The dictionary defines "Japanimation" as "a style of cartoon or animation made in Japan that focuses on futuristic themes and robot like characters; also called anime."

Anime has broadened fromt the traditional themes, and now portrays everything from dramas, to horror, to sci fi and fantasy.  It covers a broader spectrum of the imagination than ever before.  In this guide I will break down the major categories of anime and give a few examples.  I will also attempt to help you determine how to tell if you are buying genuine or pirated materials.

Genres of Anime

Japanese anime is classified by the audience the material is aimed at.  Because everything is broken down into age groups, and also by sex (though not meaning that anime for boys is only for boys, etc), you can begin to guess what kind of plot and characteristics each anime entails.

Shoujo:  One of the largest categories, shoujo means 'girl' in Japanese.  This anime will have storylines with more that a bit of romance involved, and often involve magic.  An example is the show Fruits Basket.

Shounen: The male counterpart of Shoujo, shounen means 'boy.'  These anime will usually feature ninja's, battles, and pretty women.  A well known expample of shounen anime in the US is Dragon Ball Z.

Robot or Mecha:  Mecha is the term most often used for this kind of anime.  This is less aimed at an age grouping, and is more general.  Mecha animes do have a lot of fighting with the giant robots (called mecha), but there are all sorts of plots used.  Mecha is one of the oldest types of anime.

Kodomo: Kodomo means 'child' in Japanese, and this genre is defined by anime that have less complicated plots, and fun storylines.  A famous example of Kodomo anime in America is Pokemon.

Ecchi:  A Japanese term for 'indecent.'  Ecci anime contains light sexual humor, and thus is aimed both girls and boys of the age 18+.  Love Hina is a well known ecchi anime. 

Hentai: In Japanese it means 'perverted' and refers to pornographic anime, which can also be known as erotica.  This type of anime is for mature adults only.

Buying Anime Used and New

Ebay has a great deal of anime for you to buy at your pleasure.  I am going to give you a few things to watch out for so that you know exactly what you are buying.  I have made buying mistakes in my past, and want others to learn from my mistakes.

VHS:  If you buy VHS used, it is always good to have a picture.  It may be cheaper to buy VHS that someone has recorded off of their DVD's or even other VHSs, but those are usually of very low quality.  It is also a illegal!  Sound may be very low, picture may waver or have lines, and it if it subtitled, the subs may be hard to see and read.  If you are going to buy VHS I suggest you make sure it's not re-recorded for your optimal veiwing pleasure.

A Japanese VHS cover.  Not the well done art, and the logo in the top left corner.

Hong Kong VHS.  I added a red line around the bottom of the tapes, the part of the sitcker that shows the info about the VHS type etc.  These tapes were recorded and the lables printed with the logo.

DVD: The standard of modern-day technology, the same warnings can go for DVD's that I used for VHS.  At least try to see what you are buying. 

With leaps ahead in computer technology, it is now possible to record store-bought DVDs onto the computer, and then burn them to a DVD disk that can be watched in any DVD player.  This is highly illegal, and even though the quality will probably be good, it can still be comprimised in many ways.

If an anime is not licensed for production in the US, there are groups of individuals that 'fan-sub' anime.  That is, they translate and typeset the shows as professionals do for DVDs that are released in the US.  These can be obtained for free via downloads from the internet.  If you ever come across a DVD set you can buy that says 'fan-subbed,' do not buy it.  The groups that do this do it as a way to study the language and get ahead in their carrer choices, and it is not for sale.  Such groups also stop fan-subbing once an anime is liscensed, and will delete their archives of existing subbed materials.

An official CardCaptor Sakura DVD.  IN the bottom left corner is the Kondasha label, and in the bottom right is the Geneon label (both companies produce anime).

Hong Kong DVD: As a free-trade city, Hong Kong is not subject to all copyright and trade laws, and thus pirates a lot of anime (pirating is also called 'bootlegging'). It is very cheap to buy, and you can find DVDs as well as VHS.  These pirated versions are often not as well made as the originals, and are subtitled in English or Chinese with Japanese audio only.  The subbing is not well done, in many cases they misspell words, mix up meanings and drop whole conversations entirely.  The audio is often of low quality.

Buying Hong Kond DVDs is not precisely illegal, bt I would reccommend that you avoid this type of anime for it's low quality.  It is hard to tell what is a Hong Kong import and what is not, but usually they will be full series (box sets), and encased in a sturdy cardboard box that folds to contain all of the DVDs.  If you are doubtful of the nature of DVDs, I suggest going to a well known website where you buy official anime, and look at the pictures of boxes there to make a comparison.

This is a Hong Kong box set.  See how the two panels fold out to show the DVDs?  Also usually DVD boxes are not covered in pictures, and have a booklet enclosed as well.

What Kind of Anime Am I Buying?

The Series: A large portion of the anime available on today's market is in series form,  In Japan they were aired on TV first, then later available to purchase.  In America, you can buy the DVDs singly, or (when available) in box sets.  One DD will generally have 3-5 episodes on it, and then you buy the rest untill you have the entire series.  This is good if you only have a bit of money to spend at a time, and also this is the only option you have for buying if there is no box set released.  A box set either contains an entire season of DVDs (if there is more than one season), or the entire series itself.  This is overall a cheaper way to buy anime.  Think of it as buying in bulk:  you get more for the money.

DVD 6 of Melody of Oblivion.

DVD box set containing all 6 Melody of Oblivion DVDs.

The Films: Anime is also available in single movie form.  Films can fall under two categories:  movies that pertain to an anime series, or movies that stand alone.  The series Love Hina has two movies, they both continue the storyline.  Stand alones include movies like Akira and Spirited Away.  These movies have made huge box office records, and are popular with audiences all over the world.

OVAs: OVA stands for Origional Video Animation, and can be explained as a miniseries.  I will bring up Love Hina as an example. The OVA for Love Hina, Love Hina: Again, finally completes the storyline of the Love Hina series.  OVAs can be likend to feature films in several ways; the often have high quality animation than a series, they are shorter in lenght (only a few episodes), and the continuation of plot lines.

Conclusion

I know that anime is not for everyone, just as everyone does not like chocolate, etc, but I hope that in reading this guide you have come to have a better understanding of all that is anime.  At least the basics.  I hope this guide helps you to determine which kind of anime you would like ot look into, and certain things you want to look out for before making a comitment to buying.