Anime Comes with Art and a Story

I am an anime and manga obsessed freak. My passion led me to write fanfics about my favourite characters. Anime and manga are so interesting, they capture people’s mind and their nature. So, what is anime and how is it different from cartoons?  Well, I am not an erudite professional to explain the precise differences, but from my view, they are quite different. I think it is because a lot of anime stories are coming from a long series of original manga volumes. So, it’s like watching Thirteen Reasons Why, you can’t wait to watch the next episode, unlike Caillou… (sorry, Caillou is also great!!).  Anime has a lot of plot, emotions, and story developments in them, so the more you watch, the more you get attached and extremely addicted to these stories.

Before I get into greater detail about anime, you may be wondering a little bit more about what manga is like.

Unlike western comics, manga is in full black and white and is only coloured when on a cover page. There are many different companies that issue manga in magazines. These magazines usually have about 10-11 series in each one and come out weekly, biweekly or monthly depending on the company.

Each series gets one chapter per issue. Like I said before, anime almost always originates from manga, so some people will always prefer to read the manga – what’s closer to what the author is trying to portray.

By saying that, I feel the differences are that most cartoons are made for kids, or a family show, whereas anime is for every age with a lot more depth in the story line. In other words, cartoons are more enjoyable, laid-back and have a friendly aspect – like The Simpsons or Family Guy.

In cartoons, it is usually clear who the villain in a story is, but in anime, sometimes a villain might not look like a villain, or vice versa. In some anime, the main character is the villain. Another thing that happens often in anime is that the author gives the villain a back story. You might cry over a villain’s death or your favourite character might even be a villain. 

Also, in anime, all the characters are very well drawn, which means they are all good-looking people!! As an art school student, I have a tremendous amount of respect toward artists, and the amount of professionalism anime creators put in their work is beyond imagination. For example, one production company had drawn 108 pages of pictures by hand for three seconds of an anime movie (the movie was 100 minutes long). It is natural to say some anime movies are worth watching just for the beauty of the pictures.  Anime TV series are more roughly drawn, but all the details are still impeccably accurate.

Speaking about the accuracy, anime stories (again mostly from manga books) include so many genres. Also, most of the historical and scientific facts are extremely correct, so students – and even adults – can learn and gain new knowledge from anime and manga!

I sometimes watch manga authors’ documentaries on YouTube. They are truly artists and, just like all artists, don’t like to compromise on their work. They won’t sleep many nights to fix one page of their stories. They research like crazy, think about and create the best stories, and draw the pictures in so much detail. That is why watching anime and reading manga are not just for killing time. I truly admire and enjoy every single word characters say since they were written with such deliberation. 

So, what genres would I recommend? The main and most popular genres in anime and manga are:

• Horror
• Action
• Romance/slice of life
• Comedy/school life
• Sports 
• Fantasy

I recommend different anime for different genres, but my must-watch recommendations are: 

• Hunter x Hunter
• My Hero Academia
• Haikyuu
• Violet Evergarden
• Attack on Titan

My top suggestions by genres include:

• Action: Hunter x Hunter, My Hero Academia, Naruto, Fairy Tail
• Horror: Attack on Titan, Death Note, Tokyo Ghoul, Another, Parasyte
• Comedy/school-life: Monthly Girl’s Nozaki-kun, Saiki K, Handa-san, Gintama
• Romance: Ao Haru Ride, My Little Monster, Your Lie in April, Snow White with Red Hair, Yona of the Dawn
• Sports: Haikyuu(volleyball), Yowamushi Pedal(Bicycle Racing), Free!(Swimming), Prince of Tennis (Tennis)
• Episode anime series: Erased, Beyond the Boundary, Charlotte
• Anime movies: Your Name, Hotarubi no Mori e, The Girl who Leapt Through Time, and all Ghibli productions

Although there are many illegal and pirated ways to watch anime, please don’t, there are many places where you can watch anime legally for free, as long as you don’t mind a few ads:

• Crunchyroll
• Netflix
• Funimation
• Hulu
• Amazon Prime

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you learned a bit about anime and are willing to watch a few!