------------------------
-------------------------
--------------------------
General Information
With the availabilty of video downloads, and sellers' ability to advertise internationally, there is now easy access to these wonderful series. See our recommended links for download sites, and shopping for recommendations on where to buy or rent anime. Check out your local libraries for manga and videos to borrow. You can even join an anime club, often on college campuses (see our links page for sources).
Find out why adults are obsessed with animation as much or more than children! As a crash course in anime 101, the following is a chart of Japanese and general terms.
| Forms of Address: | added to end of the name to indicate respect or familiarity |
| -chan | familiar title for either gender but usually something you'd call a child or someone younger, or a term a child would use for a family member, also for close female friends |
| -dono | formal, usually refers to a lord |
| -kun | informal, male friend or someone of lower social status |
| -hime | formal, princess or young lady of noble birth |
| -sama | formal, male/female |
| -san | semi-formal, general use |
| -sensei | teacher, doctor, a professional, etc. |
| -sempai | elder, senior in rank |
| Genres: | |
| Ecchi | Means perverted and refers to animes with sexual content or innuendo |
| Hentai | Erotic, x-rated anime |
| Magic Girl | Fantasy where the main character is a young girl with special powers. |
| Mecha | Giant robots, robotic suits |
| Shoujo | Anime geared toward girls |
| Shoujo-ai | lesbian implications |
| Shounen | Anime geared toward boys |
| Shounen-ai | homosexual implications |
| Yaoi | Male homosexual themes, more explicit |
| Yuri | Lesbian themes, more explicit |
| General Terms: | |
| Baka | Stupid, idiot, etc. You'll hear this a lot in anime! |
| Bishoujo | Pretty girl style of drawing |
| Bishounen | Pretty boy style of drawing |
| Doujinshi | Manga /artwork created by fans and is often published and for sale, which is legal in Japan. Can't do that in the US because of copyright laws. |
| Dubs | English voice over |
| Fan Art | Art drawn by fans based on published work (book, anime, movies) |
| Fan Fiction | Stories written by fans based on published work (book, anime, movies) |
| Fan Service | Pointless scene just added in to titillate the viewer |
| Fan Subs | Videos are subtitled by non-profit groups and distributed over the internet for free. Legalities are questionable, but as long as the anime has not been licensed it's not a problem. |
| Manga | Graphic novel, sort of like a comic book but often for adults and not just super heroes |
| Mangaka | Manga creator |
| Otaku | Anime fan |
| Seiyuu | Voice actor |
| Subs | Subtitled in English with original Japanese voices |
| Media Terms: | |
| AVI | Type of compressed video file. Players are available for free download |
| Bit Torrent | File swarming program similar to Nabster used to download video files |
| CGI | Computer generated graphics |
| DIVX | Newer, more popular form of AVI files. Players are available for free download |
| Direct Download | Download directly from a server. Usually faster than bit torrent. |
| OAV | Original Animated Video - a direct to video release |
| OST | Original Soundtrack |
| OVA | Original Video Animation see OAV |