Anime is a shorter terminology for Japanese animation. Unlike what most people perceive, anime are *not* cartoons, the run of the mill episodes you see every morning or during your breakfast on Saturday or their Disney counter part. Anime is more geared towards older, more intellectual and mature audiences. In Japan, anime is on par with full featured release films where the anime industry is much more robust than that of the U.S. Anime covers all genres including action, sci-fi, drama, comedy, cyber-punk, adult, etc. And unlike U.S. cartoons, anime characters are three dimensional with emphasis on character development; the plot is thicker, sometimes leaving mysteries to stimulate the intellect; and in anime, characters do die, sometimes graphically and violently.

There is a misconception associated with anime and that is all anime are pornographic. Nothing can be further from the truth. With all areas of entertainment, there are particular areas that cause much misunderstanding. With anime, it is pornography or hentai. Needless to say, adult anime is a very small portion of the entire market, which only consists of less than 1% of the total anime merchandise that is distributed. How anime acquired such a bad reputation is up to speculation. It could be because of the press' lack of open mindedness or their uncalled for and unresearched bias against anime, like the USA Today article. The most important issue you should remember is to keep an open mind and do some research in to which anime titles are worth watching and which aren't. If you have any concerns or questions about anime in general or which anime titles are worth watching, you can email me anytime.