animemodel

Otaku - in what is actually an insult in Japan, translating roughly as 'you'...but more commonly known as 'no-life geek who spends all his time building GUNDAM action figure...' The definition is slightly less caustic on our side of the Pacific, generally referring to someone who merely enjoys the depths of Japanese pop culture, watches anime after school, and draws characters from their favorite shows on their notebooks. More of a clique in school than a mock-worthy subculture. But, that is quickly changing of course, as the anime arena is growing so rapidly here in the states.

Pokemon - Pokemon is the new generation of child-oriented anime born of marketing necessity, used to sell video games, video games used to sell the show. It's been on for almost 10 years now, and still new episodes pop up. If the Japanese do anything right, it's sell stuff, and Pokemon continues to sell, actually marketing to an entirely new generation of kids these days.

Queen Emeraldas - I'm copping out a bit here because Q as we all know is the crappiest letter in the alphabet to do an ABC list with. Queen Emeraldas is a good anime figures though. An OAV produced in 1998 as an offshoot of the Harlock and Galaxy Express 999 series, Queen Emeraldas continues the story of a popular character that if you haven't seen either of the previous shows will make no sense to you.

Rurouni Kenshin - Kenshin is the epic tale of a wandering samurai in the Meiji era of Japan known as Kenshin. He finds a small martial arts school in the new capital and after saving the young heir he stays with her and undertakes various quests to help the government which he helped to form a few years earlier survive. He's an incredibly badass swordsman and attracts a nice little entourage of characters. I don't know if it's the most important thing in the world in terms of anime, but it's one of my favorite shows, so it's on the list.

Shoujo - The term used to describe anime targeted to young girls. All the Sailormoons and Cardcaptor Sakuras out there fit here. It's actually a nice niche to have and does extremely well here as well as Japan. It's a testament to the popularity of a sub culture when it actually takes the time to stop drawing violent battles between half witted males to appeal to young girls as well.

Tezuka Osamu - The Walt Disney of anime, Dr. Tezuka created Astroboy, Kimba the White Lion, Metropolis and countless more anime classics that more or less established the art form. He's the guy you want to look at whenever you ask, "who's responsible for all this?"

Urusei Yatsura - A monstrously popular 1970s and 80s franchise spanning almost 200 episodes, 10 movies and a handful of OVAs. It's pretty much about a group of "obnoxious aliens" (the actual translation) that invade and goof up earth. They're all girls, and were a part of the beginnings of what made Love Hina happen, a lecherous teenage boy surrounded by strange, pvc figure. Yup, they sure know how to make shows over there.