Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that answer the question.
Query: Is anime only Japanese?
The word anime is the Japanese term for animation, which means all forms of animated media.[1] Outside Japan, anime refers specifically to animation from Japan or as a Japanese-disseminated animation style often characterized by colorful graphics, vibrant characters and fantastical themes.[2][3] The culturally abstract approach to the word's meaning may open up the possibility of anime produced in countries other than Japan.[4][5][6] For simplicity, many Westerners strictly view anime as a Japanese animation product.[3] Some scholars suggest defining anime as specifically or quintessentially Japanese may be related to a new form of Orientalism.[7]
"" is a Straight to Video anime movie that was first released in the United Kingdom on 7 May 2010. It is a Japanese-British co-production that was animated by The Answer Studio and produced by Hit Entertainment. It was also released in Japan; the film was only recorded in English as its Japanese release has no Japanese vocal track.
, is a Japanese storyboard artist and animated film director. He directed a number of animated television series produced by Nippon Animation during the 1970s and 1980s. Kurokawa was the series director of "Animated Classics of Japanese Literature", included among the "100 Must-See Japanese Animation Masterpieces" in the 2007 encyclopedia "Anime Classics Zettai!".
, taken from half of the Japanese pronunciation of "animation", is the Japanese word for animation in general, but is used more specifically to mean "Japanese animation" in the rest of the world. Anime dates from about 1917. TV networks regularly broadcast anime programming. In Japan, major national TV networks, such as TV Tokyo broadcast anime regularly. Smaller regional stations broadcast anime on UHF. "Naruto", "Pokémon", "Bleach", "Dragon Ball", and "One Piece" are examples of anime. While many popular series air during the daytime and evening hours, most air only at night from 12:00am – 4:00am. These series usually make profits primarily through BD (Blu-ray Disc)/DVD sales and merchandising rather than through television advertisement. Some anime series are original, but most are intended to promote something else, such as an ongoing manga, light novel, or video-game series.
Another addition in the Japanese version not present in the other versions is alternate animated introduction and ending sequences. These sequences feature full animation, as opposed to the limited flash-style animation seen in the other animated sequences present throughout the game. These alternate sequences are drawn in a typical anime style. The Japanese introduction is unlockable for view in the North American and PAL versions, but the Japanese ending can only be unlocked in the PAL version.
Venus Centre () is a Syrian dubbing company. Currently, it is the only dubbing centre which dubs Japanese anime in the Arab world directly from Japanese Venus Centre specializes in dubbing animation and children's programs to the Arabic language, especially Japanese anime. The company is based in Damascus.
The Super Kids leave X7, with Eunjoo having recorded the battle in time for the next news broadcast and return to Earth. Back at the Super Kids' headquarters, the accountant has misplaced all the reward money the Super Kids had earned from their recent adventures, only to discover Gokdari had donated it to an orphanage.Following the end of Japanese rule in 1945, the South Korean government created a law which banned Japanese media, including Japanese manga and anime. Throughout the 1970s, South Korea's own animation industry began to flourish, which borrowed heavily from the Japanese anime style. Many Korean animated films also integrated unauthorized usages of Japanese anime characters and likenesses. With the super robot genre developing in Japan in the 1970s with Mazinger Z, Robot Taekwon V borrowed heavily from the titular mecha's likeness. 
In the '70s, Japanese Animation reached Europe mainly with productions aimed at European and Japanese children with the main results being "Heidi", "Vicky the Vicking" and "Barbapapa". However these works were not recognized as Japanese productions and did not earn much of a dedicated fanbase. However Italy, Spain and France grew an interest for more Japanese animation for their television programming, due to success of previous co-productions, Japan's productive output and cheap selling price in comparison to US animation. Particularly Italy imported the most anime outside of Japan. Like in the Philippines, the Super Robot Genre became very popular with series such as "UFO Robot Grendizer" and "Mazinger Z". However many more genres got added to the mix, with space opera such as "Captain Harlock", shojo shows like "Candy Candy" and "Rose of Versailles", sports like "Captain Tsubasa" and more. Germany however largely rejected Anime other than western literature adaptations of Nippon Animation, with Speed Racer and "Captain Future" proving to be problematic. It was only during the rise of cable television during the '90s that Japanese series such as "Queen Millennia", and "Rose of Versailles" went on air. A strong affinity for unique Japanese productions was developed among a generation of German children during this period.
Although the Japan Academy Prize has been awarded annually since 1978 to Japanese films, animation films were disregarded in the early years of the Prize. Animation films have included top grossing Japanese films of the year, such as "Doraemon" (1980,1981,1983,1984), Studio Ghibli's "Kiki's Delivery Service" (1989), "Only Yesterday" (1991), "Porco Rosso" (1992), "Pom Poko" (1994), and "Whisper of the Heart" (1995). Yet no animated film received a nomination for a Japan Academy Prize during those years. This was notably different from other major Japanese film awards, such as the Mainichi Film Award and Kinema Junpo, which both awarded Picture of the Year to "My Neighbor Totoro" in 1988.
The anime industry consists of over 430 production studios, including major names like Studio Ghibli, Gainax, and Toei Animation. Despite comprising only a fraction of Japan's domestic film market, anime makes up a majority of Japanese DVD sales. It has also seen international success after the rise of English-dubbed programming. This rise in international popularity has resulted in non-Japanese productions using the anime art style. Whether these works are anime-influenced animation or proper anime is a subject for debate amongst fans.[9]
Although outside Japan, "anime" is specifically used to mean animation from Japan or as a Japanese-disseminated animation style often characterized by colorful graphics, vibrant characters and fantastical themes, there is a debate over whether the culturally abstract approach to the word's meaning may open up the possibility of anime produced in countries other than Japan. While some Westerners strictly view anime as a Japanese animation product, some scholars suggest defining anime as specifically or quintessentially Japanese may be related to a new form of orientalism.
Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories also known in Japan as and Theater of Darkness is a 2013 Japanese anime series. The first season was directed by Tomoya Takashima, with scripts written by Hiromu Kumamoto and produced by ILCA. Each episode was animated in such a way so as to mimic the kamishibai method of story-telling. The series is organized into a collection of shorts with each episode being only a few minutes in length. Each episode features a different tale based on myths and urban legends of Japanese origin.
Sola is a Japanese work originally conceived by Naoki Hisaya (main writer of "Kanon") with original character design by Naru Nanao (designer of ""). "Sola" is a mixed media project, first unveiled through the prologue of the manga featured in the Japanese manga magazine "Dengeki Daioh" on December 21, 2006, published by MediaWorks. The manga, which is illustrated by Chako Abeno, ended serialization on February 21, 2008. The manga has been licensed for distribution in North America by Broccoli Books with the first volume being released in June 2008. A short drama CD which also served as a prologue to the series was released at Comiket 71 in December 2006, and a second drama CD was released in May 2008. An anime version aired in Japan between April and June 2007; the anime contained thirteen episodes, and two additional DVD-exclusive episodes followed. The anime was licensed by Bandai Entertainment for distribution in North America in a subtitle-only box set of all fifteen episodes. The title, "Sola", is close in pronunciation to the Japanese word . At the end of 2007, Japanese anime fans voted "Sola" as the best anime of the year.
These anime-influenced animations have become defined as "anime", in an attempt to classify all Japanese-anime styled works of non-Japanese origin. The web-based series "RWBY" is produced using an anime art style and has been declared to be anime. In addition, the series was released in Japan, under the label of "anime" per the Japanese definition of the term and referenced as an "American-made anime". Netflix declared the company's intention to produce anime. In doing so, the company is offering a more accessible channel for distribution to Western markets. 
Prewar animators faced several difficulties. First, they had to compete with foreign producers such as Disney, which were influential on both audiences and producers. Foreign films had already made a profit abroad and could be undersold in the Japanese market, priced lower than what domestic producers needed to break even. Japanese animators thus had to work cheaply, in small companies with only a handful of employees, which then made it difficult to compete in terms of quality with foreign product that was in color, with sound, and promoted by much bigger companies. Until the mid-1930s, Japanese animation generally used cutout animation instead of cel animation because the celluloid was too expensive. This resulted in animation that could seem derivative, flat (since motion forward and backward was difficult) and without detail. But just as postwar Japanese animators were able to turn limited animation into a plus, so masters such as Yasuji Murata and Noburō Ōfuji were able to perform wonders with cutout animation.
Animated works of an erotic nature have come to be described in western fandom as "hentai", the Japanese word for "perverted", while in Japan they are more likely to be referred to as (R-18 anime) or (erotic anime). Although some associate all anime with sexual content, hentai only makes up a very small portion of the Japanese animation industry. As the result of the misconceptions about Japanese animation, some video stores outside Japan have classified children's anime as for adults only. Many video stores have also categorized all adult-oriented animation as anime, including the works of Ralph Bakshi, the French animated film "Fantastic Planet", the Canadian animated film "Heavy Metal" and the HBO television series "Todd McFarlane's Spawn". In the case of "Spawn", Todd McFarlane directly listed anime as an influence, particularly Katsuhiro Otomo's "Akira", and stated his hope that the show would help encourage the rise of adult animation on North American networks. This in part lead to the involvement of the Japanese studio Madhouse in the production, in an attempt to "combine" the Eastern and Western styles.
Some of the earliest manga magazines were aimed at adults, and this provided a prime source as the basis for adult anime works. "Weekly Manga Times" began publication in 1956, and would be followed by "Weekly Manga Goraku" (1964), and "Manga Action" (1967). Anime works based on adult manga include "Berserk", "Hellsing Ultimate", "Maison Ikkoku", "Mushishi", "Golden Boy" and "Tokyo Daigaku Monogatari".
In 1969, Osamu Tezuka and Eiichi Yamamoto released "Senya Ichiya Monogatari" (千夜一夜物語) the first of a series of three animated feature films aimed at an adult audience. It was dubbed and released in the United States as "One Thousand and One Arabian Nights". Osamu Tezuka and Eiichi Yamamoto collaborated on the second film in the Animerama series "Kureopatora" (クレオパトラ) released in the United States as "Cleopatra: Queen of Sex". The third film "Kanashimi no Beradonna" (哀しみのベラドンナ) was directed by Eiichi Yamamoto alone. It was entered in the Berlin International Film Festival, but did not achieve commercial success.
In 1984, original video animation (OVA) of an erotic nature began to be released, first "Lolita Anime" by Wonder Kids based on the manga work of Fumio Nakajima, and then later in the year "Cream Lemon", a series which proved to be a big hit in Japan. "La Blue Girl" and "New Angel" are two other erotic anime to be released in United States and Europe in the early 1990s.
Despite being self-dubbed the Anti Video Piracy Association of Singapore, the AVPAS does not seem to be interested in monitoring or combating the copyright violation of non-anime or non-Japanese films as the only titles listed or displayed on its website are either anime or Japanese video titles. No publicly known action has been taken by the AVPAS against file sharers dabbling in non-anime and non-Japanese videos.
Japanese animation began in the early 20th century, when Japanese filmmakers experimented with the animation techniques also pioneered in France, Germany, the United States and Russia.[14] A claim for the earliest Japanese animation is Katsudō Shashin, an undated and private work by an unknown creator.[26] In 1917, the first professional and publicly displayed works began to appear. Animators such as Ōten Shimokawa and Seitarou Kitayama produced numerous works, with the oldest surviving film being Kouchi's Namakura Gatana, a two-minute clip of a samurai trying to test a new sword on his target only to suffer defeat.[19][27][28] The 1923 Great Kantō earthquake resulted in widespread destruction to Japan's infrastructure and the destruction of Shimokawa's warehouse, destroying most of these early works.[29]
Japanese has only one word corresponding to reflexive pronouns such as "myself", "yourself", or "themselves" in English. The word means "one's self" and may be used for human beings or some animals. It is not used for cold-blooded animals or inanimate objects.
Primarily the function of anime conventions in the United States is to give a place to fans of anime, manga and Japanese culture. There are a range of informational panels offered at these conventions from the basics of Japanese language and culture to cutting edge news about anime releases in Japan and the US. Anime conventions also provide performances and vendors of Japanese goods, manga, anime, figurines and Anime related merchandise. Most American anime conventions are fan operated, the increase in popularity starting in the '90s, sprung forth a long-standing list of annual conventions, such as Anime Expo, AnimeFest, Otakon, and Anime Boston, which continue to today with numbers of attendance reaching over 10,000.
One particular Japanese primatologist, Kawai Masao, introduced the concept of "kyokan". This was the theory that the only way to attain reliable scientific knowledge was to attain a mutual relation, personal attachment and shared life with the animal subjects. Though Kawai is the only Japanese primatologist associated with the use of this term, the underlying principle is part of the foundation of Japanese primate research.
Revoluticon was introduced for a debut in 2012 as a new line of events hosted by Anime Punch!. Whereas Armageddicon is entirely focused on anime with limited to no non-anime content, Revoluticon was billed as the anti-armageddicon. It is still aimed at anime fans, but only their tangential interests, with zero anime content. Covered subject matter includes video games, fantasy, science fiction, western animation, comic books, traditional Japanese culture, Japanese modern/pop culture, and cosplay.
Anime and manga have stimulated many young people to learn the Japanese language. In the 1970s, Naoka Takaya's Saskatoon Japanese Language School was founded with a student body consisting of primarily Japanese-Canadians interested in polishing their language skills for their return to Japan. However, popularity for the language began to rise; the Japanese Language Proficiency Test was first held in 1984 in response to growing demand for standardized Japanese language certification. Yuki Sasaki, who works for the Japanese language program at the University of Georgia, noted that when she first started in the program in 1994, most students were interested in Japanese for internal business majors; however, in 2004, students are more interested in "translating Japanese pop-song lyrics and talk excitedly about the Japanese anime character Sakura Kinomoto from Cardcaptor Sakura." Echoing this sentiment, Takaya also stated that about 60% of her students are studying Japanese because of anime.
Despite some fansubbers declaring (due to fansubbing's illegality) that they will stop distribution once a series is licensed, many fansubbed versions of anime are produced because of the stiff localization process in official translations. According to one survey only 9% of fans prefer dubbing over subs; some fans believe that the localization process degrades the quality of anime and thus look to fansubs for the purer form of Japanese culture, feeling that something is lost in translation. Most hardcore fans are motivated by the desire not to miss the jokes and puns present in Japanese anime and manga. In fact, most people interested in anime express at least a passing desire to learn Japanese, but usually choose not to, due to either time constraints or rumours about the difficulty involved in learning Japanese. Japanese terms are so well integrated into the anime and manga fan culture that during a Fanime convention, a newcomer expressed confusion at some of the announcements because she was unable to understand the Japanese words used. As fans become more proficient at Japanese; they often also become more critical toward the quality of various translations; some critique the different translations of a single series by different fansub groups.
MANGA.TOKYO is a Japanese website focused on publishing news and content about anime, manga, light novels, live action adaptations, and games from Japan. It was established in December 2015 by the Japanese company DONIKA Co. Ltd. MANGA.TOKYO offers a variety of articles, including interviews with anime producers, voice actors, Japanese musicians, and pop culture celebrities, event coverage, reports on otaku events and concerts, anime travel reports, otaku culture features, cosplay galleries, video content, and anime and manga reviews. MANGA.TOKYO also manages Otsukai, a proxy shipping service/second-hand store for Western anime fans, providing access to hard-to-find Japanese anime merchandise with fellow Japanese friends. It is currently in cooperation with various Japanese anime and manga websites such as Anime! Anime!, Comic Natalie, and KAI-YOU.