Anime Content and Its Effects

A lot of people today know at least something about Anime. Some may refer to it as Japanese Animation, while others may say that they're cartoons that look a lot better than American toons. Well, both of those appear to be correct if you ask the majority of Anime fans out there. Anime has been around for a long time and it is definitely blossoming everywhere across the world. Since this has been in effect, Anime on the internet has been expanding as well.

According to the Internet age early in the 1990s, Anime was slowly approaching to its fans diversely across the web. Different websites were made to display different Anime series by giving the visitors content to come back for. Around this time, Anime fans were more into searching for their favorite Anime series and finding media such as images and screenshots from the specific shows that they watched and enjoyed. Inspired by Japanese Animation, these fans were verily into drawing their own Anime pictures. When this trend vastly became popular, fans began to submit their Anime fan art to websites, so that others can view their work. This, however, was only its starting point as Anime started to reach out to thousands of people.

After 1995, amassed Anime shows from Japan had entered the television networks of America. Popularly known cable television channels such as Sci-Fi, Cartoon Network's Toonami, WB, and FOX took part in this new revolution and millions of Anime fans started to watch their very own Anime programs! Primarily, these television networks aired shows such as the popular Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, and Gundam Wing. But as the numbers watching Anime in the nation grew to a certain point, even more shows were available to the fans. Once again, it all came back to the Internet as an evolved form.

Movie clips and other multimedia became broadly accessible to the public now. Fans started downloading countless of video clips based on their favorite Anime series. Soundtracks and albums were also out, along with DVDs that can be purchased online and in stores everywhere. This "age" of Anime content on the web lasted quite a few good years until, of course, the modern days of Anime kicked in. This period of time is what I refer to as "Unlimited Anime", meaning that there is basically no limit to what sources have to offer in the field of Japanese Animation.

Finally it happened. Fans can now download full episodes of numerous Anime series, with no strings attached. But this doesn't mean that just anybody can download full episodes, because you had to have met the minimum requirements. This condition means that the person who wishes to download this content has to generally have the original DVD of that particular Anime series. So if users that download Anime full episodes don't have DVD copies of the series, the website isn't responsible for their actions. A website offering this type of content to Anime fans normally has a Terms & Policy statement, which elucidates all possible rights and wrongs, stated on a portion of their website. These webmasters let their visitors download full episodes by either direct linking to the URL, uploading it as a zip or compressed file onto a P2P network, or submitting it as a BitTorrent media, which is by the way the latest method used today.

I host an Anime website, by the name of DJ's Anime, that basically presents this major Anime multimedia to the public. You can view my website at "http://djs-anime.uni.cc/" and view the Anime content that I offer. It's currently a new project of mine and will soon expand to a much larger audience.

I was born on May 7, 1988 in India. I came to America at an early age for education and a better future. I currently live in Orange Park, FL of North America. I'm in high school right now and being a webmaster is what I do at home on the internet. I have mastered HTML and other languages that are necessary to know when designing websites. I have made several successful websites online and each time, my knowledge reaches a new height. I am concentrating on web marketing for my website by taking part in several affiliation programs in order to gain traffic and possibly towards making money.

LONDON - broadway & bricklane market, 08/29-30/09

FABULOUS SEPTEMBER

Sept. 2-7: MOSCOW, this time I got my visa and I'll be shooting for ELLE Russia!
Sept. 9-17: NEW YORK Fashion Week
Sept. 18-22: LONDON Fashion Week
Sept. 23: LONDON, lecture at University for the Creative Arts Epsom
Sept. 24-26: MQ VIENNA Fashion Week
Sept. 27-29: LONDON

Arrowette

Arrowette is the name of two fictional superheroes in the DC Comics universe. The first character is the mother of the second.

Miss Arrowette


Bonnie King debuts as Miss Arrowette in World's Finest Comics #113.
Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance World's Finest Comics #113 (November 1960)
Created by Lee Elias (art)
In-story information
Alter ego Bonnie King

The first Arrowette (properly known as Miss Arrowette) is Bonnie King, a would-be sidekick and general nuisance to Green Arrow. She first appears in World's Finest Comics #113 (November 1960).

When Bonnie was a child, her mother Millie put her to archery training, controlling her progress all the time. She turns out to be very good and even goes to the Olympic Games, where she wins a Bronze Medal. Millie, though, had expected a Gold, argued with her daughter over her alleged failure. After that, Bonnie abandoned both home and archery. She never talked to her mother again.

Alone in Star City, she eventually becomes inspired by Green Arrow and Speedy and decides to use her skills in a way that counted. She makes a costume for herself and officially becomes Miss Arrowette. She carries trick arrows such as the Powder Puff Arrow. After that, she helps both archers a few times, even when they did not want her to. Bonnie turns out to be too clumsy to become a hero and too vain to wear a mask. Bonnie briefly dates Green Arrow in his civilian identity of Oliver Queen, as shown in Justice League of America #7 (October-November 1961).
The adult Bonnie King appears in Young Justice.

At some point, she meets journalist Bernell "Bowstring" Jones, who remembers her from the Olympic Games and is probably the only human being to consider her a star. She nicknames him Bowstring because he is as thin as one and takes him briefly as her sidekick so he will give her publicity in his journal. Finally, Green Arrow asks her not to help them anymore.

She has to permanently leave archery because of carpal tunnel syndrome in her wrists, and also due to her job as a secretary. She talks Bowstring into marrying her and, one year later, she has a daughter named Cissie King-Jones. When Bowstring dies five years later from fish poisoning, Hal Jordan (working as an agent for the company that holds Bowstring's life insurance policy) gives Bonnie and Cissie the policy's beneficiary check; the money enables Bonnie to turn Cissie into a superhero. Cissie hardly has time to breathe between lessons of archery, judo, kick-boxing, gymnastics, ballet, and many other fields, and comes to resent her mother deeply.

Bonnie's name is a parody or play on Green Arrow's civilian name, Oliver Queen.

Arrowette


Arrowette, by Todd Nauck
Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance Impulse #28 (August 1997)
Created by Tom Peyer
Craig Rousseau
In-story information
Alter ego Suzanne "Cissie" King-Jones
Team affiliations Young Justice
Abilities Arrowette is an Olympic-level archer.

Forced by her mother to adopt a version of her old costume, Cissie King-Jones becomes the second Arrowette. Arrowette first appears in the pages of Impulse wearing a frilly costume and a bejeweled mask that apes her mother's old costume. Despite Arrowette's success as a heroine, Impulse's mentor, Max Mercury, is concerned by what he sees as Bonnie's exploitation of her daughter. Child Welfare Services gets involved, and Bonnie loses custody of her daughter, who is sent to the Elias School for Girls, a boarding school.[1]

Arrowette next appears in Young Justice #4 wearing a more practical costume. Acting alone, she battles the villainous Harm and is injured by him with one of her own arrows. However, she manages to escape and contact Young Justice, later joining the team, along with the second Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark) and Secret (Greta). The three quickly become close friends.
Cissie King-Jones appears in her original Arrowette costume.

After her school therapist - one of the few adults whom Cissie trusted - is brutally murdered, Cissie tracks down the killers in a violent rage. She nearly kills one of them herself, but is stopped by Superboy. Cissie is so shaken by the incident that she vows never to be Arrowette again.

Despite leaving the team Cissie remains close friends with her teammates, and eventually reconciles with her mother, who convinces her daughter to try out for the "Summer Games" in Sydney (a thinly veiled reference to the 2000 Summer Olympics, due to DC not being an "official partner" of the Games). With her battle-honed abilities, Cissie ends up taking home the gold, and becomes something of a celebrity, guest-starring on Superboy's favorite TV show, "Wendy the Werewolf Stalker" (a parody of Buffy the Vampire Slayer). She helps the Red Tornado's daughter, Traya, adjust to life at Elias and later, when Secret was returned to humanity, Cissie helps to organize a placement for her at the same school.

Now retired from superheroics, Cissie never expresses any desire to return to her life as a superhero, despite the best efforts of several of her former teammates. They even involve her in a baseball game on an alien planet, with the fate of many innocents riding on the outcome. Cissie is enraged because they chose her instead of many other superhumans, but she participates as best as she can. Her team barely wins. Cissie still remains committed to justice and compassion. During the Imperiex war, she served as medical aid volunteer, again working with Young Justice.[1]

Cissie made a brief appearance in Teen Titans (v3) #7 when Helen Sandsmark attempts to enroll Wonder Girl into the Elias School (which seems to have expanded its student body to boys as well as girls). With Greta Hayes (formerly Secret), the girls threaten to leave the school and take Cissie's celebrity status as a gold winning archer with her, if Wonder Girl is not allowed to enroll. The school gives in to her demands. Cissie makes a second appearance in Teen Titans and Outsiders Secret Files 2005, joining Wonder Girl on a trip to San Francisco, California. Cissie wishes to give her best friend moral support as Cassie battles with the decision to tell her friends that her father was the Greek God, Zeus. At the funeral for her former YJ teammate, Bart Allen, she is mentioned in passing during a video made by Bart prior to his death. Cissie also makes a flashback cameo in Teen Titans #50.

Cissie was last seen hanging out with Cassie and Anita in Wonder Girl #2, now sporting short hair. She is seen again in "Wonder Girl #3" with Anita, as the they help Cassie realize that she has truly gotten over Superboy's death. For the first time since 'retiring' from super-hero work in the pages of Young Justice, Cissie wears a new Arrowette costume that resembles the second one to aid Wonder Girl rescue her mother in Wonder Girl #4.

Skills and abilities

Cissie is a normal human with above average strength, stamina and agility for a girl of her age. She has exceptional hand to hand combatant ability with skills as an Olympic gold-medalist longbow marksman and possesses above average intelligence.

Divine calculations and stock picking

I was watching a rerun of the movie the DaVinci code last week with all its many puzzles and calculations that they go through to get to what appears to be the truth. Well it of course made me think about how many times I had bought stocks because it just felt right at the time when the "stars of the market", kinda of the place where everything sat at that moment frozen in time, just seemed to click into alignment to make a certain purchasing decision.
Well , even though Snagglepuss told me to exit stage left, which I did, going to many cash positions, I still have been having these "feelings" about the compelling value of some of the tech stocks here the last couple of weeks. They have done a great job managing their inventories this time around in recession and could turn some earnings around to the bottom line very quickly. These companies are also are showing respectable revenue growth and have good quick ratios (%'s of assets to liabilities on the balance sheet).
So I followed my imaginary "Rose line" and it took me to AT&T Inc. (symbol T). It has a a 6.3 % dividend and plenty of cash to back it up. Current ratio is 1.6 to 1. That beats a half percent at best on sitting cash.
My second pick was to add a high tech/ higher beta tech stock to the IRA account
to add some horsepower to bring life back from the Oct-2007 to June 2009 downside debacle.
That stock is Marvel Technology (symbol MRVL). It has a lot of interesting technologies going forward. It has a 3:1 current ratio. I was lucky enough to buy it two days in front of earnings and guidance, which were good, at 14.25 and it is now up near 15.75 on the announcements. They reported the same day as Dell , so it generated some "daily tech interest".
With that I will warn you that on review in the past I have lost more money in speculative technology stocks than in any other investment category during the old"dot.com" days. These two are not speculative investments. Also other disclaimers, I do not have a series 7 license
and am not a professional investment advisor. Just a guy following my "Rose line" where it leads me.

Sincerest regards,

Freewilly

LONDON - australian crowd, broadway market, 08/29/09

LONDON - clodagh, shoreditch house, 08/28/09

Edward Gibbon; Roman Empire/US parallels; Yankee Stadium; Giant Stadium

"The Senators . . . . were obliged to provide daily entertainments at an immense expense. . . . "

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon, volume 1, p. 118. (Modern Library edition).

DareDevil

Daredevil is one of the powerful superhero characters and powerful despite the fact he's blind but he could see when she wears her costumes, and especially if it is not superhero if you can not eradicate evil on earth continue to follow this blog and get many other stories super hero .. .




By : Lupus

LONDON - soho & old street, 08/27/09

Dazzler

Dazzler (Alison Blaire) is a Marvel Comics superhero, associated with the X-Men. She first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #130 (February 1980).

A mutant with the ability to convert sound vibrations into light and energy beams, Dazzler was originally developed as a cross-promotional, multi-media creation between Casablanca Records, Filmworks, and Marvel Comics until the tie-ins were dropped in 1980. The character was created by a committee of Marvel staff, principally writer/editor Tom DeFalco and illustrator John Romita, Jr.

Despite the fact that Dazzler was originally commissioned as a disco singer, the character shifted to other musical genres, including rock and adult contemporary. She starred in a self-titled solo series in the early 1980s which lasted 42 issues, a Marvel Graphic Novel titled Dazzler: The Movie, a 4 issue limited-series co-starring Hank "The Beast" McCoy titled Beauty and The Beast, and later joined the cast of the X-Men. She was briefly a member of the spin-off group Excalibur but now has re-joined the X-Men.

A dazzler is a type of a directed-energy weapon employing intense visible light, usually generated by a laser (laser dazzler). It is a non-lethal weapon intended to cause temporary blindness or disorientation. The first reported use of laser dazzlers in combat was by the British, during the Falklands War of 1982, when they were fitted to various Royal Navy warships in order to hinder low-level Argentinian air attacks.[1][2] Blinding weapons are banned by 1995 United Nations Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons. Dazzlers are not intended to cause permanent blindness, therefore are thought to be able to skirt this regulation.

Narrowband optical filters tuned to the frequency of the laser used may provide a good defense against laser dazzlers. On the other hand, the dazzlers may employ lasers using more than one wavelength, or tunable lasers with wider range of output. Photochromic materials capable of becoming opaque under high light energy densities may provide protection as well. Non-linear optics techniques are being investigated as well; eg. vanadium-doped zinc telluride (ZnTe:V) can be used to construct electro-optic power limiters capable of selectively blocking the intense dazzler beam without affecting the weaker light from the observed scene.

Optionally they can operate in infrared when their targets are electronic sensors. Most of the contemporary systems are man-portable, and operate in either red (a semiconductor laser) or green (a DPSS laser) part of the spectrum.

Some searchlights are bright enough to cause permanent or temporary blindness and have been used to dazzle the crews of bombers during World War II. Handgun mounted lights may also be used to temporarily blind an opponent and are sometimes marketed for that purpose. In both cases the primary purpose is to illuminate the target and their use to disorient is secondary.

USS West Virginia; Clifford Olds; Ronald Endicott, Louis "Buddy" Costin; Ted Kennedy

One of the most chilling and horrifying stories I have ever read is a true story.

We all know what happened on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor. We know the story of the Arizona. We have seen photos of the Arizona Memorial. We have seen movies dedicated to the loss of the Arizona and the other ships that day. But what you may not have heard is the story of Clifford Olds and his shipmates on board the USS West Virginia. That story is told on the pages of USSWestVirginia.org. Briefly, Clifford Olds and two of his shipmates were trapped in the lower decks of the battleship West Virginia ("WeeVee") when the attack started. The West Virginia was hit by numerous Japanese torpedoes and sank quickly:

The choicest of targets, she took 9 torpedo hits December 7, 1941. Her port side was literally blasted off. The USS Oklahoma, just ahead of the WV, suffered similar wounds and immediately capsized, but BB48 was of a more advanced water-tight construction. The fast thinking of Lt. Claude Ricketts (THE hero of this ship) prevented the Battleship from turning over. Instead, she settled in the mud on an even keel. This was accomplished by closing all hatch compartments and counter-flooding the starboard side of the ship in a procedure called "set zed". Every sailor knew fate could place them in a doomed area to be drowned like rats. Old Timers would tell 17 and 18 year old "boots" that if that time came "just inhale water quickly and get it over". This, the "grizzled Ones" claimed, was preferable to a slow death in a pitch-black void. For Clifford Olds(20), Ronald Endicott(18), and Louis "Buddy" Costin(21), this would tragically come to pass. Trapped in the forward fresh water pumping station known as area A-111, their fate was sealed when "set zed" was announced after the first Japanese torpedo struck shortly before 8am. Sinking straight down rather than "turning Turtle" enabled hundreds to escape. Those in the lower compartments were drowned, but Olds, Endicott and Costin were alive and well in their air-tight compartment at the bottom of the ship. They did not know what had happened, nor the extent of the carnage above them. Above deck, the Captain was disemboweled by a bomb blast and the Arizona's explosion 50 yards aft rained "Dante's Inferno" onto the WeeVee.

Over 100 died in every way possible. BB48 sank into the Harbor amid burning oil. She burned for 30 hours. When her fires were extinguished late Monday Dec. 8, Guards were posted on the shoreline of Ford Island, next to "Battleship Row". Jittery over rumors of invasion, Sentries at first didn't hear the noise. WeeVee Marine Bugler Dick Fiske recalls: "When it was quiet you could hear it...bang, bang, then stop. Then bang, bang, pause. At first I thought it was a loose piece of rigging slapping against the hull". Then I realized men were making that sound-taking turns making noise". After that night, no one wanted guard duty, but someone had to do it. Bang, bang. It went on for 16 days, slowing in frequency until Christmas Eve. Then silence. The adjacent Oklahoma was upside down and holes were drilled in her bottom to allow a precious few to escape their coffin. The pressure of water inside the hull, pushing up on air pockets, meant as soon as the hull was breached, little time was left before remaining air escaped. Shipmates often drowned in front of rescuers eyes before a hole could be made large enough for escape. Cutting torches ignited trapped gasses and exploded, killing more. Jack-hammers jammed and men drowned while looking at a small hole of light. Knowledgeable Mates quickly learned to "rip open" hull plates fast to insure victims survival. A macabre Naval "C-section" with the same purpose.

Olds, Endicott and Costin were sitting on the harbor floor completely surrounded by water, 40 feet down. Cutting through the side of the hull for rescue was out of the question. The smallest of holes in a pressurized compartment would cause a "blow-out", something Submariners knew well. Besides, considering the destruction and carnage above, the problems of three men didn't amount to a "hill of beans" to busy Navy Brass. All Sailors know they are expendable after "set zed". Concerned Shipmates pin-pointed their banging as coming from the bow section, but could do nothing. Clifford Olds' friend Jack Miller had a sinking feeling Olds was trapped. He knew the pump station well, as Cliff would often invite him there for "bull sessions". It was so air-tight, they often closed the hatch and dared people to hear them cursing wildly inside.

Late spring 1942 found Navy salvage teams finally getting to work on the WV. An Inventive series of tremic cement patches were fitted to her port side, and enough water pumped out to partially float the once grand ship. BB48 was nudged across the Harbor into drydock and the grim task of finding bodies began. For Commander Paul Dice, compartment A-111 was expected to be like the rest: Put on gas masks, place some goo into a bodybag and let the Medical boys worry about identification. They had seen it all, but this compartment was different. Dice first noticed the interior was dry and flashlight batteries and empty ration cans littered the floor. A manhole cover to a fresh water supply was opened. Then he saw the calendar. It was 12"x14" and marked with big red Xs that ended December 23. Hardened salvage workers wept uncontrollably as they realized the fate of these men. Word quickly spread among salvage crews: Three men had lived for 16 days to suffer the most agonizing deaths among the 2800 victims at Pearl Harbor.

emphasis added

The point is, these three men lived in an airtime room for 16 days underwater, while those above could not get to them. It would take months, as recounted above, for the salvage and rescue workers to raise the ship and reach their level. Read the whole thing.

USS West Virginia with crew members trapped below in the dark


Why do I write of this now? Why not wait until the next anniversary of Pearl Harbor? Because I cannot sit still while network hagiographers wax eloquent over Ted Kennedy and Republican apologists minimize the issues as mere "philosophical differences." Ted Kennedy's most famous crime, Chappaquiddick, was not a mere "philosophical difference." After reading of the "slow death in a pitch-black void" sufferred by the three young sailors barely younger than Mary Jo Kopechne, one cannot help but wonder about the person who would willingly subject someone to this fate.

Yes, it was an accident that the car went off the bridge. But it was no accident that Kennedy refused to demand help from every home in the vicinity while there was a chance to save the woman who most likely lived in an air pocket for hours. It was no accident. It was pure political calculation. Ted Kennedy calculated his political future and his ability to avoid blame while Mary Jo Kopechne slowly suffocated in a dark cramped space.

After Pearl Harbor, we did not rest until every Japanese ship that took part in the attack was sunk and the empire of Japan lay in ruins. Millions would die before we made peace. But for Ted Kennedy after Chappaquiddick, life continued on as before. He retained his power and his freedom. He is now an icon of the leftist establishment in this country.

As Kennedy's worst actions are dismissed as mere "disagreements," we must remember what is at stake. Kennedy advocates socialist/totalitarian policies. His policies infringe on our very core freedoms. We would not mourn the passing of a third world dictator. We should not do so merely because the totalitarian happens to have been born in the United States and is supported by a well funded totalitarian movement.

Ted Kennedy's fate is between Kennedy and God. I wish him the best in that regard. But we are under no obligation to pretend that the past did not happen. We must not create an idol where evil existed. History must not change because the establishment wills it. The king cannot compel a lie.

LONDON - soho & mayfair, 08/26/09

Superheroes Have Saved the World

Over the years many superheroes have captured our attention to entertain and amuse through many forms of media, from their original comic books to the big budget film adaptations.

The Superman character first made an appearance in Action Comics in 1938, he was born on the planet Krypton, was sent to Earth on a rocket by his father, who was a scientist, moments before the planet of Krypton was destroyed. Arriving on Earth, Superman was found, and adopted by a Kansas farmer and his wife and was raised as Clark Kent. From a very early age he developed super human abilities and as he grew up he used his powers to the benefit of others on Earth. Clark Kent assumed Superman's secret identity and worked for the Metropolis newspaper the Daily Planet as a reporter where he worked closely with Lois Lane his co-worker with whom he becomes romantically attached.

Batman first appeared in Detective Comics in 1939. Batman's secret identity is Bruce Wayne who after the murder of his parents, sets himself on a mission to fight crime in Gotham City with Robin. Batman is involved in a continual fight against the Joker and other villains.

Spider-man originated in 1962 and is one of the most popular superheroes. After a bite from a spider exposed to radiation, Peter Parker gains super powers enabling him to become superhuman with the ability to cling to walls. He becomes extremely intellectually advanced with superhuman powers to fight evil.

The Hulk first appeared in 1962 and is one of Marvel Comics most famous characters. The Hulk was born after Dr Bruce Banner the physicist was inadvertently exposed to the radiation from the blast of a gamma bomb. When converted to the Hulk, Banner gains immense strength and his strength increases as his anger increases. The Hulk is often pursued by the armed forces and the police.

Iron man first appeared in 1963 and originated from Marvel Comics. Iron man was Anthony (Tony) Edward Stark who created for himself a suit of power armor which was laden with sophisticated technological devices to make him so powerful. He was involved in the fight against communism, terrorism and corporate crime.

Without these superheroes many would agree the World would not be the place it is today.

Ultimate Spider Man - The Superheroes Super Game

Flash games have started their reign on the gaming industry and nobody seems to be complaining as they have quite efficiently managed to engage the users with their rich web design and anime appeal. People love to play the Online flash games and they seem to be the next big thing after the 2D and 3D games. These days, gaming portals have incorporated the Flash player to double up the gaming experiences. The Ultimate Spider Man is the recent game which got a Flash makeover.

The Ultimate Spider Man is played on DS gaming console, hence, questions on the clarity and effect of the graphics never arise. The game has most salutary voice work and music and the graphics are mind-blowing. The presentation of the game is extremely appealing to the senses. It actually seems to be reiterating the movie with augmented essence. The recent cartoon 'The Ultimate Spider Man', rendered by CGI, looks like the source of idea of this game. The dialogues are voiced in an extremely professional manner which accounts for an engrossing play. The game coupled with exciting scores builds up the interest.

The cell-shaded polygonal backdrop gives a splendid view and appeal to the game. The well-animated sprites are the perfect mood-boosters in this game. The camera zooms at frequent intervals to give a dramatical glamour to the stunts. It's rather hard to find another game with a better 3D interface.

The viewpoint shifts from spider man to Venom and vice-versa, occasionally. The closer glimpse of the characters reveals the brilliance of the designer. Even microscopic details have been given the appropriate attention. You will never stop praising the master work as even the minute segments are as appealing as the larger ones. There is a remarkable stage in the game in which the two characters race through different parts of a museum. The levels of exhilaration mount to the peak level as the view switches back and forth at the various checkpoints.

TOKYO - harajuku, 08/23/09

In October, I'll post here the pictures I took for Vogue Nippon. In the mean time, if you feel seeing more of Tokyo, check my other blog.

Otaku Nation: Anime Effect on American Pop Culture

The modern age of Anime arrive in Japan in the 1960s, and over the course of the next decade or so boomed into the giant robot, space battle genre bender that we would soon recognize as the anime of today.

Evolving over the next 30 years or so, it reached a peak where it could begin to overtake and become an integral part of other cultures, much like the Hollywood of the 1930s quickly grew to encompass the rest of the world and inform their pop culture. In the same manner, American pop culture becomes increasingly informed by the trends and cult response to anime.

Anime first appeared in the US market in the 60s with shows like Kimba the White Lion and Astroboy. However, the national consciousness as to where these shows came from as well as the poor marketing of the shows made them forgettable and rather than a jumping in point, they act as a nostalgic reminder.

When Speed Racer arrived, the beginnings of a true consciousness that Japan was creating something new and exciting began to set in. The popularity of Speed Racer was never that of its American contemporaries, but it created in a set fanbase the willingness to devour newer offerings later on in Starblazers and Robotech (a convoluted perversion of multiple animes, but still a relative success in the states). Still, the affect was mostly underground.

In the 1980s, the introduction of Beta and VHS made it possible to join together with friends and watch more varying forms of anime. Truly it was the technological revolutions of the coming years that would make it truly possible for anime to perforate the American entertainment bubble. When Akira arrived in 1989, the effect was palpable. Receiving only a limited American screen release, few saw it in initial release, but the copying of VHS tapes and word of mouth made it something of a cult sensation. Those that knew of Akira were fans for life, eagerly awaiting their chance to partake more and more of the growing trends out of Japan.

For Japan’s part, this era was a period of major expansion, a veritable boom in the business. The 1980s saw the success of shows like Gundam and Dragon Ball overgrow the national consciousness and become runaway sensations. The explosion of the manga industry before hand, with serializations of works by Akira Toriyama and Katsuhiro Otomo in the early 80s simmered in the youth of Japan and finally seeing the commercial possibilities of these works, creating in the process a major conglomerate of companies in the Akira Committee to bring the massive budget of Akira to fruition.

By the 90s anime was the mainstream in Japan, and the result was the ramping up of production and increased output of shows. In part because of the simple, streamlined art style, multiple artist were able to work on a single project and create on episode a week for years at a time, resulting in monumental runs such as the case of Dragonball (156 episodes) and Dragonball Z (276 episodes). The ability to serialize and turn a story into something that millions of youths would tune into each and every week made companies billions (of yen) and secured the kinds of commercial sponsorships and funding necessary to undertake incredible projects that would require vast sums of money to complete.

Back in America, a few executives were beginning to see the effect these shows were having in Japan. Slowly and very carefully they began taking the most popular, Dragonball Z and Sailormoon for example and finding timeslots very early in the day, before the daily retinue of American cartoons, testing the waters of marketability. In 1995, the trickle of anime into the states was just that, a relative trickle. Sailormoon aired every morning in syndication, but chopped up and missing key seasons to relate the endings of important storylines. Dragonball Z ran an equally mild run early on Saturdays in syndication that was abruptly cut when the rights to the show were lost by the initial company and purchased by Funimation.

All the while, works from Japanese masters like Hayao Miyazaki were being overlooked, passing unnoticed through limited release in the states, while making him a God of his craft in Japan. All the while companies like Manga, Funimation, and Viz were buying up licenses and releasing little known, untraceable shows that no one knew the origin of. The shows were treated poorly, often dubbed and cut up to match American audiences. Viz even launched the first Anime magazine in 1993 with Animerica, primarily reviewing their own products but still giving a view of the culture that no one knew anything about.

But, in 1995, the release of the shows in America along with the premiere and rave reviews of Neon Genesis Evangelion in Japan, Otaku interest abroad began to spike. Otaku is a bid of a misnomer as it’s a bit of an insult in Japan, a mean spirited way to call someone a nerd. Here though, it generally means a purveyor of Japanese pop-culture and with the Otaku so in style right now it’s less of an insult than a clique. The import and fan subbing of shows began in earnest via VHS editing software that few if anyone had access to. The early 90s was a time of massive growth of interest in the little known import of Anime though, and the American marketplace wasn’t slow to react.

In 1997, television networks made broad sweeping moves to bring shows to the mainstream. The Sci-Fi channel had always had a small niche in its latenight line up for cult classics like Vampire Hunter D, but Warner Bros finally brought the genre to primetime. Funimation finally got their licensing figured out and Dragonball Z saw its triumphant return to the Cartoon Network, with new episodes to follow a year and a half later. And in 1998, a little known video game for the Gameboy exploded in the American market, bringing along with it its entire arsenal of marketing ploys, including the overwhelmingly childish, but enormously popular Pokemon anime. Finally, children across the nation were gluing themselves to the television set as earnestly as their Japanese counterparts had for nearly a decade before hand.

Miyazaki’s new film played to better reception, receiving a proper release via Miramax. Princess Mononoke was a success in the terms of the time, even receiving the coveted two thumbs up (let alone a review at all) from Siskel and Ebert. Films began to arrive in America more liberally, still finding limited release, but release at least. And the shows began to pour in. At the time, the fansub scene was more or less the only way to get access to some of the more obscure titles being released in Japan. But as the market boomed, so did the licensing by major companies, and it actually started to become illegal to fansub certain shows because they might be released by a company eventually.

Thus began the final and full assimilation of Japanese pop culture into American. The DVD format sped up the process, as more episodes of a show could be packed into a disc than a VHS and production costs plummeted, removing a lot of the financial risk of an untested foreign product in the American marketplace. Cartoon Network debuted its Toonami afternoon cartoon slot, in which they featured anime that had been around for a little while, but managed to appeal to a much larger demographic and spread the word about these great story driven cartoons from across the ocean. An entire generation grew into the growing popularity and became entranced by the epic storylines, amazing storytelling and ability to show in a cartoon what many considered adult themes and much more mature perspectives on things like competition and personal success. The Japanese ability to cross genre and the extremely high production values that started to go into shows made in the late 90s and beyond meant amazing shows that appealed not just to children but to adults and beyond.

What started as a crossover, slowly began to actually change the way in which American’s marketed their television to children. Shows with more adult content appeared, and in some cases emulated the Japanese format. The writers at Pixar crafted brilliant, more maturely themed cartoons without the silly musicals of Disney past, and Disney even dissolved their tried format in favor of more mature, complete stories. The devolution of American quality in cartoons though as they attempted to match the output meant even more Japanese entries in the market. Now, if you turn on Fox kids in the morning you’ll find over half of the shows on are animes. And Cartoon Network still presents multiple entries themselves, with more mature offerings in their Adult Swim block late at night. Spirited Away won the Oscar for best animation in 2003 and South Park, the quintessential American barometer of cultural trends at first knocked the trend with their Chinpokemon episode, later to embrace it (while still mocking it) via changing their own art style in the Weapons episode just a couple years ago.

Nowadays, you’ll find anime oriented t-shirts everywhere, an entire aisle devoted to DVD releases in Best Buy (compared to the one row only seven years ago) and the success of the Anime Network, a channel solely devoted to Anime programming. Magazines like Newtype, a Japanese trade magazine for the Anime industry is now translated and released in America every month with previews of new shows, and American directors like James Cameron are looking to direct live action versions of manga like Battle Angel Alita.

Now, we see new releases from Japan within six months, and the fansub community has to scramble to keep up with what’s legal and what’s not legal to offer via their online services. The internet itself has made it a huge community, where a show can be recorded on Japanese television, ripped and subbed, then uploaded within a couple hours for the world to view. There’s no lay over, and new shows are immediately available. And it’s evident in the universities too. Japanese is one of the most sought after languages, filling up immediately with a yard long waiting list every year, and more sections being added every year.

Japanese pop culture managed to tap a certain perspective that American counterparts were unable to do themselves and in so doing, cornered and grew in a market that few thought existed in America.