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Anime and manga terminology

  • Harem (genre)Harem stories put one person at the center of three or more suitors. The format began in Japan in the 1970s.
  • EcchiEcchi, the Japanese word for playful naughtiness, began as a single letter. It is the letter H, short for hentai.
  • MangaManga began with a four-page magazine that lasted only three issues. Eshinbun Nipponchi launched in 1874.
  • Yuri (genre)Yuri, a Japanese genre about women in love, is named for the word for lily. White lilies long stood for purity in women.
  • Manga iconographyIn 2010, a bright red symbol was added to the Unicode standard under the plain name "anger symbol". Its code is U+1F4A2. The picture behind it comes from Japanese manga, where a mark shaped like a cross on a character's head tells the…
  • Shōjo mangaCritics who once dismissed shojo manga as unserious declared a golden age by the end of the 1970s.
  • Boys' loveBoys' love, usually shortened to BL, is a genre of Japanese fiction about romantic and erotic relationships between male characters. Its most famous nickname began as a joke. In the late 1970s, manga artists coined the word yaoi from a…
  • Josei mangaThe name josei manga came from academic critics, not from magazine publishers.
  • Fan serviceFan service is anything added to a story because the audience will love it, not because the plot needs it.
  • Magical girlThe magical girl genre's best-known prop is a compact mirror. It first appeared in the 1966 Akko-chan anime.
  • Seinen mangaSeinen manga began when baby boomers outgrew the comics they loved as children.
  • CosplayIn 1939, two fans wore costumes to a convention because they thought everyone would. They were the only ones who did.
  • HentaiThe earliest pornographic anime on record, a 1932 film, was seized by police half finished.
  • Light novelBy 2009, pocket-sized light novels made up roughly 20% of Japan's bunkobon paperback sales.
  • Children's anime and mangaJapan's first children's comics were short magazine works meant to teach kids to read.
  • Original video animationIn Japan, anime made straight for the video shelf was no insult. Original video animation began there in 1983.
  • AnimeOsamu Tezuka's money-saving shortcuts became anime's defining look. He adapted Disney techniques.
  • MechaIn 1972, Go Nagai put the pilot inside the giant robot Mazinger Z. Earlier robots were steered by remote control.
  • Anime-influenced animationAn American web series, RWBY, was called American anime in 2013. Rooster Teeth later licensed it for release in Japan.
  • Anime music videoIn 1982, a 21-year-old wired two videocassette recorders together to make an early anime music video.
  • Shōnen mangaA 2006 survey found a boys' comics magazine topped female readers' favorites.
  • Chibi (style)In the mid-1990s, Sailor Moon's daughter Chibiusa, whose name means Little Rabbit, introduced chibi to American fans.
  • Original net animationMakoto Shinkai made anime shorts on a home computer and put them online in 1997. That started original net animation.
  • IsekaiIsekai titles run as long as sentences because a web novel site lists chapters by title only.

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