Japanese Gothic Dresses (& other related frillies) Gallery - Page 14
Outside of Japan, the Gothic Japanese fashion is still a fringe fashion, but it has slowly begun to spread to other countries. This costume style, along with cosplay and other Japanese cultural phenomena, can sometimes be seen at concerts and anime conventions throughout Europe, Australia and the United States, although certain individuals truly committed to the fashion will confirm that it is not a fancy dress costume, rather, a way of life. The style has not yet been mass marketed outside of Japan. Major brands, such as Metamorphose, Baby, The Stars Shine Bright and Funhouse, have recognized the international recognition of Japan's Gothic fashion, and have begun to ship goods to the international market. This is still not very widespread, as many of the clothes produced by Western designers are not accepted by the sissy-goth style community, for being too related to the western goth or french maid look, and not as high quality as the expensive Japanese brand clothes.
What is anime? (ah-nee-may, is one way to romanize the pronunciation)
Anime, as defined by common fan usage, is simply any animation that is made in Japan for a Japanese audience. In Japan the word simply means any animation made anywhere in the world. Commercial anime dates back to 1917. Modern anime dates from the 1960s with the work of Osamu Tezuka, best known in the U.S. for "Astro Boy", Tetsuwan Atom in the original Japanese. Incidentally he never made much of a profit from his anime, he funded many of his anime productions from his income from writing and drawing manga.
While anime is sometimes erroneously referred to as a "genre" it is in reality a medium that includes any genre that can be found in cinema or literature. The evaluation of anime titles for a library collection should be done with all the care that goes into evaluating movies or novels, even more so since it is often hard to get good reviews of anime to aid the selection process.
In Japan, anime is released in three ways:
1. TV shows - often later re-released on video.
2. Movies - often later re-released on video.
3. OVA - Original Video Animation.
These are anime released directly to video. This method of release allows companies to target specialized audiences in a way that is not financially or socially possible with TV or movie releases. Sometime you will see this spelled OAV in English works.
Today there is a growing number of anime fan clubs spreading awareness of anime, more TV networks airing anime, even anime only cable channels, and more non-Japanese companies are distributing re-dubbed and subtitled anime in the U.S. and around the world.