The Japanese version of animation is called Anime, its styles and themes can be seen across all forms of Japanese media such as film, television and print. Although used to describe the Japanese style of animations, in Japan, ‘Anime’ is used to describe all kinds of animated materials, even western ones.

Anime has been traditionally hand-drawn, but like the modern animated movies of Disney or DreamWorks, are now being created using more and more CGI aspects. Although the uptake hasn’t been quite as radical or monumental as American animation studios have undertaken, the shift from traditional to computer generated is still very much in progress in Japan.

One thing that does separate Japanese animation from other nations is the prevalence and popularity of Anime itself. Far from being a niche genre which caters for, mostly, families and children, Anime in Japan crosses every social, economic and cultural boundary. Anime stretches from wholesome family fare (Studio Ghibli titles) to extreme acts of sexual and violent behaviour (Legend of the Overfiend). It’s this variation in themes and content that has allowed Anime to have an enormous fan base both within Japan and worldwide.

A lot of Japanese Anime are animated versions of popular Japanese Manga’s. Again, something that separates them from the rest of the world’s animated media. Manga can be seen as the Japanese version of what the western world would call comics. Amazingly, Manga is more popular in Japanese society than Anime and makes up a tremendous amount of the book industry over there. In fact, Manga made over $4.4 Billion US Dollars in sales in 2007 alone, something that western comic book industry can only dream of.

Like Anime, Manga is more prevalent and common within Japan. In fact it’s regular to see a bunch of people crowding around local convenience stores browsing the wide selection of Manga available. The wide selection then also caters for the wide range of tastes such as Pokemon and Doraemon to the more adult orientated content.