‘Small’ or ‘tiny’, in Japanese. It is a drawing style that is characterized by representing the smallest and stockiest characters, with large heads and eyes and short limbs. They tend to be adorable.
COSPLAY
Abbreviation of ‘costume play’. It means dressing up as anime characters.
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FAN ART
Art, especially drawings, made by fans that represent characters or situations from a manga or anime.
FAN FIC
Abbreviation of ‘fan fiction’ in English. Story written by fans who use existing characters or story arcs to create complementary stories to the anime or manga.
FORMATS
Sub: format that refers to animes in their original version with subtitles.
dub: animes dubbed into other languages.
FAN SERVICE
Scenes in an anime that have no plot relevance and are simply there to attract teenage boys. They tend to be sequences in which female characters appear showering or focus on their underwear or cleavage. Controversial, for sexualizing and objectifying women and girls.
Shonen: ‘boy’, in Japanese. Aimed at teenage boys, it features stories with lots of action and battles that follow the life of a young protagonist (usually with powers of some kind) facing one or more villains. It is the most popular genre in the world. There are historical shonen such as ‘Dragon Ball’, ‘Naruto’ or ‘One Piece’ and more recent ones, such as ‘Boku no Hero Academia’ (‘My Hero Academia’), ‘Shingeki no Kyojin’ (‘Attack on Titan’ ‘) or ‘Kimetsu no Yaiba’ (‘Guardians of the Night’).
Shojo: ‘girl’, in Japanese. Like shonen, shojo is aimed at teenage girls. The protagonists tend to be delicate and sentimental and the male characters, somewhat effeminate. Although the plot thread is more diverse than the previous one, there are also heroines, as in Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura. Other famous ‘shojo’ are ‘Fruits Basket’ and ‘Ouran High School Host Club’. Yes, both genders are very stereotyped.
Seinen: ‘youth’, in Japanese. Genre designed for young adults. Berserk, Cowboy Bebop, and One Punch Man are some of the most famous examples.
Kodomo: ‘child’, in Japanese. Content intended for a children’s audience. Among the most popular ‘kodomo’ are ‘Doraemon’, ‘Ojamajo Doremi’ and ‘Ninja Hattori’.
Mecha: Distinguished by huge, anthropomorphic robots usually piloted by humans. The most famous example is ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’.
Hentai: ‘pervert’, in Japanese. Genre that is defined by nudity and explicit sexual situations.
Ecchi: initial of ‘hentai’, a genre characterized by dirty humor, nudity or sexual situations. However, unlike the previous genre, it does not contain explicit scenes.
Yaoi: The plot focuses on a romance between two male characters.
Yuri: the same as ‘yaoi’, but with female characters.
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KAWAII
‘Adorable’, in Japanese. It usually describes an aesthetic in pastel tones and somewhat infantilized. People, animals, objects or behaviors can be ‘kawaii’.
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SLEEVE
‘Comic’ in Japanese. Like anime, it is used to refer to exclusively Japanese comics. There are a variety of genres and for all ages. They are usually published by chapters in weekly magazines such as ‘Shounen Jump’. Graphic novels or ‘tankouban’ are compilations of about ten chapters.
MANGAKA
Manga artist who is also the author of the plot. They usually have a small group of assistants who take care of the backgrounds and landscapes of the panels. Sometimes, various ‘mangakas’ form groups to bring their stories to life (example: CLAMP, authors of titles such as Cardcaptor Sakura).
People obsessed with anything, in Japanese. In the West it has been losing the negative connotation of Japan and is used to refer to anime fans.
OVA
Acronym for ‘Original Video Animation’. They are productions that are released on DVD and are not intended for TV or cinema. They can be extra stories from existing animes that focus on supporting characters like ‘Shingeki no Kyojin: Lost Girls or Haikyuu!!’ or ‘Riku vs Kuu’, or new stories.
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PARTS OF CHAPTERS
Opening: song, usually happy and intense, at the beginning of each chapter of an anime with the opening credits. They change with each season or with each story arc and tend to generate arguments. The songs ‘A Cruel Angel’s Thesis’, from ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’ stand out; ‘Tank!’, from ‘Cowboy Bebop’, or ‘Shinso wo Sasageyo’, from ‘Shingeki no Kyojin’.
Ending: song, slower than the ‘opening’, at the end of each chapter. After it, there are usually trailers or post-credits scenes.
eyecatch: a type of interlude that introduces the beginning and end of commercial breaks. Each anime has its ‘eyecatch’, although they all include the series logo.
‘Voice actor’, in Japanese. Some are considered stars, like Mamoru Miyano (‘Light Yagami in Death Note’). Some ‘seyuu’ play boys, since they don’t have such a deep voice. This is the case of Rumi Park, who voices Ed Elric from ‘Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood’, one of the most iconic characters and animes. Some are also singers (Miyano, for example) or voice actors, like Yuuichi Nakamura, the voice of ‘Captain America’.
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Perhaps the only anime that ‘boomers’ have seen. Created by Go Nagai, it is part of the emotional imagination of those who were children in the 70s. This reminder goes to all of them: although you remember as if it were yesterday the “breasts out!” from Aphrodite A, this proto-feminist cry was never said in the series.