Anime Glossary

Just a few quick terms and definitions which you might find helpful...

Animé: (prounced ah-ni-may) The Japanese word for animation. Used by Western fans to refer to animation produced in Japan.
Aniparo: ANIme PAROdy, a popular manga genre in which anime characters are used in humourous stories or skits.
BGM: BackGround Music --- the music from an anime soundtrack. Soundtrack CDs are popular merchandise items.
Bishojo/Bishonen: Japanese for beautiful girl/boy.
CB: short for Child Body, prefix indicating a 'squashed' (and usually considerably more manic) version of an anime character.
-chan: suffix meaning 'darling' or 'little one', a term of affection usually reserved for romantic partners, young female friends, children or small animals.
Chara: Short for CHARActer.
Chibi: Japanese for small. See CB.
Cosplay: (short for 'Costume Play') The practise of dressing up as one's favourite anime or manga character. A popular event at anime conventions.
Dojinshi: Japanese for fanzine. Manga produced by fans, can be based on existing manga or anime titles or original ideas.
Ecchi or Etchi: (from the Japanese pronunciation of 'H', the initial letter of Hentai). Bawdy, humorously indecent, typically involving gratuitous nudity or sexual innuendo. Milder than hentai.
Garage Kit: Model kit produced by fans at home in small quantities.
Gekiga: Japanese for graphic novel.
Hentai: Japanese for 'pervert', refers to pornographic material.
Hiragana: One of the three Japanese scripts, a cursive phonetic alphabet consisting of 46 basic syllables and variations on these. Any Japanese word usually written in kanji can also be written and understood in hiragana. The first script learned by children.
Idol: A cute, young, manufactured starlet. Both live performers and anime characters can be idols.
Kanji: The Chinese characters which make up the bulk of the Japanese written language. About 2000 pictograms are required for everyday communication. Readings of individual kanji can vary enormously by context.
Katakana: A more angular form of the hiragana syllabary, generally used to write foreign words.
Kawaii: Japanese for 'cute'. Cuteness is a highly important characteristic in many anime
Manga: Strictly speaking, Japanese for 'cartoon', can refer either to the print medium or animation. However, mostly used to refer to printed comics. The loanword komikksu is also used.
Mecha: Short for MECHAnical, any kind of technology from a gun to a vehicle to a giant robot.
Mobile Suit: A human-piloted robotic fighting machine; powered armour. Sometimes abbreviated to MS.
Mook: Magazine/bOOK, the glossy large-format softback books often used to showcase anime artwork.
OAV/OVA: Original Animation Video/Original Video Animation; work made specially for release to video, rather than TV or cinema.
OST: Original Sound Track; the background music of an anime production, including all songs.
Otaku: Japanese word denoting an obsessive fan of anything, in the sense of being narrow and anti-social. Sometimes used in the West without derogatory connoitations to refer to a dedicated fan of anime or manga.
SD: Super Deformed, another form of CB or -chan, but more mischievous.
Seiyuu: Japanese term for voice actor or actress.
Sensei: Japanese for 'teacher' or 'master', used alone or as a suffix to the subject's surname.
Settei: Preparatory line artwork used by animators as as a design reference at the beginning of a project.
Shojo: Japanese for girl. Shojo manga are drawn in a very flowery, pretty, romantic style and deal with mainly romantic or emotional subjects.
Side story: A story set in the same universe as a major title, but focussing on minor characters or introducing new ones, showing another 'side' of the story.
Yaoi: from the phrase 'yama-nashi, ochi-nashi, imi-nashi', meaning 'no climax, no punchline, no meaning', playful stories of a nonsensical sort, often taking male characters from popular animation series and depicting them in gay relationships.