logo
g Text Version
Auto
Beauty & Self
Books & Music
Career
Computers
Education
Family
Food & Wine
Health & Fitness
Hobbies & Crafts
Home & Garden
Money
News & Politics
Relationships
Religion & Spirituality
Society & Culture
Sports
Travel & Leisure
TV & Movies

dailyclick
Bored? Games!
Postcards
Astrology
Take a Quiz
Rate My Photo

new
English Garden
Costuming
Charity
Women's Fashion
Pop Music


dailyclick
All times in EST

Full Schedule
g
g Anime Site
Lesley Aeschliman
BellaOnline's Anime Editor

g

Anime Glossary

This is a glossary of some of the most commonly used terms in anime.

Anime: a Japanese word for animation; it is used by Western fans to refer to animation produced in Japan

BGM: Background music

Bishojo: beautiful girl

Bishonen: beautiful boy

Catgirl: a female cat-human hybrid character; this is generally a cute girl with catlike ears and sometimes a tail

Chibi: a commonly used alternate term for super deformed; however, this technically is not correct. “Chibi” is a Japanese word meaning “small child” or “dwarf”

Con: short for convention, and usually applies to anime conventions

Cosplay: this is short for “Costume Play”; a practice of dressing up as one’s favorite anime character

Ecchi or Etchi: humorously indecent, and usually involves gratuitous nudity or sexual innuendo; ecchi/etchi is milder than hentai

Eyecatch: the visual in anime that comes before and after an advertising break; it visually summarizes the show’s nature and features the main characters

Face fault: an exaggeration of facial features to convey extreme shock or surprise

Fan service: this usually refers to unnecessary things thrown into a story to capture the interest of adolescent male fans; it can also refer to anything unrelated to a story but included to please fans (such as fancy outfits and cute animals)

Fansub: a fan-subtitled production, the term is usually used for those properties where these are the only translations of less popular anime titles

Hammerspace: when an angry woman summons a mallet from nowhere and strikes someone with it

Henshin: a transformation scene, most often seen in Magical Girl anime

Hentai: Japanese word meaning “perverted”; in anime, it refers to pornographic material

Hime: princess

Josei: anime that is targeted at young women

Kawaii: a Japanese word meaning “cute,” it also refers to character designs

Kodomo: anime that is targeted at all children, regardless of gender

Magical Girl: this term refers to a specific genre featuring young girls with some sort of magical power

Mahou Shoujo: Japanese for “Magical Girl”

Manga: is usually used to mean Japanese comic books

Mecha: short for mechanical, and refers to technology ranging from guns to vehicles to giant robots

Mobile Suit: powered armor, and is a human-piloted robotic flying machine; this is a subset of mecha

Neko: cat

OAV / OVA: short for Original Animation Video / Original Video Animation; this refers to anime made specifically for direct-to-video release

OST: Original soundtrack

Otaku: in anime, it refers to someone obsessed with a particular hobby

Sakura: Japanese word for “cherry blossoms”

Seinen: anime that is targeted at teenage boys and young adult males

Seiyuu: a Japanese term for voice actor or actress

Settei: the preparatory line work used by animators as a design reference at the beginning of an anime project

Shojo: anime that is targeted at young girls

Shonen: anime that is targeted at young boys

Super deformed: a style of anime where characters are drawn in an exaggerated fashion

Sweat drop: a visual stylization used in anime; when a character feels embarrassed, perplex, or self-conscious, a large tear-shaped drop will appear near their face or head

What is Anime?
Children and Anime
Anime History: The Beginning
RSS
Related Articles
Previous Features
Site Map


Content copyright © 2008 by Lesley Aeschliman. All rights reserved.
This content was written by Lesley Aeschliman. If you wish to use this content in any manner, you need written permission. Contact Lesley Aeschliman for details.

Digg! g delicious Save to Del.icio.us

g


For FREE email updates, subscribe to the Anime Newsletter


Past Issues


print
Printer Friendly
bookmark
Bookmark
tell friend
Tell a Friend
forum
Forum
email
Email Editor

g features
Fruits Basket: Anime vs Manga

Fansubs

Anime Resources

Archives | Site Map

forum
Forum
email
Contact

Past Issues
memberscenter


vote
Driving Amount
Much more
Slightly more
Slightly less
Much less

g


| About BellaOnline | Privacy Policy | Advertising | Become an Editor |
Website copyright © 2008 Minerva WebWorks LLC. All rights reserved.


BellaOnline Editor