A: Is for Anime!

It seemed as though Halloween had came early to the Javits Center last weekend as hundreds of cult-like people dressed in Japanese anime-inspired costumes at the New York Anime Festival. In Asia, just as in Western nations, comic books and animated film/TV series are wildly popular. Japanese artists and directors are at the forefront of this particular creative movement in the Far East, having produced the highly distinctive genres known as manga (printed comics) and anime (film/TV productions) that are admired all over the world. Japanese comics feature a wide array of unusual and memorable characters — the sky is the limit in terms of the qualities they are assigned by their creators. However, more attention is given to features such as hair and eyes. It is quite common to find characters with fluffy and/or flowing hair in bright colors that would never occur in nature (and combinations of such colors) along with more natural shades. The eyes of Japanese anime and manga characters are especially large and expressive, and appear in a variety of hues as well. The upper portion of the face, where the forehead and eyes are located, tends to be wide and rounded, while the face's lower portion, where the nose, mouth, and chin reside, tends to taper dramatically into a narrow and delicate base. Characters with silver or white hair, accompanied by red or blue eyes, frequently appear in anime and manga. This type of coloration usually suggests the presence of at least one supernatural power, and/or origins of either a heavenly such as Sailor Moon or demonic such as InuYasha. Often these characters are in a state of limbo between the magical/spiritual realm and that of humans, participating in both yet not fully at ease in either. The focus of some of these characters' efforts involves reconciling a painful past and coming to terms with the duties and traits that arise from their ancestry and destiny. In anime and manga, angels and demons do not always represent pure good and pure evil. This particular choice of coloration probably arises from Japanese myths of tennyo (celestial nymphs), oni (demons), gods, and other magical creatures. One such supernatural being is the yuki onna, a beautiful ghostlike Snow-Woman with white skin and a white kimono who appears during blizzards and steals the life-breath of those without proper shelter. In many tellings of the legend, she takes pity upon one particular young boy in danger of freezing to death and spares him on the condition that he never mention having seen her to anyone. When he gets older, he falls in love with and marries a young orphaned maiden, and they have children together. Over the years, she never seems to age, and one evening, the lamplight cast upon his wife's face reminds him of his strange encounter with the yuki onna, which he mentions to her. His wife flies into an icy rage, and it becomes clear that she and the yuki onna are one and the same. She refrains from killing him solely for the sake of their children, and leaves him forever, disappearing into a frosty white mist.


In Japan, anime makes 2 trillion yen a year in profit and it is artist-writer-director-producer Hayao Miyazaki who is called "the Walt Disney of Japan." His animated theatrical features have been smash hits in Japan, and many, including My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Princess Mononoke are already familiar to American audiences. Spirited Away, in 2002 won more raves and international awards for this animation master. Miyazaki to be not just a master of the art of animation, but a meticulous craftsman who sees his work as a medium for shaping the humanistic and environmental concerns of our times.

Inuyasha is the one of the most popular Japanese anime out currently. And it all started with a comic book series written by Rumiko Takahashi. But what makes this anime series so popular and why do over 130,000 people a month search for Inuyasha on the Internet search engines? InuYasha is Japanese for "dog spirit" and you will discover this is fitting for a title. The story is about a time-traveling student, Kagome Higurashi and Inuyasha who, with other exciting anime characters, fight to protect the Jewel of Four Souls. This jewel gives hugely increased powers to anyone who has it and will mean catastrophe if it falls into the wrong hands.

Anime often has people fighting for the good and you can see it's roots in Greek Mythology and Grimm's fairy tales but it is now woven it's way into a viable art form and that is a collectable F.A.C.T.