What is Anime? Anime is Japanese for "animation". The word was orignally borrowed from the French when animation was introduced. Animation as an industry is much bigger in Japan than it is in North America, being of the same order of magnitude as the "live-action" film industry. All genres are supported through three separate mediums: TV episodes, Original Video Animation (OVA), and full length feature films. While anime varies in quality according to both production techniques and artists merit, the level of sophistication is, in general, far superior to its counterpoint outside Japan, the "cartoon". In present North American society, the idea of an animated program is thought to be as geared only towards children. It is common to see predictable plots and platitudes such as "superhero" genre, fueled by the popularity of characters such as "Superman", facing simple good vs. evil plots, with little attention paid to significant details such as character development. Although Disney has been praised for its animation, many of its films have fallen into the trap of being too predictable, with villains who are wholly evil, and not very believable (e.g. the Little Mermaid's Ursula). By contrast, manga and anime deals with complex, thought-provoking themes, presenting complex characters that grow/change, as the story progresses. It tends to deal realistically with life and death, and even the villains have hopes and dreams of their own.

TV Episodes: These are the animes shown on TV in Japan. The arts range from adequate to good, but since the anime have more times to develop their characters, it is usually more enjoyable.

Original Video Animation: Also known as OVA, or OAV (Original animated video). Both mean the same thing. These animes go directly to the video market. Their arts are better than TV's but given the short length of time (usually about 30 - 60 minutes), OVA tend to be a spin off of its TV counterpart. But some OVAs have more than one episode and could stand on its own.

Full length feature film: These animes are made for the big screen. They feature some of the best art works around. Feature films last anywhere from 60 minutes to 2 hours.

Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon is a story about a klutzy, crybaby, 14 year old underachiever named Tsukino Usagi who was given some transformation items and super powers. Usagi transforms into the pretty, sailor suited fighter called Sailor Moon to fight against evil. But even as the super hero, Sailor Moon is klutzy and a crybaby. Then as time goes by, Usagi is joined by some other girls to form a team of sailor suited fighters.
Sailor Moon is a story aimed at young girls (4 to 12 years old), and can be considered a magical girl story. The manga is written by Takeuchi Naoko.

Dragonball Z

Dragonball, the original series was created by Akira Toriyama. The main character, Son Gokou and a young teenager named Bulma go es off in search for the 7 dragonballs. This is where their adventure begins. Later in the story, the plot gets better and better. Gokou then finds out that he is a Saiyan. Thus the action starts to arise. He confronts bad guys like Cell and Majin Boo and turn into super saiyan. There are parts to the dragonball series: Dragonball, Dragonball Z and Dragonball GT.

This show is full of great action, the only part is the fact that they like to recycle the storylines and moves. Gokou kicks ass... Woohoo!!! Love the show so much even decided to collect some DBZ figurines *giggles*