Curated category
Anime and manga terminology
- Harem (genre)The genre emerged in Japan during the 1970s. It gained significant popularity through the late 1980s and 1990s with the advent of dating simulator games.
- EcchiThe word ecchi began as a simple abbreviation of hentai in the 1950s. Japanese youth started using the letter H to refer to sex during that decade.
- MangaThe word manga comes from two kanji characters meaning whimsical or impromptu and pictures. This term first entered common usage in the late 18th century…
- Yuri (genre)The word yuri translates literally to lily, a common Japanese feminine name. White lilies have been used since the Romantic era of Japanese literature to…
- Manga iconographyA page from the Marmalade Boy manga, volume 1 shows a visual language that has developed over decades. This drawing style emerged from early 20th-century…
- Shōjo mangaThe first issue of Shōjo-kai appeared in 1902, marking the birth of a dedicated magazine for girls. Before this moment, Japanese magazines aimed at teenagers…
- Josei mangaThe first term used to describe manga aimed at adult women was ladies' comics. This phrase is a wasei-eigo construction where the word ladies functions as a…
- Fan serviceThe word fan service emerged from Japanese anime and manga fandoms to describe material added specifically to please an audience.
- Magical girlIn 1962, a young girl named Akko opened a small silver compact in the pages of Himitsu no Akko-chan. This moment marked the first time a magical girl used an…
- Seinen mangaIn 1979, the Publishing Science Research Institute began tracking manga industry data with a specific distinction in mind.
- CosplayIn June 1983, Nobuyuki Takahashi wrote an article for the Japanese magazine Comic Com. He introduced a new word to describe the activity of wearing costumes…
- HentaiThe word hentai first appeared in Japanese psychology texts during the Meiji era to describe abnormal sexual desire. Richard von Krafft-Ebing's German…
- Light novelA light novel is a type of popular literature from Japan, usually classified as young adult fiction. It generally targets readers in their teens to twenties…
- Children's anime and mangaIn the late 1800s, Japanese publishers printed short manga stories of about fifteen pages. These brief tales appeared inside magazines designed to teach…
- Original video animationThe year 1983 marked the birth of a new distribution channel for Japanese animation. The Green Cat appeared that year as an early attempt to release animated…
- AnimeThe word anime appears in English dictionaries as a style of animation originating from Japan. In Japanese, the term describes all animated works regardless…
- MechaThe word mecha first appeared in Japanese as a shortened form of mechanical. In Japan, the term covers all machines including cars and computers.
- Anime-influenced animationThe term anime refers to animation originating from Japan, yet a distinct category of non-Japanese works has emerged that adopts its visual and narrative…
- Anime music videoIn 1982, a twenty-one-year-old man named Jim Kaposztas created the first anime music video. He connected two videocassette recorders to one another in his…
- Shōnen mangaThe Japanese word shōnen originally meant young boy in a general sense, used by publishers until the end of the 19th century to label publications for…
- Chibi (style)The word chibi appears in Japanese dictionaries as a colloquial term for very short people and children. This usage dates back to the early days of modern…
- Original net animationAn original net animation is an anime that is directly released onto the Internet. This format mirrors the term original video animation, which has been used…
- IsekaiIn 1929, the first Buck Rogers comic strip appeared, centering on a Pittsburgh mine worker trapped in a cave-in and preserved for four hundred years.