The history of anime goes back to the early 1990s — with the earliest verified Japanese animated film, a samurai's misadventures in trying to test the edge of his new sword, dating to 1917. The first anime to reach North America were broadcast as early as the 1960s, with the first major global wave of anime happening in the 90s with the international broadcast of runaway hits like Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, and especially Pokémon.
The global popularity of anime and manga has only been helped by the internet, with the proliferation of streaming and digital releases making it easier than ever for fans all around to world to experience the best of Japanese animation and comics. If you're new to the mediums of anime and manga, the Bam Smack Pow team is here to walk you through everything you need to know about getting into anime and manga.
What is anime?
The exact definition of anime is a bit nebulous and can even be controversial, depending on who you're talking to. The Japanese word "anime" comes, as you might expected, from the English word "animation". In Japan, "anime" is just the word for any animated media, regardless of where it's from or what specific animation style it uses. In English, "anime" means — although there is an archetypal art style for anime, by the definition of "Japanese animation", even a stop-motion series like Pokémon Concierge can be considered anime. The biggest controversy about what constitutes an anime comes from American series like Avatar: The Last Airbender which are entirely American productions but owe a clear debt to the established anime art style.
"Manga" is the Japanese word for comics and follows much of the same logic as the word "anime". It's more broad within Japan and outside of Japan, it refers specifically to comics created in Japan. While not an absolute rule, many popular anime series have been adapted from manga series. Chinese comics are all manhua and Korean comics are called manhwa. In all three languages, the words mean something like "informal drawings." Major international distributors of manga books like Seven Seas and Yen Press also sell a significant amount of Chinese and Korean comics. Notably, a growing number of Chinese and Korean book series are being adapted into anime series.
Important words for anime fans to know
• We've previously explained an the Isekai genre is, but to quickly recap: it's a story where a character is either transported to or reincarnated into another world.
• The Magical Girl genre is most associated with Sailor Moon, though Sailor Moon was not the first Magical Girl series. In a way, there are a lot of similar themes to US superhero comics, with the usually-teenaged heroine, or cast of heroines, having to maintain a secret identity and balance everyday life with fighting evil.
• Slice of Life deals with characters living their everyday lives. For the most part, they're down-to-earth and set in the real world, though there are more than a few Fantasy-themed Slice of Life anime. The Cute Girls Doing Cute Things sub-genre is pretty self-explanatory and is probably the most laid-back possible anime genre.
• Shōnen isn't, strictly speaking, a genre. It's a demographic. "Shōnen" is literally the Japanese word for "boy" and refers to the group the demographic is aimed at: teenage boys between the ages of 12-18. The magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump is the most successful and well-known Japanese magazine that serializes manga — the point that it's unbelievably sold nearly one copy for every person on the Earth right now. All of the so-called Big Three series — Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece — originated in the pages of Weekly Shōnen Jump.
• The other major demographics for anime and manga are Shōjo (girls age 12-18), Seinen (adult men) and Josei (adult women)
The best places to find anime and manga
As we said at the top of the article, the internet has made it easier than ever for fans all around the world to discover new anime and manga. Here's a breakdown of several of the most prominent anime streaming services:
• Crunchyroll probably has the largest library of anime to stream of any online service. Crunchyroll also likely produces the largest number of anime dubs — mostly in English, though another one of Crunchyroll's biggest benefits is that it dubs many of its licensed series into a large number of international languages. The Crunchyroll store also has an extensive collection of anime merch, home media, and manga volumes.
• HIDIVE has both new exclusives and a steady stream of English dubs, along with an extensive catalog of older anime, particularly series from the 90s and 2000s inherited from its predecessor studio ADV Films. However, HIDIVE is currently only available in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
• Netflix has both an increasing number of Netflix Original anime series and a number of anime studios licensing their releases to Netflix concurrently with other services. There are fewer anime series available on Netflix than on a service that specializes in anime, but Netflix is a great place to stream some well-known anime series, especially if you're already subscribed and don't want to sign up for a new service.
• RetroCrush is a service devoted to vintage anime series, boasting an eclectic library of series from the 60s through 2010s.
• Free service Pluto TV has a live 24/7 Pokémon channel that debuted in fall 2024 continuously running episodes from the first 22 seasons of the Pokémon anime. Episodes from the early seasons of the Pokémon anime are also available to watch on-demand on the Pokémon TV YouTube channel.
• Tubi also has a selection of anime series available in its free, ad-supported streaming library.
Fans should be aware, that due to licensing issues, not every series will be available in every region.
In terms of where to read manga series online, the most prominent services are Manga Plus, operated by Shueisha (the publisher of Weekly Shōnen Jump), and the digital library available from Viz Media (English publisher of many well-known manga series), which also offers a service devoted to Shōnen Jump titles. Additionally, most online bookstores sell volumes of manga series both as physical books and as ebooks.
Well, now that you're on your way to becoming an anime fan, keep checking back with us here on Bam Smack Pow for a weekly recap of the biggest anime news and a new anime recommendation to check out every week!