Okay, so before I go prancing my site around too much, I think I owe a decent explanation to whatever Anime is... Or, as decent as I can give it. So, let's get started!

So, what the heck is Anime, you ask? Well, Anime is another word for Japanese Animation, or as some would refer to it, Janimation. The characters tend to look a lot more serious than in American cartoons, and the storylines can be pretty funky. All in all, I prefer Anime over any cartoon type.

But what do I mean by "serious characters?" Hm... let's see... Ah, let's take the anime Yu-Gi-Oh (everyone knows this one), and the cartoon All Grown Up. The characters are basically in the same age group (11 - 16), but there are tons of differences. The eyes in anime are bigger, the noses are more pointed, and my favorite, the hair is spikier! But some of you probably don't know what either of this hit shows are. Well, since I'm too lazy to put up pictures for the being, here are a few ways to see what I mean:

1. Look on google for pictures of Yu-Gi-Oh/All grown Up
2. Go to official websites
3. Email me and I'll find some pics

So, basically, that would be the difference between the good ol' USA and Japan. But we're not here to talk about USA. Okay, more onto anime. For now, let's head to the greater past of anime!

Greater past to Anime!

Kind of irrelevent to say that Anime is actually pretty old, but it is. Although I'm not sure who the first artist to think of anime was, or what the first anime is, anime has existed for at least 40 years. Think Lupin the Third. Ah yes, I feel an even stronger flashback going on... What? No, I'm not that old! But they still have good ol' Lupin on in Cartoon Network!

Lupin the Third is a perfect example to really old anime back in the 60's. As you can obviously guess, Anime has long improved since then, but back then, Lupin was a smash! Back then, the storylines in the anime were never too far out of proportion, and the movement and dialouge between characters weren't too advanced either. Okay, so I'm using Lupin as an example for the old. Basically, it's your typical Mystery type anime about a detective trying to solve cases and find treasure. Sort of like the Scooby Doo in Japan. That was the storyline basis in Anime 40 years ago.

And the movement? You're lucky if Lupin had any joints in him, but again, that was 40 years ago. The way at which the characters ran back then made you think "Hmm, this is good, but can't it be more realistic?" Well, technology back then was a little too shotty for joint-activated running and jumping, so for a while, that had to do. But hey, at least technology advanced. Now we can see our beloved anime characters fly, sky-dive, slam-dance, and ninja kick like it's no one's business!

Ah, time for the cast of characters. Back then, the characters went in junction with the storyline. Take Speed Racer for example no. 1 on this. Most of the characters looked like race car drivers, as to be expected, and most of the race car drivers were the stereotypical guys. Back then, there were no aliens, monsters, or goddesses. No cat-people, no yo-yo masters from the universe Cantalnika, and nothing truly out of the ordinary. Nope, compared to the Anime of today, back then seemed kind of boring when you're used to seeing fighting and action every second. But man, the past shows can be quite refreshing. Especially seeing as how the characters fit in so well with the storyline. Wait, I'm rambling in loop. But is that bad? Fitting well is probably the most important thing for successful anime. Remember that lesson.

And now for the hairstyle. In early anime, there weren't too many people with the stereotypical "spiky hair" that most characters have today. Many of the old characters had straight, or short hair, and because it was around the 60's and 70's, there were also a lot of afros too. Maybe one or two characters in the early anime had spiky hair, but you'd never see the amount back then that we see now. Now we have spikes all over the place, and if there aren't spikes, there are straight-hair with wild bangs. You NEVER had that in the 60's! Once again, I'm using Lupin as the example. He did have one friend with Kenshin-style hair, who was a samurai. That may have been the "out-of-story" character, but since I don't watch Lupin anymore, I can't remember....

And now for the last difference... Clothing!! Yeah, you knew it would come. Clothing in the early animes have evolved quite a bit. Back then, the heroes usually wore suits, ties, gelled hair, you know... A typical "stuffed suit." No capes or head bands here, folks. The new range of clothes didn't come in until the 90's. But when you really think about it, back in the 60's, would YOU want to prance around a busy city wearing a cape and about 30 belt buckles on your arms while passerbys went to their daily lives? Didn't think so, and since the storylines back then weren't crazy and hectic, the characters didn't want to walk around looking like freaks, either.

So, what does this small, but somewhat explanative section teach us? Respect the elderly anime, kiddies. They were the base for some of the best anime of today.

When the Animes got crazier... The 90s!

Trust me when I say that some of the best animes were aired in the 90s. Sailor Moon, Outlaw Star, Ronin Warriors, there were a bunch of them to name. That's when the storylines became a little more fantasy-oriented. Most of them took place in Japan, in either the present time or Futile Japan, and mostly the show had to do with a group of teenagers saving the world with smaller background stories mixed in. Again, though, nothing was too crazy and you could kind of expect what came next. The musical scores for the shows themselves weren't that impressive, and neither was the dialouge.

Characters around this time consisted of a flimsy leader (usually), the goofball, the stern stoic person, the advice-giver, and the so-called ladies' man (or pretty lady). That made a pretty good, solid team, and it fit incredibly with the story. After all, can't have a story go too well if the characters don't go well, right?

Around this time, the costumes for the characters were beyond bizarre. Most of the "Futile Japan" animes had armor or armor-like kimonoes, and the save-the-world animes that didn't had the characters fight in their school uniform or a spacesuit. Hair was a little more funky, but again not as much as today. Most of the boys had their hair slicked back or in a ponytail.

Also around this time was when really important characters tended to be aliens. Dragon Ball Z and Outlaw Star are good examples. In DBZ, you had aliens left and right! In fact, there were hardly any human characters at all when you think of all the Saiyaans and Namekians that popped up. In Outlaw Star, there was a balance between human-inhuman characters. But most Animes had aliens viewed as the bad guys.

Another important thing. I'm not sure when this happened exactly, but movement had definitely improved. In fact, characters could even float off the ground and do cool poses to cast spells! They had joints! They had spines! Thank goodness, too. I mean, eventually you'd wanna see people flying at high speed in Anime, right?

What exactly does this small section teach us? Well, nothing really, but the 90s were a good time too.

The animes of Today... Oh what joy!

Well, what can I say? The animes of today are funny, romantic, and extreme! The storylines are thrown way out of proportion, and there are lots of sub-plots too. Most animes in this time have to do with magic, or some kind of ancient evil, with an incredible cast of characters too, which I'll get to in a minute. The music is pretty good, and the dialouge is much better than in the 90s. If you watch an anime enough, the stories make a lot of sense, but even if you don't, the episodes do well on their own, which is how it's supposed to be.

Anyway, now I'll tell you the cast of characters. I'll use Yu-Gi-Oh as an example for this for now, because of its wide array of characters. Like in the 90s, the animes of today still have groups consisting of a leader, a goofball, a serious stoic, and a cheerleader. But now there can also be psychic powers on a person, or evil powers inside a good guy which you rarely saw in earlier animes. Anyway, the casts consist of more than 2 groups of bad guys, friends with psychotic tendencies, friends with motorcycles, and my personal favorite, GUNSLINGERS!!! Ah, I'm doing a bad job on cast description, but that in a nutshell is what the casts of many animes have now.

Now, onto the crazy costumes anime characters wear and how we love them for it. Remember how I said most heroes wore either a suit or their school outfit? Well, now we have capes, belt buckles at least three belts, trench coats, and jet packs! Yes, things certainly have changed in 40 years. Also, besides the outfits, characters also wear random objects like dueldisks on their arms, their gym badges on their vests (which is a stupid idea), or a prized item/crystal/jewelery on their arms, ears, legs, or hair. Before, we didn't see that unless we watched Sailor Moon and her Silver Crystal locket or her tiara. But besides just looking like a freak, there are a lot of animes out there where such outfits aren't needed. Gravitation is one of them, and unless you're like Mr. K, you won't see anyone wearing capes or holding rocket launchers. A lot of people in Gravitation prefer normal wear or popstar clothing, which isn't a surprise since the anime is specifically about one young lad becoming a musical sensation. So, for the most part, the amount of freakish outfits in 2000+ is probably an even mix of 50-50 or 40-60 depending on what anime you're watching.

And now for my fetish, I'll explain the latest of hairstyles! Every, and I mean every anime in 2000s have at least one person with incredibly spiky hair. Most of the time it's the leader himself, and most animes have around 3 - 4 people with spiky hair. Almost no one nowadays has slicked back hair, although pony-tails are still in. But the ponytails themselves are spiky at the end, though this is usually for the boys. Unless girls were overly dangerous, their hair is either cut short and spiked at the end a little, or very long. Also, more male characters have long hair or semi-long hair too, which is a good thing. ^^; I like men with longer hair better, anyway. They just look... I dunno, cuter. Also, the color of hair is definitely berserk too, ranging from normal black or blonde to blue, purple, and even green! Some young characters even have white hair! And some people even have multi-colored hair! Yippee!

I feel like I'm missing something here... Ah yes, I forgot SPECIAL EFFECTS! Oh man, these rock! And they're pretty too. Special effects are a big hit in anime, especially when magic and stuff like that is involved. Most of the effects are light-based or glitter-infused, and some are as simple as drawing a bunch of smoke. Although they had these back in the 60s too, they're much better in 2000. They just look more... realistic. There's more pizzaz to them. Plus, it's really fun to see a guy float around on screen with glittery lights and sunlight all around them like they're princess pretty-pants or something.

So, now do you wanna watch anime? Good, then I've done my job. But where can you find it? Most of the more serious anime is on DVD which you can get at most movie stores, but check channels like WB45, Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, Anime on Demand (channel 1056, I believe), or Adult Swim on Demand. Oh, and try downloading episodes of uncut, japanese anime over the internet. These are quite good, and they do have subtitles. Here are some Animes I recommend:

.HACK series
Chobitz
Pokemon (for younger viewers)
Yu-Gi-Oh (it's losing its luster but I still like it)
Excel Saga

However, there are some animes to be wary of, mainly because they're too violent or have things little kiddies shouldn't see. Although these animes are good, here are some to be aware of and their reasons:

Gravitation (Eiri's past is questionable and there are some scenes that I don't think should be seen by kids under 12)
Yu Yu Hakusho (there are some scenes with a lot of blood, but again this is little)
Wolf's Rain (lots of blood, from what I've seen from previews)

And then there are some animes which should've been shot and dumped to begin with. There aren't many I'd say I didn't like, but there are some. Here are ones I wouldn't recommend even on my life:

Digimon Series 3 (it's a very confusing plot and I just don't like it)
Nina Scroll (NOT RECOMMENDED FOR ANYONE UNDER 17!! I thought it was about ninjas but there's a lot of nasty stuff in here)
Final Fantasy: Spirits Within movie (It's my opinion, but this is nothing like Final Fantasy. It's more a Parasite Eve movie, and I really found it quite boring.)

Hmmm... but wait! I forgot to mention manga, another really good way to learn Japanese animation. I have to say, manga was the starting point to my drawing prowess, so I feel credit should be due here. Manga is Japanese for "Magazine" or "Comic", can't remember which one of the top of my head. Anyway, most Animes originated in Manga form, making such hits to receive the privilege of movement! Although I'm not a big manga reader, if it's something new that you want to try, I recommend getting the following as they are very good, the stories are things we can relate to, and the art will give you a basic flow of how to draw anime.

Also note that most Manga reads right-to-left as in the original manga forms in Japan. Unless stated, the listed mangas are in right-to-left format.

Yu-Gi-Oh - Good manga, not very confusing although there are some cels and scenes which bump the rating to 13+
Pokemon - This manga was the starting point in my drawing so I HIGHLY recommend this is you also want to learn different styles. (American print is left-to-right, I.E. normal way of reading, although the Japanese version might be different)
MegaTokyo - Very good story, and the artist leaves in some sketching lines to help you learn to draw as well, although he doesn't know this... or does he? (Left-to-right American standard)
Oh My Goddess - Excellent story, and if you study REALLY hard, you'll learn some new techniques about shading and the wrinkles to clothing. (Left-to-right as far as I know)

But where can you find manga? Anywhere, actually. Anywhere they sell books, they're bound to have manga. Also, looking online is a great way to get manga, and they tend to cost much less online than if you bought it from a bookstore. Another place to get authentic Japanese manga would be Anime conventions. These tend to be very expensive since there's a chance they're imported straight from Japan. Want to know what conventions there are and the probability of getting manga there? Lucky you, I have a list for that too. Although for now, it won't be too big as I've not gone to too many conventions.

Convention names/where they're held/when are they/any mangas?

Anime Boston - In Boston, duh. I'm not sure of the dates, the one for 2005 was from April 29th to the 31st. - YES! There is manga, and more manga here. Although it tends to be Yaio or Yuri related, you can find some great mangas in this convention. They also sell some pretty lame comics too, but manga is manga.
Genericon - RPI, in Troy I believe. Usually it's the last weekend in January. - No, there is a good chance this convention will have NO MANGA AT ALL. Being as it's held in a college, if there is manga, don't expect a huge selection.
Otakon - ??? - I've never been to this convention, but I've heard of it. I'm sure they have manga here, and I'll put up better info when I go there.

If you want a schedule of the conventions, you'll need to search a different site, or even better, ask a friend who's gone before. I will NOT post up schedules, just when something happens and where it happens.