and the long-running Shōjo no tomo (少女の友?, Girls' Friend) (1908).

Simple, single-page manga had begun to appear in these magazines by 1910, and by the 1930s more sophisticated humor-strips had become an essential feature of most girls' magazines. The most popular manga, Katsuji Matsumoto's Kurukuru Kurumi-chan (くるくるクルミちゃん), debuted on the pages of Shōjo no tomo (少女の友) in 1938. As World War II progressed, however, "comics, perhaps regarded as frivolous, began to disappear".

Postwar shōjo manga, such as Shosuke Kurakane's popular Anmitsu Hime,[8] initially followed the pre-war pattern of simple humor-strips. But Osamu Tezuka's postwar revolution, introducing intense drama and serious themes to children's manga, spread quickly to shōjo manga, particularly after the enormous success of his seminal Ribon no kishi (リボンの騎士 Princess Knight)

Loving Love Hina?! No one can resist not seeing Love Hina......

The said anime series may arguably be Ken Akamatsu’s best work, aside from his other hit creation, Negima! Magister Negi Magi.

The anime adaptation, which ran for 24 episodes and followed up by a special episode and an OVA (Original Video Animation) sequel, proved to be a world wide crowd pleaser.

It shows the typical characteristics of a harem anime , where the protagonist Keitaro Urashima, gets into several, often comedic situations with most of the female characters who are also in turn have their individual stories, in one way or another, become entwined with that of the show’s hero. Generally though, it is a genre of shounen anime




Although Love Hina's popularity may stem from the humor and at times, the fan service, it is still clear that the main focus of the whole series is Keitaro’s conviction to fulfill his childhood promise.

In the past, Keitaro made a promise with a girl to enter into Tokyo University together. For Japanese, getting into a prestigious university is a great honor, and both children believed that if they are able to pass through the entrance exams together, it would become an unbreakable foundation for their relationship and thus, they would never be separated. One day, they parted ways and in time, Keitaro has forgotten the girl’s name, and even if he wanted to search for her, it would be difficult to identify how she would look like after fifteen years.

Even so, Keitaro decides to push through with his promise of entering Tokyo University, hoping that somehow, he might actually meet that girl at that school. Unfortunately, he has failed the exams twice and as a result got ousted from his residence by his parents and ends up in his grandmother Hina’s care. She then decides to make him the acting manager of the family hotel business that has also been converted into an all girl’s dormitory, without his knowledge of it – thus getting a rude first visit.

It is here that he meets all the other female characters of the show: the serious kendou expert Motoko Aoyama, the eccentric princess from a foreign land Kaolla Su, the mischievous freelance writer Mitsune Konno, and the shy schoolgirl Shinobu Maehara, among many other interesting characters.

But among all of them, Naru Narusegawa and Mutsumi Otohime are the more significant female characters tied to Keitaro. He meets Naru on day one at the dormitory and discovers that she too is trying to get into Tokyo University. And since she topped the mock entrance exams, Keitaro decides to have her help him with his studies. They get to know each other a little bit more every day they spent time with each other as study buddies – and after having read a snippet of Naru’s diary, Keitaro begins to suspect that she might actually be that girl he made a promise to years before. His suspicions are erased though after Naru herself tells him that she doesn’t remember making any promise to any boy before.

Mutsumi on the other hand meets Keitaro after he takes a brief vacation following his third failed attempt at the entrance exam. He finds out that Mutsumi is like him as she also failed the exams for three consecutive times – but due to different reasons. She is often times too aloof and airheaded that she always forgets to place her name on her exam sheets – not to mention she also gets a lot of anemic attacks. But despite all her shortcomings, Mutsumi is kind, gentle, and selfless and she also has an extremely positive outlook in life. There are times that Mutsumi is suspected to be the girl in Keitaro’s past whom he made a promise to.

In the end, it is finally revealed that it actually IS Naru Narusegawa who made a childhood promise with Keitaro. Mutsumi Otohime was also there with them the moment they shared the promise together. As it turns out, she used to be good friends with the both of them and both she and Naru had feelings for Keitaro – but Mutsumi decides to let both of them be together in order to keep her friendship with Naru in tact.

The three of them finally pass Tokyo University’s entrance exams and Naru and Keitaro finally were able to make real the promise they made as children.

Know more about shounen anime, one type of anime genre, here as you browse further!

One might ask, what is this type of anime?! Well, little would you know that there are actually various types of anime genre! And for this site, let's know more about this type of genre..... :)

So, shounen is a type of anime genre (among many others) which specifically appeals to young boys.This term comes from the Japanese root meaning “little boy.” As an anime genre its distinct features can be summarized as full of “action” and “voluptuousness” (sometimes termed as Fan Service). Such shows feature female characters with “a Barbie frame” rather than the realistic proportional female image. (Goldberg, 2001) Aside from these characteristics, most often, this anime genre have stunning visuals.

Shounen (literally “little boy”) anime shows are basically geared towards a male audience. A good example of this is the anime series, NARUTO but there are quite a few too. However, “many females are as attracted to this genre of anime as the boys are and enjoy it as much.” (Sanchez, 2003)


This is one of my artworks-- I kinda tweak it a bit befriending Naruto and Pain.. Hope you like it guys!! Hehe..... Love Hina is also one type of shounen genre.. It also has its great plots and nice heart-wrenching scenes boys would surely love to watch.. I can hook you up to some of the famous anime shows under this genre if you wanna browse further....

The evolution of anime through the dawn of Japanese manga!

Japanese Manga,as generally defined, consist of comics and print cartoons in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan. However, to define it outside the context of Japan, specifically refers to comics originally published in Japan. Its literal meaning is "whimsical pictures".



Anime evolved from comic books known as manga, and popular in Japan since the 1950s. The most important proponent of anime is Osamu Tezuka who created the first anime TV series in Japan, Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy) in 1963.

I bet alot of you have heard, or more appropriately, seen the anime series of Astro Boy which was a major hit during the dawn of the 6os to early 80s. Not to mention, SailorMoon, Digimon, Voltron, DragonBallZ, and the infamous, Naruto! Well, they all started from paper, ergo, Japanese comic books (manga). So one might ask, HOW DID MANGA REALLY START?

Believe it or not, the birth of Japanese manga was during the political onset of World War II where the entire Japanese nation was mobilized. And by mobilized, I mean, including all of Japanese cartoonists and artists. They used their talents in order to spread the propaganda against Japan's political bad elements.

Around 1940, many organizations for artists and cartoonists were formed. Among them were the New Cartoonists Association of Japan (Shin Nippon Mangaka Kyokai) and the New Cartoonists Faction Group (Shin Mangaha Shudan). During that time, the government used the few remaining cartoonists, who were not banned from working or who were not in the army, to influence the people through their artwork by creating comic strips filled with propaganda to use against the nation's enemies.



After World War II, a young aspiring artist named Osamu Tezuka became a cartoonist who created AstroBoy which naturally became a hit and later popularized Kimba: The White Lion. From hereon, various Japanese cartoonists and artists took some of the spotlight and developed their respective manga to anime hits-- thus revolutionizing manga to anime.






As I will be developing this page, you will find out more manga hits that became anime series and even movies. Browse further guys!!

Oh, and here's a timeline of the evolution of manga and anime for your use or whatever.. Not much of an info for me but I thought some of you guys might be needing it.

Anime Fansubs is THE place for anime fans out there who want to share their fave anime-- truly, a haven for anime fans!

Everyone anime fanatic wonders about it and how it all came to be..In this page, I will be answering you its history and discover why it was popular before and how it became more popular now especially in this day of modern online technology.

Anime lovers and fans would always want to watch their favorite anime shows over and over or sometimes would want to watch ahead the succeeding series of their favorite anime series. However, since anime originally come from Japan and that the transition of publicity from there to another country would probably be more difficult and that if it might have arrived, the translations could have been awful.

That is why some die hard Anime fans would always go a mile to meticulously translate the language and would even have the generosity to share it with his/her co anime freaks. Thus,anime fansubs have been born.


In the early 1990s anime production grew in Japan, but despite the sudden proliferation of titles there were very few shows released in the American market. Most anime fans did not have regular access to these shows, so some fans decided to take it upon themselves to share their favorite anime with fellow fans. Groups would come together to translate favorite shows, attach their own subtitles and distribute these shows to other fans. This came to be called fan subtitling, or fansubbing or more commonly the anime fansubs.

There were two purposes for this. First was the previously mentioned intent of a fan to share something that he enjoyed with others who probably did not have access to it. The other purpose was to create a demand. By distributing these anime fansubs shows to other anime fans, these people were creating a fan base. With the fan base came a greater demand for the original material.

VHS fansubs tended to be of a much lower quality than licensed VHS tapes of the anime series. Because of this, what the fans really wanted was the ability to buy their favorite anime on a higher quality tape. The more fans that were created through a fansub, the more potential consumers there were for both the American and Japanese consumers to consider.

The problem with the original VHS fansubs lay in how expensive they were to produce. This documentary posted on YouTube lists all the materials needed for a fansubber to put his own subtitles on a show: a laser disc player along with laser discs of the anime, video tape recorders, a computer and a program like Sub Station Alpha which the translator would use to put the subtitles on the screen.

But as technology evolved, the process of subtitling anime became much simpler. All that is required now is a computer, an easy to use subtitling program and digital copies of the raw Japanese version of the anime, which many residents of Japan upload onto the internet themselves. Thus anime fansubs have evolved.

With the rise of digital fansubs, fans no longer had to purchase or trade for expensive VHS tapes in order to view fansubtitled anime. They simply needed to use a program such as BitTorrent or IRC to download the shows directly onto their computers. This also lead to a rise in the number of people who were creating fansubs, and incidentally an increase in the number of fansubs available to anime fans. However, this also came about when the legal distribution of anime in America on a rise, leading to what continues to be an ongoing debate of the necessity of anime fansubs in the present day.

Anime wigs give that defining look to an anime character, browse further for more info!

One very interesting aspect of anime is the hair styles of the characters. Actually, this is another major defining factor in anime. So for the sake of cosplaying, such have been used.

Just as in any movie or cartoon, the hair styles of the characters can be either very "normal", conventional styles or they can be a completely off the wall, impossible to do arrangement. In many ways and in many different anime, the hairstyle of the character is used to define what type of person that character is and so there are various anime artificial hair for various anime characters.




By no means are all anime charactes bound by these observations. There are plenty of manga and OAV characters who don't fit these molds, but I am talking in general about character hairstyles.

Sometimes, the different style of anime wigs say something about the character of a cosplayer he's portraying. Here are some examples:

Short = Conservative or military.
Bald = Aged or religious.
Spiky = Engergetic or youthful.
Long Bangs = Something to hide.
Trimmed wedge = Cool or futuristic.
Long, straight = Down-to-earth.
Large Spikes = Powerful and maybe supernatural.
Pony tails = Cute and ditzy.
Short and slick = Professional, may also show pride.

So, if you want to choose some wig, you might want to consider reading it so you may have an idea what sort of emotion you will be showing while costume role playing.

Here's also an additional fact in choosing a particular color for anime wigs. General colors and what they may say about the character.

Red = Goodfighter,outspoken,energetic,stubborn.
Blonde = Youthful, somewhat ditzy.
White or Silver = Magical or very powerful. Dignified.
Violet = Smart and/or secretive.
Green = Outsider, good-natured.
Brown or Black = Traditional and normal.
Pink = Naive,innocent,sickeningly cute and bubbly
Blue = Energetic, introverted.

Anime contact lens gives that realistic portrayal of anime characters and here's why..

In every anime and manga characters, large eyes are often featured. Actually, Osamu Tezuka pioneered this idea because he was inspired by the exaggerated features of American cartoon characters such as Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse, and Disney's Bambi.




This is often a prominent feature in every anime character because eyes allow the characters to show particular and specific emotions. To add for aesthetics, coloring has been added particularly to the cornea to add some depth to the eyes. The depth is accomplished by applying variable color shading. Generally, a mixture of a light shade, the tone color, and a dark shade is used.

Thus, cosplayers deem the idea of changing their eyes for the sake of cosplaying necessary for that believable effect. That is why, they use a particular contact for a particular anime character they want to portray.

These type of lenses are one of the latest trends among Japanese anime lovers.Contact lens manufacturers have developed several colors and types of contacts similar to different Anime characters.

The colors vary greatly, from deep dark green, violet to light blue and black. They increase the size of the iris because of their extra width. The majority of these contact lenses are for daily use only and they can only be worn 30 different times.

These lenses look absolutely adorable and by making the iris appear larger, they create a cute and innocent look. Since there are several types of extra wide contact lenses, you can choose one similar to your favorite Anime character or you can choose one which has the color you always wanted your eyes to have and you can have one while doing cosplay.

If you love Anime and want to look like them especially during anime cosplay conventions, these Anime contacts will offer you the occasion to look Anime, even if temporarily.Since there is no other way you can change the width of your iris, Anime contact lenses are the only available solution for you.

Costume role play facts for cosplayers are things that we want to over deliver just for you.




For starters, Naruto Cosplay would probably make the crowd notice you more because of its popularity.



I bet if you’re a fan of it, or worse, if you’re an otaku then you might have had dreams about being your favorite character. A typical fan would dig for any of those things. Just I have mentioned earlier.

But for some die-hard fans, it’s a normal fantasy that they find themselves realize that – the anime world’s always better than the real world, right? But unfortunately, you’re there stuck with that Algebra homework and living high school life still without a girlfriend. Okay, let’s not make recluses out of you guys here, ha-ha. What I’m trying to get at here is the magic.

Sure, you can never be your favorite anime character, but nothing in the rule book says that you can’t look like them or wear what they’re wearing – it’s a free world after all! And so, costume role playing was born.



The term can be squashed up word forming C O S P L A Y. We had made some small research about this phenomenon in our thesis paper during our college days about the popularity of anime media and found out that fans do this as a form of escapism and identification, not to mention doing this for simple enjoyment and exercising fandom. It makes sense ‘cause anyone who dons the outfits of an idolized character would have that sense of being more than reality – a chance to stand out from the crowd.

It has become popular not only in Japan but in other Asian countries like China and Taiwan – and even in Western countries. You would usually expect to see fans wearing anime outfits around gaming conventions, animation fairs – stuff like that.



In our place, there isn’t much of that scene here. I bet it’s because of the lack of events revolving around anime or gaming, maybe even a lack of interest. Fans here only focused on other fandom and even if there are a few here who are into such a thing, there isn’t any venue for them to get into. But I do remember some sort of cosplaying here in our place. During my grade school years, the predominant anime series was Sailormoon. As we all know, this anime features school girls that get into long, nicely animated transformation scenes and metamorphose into sexy warriors in sailor suits (I always wonder why the enemy doesn’t attack them during their ridiculously long transformation scene).

Anyways, during special events like parties, girls in Sailormoon suits suddenly pop out of nowhere – kinda’ like the way you make your kid wear a Spiderman suit during birthday parties. And that’s just about it. I’m a bit jealous of one of my friends who actually got into an otaku convention and he got to meet and take pictures with some pretty good Japanese looking movie anime characters.



I myself have no intentions of doing such. Not only do I not have the resources, I also am not a pretty boy bishounen. Yeah, I bet this art of costume role playing would only work if the person has “looks”. Curse you, gene pool! Anyway, you don’t have to listen more to my rants about it. You could always check Wikipedia. Heck, anyone can find anything in that site. I’m just here to give you some small info about the fun of cosplaying and let you know about the almost non existence of it here in our city.

It is, by the way, not only limited to the art of dress-up. By anime custome role playing, I mean "full" custom role playing so it encompasses even the dress up of the eyes, the hair, and other accessories. Anime eyes are very prominent in every cosplayers' portrayal of their anime character and so cosplayers go to the extent of "animating" their eyes for that extra effect and so they use

Here's an anime glossary and definition of terms for your use!

Anime Glossary/ Anime Definition of Terms



• Anime – Japanese made animated programs.

• Bishoujo – literally “beautiful girl”, the counter part of Bishounen and are present mainly in Shoujo anime.

• Bishounen – literally “beautiful boy”, term used to pertain to male anime characters with beautiful features usually found in Shounen anime.

• Censorship – the act of banning materials with questionable contents - primarily, the criteria used to judge such materials are based on deviance, violence, pornography and others.

• Chibis – a style in anime wherein an exaggerated likeness of a character is shown; usually with large heads and small bodies; also used to show “cuteness”.

• Constructs – according to Gerbner, ideas, concepts or assumptions or reality cultivated through long term exposure to media.

• Conventions – a gathering of anime or comic book fans; usually such events have programs or contests all linked to the passion of the fans; similar to a fair.

• Cosplay – short for “costume-play” – an activity of anime fans where they dress up as their favorite anime character.

• Cultivation – the process of taking in ideas from media through long term exposure of it.

• Diversion – emotional release according to Blumler and others.

• Face Faults – in Anime, characters exhibit distorted facial expressions used to exaggerate emotions and to add humor.

• Anime Fansubs – recording and sharing of anime titles to fans of such series; considered questionable because of issues in copyrights.

• Genre – a type of story

• Heavy Viewers – in Gerbner’s Cultivation theory, heavy viewers are people who watch television everyday, at 4 hours or more in a day.

• Inner Motivation – in Katz and Blumler’s U&G Theory, the gratifications sought by a person in his or her choice of media and messages.

• Light Viewers – according to Gerbner, these are individuals who watch television less than four hours a day.

• Manga – Japanese comic books.

• Mainstream – refers to something that has become part of society

• Mecha – a genre of Anime featuring giant machines or robots.

• Media – any electronic means through which messages are relayed to a broad audience.

• Needs - in Katz and Blumler’s U&G Theory, the uses a person derives from his or her choice of media and messages.

• Primetime –refers to the hours where audiences are most available for viewing television – “hot” times and better shows that cater to the most dominant audience at these times are shown.

• Shounen – an Anime genre geared towards a male audience featuring action, adventure and fantasy themes.

Wondering who creates those fabulous drawings of different character you know and love? Visit our Artists' Corner and get the inside scoop on your favorite idol. Or if you're not so famous yourself, have the privilege of being one of them kindly let me post your drawings here on this site....

To name a few, here are some of the best anime artists ever to grace the anime industry. And mind you, they the considered great thinkers to have even fathomed such a plot or a concept of a particular anime movie or episodes that has become a household name for most of us anime lovers:




1. Masashi Kishimoto = His name sounds so ordinary that you couldn't even guess that he is the anime artist of a very well known anime. Click to know more!

2. Nobuhiro Watsuki = sounds to geeky and nerdy for an anime artist's name huh?! But wait till you know what anime he has created and you wouldn't consider the name as too tacky anymore!

3. Tite Kubo = You will be amazed that a guy so ordinary looking will be able to create one of the sought after epic anime favorite of all time: BLEACH!! Bleach has had numerous episodes that one might wonder how vast his imaginations could fathom!

4. Tsugumi Ohba = Of all the great anime artists/ creators, he is the mysterious of them all as until now his real identity is still big question. Get to know the guy behind Death Note...

5. Kunihiko Ikuhara = has been one of the anime creators who have made a big hit out of Sailor Moon.. This guy is a force to reckon with...... You'll never know what his next big anime manga idea he'll make again. But we can't wait to see what's next in his sleeve!

Let's face it, either you're one of the naturals or has been trained to be one.. So I thought you just might want to know a thing or two about them...

I for one would want to be considered as one of the natural artists.. See, I learned to draw on my own especially while I was still very young.. So I started from the basic stick figure drawings then my skills developed to knowing more on shadowing and contouring until my drawings got, modesty aside, real awesome... So, kudos to me!

And if you're not one of the naturals, I bet you must be fortunate enough to have trained or have undergone schooling on anime drawings and manga art... That's very good! In fact, this is the most opportune time to learn digital drawing.

Digital drawing would give one a whole new lease on artistic endeavor. Computers would reawaken creative life after years of slump. I like the high tech of it, but unfortunately I still prefer the all conventional drawing using the all conventional art materials!

Although,some would definitely prefer digital drawing as it takes the work with them and they might particularly hate mess. Computers have all the elements right there in one little machine.It has a certain advantage to it though so I don't strictly limit myself to traditional drawing alone...

 Here's the anime anatomy a basic to drawing anime tutorial

Before I proceed, I would like to state a disclaimer that what I am about to show you is not really the REAL step by step guide an anime anatomy drawing guide. Of course, you can always bend the rule and make your own drawing style and personalize your own anime anatomy...



So, here are some guidelines about proportions in drawing any anime character:

First, when drawing an elbow of a particular anime character,see to it that the elbows are aligned at the waist of the person.. And by waist, it is the portion where the smallest curve of your body is located, just parallel to your belly button.







Second, the wrist should be aligned right around where your hips and leg meet. Next, the hand should also fall right at the top of your thigh... If you lengthen the hand which would fall down to the thigh, it might look like it has a very long hands, like that of a monkey.. Too short would be considered too awkward.




Anime anatomy conclusion

Here’s some proportion guidelines that you should take to heart when drawing the body:

• the elbows tend to align right at the waist of a person (the waist, for the record is where your belly button is situated and is generally the slimmest part)
• the wrist aligns right around where your hips and leg meet
• the hand falls right at the top of your thigh
• the top and bottom half of the leg (i.e. the parts above and below the knee) should be about the same length5) the shoulder width should be about half the size of the head on each side

What is Anime?! Here's where you'll know more about anime history.

Japanese animation, more popularly known as anime, first flourished after World War II. It features a variety of story themes, art styles and characters very distinct from Western cartoons, as popularized by Disney and Warner Brothers (Clements, 2006) if one might ask what is anime.

The word anime is an abbreviation coined from the Japanese word that is literally pronounced as “animēshon”. The Japanese style of drawing is evident in anime, particularly in the highly stylized facial features, large eyes, chibis, sweat drops, nose bleeds and face faults


Another quality that distinguishes anime from cartoons are its themes and symbolisms, which are deeply rooted in Japanese culture—mono no aware, the concept of life, and beauty, as being fleeting and sad—and bushido, the samurai code of ethics that places value on virtues such as honor, endurance, courage and, especially, loyalty to master and country, even unto death (hara-kiri). Such concepts add to anime’s realism (Ping, 1999), as opposed to cartoon’s more familiar themes of fairy tales, magic and fantasy.

The more recent success of anime films such as Hayao Miyazaki’s Sen To Chihiro Kamikakushi (Spirited Away), which won an Oscar for best animated feature in 2001, and Cowboy Bebop (1998) by Shinichiro Watanabe, has earned anime an international following.Anime’s popularity worldwide has even spawned a sub-culture in many countries in North America and Europe (Napier, 2001). Popular web engines give out over 116,000,000 results for “Anime”—including fan sites, fan fiction, mailing lists and chat rooms and role-playing games—showing its popularity even in the World Wide Web.