INTRODUCTION

ANIME. Whenever I hear this word, I automatically switch my brain from serious and normal mode, to hyperactive and otaku mode.

When I hear people talk about anime, I can't just leave them be, I'll talk with them! This is how freaky and weird I can be. I first started watching anime when I was a kid, but I took it to the next level when I was in high school. Are you wondering what kind of next level this is? I meant next level as, at first, I only watch it when I come across it. But now, I watch it because I want to. It became my fascination. When I learned that an anime is popular and it's really good, I'll watch it. I may leave my schoolwork undone and watch anime first. This became the topic of my blog. Anime.

Hi! I'm a serious, fun, hyperactive, weird and crazy otaku. I'm Lissa Nubla and welcome to my blog!

1 - What is Anime?

(The photo above is an example of an anime art/drawing.)

So, what is anime? Why is it popular all around the world, just like here in the Philippines? Does anime affect the way of living of the people that watch or are addicted in watching it?

According to the article What is Anime by Serdar Yegulalp that I read, "The word anime -- pronounced "ah-knee-may" -- is an abbreviation of the word animation. In Japan, the word's used to refer to all animation." Also, according to Katherine Luther, anime is essentially Japanese animation and in fact, the word 'anime' is a shortened version of the word 'animation'.

I read an essay about anime that interested me a lot. It is in What is Anime by Elaine Barlow. What she said in the article is that, "In many ways anime is also a state of mind; a state of understanding that many Americans have trouble getting to. The realization that animation is an acceptable meduim for dramatic story telling and not something only meant for children and political satire, is a concept that the American public may never reach which is the one of the main reasons why anime has not struck powerfully in the U.S."

In my own understanding, anime has its own style, it has a storyline, and a much "complicated" drawing style than cartoons. People usually differentiate anime from the common cartoon TV shows. They say that cartoons are more child-like than anime, which is true. As an anime lover myself, I have encountered various anime that have mature contents and of course, not suitable for very young audiences.

Here are a few anime that I know that has mature contents: • Violent / Gory (e.g., Another, Mirai Nikki, Elfen Lied, etc.) • Ecchi (Dirty / Frivolous) (e.g., Highschool of the Dead, To-LOVE-Ru, Love Hina, etc.)

So, why are anime popular? What's so special about it? •Artwork •Storytelling •Breadth of material •Cultural nuances
(Read more at: http://anime.about.com/od/animeprimer/a/What-Is-Anime.htm) by Serdar Yegulalp

I have been watching anime for a long time. Very long time actually. It was when I was around 6 years old when my brother and I started to gain interest in anime. As you can see, those were the years when anime were popular in local television and children were very fond of watching. Anime and cartoons are both entertaining and they have their own charisma for attracting children. But in anime, even adults can relate to the storyline and as I said, it can have more mature contents than cartoons.

Watching anime can affect your beliefs in life. Not in exaggeration, but it can. I know because it changed me. By watching lots of anime that have good stories and teaches moral lessons, I somehow changed my outlook in life. I learned different things just like what I would learn in real life. That's what's good about an anime that has an epic storyline. Everything makes sense and people can learn.

2 - Anime and its Genres

For all we know, anime, just like music, have many genres. There are no "just common" anime when asked "What kind of anime is that?". There are so much more types of them than we know. Some are intended for kids, some are for adults and some are for general viewing. Since this blog will be focusing on anime itself, I will first differentiate and discuss all the genres in anime, just to get a better look on it.

In this website with the article "The Many Genres of Anime" by Jareth David, he sited some genres that an anime can have and sited examples for each. Since the author only sited a few genre, I further researched until I came across to this article called "Buyer's Guide to Anime Genres and Themes" by Serdar Yegulalp and used it as a reference. And in addition, I also used the list in this website, AnimeAVENUE, where you can watch anime and where the anime are categorized into genres.

The following are the genres of anime which are popular as of what I see in the anime community:

| Bleach
(Action, Fantasy) | * Action/Adventure - In the article of Mr. Yegulalp, he said that this genre "can include martial-arts action, samurai-vs.-ninja, sword-and-sorcery adventures in other worlds, or battles between giant robots.". The example that I can think of are One Piece, Bleach and Dragon Ball Z which are the anime that became really popular not only here in the Philippines but also to the world. In fact, One Piece and Bleach are on-going until now. This just proves that these anime are most watched, the reason why they have the confidence to keep their production going, and it is mostly entertaining.

| Beelzebub
(Akuma, School, Fantasy) | * Akuma (Demons) - As an anime fanatic myself, I think I watched enough anime to tell that this genre is also quite a boom. Yu Yu Hakusho, which is known as Ghost Fighter here in the Philippines; and Inuyasha, are demon-based anime. These two became popular to general audience. It does not mean that when an anime is about demons and such, it is already a blasphemy or a bad thing to watch. It's just based to that because it gives a mysterious aura that gives the audience the want to watch more of it. Because it's unique and not encountered on a daily basis, this is what the people would love to watch and to be interested in. | K Project
(Fantasy, Action) | * Fantasy - This is also quite an eye-catcher for people especially for those who like good animation. Fantasy-based anime usually have more effort in the making because they have to make all the effects realistic. The art is almost always breathtaking with terrific scenery and magnificent character detail. Like this anime I watched recently. It's called "K" or "K Project". The first time I watched this anime, I already liked it. It's because its effects and animation are great. It seemed real especially the scenery. It's like 3D and it was really well-made.

* Love / Romance - As for this, it's no mystery that this is a popular type of anime. In this genre, there is a detailed creation and progression of romantic relationship between two characters. Love and romance are part of our daily lives and people, mostly girls, are most likely to relate to the kind of story this anime has. This doesn't necessarily mean that this has a complicated story so it is light and easy to follow. | Kimi ni Todoke
(Love/Romance and School) | * School (usually a combination of romance, drama and slice-of-life) - Mr. Yegulalp said that this genre"revolve around romance, coming of age, experiences at school (both good and bad), or the tribulations of everyday life." Since this type of anime is usually incorporated with drama, slice of life, school activities like school festivals, summer breaks, exams etc., and love/romance between students, typically middle school students, this is the type of anime that is the easiest to follow. Also, the mood of this genre varies a great deal depending on the level of the institution, with the level of maturity of the characters increasing respectively. Everything that happens in it usually happens in real life, because it is, basically, based on real life. A student's life in particular. These are the reasons why this type of anime are popular and it's all over the anime industry. It's kind of easy to make. Just think of a good storyline, do a good animation and relate it in the real world and you're done!

These are just some of the genres that anime has, not even close to the real number of genres, but all stated here are what I think the most-watched by the public due to its popularity among not only fans and online, but also to the people who just come across them.

For example, I was watching this certain anime "Fate/Stay Night" on Animax every night when I was in high school and my dad comes home late. So, in those nights that I watched it and at the same time he comes home, he would watch it with me. This anime is a fantasy with action and a little of school-life type of anime. He really became fond of it. Just by watching with me, he became interested in it and started talking about it with me, tells his opinions with me and everything. I was happy because he liked it. My point here is, anime is for everyone. It's not only popular among teenagers or kids but it can appeal to all ages.

Another example is actually how I started watching anime and how I became this kind of an otaku I am now. I watched anime when I was a kid but I just watched. I did not really care if I missed an episode or two, I just enjoyed watching. But then when I started high school, my friend and I became interested in this anime called "Special A". It is a school type of anime. We watched it first on a local television but we really liked it to the extent that we found and bought the DVD of it. We both liked the story and how we kind of related our own fantasies and lives to the anime, since this genre has the most "normal" story because it is based on real life. Some of our friends experienced the same thing, which led me to research mainly everything about how anime affects people.

What are the good and bad effects of watching anime to its viewers? Are there some specific effects on viewers in accordance on what kind of anime they watch?

3 - School Life Anime

School life anime is one of the popular genres in anime. I watched tons of anime which has students and school involved in it which may or may not be about school or school life at all. It can be fantasy, but mostly romance or romance comedy and slice of life. As a student myself, I find these things interesting I'm really fond of watching it. But there are things that I want to know, are the things that happen in these kinds of anime are what really happens in schools in Japan?

I found a blog article by Sabishii Miruku entitled "Highschool in Anime versus Highschool in Real Life". This blog is about the writer's experience as a student in Japan and his comparison of it on school life in anime. He said, "As I come to realize, after living the past 3 years of my life as a "high school student", that my high school life was nothing akin to the wonderful moments you see in anime."

| "Dream scene that never occurred for me ;A;" --Sabishii Miruku |

I find this quite true. Even though I don't live in Japan and have the same surroundings and people as there, I don't think high school lives should be that different from what it is like there and here. The writer stated some funny facts about him that his high school life is more like "study study" and "no girlfriend for you" or even "no video games". I can vouch for that because that is what most of students experience these days.

That is only one part of his high school life that he described. The second one is about romance. "In anime, we often see a boy/girl working hard to obtain the partner of their dreams, and then the show ends as they begin to date, which will then fast-forward to the future, where they get married & have kids." Yes, that is a fact. That is what happens in anime most of the time. Just most, because not all high school anime fast-forwards to the future where they get married and have kids. Sometimes they just finish it with a happy ending where the girl and the guy found their love for one another and have a happy relationship.

Next is fun. He said "Often, in real life, our parents put up restrictions as to when and whom we hang out with; while in anime, characters pretty much leave the house to do whatever they do, and when they want to.". Based on experience, I really can't go out even if it's not far if I don't tell my parents. I'm always locked up in our house especially if it's summer vacation. These aspects in anime are what kids compare in real life. They compare anime parents and real life parents which affects the viewer.

And last is studying. As a labeled "Asian", people think that we are genii. But we are not. We just work harder, like he said. Furthermore, ..."it is annoying when you get less than 6 hours of sleep in a day and you’re basically not having any fun." This kind of thing is what reality really looks like. But in anime, people can get all the fun they want and at the same time, get all A pluses in their report card.

This another statement of his is what really have been circling in my mind since I started this research of mine. "One might argue that, because anime is fictitious, such ideal relationships cannot occur in real life; however, I beg to differ. If anime is technically modeled after real-life, and especially how mangaka and light-novel writers spend hours researching/studying life habits, I’d say it’s meant to be arguably resemblant of real life." I was actually wondering about the very same thing! Since writers get their inspiration from real life, basically the people around them, then why is it that anime are the total opposite of it?

All of these came to me and I think that this kind of thinking affects me somehow. If I didn't watch anime and didn't think of these things, then it won't affect me. But I do watch, which then made me affected. Which also means that watching anime will affect its viewers in any way there is. Be it mentally, physically or psychologically.

| Japanese students |

Meanwhile, I found another post which talks about an average Japanese school life written by Leona Senshi. She described how Japanese students go to school, what they normally do at school, how they do in their extracurricular activities, cram schools and entrance examinations.

Getting to school

She stated that "Japanese high school students do not drive cars. Many either walk or ride bicycles if the distance is not too great. In other cases, students must take public buses and trains, often changing lines several times in order to reach their destinations.". This is not quite a shock for me since this is what I've seen in anime too. Since students study in nearby schools, they don't ride public transportation and instead they just walk. There's not much of a difference between anime and real life when it comes to going to school.

At school

Japanese students do the same things as a Filipino student. Except that, when they enter the school, they are welcomed by the small lockers with their school shoes/slippers to change with. Also, "Japanese students spend 240 days a year at school, 60 days more than their American counterparts." However, they mostly spend their school time on cultural festivals, sports day, and any other festivals that the Japanese culture has. These festivals and other events can also be seen in school life anime(s). There's really not much of a difference between anime and real life if it's just the traditions, school activities and physical appearances like uniforms and school grounds.

Extracurricular activities

Like in other countries, Japanese schools also have school clubs. "Clubs meet for two hours after school each day and many clubs continue to meet during school vacations.". In comparison to anime, still, there's not much of a difference. Well of course, it's Japan. But when we compare it i other countries and their schools, there is a huge difference. Based on my experience, I hardly stay at school for clubs and other activities.

All of these are comparisons between anime school life and real life. Moreover, school life anime is the closest genre of anime which is very easy to compare and to explain how anime is very different from real life.

4 - Positive Effects of Anime from Personal Experience

As I mentioned in my previous blog posts, I started watching anime when I was a kid. At first, I only watched anime on local television in which the anime are dubbed instead of subbed. Which means all of the languages are in Filipino and it really didn't make much difference than watching subbed anime.

One of the positive effects of anime on me is that I became more proficient in English because now that I know how to use the internet, I watch anime on its subbed version instead of the Filipino-dubbed version. But before that, I watched anime on Animax where most of the aired anime are English-dubbed. I became used to hearing and speaking English, thus, making my grammar better. But now that I mostly watch the original Japanese-dubbed and English-subbed anime, I came to understand and speak a bit of the Japanese language itself. I even studied and memorized katakana and hiragana. It was quite a surprise for my friends that I can understand Japanese that much just by watching anime. But it wasn't at all surprising. There are other people who experienced the same as I did.

For example, our class wrote an essay as our professor asked us to. When she handed out our papers back to us, I was really glad about the comment she gave me. It said, "You have a great command in the English language.". Now that I think about it, one of our professors said that watching anime or English movies can be a positive effect in terms that people can have better knowledge in grammar than those people who don't watch at all. Plus, watching English-subbed anime requires reading, which is essential for learning English.

Another positive effect is when a person watches anime, he or she will somewhat gain interest on the Japanese culture, since it's the Japanese who makes anime and their culture are imprinted on each and every anime in one way or the other. Having interest on other culture than your own is a good thing because no matter what kind of culture it is, you'll still gain knowledge about what is happening on the other parts of the world.

Socializing is also one of the positive effects of it. As for me, being a fan of anime led me to find people on the internet who have the same interests as mine. Just like in Facebook and other social networking sites. For now, I have a less than two thousand friends in Facebook just because they seemed to be an anime fan just like myself. Though it may seem unintelligent to add and accept friends on Facebook without really knowing them, it was really a fun idea to know that I can be in contact with the people who have the same interests. I actually have 3 close online friends right now whom I talk to almost everyday, though they are not as "close" as a friend than my real life close friends. They live in other country but they are really friendly which didn't make me a socially awkward person to them. I learned about some of their cultures and wanted to know more of it.

I learned all of these things because of one thing: interest in anime. If I was never interested and never did watch anime, I don't think I'll be able to meet those online friends I have now and I will never have the determination to study the Japanese language and culture. I might be more socially awkward than I already am and I might not have the same level in proficiency in English than I have right now. I might not even study in this course that I took. These are the positive effects that I'm thankful for that I was an anime fanatic, or else I wouldn't be here now like this.

5 - Negative Effects of Anime from Personal Experience

As for a person who watched anime as long as I can remember, and watches it as a "need" than a hobby, I know that watching anime does have some negative effects on me.

First of all, watching anime takes the time that I should have allotted into doing my homeworks. I remember that when I was in highschool, whenever I reach home, I would turn on the tv and switch the channel to Animax, and just sit there and watch until I get tired of watching. Though I still do my assignments later, I'm pretty sure that I watched longer than doing my work. I usually watch for hours while I study for just an hour or so. That leads to procrastination and so much cramming. Even though it didn't really affect my performance in school, I was still a bit worried for myself that I might drown myself in anime. Just like what I'm doing now.

The next negative effect that I can observe is about my eyesight. Since I was always facing the television and watching for hours, and facing my laptop, my eyes get easily hurt. I have eyeglasses but I seldom wear them. It's really a negative effect for me since I am a Multimedia Arts student and I have to face more of computer screens in the future. More importantly, my eyes are second to importance of being an ABMA student. Of course, my hands are very important.

Next is violence. I'm not really a violent person but I can be one. I admit that I was really influenced by the violence in anime but I can control myself since I think I'm matured enough to know what is right or wrong. Besides, I'm a girl, so what much can I do? However, punching objects really became my anger outlet. This may or may not be connected to the violence I was talking about, but still, it's violence.

Anyway, those are the negatives effects of watching too much anime for me that I observed so far. And my conclusion is, anime had more positive effects on me rather than negative ones. I am quite happy for that.

8- Anime Character VS. Human Character

As for my observation, an anime character moves way too different from a normal human being. That is, of course, because an anime character is just created from the animator/cartoonist's mind and anything is possible with human imagination. With that observation, I will do my best to site examples of how different an anime character is to the character of a normal human being.

For starters, it is the way they talk. Anime originated from Japan, which makes the main anime language Japanese. Because of that, the viewers of anime who are not Japanese and lack knowledge of the Japanese language, tends to think that the language or the way they talk in anime is the same as the way they do in Japan. But that is not necessarily true. Not just because anime is from Japan, means that everything in anime would be the same in the real Japanese life. For example, I read an article (Why You SHOULDN'T Use Anime to Study Japanese by Mari C.) that says the way how Japanese talks vary in the levels of politeness and formality that depends on your social standing. Which means, there are words or phrases that are inappropriate to say to the people higher than you in social standing.
"In English, would you ever say, “Give that to me!” to someone of higher authority like your teacher? Last summer when I was helping out in a beginning Japanese class, one of the students actually said something along those lines to the instructor. Not only was sensei shocked at the student’s words, but I could also tell that she was very angry and hurt." - Mari C.

Next, is how they would normally interact with people in the opposite sex. As for us, we aren't normally clingy or very comfortable with people in the opposite sex if we haven't known the person for a long time, especially for girls. But in some anime, there are some girls who are very unusually clingy to the point that just watching them do those kinds of things will make the watcher be annoyed in some point.

The last one would be, how the person would react in a certain situation. Let's give the most cliche example, a love confession. In an anime, when the guy confesses his love to the girl, the most cliche reaction we can get is that the girl had already fallen in love with the guy for a long time, which means they live happily ever after. The end. But does that happen normally in real life? Of course not. Though in some anime, love confessions aren't really successful, but in most cases, they are; which makes a mockery of the lovelife-less people in real life.

These different things that concerns anime character behavior and human character are what makes anime very different in real life. And in so many ways. Anime are most probably the fantasy that we would love to live in as a human being.

9 - Anime vs Real Life Issues

Anime have always been an entertainment for its audiences. But did you know that even in anime, there are events/issues that concerns its characters just like in real life? Not all anime have this happy or everything-is-working-out-just-fine atmosphere.

| C: Control - The Money & Soul of Possibility |

For example, in this article entitled "Best Anime about Real-World Issues" by Serdar Yegulalp, the anime "C: Control - The Money & Soul of Possibility" has an issue about economic meltdowns and unregulated financial speculation.
"Kimimaro's struggling through college, half-broke, when a charismatic stranger offers him a pass to an alternate dimension called "The Financial District," where one can gamble with one's own future."

The plot of anime tells that the protagonist is having problems with his life and, well, had to go to another dimension just to relieve his financial problems. Comparing it to real life, though, is impossible. We can't just go to other dimensions just to get money from it that we can use in the real world. It's impossible. | Eden of the East |

Another anime is "Eden of the East". This anime is mostly about living in a "wired society".
"A young man with no memory and no clothes wakes up on the lawn of the White House, with only a gun and a peculiar cellphone that contains billions of yen in digital money... Soon he's intertwined with another Japanese, a girl named Saki..." What does this tell us? According to Mr. Yegulalp, "In the past few years we've come to take our digital interconnectedness for granted". Yes, we all have been taking our digital interconnectedness for granted. I, myself, have so many accounts for different websites, so many that I can't even contain all the usernames and passwords in my head. I have many online friends who I don't really know in real life, since they are overseas. | Hourou Musuko |

This next anime is about cross-dressing and gender perceptions.For sure, almost all of our readers have encountered someone who are transgender or have a 'problem' with their genders.
"Shuichi, a boy, and Yoshino, a girl, are preteens who share the same problem: each wants to identify as the opposite sex. There's nothing perverse about their intentions -- they're simply more comfortable with themselves that way..."

It is not a big surprise anymore to encounter someone like the characters in the story, at least for me. I have read a manga (Past Future) that is about cross-dressing, and in that manga where they talk about the person's feelings, I kind of get why they would want to do it even if it sounds ridiculous. It may sound non-sense to others but for the person itself, it is important.

| Planetes |

Planetes is about space colonization and its side effects. As Mr. Yegulalp said, "The colonization of space isn't science fiction anymore; it's slowly become a reality".

Even if it's just an anime, this takes the matter of space colonization seriously. As for this generation that are hogging all the technology they can get, the people are getting more and more greedy that they want even more of it. Do you think that they just want to explore space? For me, it's not. If it is just for exploration, do you think that they will risk billions of dollars for it? They even caused the outer layer of Earth have all those kinds of space junks. And moreover, they already went to the moon, or so they say, and placed their flag on top of it. Now, they are sending those rovers in mars, determined to see any life forms.

There are still so many anime that reflects real world problems. Some of it takes the matter seriously and some diverts the problem into a fantasy-based solution. But all in all, we still can learn so many things from it, and as a teenager who is supposed to have tons of free time, can learn while watching it.

10 - Effects of Mature Content in Anime to Teens

Not all anime are intended for kids and young audiences. Actually, more and more anime that are made and published now are for young adults and adults having the themes violence, nudity / sexual content, smoking and drinking, and many more.

In the article Problematic Content in Anime and Manga by Gilles Poitras, violence, nudity, gender identity, sexual content, and smoking and drinking are given as the problematic content in anime and manga. For me, it's not that it really is problematic, it's just that it becomes problematic if these contents are shown to inappropriate audiences, with or without parental guidance.

Violence. Mr. Poitras said "Much of the anime and manga translated into English is of an action-oriented nature, science fiction and fantasy being two genres well represented. ...where violence can be carried to an extreme and be quite bloody, simply flipping through a few pages of a manga or checking the notes on a video box often will provide a clue on this."

In my experience from more than 5 years of watching anime and 2 years of reading manga, violence is a common thing among the genres. Any anime or manga can contain violence in one way or the other. May it be a simple slap, a punch or some bullying. These can cause children to act like what they watch since they are kids and doesn't have the full knowledge of what is right or wrong. But to teens, it is already up to them if they will do what they can see, because supposedly, teens already have matured minds, especially 15 years and above. They should already know what's right or wrong in a given situation.

Nudity. "Nudity is not unusual in some anime and manga, even TV shows and manga for children. This is a result of a different culture's views on naked bodies. "

Like this anime "Fairy Tail" which has mostly violence, it also contains some nudity, even though it's just on the character. Kids or young audiences shouldn't be exposed to these kinds of anime, but this particular anime is very popular in all ages. It can't be helped that even kids can watch these kinds of anime because as I said, this anime is mainly 'violence' in a way that the protagonists save their comrades from their enemies and fight for their lives. As these kinds of genre are the most liked by viewers, the only thing that can prevent them to have dirty thoughts or anything about nudity is parental guidance.

Gender identity. "Anime and manga aimed at all ages may have characters who are gay, lesbian, transgender, cross dressing, or bisexual. ...In some cases the a character's gender may change involuntary, such as in Ranma 1/2 where it is the result of a curse, or in Kashimashi where a boy was changed into a girl by aliens in the process of saving his/her life."

The only reason that I can see why this is a problematic content is that, when children are exposed into watching these anime, they might be engaged to cross-dressing and have a gender crisis. They might think that it is alright to cross-dress and all people are alright with it. This may result to bullying or they might be isolated from the society as the worst.

All of these can be very problematic for parents who can see their children watch these kinds of things that can affect on how they grow up. But as for teenagers who have more matured minds than kids, it shouldn't be more problematic. Teens should already be mentally and psychologically stable as they watch, so it shouldn't be a problem. But worse comes to worst, teens who aren't stable shoudn't be watching these just like the kids.

11 - Final

This research paper aimed to give examples of anime in their respective genres and the possible effects the anime has to give its viewers.

In all the research that I have done, I discovered that there are different anime that has sexual content but the title doesn't seem like it. This one factor in some anime gives the wrong impression to those viewers that only want to watch simple anime, but are given erotic ones. Lack in knowledge and research about an anime can also affect the viewer, looking in that aspect.

Also, if a kid was not brought up with parental guidance, then it will be a huge factor affecting a child's way of thinking. This can affect them in a way that they don't know what is right or wrong and in what to believe in. When I was a kid while watching anime, my parents were often watching with me and even though it's kind of annoying, they give side comments on almost everything that happens in it. As annoying as it can get, though, I think it helped me to become more aware of everything. If they weren't there to guide me, then I wouldn't be as mature as I am right now.

That means that parental control, guidance and proper upbringing greatly affects on what the impact of an anime can give to its viewer. Everything that an immature viewer watches should have proper guidance and should be on the age group that viewer is.

Japanese anime is different from American cartoon based on its character development and story, so that means that American cartoons are safer to watch for kids than Japanese anime. So those parents that think that anime is for kids, they should know better and not let their kids watch anime alone.

The irresponsible actions of a parent can greatly affect what their kids may become so parents should really be careful for everything