When talking about anime, there are often terms involved. And it sucks to be on the receiving end, not knowing anything or having the foggiest idea what the people are talking about. So here are some terms you might wanna know.



ANIME: A japanese animation. They are meant for all ages, all genders (all...???), and all races, personalities, and generally all people. You are sure to find at least one that you like. JAPANIMATION is not the correct term for it, although it is commonly referred to by that name.

BAKA: Stupid. Idiot. Dummy. Retarded. Absurd. Whatever you use to insult people, BAKA will cover it.

BISHONEN: A pretty man. Usually they have long hair, and look kind of feminine. A lot of people like this look though. Take for example- Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII), Touga (Revolutionary Girl Utena), Hotohori (Fushigi Yugi), Nuriko (Fushigi Yugi), Yuugioh (Yuugioh), mostly guys with long hair. But they could be considered beautiful men, such as Mitsukakae (Fushigi Yugi), Junpei (Those Who Hunt Elves), or Zell (Final Fantasy VIII).

BISHOJO: A pretty girl. They can be pretty much any anime girl. Sailor Moon is referred to "Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon" in Japanese, which translates to "Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon" in English. So it basically means "pretty."

BOOGEE: Another.. coined term. Not a real anime one. It means women who like to play with themselves a little too much. They tend to have big breasts and GRAB THEM A LOT!! 'Tis a shame, says we. Yeah. It's a fun-fun happy-happy word. (magical mystical penny-like, remember?)

DUBBED: The characters speak English. (Well, in most cases) These are called "dubs" for short. These are less expensive. About $12.00 to $30.00.

ECCHI: Means naughty. But, in THIS sense, it's porn. Plain and simple. Don't go getting ecchi's if you're too young.. YOU CAN'T PLAY DUMB NOW!! (usually, the title or box art gives these away. A few we can think of are: Bondage Queen Kate, Bondage Fairies, Dragon Pink, Angel of Darkness, Kekko Kamen, Erotic Torture Chamber, And Tokyo Private Police (That kinda gives you and idea, no?). Also called Hentai.

FANART and FANFICTION: Fans of it make these. It's just drawing/writing about your favorite characters.. but you didn't make them up. Somebody else did. Like Ryuusuke Mita made Dragon Half. I draw a picture of Mink. That's fanart.

FANSERVICE: Hee hee. Senseless nudity that's only there for the purpose of titillation. Hee hee, that's a funny word. Yeah. Plently of this in shows such as.. KNIGHTS OF RAMUNE! Heh hee! -_- *spit*

FANSUBBED: The animes that HAVE NOT been released here yet. Or, you just don't feel like waiting a SECOND longer to see the rest of Utena. These are VERY VERY cheap, ranging from about $6.00 to $8.00 a movie. Usually you contact a company online about fansubbing. You are supposed to only be able to get series not lisenced here in america. So you order online, and pay a certain amount for a number of tapes (say, $6.00 for one, $11.00 for two, $17.00 for three, and so on). You get the tapes spliced off of the original, so they aren't professionally done.

GRAPHIC NOVEL: A large book containing mangas. It contains most of the mangas details, but leaves out some of the small details. They are nice to own if you want the majority of the story without getting a manga subscription, or ordering the manga all the time. They usually cost from $12.00 to $20.00. The most expensive one we saw was $25.00. But, it was a HUGE collection of Sailor Moon.

GROO: Ok, so this really isn't an anime term. It's more or less just something we say because we feel like it. We got it off of Final Fantasy VI. There's this one boss that says "Groo... I confuse" and we liked it so much we stole it. Sometimes you may also hear us say "You spoony bard" from Final Fantasy IV, or other weird things. Just nod and agree!

HD: Hyper-deformed. It is when a character is halfway normal looking, yet they have some SD (see term SD below) features about them, too.

HENTAI: Means pervert. But, in THIS sense, it's porn. Plain and simple. Don't go getting hentai's if you're too young.. YOU CAN'T PLAY DUMB NOW!!(usually, the title or box art gives these away. A few we can think of are: Bondage Queen Kate, Bondage Fairies, Dragon Pink, Angel of Darkness, Kekko Kamen, Erotic Torture Chamber, And Tokyo Private Police (That kinda gives you and idea, no?). Also called Ecchi.

JAPANGLISH: A cross between the languages of: Japanese and English. This can also be used with Spanish and English, but then it's Spanglish. Then there's Germanglish.. and Russainglish.. You use this when you only speak PARTIAL Japanese! Can be useful, but really annoying on pages, because not everyone knows what "Omoe o Korosu" means.. It means "I will kill you" or something close to it!

JAPANIMATION: The incorrect term for japanese animation. Anime would be the correct term for that.

KAWAII: Cute. In Japanese. A lot of people use Japanese while talking anime-style (in other words, about anime).

KONNICHI WA: Hello. In Japanese. A lot of people use japanese while talking anime-style (in other words, about anime).

MANGA: The comics, basically. Most EVERYTHING has a manga version. Mangas are usually pretty cheap, ranging from $2.00 to $5.00. But, there are BIG mangas, but those are called graphic novels. These are a BIT more expensive, from $12.00 to $20.00.

MECH or MECHA: Giant Robots. They are everywhere, we tell ya! They are in Robotech, Evangelion, Gundam, Sailor Victory, Magic Knight Rayearth, Madox-01, etc. They are basically Giant Robots or other mechanized things such as space ships or other methods of travel.

OST: Original soundtrack. Hasn't been messed up.. yet. Get it quickly.

OTAKU: A home in Japan. You may refer to your "otakus" which is pretty much a translation for "homies", or whatever. It is more commonly referred to as an anime fanatic, an obsessed anime fan.

OVA or OAV: Original animated video or original video animation. The series hasn't been altered in the animation.

SEIYUU: A japanese voice actor/actress.

SD: Super-deformed. It is when a character *suddenly* turns really short, stubby, REALLY big-eyed, or their eyes turn to dots, and they tend to get rather poorly-drawn.

SHOUJO: A girl's anime. Some examples are: Fushigi Yugi, Sailor Moon, Magic Knight Rayearth, Oh! My Goddess, Battle Athletes, and Marmalade Boy. These appeal to most girls.

SHONEN: Boy. This appeals to most guys more than most girls. Evangelion's supposed to be a shonen, but it's not really. Some other examples are: Robotech, Gundam Wing, Dragonball Z, Voltron, and, if you consider this a shonen, then - Cutey Honey (gee, we wonder why it appeals to men so much...)

SUBBED: The characters speak Japanese, (in most cases) you read what they say. Not as bad as you might think it to be. Sometimes, subs are better that dubs. Oh, people call these "subs" for short. Or subtitled.
Oh, yes... subs are more expensive than dubs. From $25.00 to $40.00 about.

YAOI: Um.. this is probably something you won't hear too often, but it's best to know it any way. Yaoi is basically boy's love. Two (or more.. ^_-) guys like making out and stuff. Watch out, some of these fanarts can be ecchi, or sometimes they give away parts of the story that
a. You didn't wanna know or
b. Isn't really there.

YURI: This is the same thing as Yaoi, only with females. The female version is usually a little more ecchi, since females constantly run around without their bras on anyway ^_- ()



Well, that's all we can think of for now. Tell us if there are terms out there that are confusing the heck outta you. We'll post them here for you anime "beginners". K? ^_^ We take requests... oh.. no one cares.

Music Choices (MIDI):

[You need the Crescendo Player or another MIDI player to hear these.]