Glossary of anime and manga

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This is a list of terms that are specific to anime and manga.

Note: Japanese words that are used in general (e.g. oniisan, kawaii and senpai) are not included on this list, unless a description with a reference for notability can be provided that shows how they relate.

Video Glossary of anime and manga

Character traits

Ahoge (???, lit. "idiot hair")

Refers to any noticeable strand of hair which sticks in a different direction from the rest of an anime/manga character's hair.

Bish?jo (???, lit. "pretty girl")

Beautiful young woman.

Bish?nen (???, lit. "beautiful boy", sometimes abbreviated bishie)

Japanese aesthetic concept of the ideally beautiful young man: androgynous, effeminate or gender-ambiguous. In Japan, it refers to youth with such characteristics, while in Europe and the Americas, it has become a generic term for attractively androgynous males of all ages.

Catgirl (??, Nekomusume)

A female character with cat ears and a cat tail, but an otherwise human body. These characters have feline habits, claw-like nails, and occasionally show fangs. Emotional expressions are also feline in nature, such as an exaggerated fur-standing-on-end when startled. These characteristics are also sometimes used on male characters as well.

Dojikko (????)

A cute girl who tends to be clumsy. They may make mistakes that hurt themselves or others. Dojikko character traits are often used for stock characters in anime and manga series.

Kemono (?, ???, ???, lit. "beast")

A genre of Japanese art and character design that prominently features anthropomorphism: animal-like fictional characters in human-like settings and situations.

Kemonomimi (??, ?????, ?????)

Characters with animal features such as ears and a tail, but a human body. Catgirl also falls under this concept.

Moe (??)

Generally used for female characters, though it can refer to effeminate males in some instances. Something or someone that is considered moe is generally considered to be endearing, innocent and naive, while taking on some of the emotional qualities of adolescence generally meant to invoke a paternal feeling of protectiveness and sympathy within the viewer. The most literal translation of the word into languages other than Japanese is "fetish", though the concept of moe does not necessarily have a direct correlation to sexual preferences and often refers to works of a non-sexual nature. It can also be used to modify other words or concepts, such as meganekko-moe ("glasses-girl" moe), referring to a character who both wears glasses and has the qualities of moe.

Tsundere (????)

A character personality which is usually stern, cold or hostile to the person they like, while occasionally letting slip the warm and loving feelings hidden inside due to being shy, nervous, insecure or simply unable to help acting badly in front of the person they like. It is an portmanteau of the Japanese terms tsuntsun (????), meaning to be stern or hostile, and deredere (????), meaning to be "lovey dovey".

Yandere (????)

A term for a person who is initially loving and caring to someone they like a lot until their romantic love, admiration and devotion becomes feisty and mentally destructive in nature through either overprotectiveness, violence, brutality or all three. The term is a portmanteau of the words yanderu (????), meaning (mentally or emotionally) ill, and deredere (????, "lovey dovey".), meaning to show genuinely strong romantic affection. Yandere characters are mentally unstable, incredibly deranged and use extreme violence or brutality as an outlet for their emotions. Yandere are usually, but not always, female characters.

Maps Glossary of anime and manga

Demographics

Josei (??, lit. "woman")

Anime and manga intended for the adult female demographic.

Kodomo (??) or Kodomomuke (????)

Anime and manga for children.

Seinen (??)

Anime and manga intended for the adult male demographic.

Sh?jo (??, lit. "young woman")

Anime and manga intended for the adolescent female demographic.

Sh?nen (??, lit. "young man")

Anime and manga intended for the adolescent male demographic.

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Fandom

Aniparo (????)

A slang term for the parodic use of anime characters by fans, a portmanteau of anime and parody.

Comiket (?????, Komiketto, lit. "comics market")

One of the largest trade fairs for d?jinshi comics, held twice a year in Ariake, Tokyo.

D?jinshi (???)

A fan-made or amateurly produced work such as a parody, fan fiction or manga.

Fandub

Short for fan-made dub, describing a film or video in which fans have voiced over the dialogue.

Fansub

Short for fan-made subtitles, describing a film or video in which fans have translated and subtitled the dialogue into another language.

Fudanshi (???, lit. "rotten boy")

A male fan of yaoi (???).

Fujoshi (???, lit. "rotten woman")

A female fan of yaoi (???).

MAD Movie (MAD??, maddo d?ga)

A Japanese fan-made video, much like an anime music video (AMV), that generally originates from the Japanese website NicoNico. MAD can also refer to the Japanese AMV community, although they can be anything from audio clips, edited pictures, to wholly original creations. MADs do not necessarily even need to be related to anime, though the more popular ones typically are.

Odagiri effect

A television phenomenon in which a program attracts a larger than expected number of women viewers because the program stars attractive male actors or characters.

Otaku (???, ???, ???)

The literal translation of the word is another person's house or family (??, otaku). In Japanese slang, otaku is mostly equivalent to "geek" or "nerd", but in a more derogatory manner than used in the West. In 1989, the word "otaku" was shunned in relation to anime and manga after Tsutomu Miyazaki (dubbed "The Otaku Murderer") brutally killed underage girls. Since then, the word has become less negative in Japan with more people identifying themselves as some type of an otaku.

Waifu

A fictional female character that a fan considers their significant other. The term originates from Azumanga Daioh character Kimura's heavily accented English phrasing of "my wife" to sound like "mai waifu", but is also how a Japanese native speaker would pronounce the English word for "wife". "Husbando" is the male equivalent of this term.

Weeaboo

A derogatory slang term for an obnoxious fan of Japanese culture, originally a replacement word for "waponese" (a contraction of "wannabe" Japanese or "white" Japanese)

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Genres

Bakuny? (??, lit. "exploding breasts")

A genre of pornographic media focusing on the depiction of women with large breasts. With regards to bra size, bakuny? are said to be above a G75 bra size but below an M70. Bakuny? is a subgenre of hentai anime.

Bara (??, lit. "rose")

A masculine gay men's culture and, in manga circles, a genre of manga about beefcakey gay men usually by gay men. Compare with the female-created Boys' Love.

Boys' Love (??????, B?izu Rabu)

Male homosexual content aimed at women, currently in general use in Japan to cover yaoi and sh?nen-ai'.

Gei comi (????, geikomi)

Manga with male homosexual themes, by men for men. Compare with yaoi, sh?nen-ai, June and Boys' Love.

Harem (??????, h?remumono)

A subgenre of anime and manga characterized by a protagonist surrounded, usually amorously, by three or more members of the opposing sex as potential love interests. A female harem around a male protagonist is most common, while a male harem surrounding a female protagonist may be called a reverse-harem.

Isekai (???, lit. "different world")

A subgenre of manga and anime in which characters are transported or reincarnated into an alternate world.

Lolicon (????, rorikon)

Portmanteau for "lolita complex". A genre of manga and anime in which childlike female characters are depicted in an erotic manner.

Mecha (??, meka, abbr. for "mechanical")

In Japan, the word is used for all kinds of machines while in Western countries, the word applies to piloted combat robots in anime and manga. Series that feature mecha are divided into two subgenres: "super robots", where the mecha have unrealistic powers and the focus is more on the fighting and robots themselves, and "real robots", where the mecha have more realistic powers and there is more drama and focus on the mecha's pilots.

Sh?jo-ai (???)

Manga or anime that focus on lesbian relationships.

Sh?nen-ai (???)

A term denoting male homosexual content in women's media, although this usage is obsolete in Japan. English-speakers frequently use it for material without explicit sex, in anime, manga and related fan fiction. In Japan, it denotes ephebophilia.

Shotacon (?????, shotakon)

A genre of manga and anime wherein childlike male characters are depicted in an erotic manner.

Toddlercon

A subset of Lolicon and Shotacon where toddler characters are depicted in an erotic manner.

Yaoi (???)

Anime or manga with a focus on homosexual male relationships. Also known as Boys Love. Japanese acronym for "yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi" (no climax, no point, no meaning). Male-on-male sexual content; usually created by women for women.

Yuri (??, lit. "Lily")

Anime or manga with a focus on lesbian relationships. In Japan, the term denotes a broad spectrum of attraction between women. It is also used for sexually explicit content outside Japan.

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Terms

Anime music video (AMV)

Video clips from at least one anime series arranged to fit a musical piece playing in the background.

Buchinuki (????)

In manga, buchinuki refers to a page where a character was drawn while ignoring or overlapping the panels for emphasis.

Dub (????, fukikae)

When the voices in an anime are translated into another language.

Eyecatch (??????, aikyatchi)

A scene or illustration used to begin and end a commercial break in a Japanese TV program, similar to commercial bumpers in the United States.

Eroge (????, erog?)

An eroge, a portmanteau of erotic game (????????, erochikku g?mu), is a Japanese video or computer game that features erotic content, usually in the form of anime-style artwork. Eroge originated from galge that added adult content rated 18+.

Fan service (???????, fan s?bisu)

Elements specifically included to sexually amuse (such as scantily-clad or naked males or females, or ecchi content) or titillate the audience, which may or may not be necessary to plot development.

Galge (????, garuge)

This is a type of Japanese video game centered around interactions with attractive anime-style girls. These games are a subgenre of dating sims targeted towards a male audience.

Gekiga (??, lit. "dramatic pictures")

A term adopted by more serious Japanese cartoonists, who did not want their work to be known as manga or "whimsical pictures". It is akin to English speakers who prefer the term "graphic novel", as opposed to "comic book".

Gensakusha (???, lit. "original author")

A term used by derivative works to credit the original creator of a series. It is also used to refer to the writer of a manga, as opposed to its illustrator.

Guro

A type of anime, manga or game which includes violence, torture and sometimes death of the character. The purpose of the violence is to increase pleasure of the audience, reader or player who likes that kind of genre. Sometimes it's also synonymous with the hentai phrase, ero guro.

Hentai (??)

A term used outside of Japan to describe erotic or pornographic manga and anime, derived from the word for "pervert". In Japan, terms such as eromanga and eroanime are used instead.

Juné, also written as June

A manga or text story with male homosexual themes written for women in an aesthetic (??, tanbi) style, named for the Juné magazine.

Kabe-don (???)

In Japanese, kabe is wall, and don is the sound of slapping against a wall. Literally, kabe-don describes the act of fiercely slapping a wall. One meaning is slapping a wall as a protest which occurs in collective housing like a condominium when the next room makes noise. Another meaning is when a man forces a woman against a wall with one hand or a man leans against a wall and makes a slapping sound, leaving the woman nowhere to go. This has become popular nowadays as a "clever move of confession".

Kyony? (??, lit. "giant breasts")

A classification of breast size in casual Japanese. Breasts above an E70 bra size but below a G75 are considered to be kyony?, after which point they are called bakuny? (??).

Lemon (???, Remon)

Derived from the hentai anthology series Cream Lemon (???????, Kur?mu Remon), the term is used to refer to material with explicit sexual content.

Manga (??, ???)

Japanese comics, or conforming to "manga style", usually marked by features such as large eyes, long limbs, speed lines and exclamatory typography.

Mangaka (???, ????)

A creator of manga; this can refer to both the writer and illustrator of the work.

Mihiraki (???)

A manga scene, usually one single image, spread to cover two opposing pages.

Name (???, N?mu)

A rough draft of a proposed manga.

Omake (???, ???)

An add-on bonus on an anime DVD, like a regular "extra" on western DVDs; or a bonus strip at the end of a manga chapter or volume.

Original net animation (ONA)

An anime production intended to be distributed through the internet via streaming or direct download.

Otome game (?????, otome g?mu, lit. "maiden game")

A video game that is targeted towards a female market, where one of the main goals, besides the plot goal, is to develop a romantic relationship between the player character (a female) and one of several male characters.

Original video animation (OVA)

A type of anime which is intended to be distributed on VHS tapes or DVDs and not shown in movies or on television. It is also less frequently referred to as Original Animated Video (OAV). DVDs are sometimes known as Original Animated DVD (OAD).

Raw

Anime episode or manga scans in its original language without editing or subtitles.

Scanlation (also "scanslation")

The scanning, translation and editing of comics from one language into another.

Seiy? (??)

A Japanese voice actor. As well as voicing characters in anime, seiy? do voicing for video games, radio shows, drama CDs, etc.

Shud? (??, abbr. of wakash?do, lit. "the way of young men")

Age-structured male homosexuality in samurai society. (See also: Wakash?.)

Yonkoma manga (4????, "four cell manga")

Refers to manga drawn in a four-panel comic strip format.

Zettai ry?iki (????, lit. "absolute territory")

Refers to the area of exposed thigh when a girl is wearing a short skirt and thigh-high socks. The ideal skirt:thigh:sock-above-knee ratio is often reported to be 4:1:2.5. Zettai ry?iki are often referred to by letter grades, where grade A is the ideal.

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See also

• Japanese fashion
• Japanese honorifics
• Japanese subcultures
• Manga iconography
• List of English words of Japanese origin

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References

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Further reading

• Clements, Jonathan; McCarthy, Helen (2015). "Argot and Jargon". The Anime Encyclopedia (3rd Revised ed.). pp. 37-40. ISBN 978-1-611720-18-1. OCLC 897946457. 
• Ferreira, Mike (December 16, 2010). "Anime: A Beginner's Guide Chapter 4: A Brief Dictionary of Jargon and Fan Terms". Anime Herald. 
• Martin, Theron. "Anime/Manga Glossary". USA Anime. 
• Thompson, Jason (2007). "Glossary". Manga: The Complete Guide. New York: Del Rey Books. pp. 495-502. ISBN 978-0-345-48590-8. 

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External links

• Anime Terminology Lexicon at Animeph.com - a large list of English and Japanese terms
• Anime News Network's Lexicon
• ???????? - ????????????????????? (in Japanese) at pixiv
• pixiv Encyclopedia - The Dictionary of Doujin/Manga/Illustration/Derivative Works (in English) at pixiv

Source of article : Wikipedia