Microsoft's Bing today took the wraps off a new feature called Linked Pages, which offers a new way for you to influence search results on the site when someone searches for your name. Linked Pages allows you to pick exactly which Internet links are most relevant or preferred when one of your friends performs a search for your name. The process requires that you first go to the Linked Pages site and then log in with your Facebook credentials. After that, you need to grant Bing permission to post to Facebook, and when you return to Bing, you can start curating the links to your name.
The Bing team offered some explanation for the new feature on its website. "There are probably many 'John Smith's' out there, but when John Smith's friends are looking for him, they want to find their friend John and information about him," Microsoft said. "By having more control over how you show up in Bing through linking related pages to your search results, now you can help your friends find the interesting stuff that you want them to see."
This latest development is an expansion of Bing's social search initiative with Facebook. That started last year when the search engine began allowing users to have their profile icons show up next to search results that they "liked" through their Facebook account.
And while the new Linked Pages feature may come as good news for heavy users of Facebook, some Bing users complained in the comments about it being so Facebook-centric. Commentor Gavin Greig said, "Why on earth is functionality for linking together different online presences tied to one particular one (Facebook)? Means it's completely useless for those of us who do have multiple online presences, but object to Facebook."
Others will likely see this move as a competitive response to Google's recent shift toward displaying Google+ pages in its search results. And an even more interesting scenario is one where Microsoft eventually decouples from its Facebook relationship and uses the Bing Linked Pages data to help populate its own social network called Socl, which Microsoft still refers to as a "research experiment."
Of course the biggest gripe likely to emerge as the feature comes into heavy use is the fact that others can link your name to results that you haven't authorized. According to Bing's explanation, you can easily un-link such results: "You have full control over what results you're linked in. Simply follow the link notification from Facebook or go to bing.com/linkedpages to remove links you added or links your friends added about you."
But this process would involve keeping a very close eye on your notifications, a daunting task if you have a lot of Facebook friends suddenly linking you on Bing. It seems like a better solution might be to first require link authorization from the friend you want to link on Bing.
J.K. Rowling ’s got a new book coming and this one is for grown ups.
Little, Brown and Company announced today that it had acquired the rights to Rowling's new book, a novel for adults. The publisher didn't reveal a title, subject or publication date, promising more information later this year.
It will be her first book since the Potter spinoff Tales of the Beedle Bard appeared in 2008, less than a year after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book in the series, was published in July 2007.
Rowling released a statement saying, "Although I've enjoyed writing it every bit as much, my next book will be very different to the Harry Potter series." She added, "The freedom to explore new territory is a gift that Harry’s success has brought me, and with that new territory it seemed a logical progression to have a new publisher. I am delighted to have a second publishing home in Little, Brown, and a publishing team that will be a great partner in this new phase of my writing life.”
Little, Brown is a new home for Rowling. The Harry Potter series was published by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom and Scholastic in the United States.
The first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, appeared in the United Kingdom in 1997 and in the U.S. (with the title changed to the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) in 1998. It quickly became one of the most popular children's series of all time. Rowling wrote six more Harry Potter novels over the next ten years. Harry Potter is credited with reviving a generation (or two) of children's interest in reading. The series has been translated into seventy languages and sold more than 400 million copies.
The books were adapted into a successful movie series. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2, the final film in the series, was released in July. It is the highest-grossing film franchise of all time, with a total box office of more than $7.7 billion.
Forbes estimates that the Harry Potter brand is worth at least $15 billion and has made Rowling the first billionaire author in history.
Rowling is represented by Neil Blair of The Blair Partnership. David Shelley, Publisher, Little, Brown Book Group, will be her editor and will be responsible for publication in the United Kingdom. Michael Pietsch, Executive Vice President of Little, Brown and Company, will be responsible for publication in the United States.
Simon Cowell revealed yesterday that he intends to replace former X Factor host Steve Jones with a pair of co-hosts when the show returns later this year. "What we learned is that because you have so much information to deliver, it's almost impossible for one person," says Cowell. "It's [a] more fun way to do it with two people. It's a different chemistry. I've always wanted a boy and a girl and that will definitely happen."
Cowell also told journalists that he has some plans to pay tribute to Whitney Houston on the show. "I've got a feeling we're going to see a Whitney tribute on The Voice and Idol before us," he said, noting that he intends to do something a bit different. "We're going to continue to pay tribute to Whitney. Her songs literally are timeless. Whether we find anyone as good as her, that's a whole different ball game."
L.A. Reid, the only remaining judge on the show aside from Cowell, addressed reports that Houston had been approached to join the panel in season two. "We loved Whitney and we would certainly have considered her, but it never came to that," said Reid. "There was interest, but we really didn't get that far."
CULVER CITY -- YouTube is enlisting Hollywood's help to reach a generation of viewers more familiar with smartphones than TV remotes.
The online video giant is aiming to create 25 hours of programming per day with the help of some of the top names in traditional TV. The Google (GOOG)-owned site is spreading its wealth among producers, directors, and other filmmakers, using a $100 million pot of seed money it committed last fall. The fund represents YouTube's largest spending on original content so far.
YouTube believes it is laying groundwork for the future. While the number of traditional TV watchers has leveled off in recent years, more and more people are watching video on mobile phones, tablets and computers, especially the 18- to 34-year-old age demographic that advertisers covet.
The idea is to create 96 additional YouTube channels, which are essentially artists' home pages, where viewers can see existing video clips and click "subscribe" to be notified when new content goes up.
Well-funded videos by a select roster of stars are likely to be more watchable than the average YouTube fare of cute cats and webcam monologues. YouTube is betting that a solid stream of good content will attract more revenue from advertisers, bring viewers back frequently and bolster its parent company's fledgling Web-connected-TV platform, Google TV.
The cash has enticed some of TV's biggest stars, including "Fast Five" director Justin Lin, who directs episodes of "Community," "CSI" creator Anthony Zuiker and Nancy Tellem, the former president of CBS entertainment.
Zuiker is teaming up on a horror series for YouTube after observing his own family's behavior. His three pre-teen sons spend more time on phones, iPads and computers than watching TV these days.
"We want to jointly take the risk with YouTube and roll the dice on the future," Zuiker says. "The old regime is going to falter because everybody thinks the TV is the only device that really counts, and that's just not the case."
For producers, it's a chance to create shows that are completely free of meddling from major studios. They can also stay relevant with a younger crowd whose viewing is moving increasingly online.
Several new channels such as the extreme sports-focused Network A and Spanish-language Tutele have launched already. YouTube hopes to have them all up and running by this summer.
"This was really about galvanizing the ecosystem at large," says Alex Carloss, global head of original programming for YouTube. "We see the portfolio (of funded channels) really representing the best of TV meeting the best of the Web."
YouTube isn't the only Web video service that has started to pay for original content. Netflix Inc. (NFLX) recently launched the original series "Lilyhammer," while Hulu premiered "Battleground." But YouTube videos tend to be under 10 minutes, instead of fitting into traditional half-hour or hour-long TV slots. And aside from a few guidelines, ultimate control is given over to the artist, including what is uploaded and when new episodes appear.
YouTubers also get away with far
edgier stuff than the middle finger that rapper M.I.A. flashed during the Super Bowl halftime show.
Although YouTube's entire investment is less than half of what some studios spend on one blockbuster movie, about a third of the new channels were awarded to scrappy YouTube veterans who already know how to make it big online while keeping production costs low.
YouTube expects to recoup what it spends on the grants by sharing ad revenue the new videos generate.
At Maker Studios, which received money for three new channels, the funds have turbo-charged an already teeming operation that has about 160 full-time staff spread across several buildings crammed with props and computers in the west Los Angeles suburb of Culver City.
On a recent visit, two scenes were being shot in an alley. One was for a parody of a Christmas movie trailer. The other was for a new series about a crime-fighting van called "Si, Es I, Pepe."
Maker cranks out about 300 YouTube videos each month at a bare-bones cost of about $1,000 each.
The studio's videos generate a whopping 500 million views each month, thanks largely to established hits that include Ray William Johnson's roundup of crazy videos and such viral giants as "Epic Rap Battles of History."
Advertisers pay up to $10 per thousand views for video ads that precede the featured content, according to TubeMogul, a major buyer of YouTube ads for the nation's biggest advertisers including Proctor & Gamble Co. and News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox movie studio.
Established YouTube partners share roughly half of their revenue with the site. So if Maker videos generate $1 or $2 in ad revenue per thousand views, it would just be scraping by.
Maker co-founder Danny Zappin, who quit film school to buy a high-end camera to start a career on YouTube, says it's a "tricky balance" to keep the studio's share of ad revenue higher than the cost of video-making. The undisclosed amount it got from YouTube, on top of the $1.5 million venture capital it received about a year ago, lets Maker put up more videos without waiting for the views and cash to roll in.
"It gives us resources and runway that we wouldn't otherwise have," Zappin said.
For other less-established players in online video, the money has given them an added reason to get involved.
Former CBS executive Tellem teamed up with TV entrepreneur Brian Bedol to create Bedrocket Media Ventures, an upstart production company behind several new YouTube channels, including Network A. The funding "allowed us, or caused us, to focus on YouTube ahead of other platforms," Bedol says.
Analysts believe YouTube has made a wise investment at a time ad rates for online video are rising.
YouTube can be successful with just a few big hits -- think of Rebecca Black's "Friday" -- even if thousands of videos fall flat. It's similar to the hit-or-miss approach to traditional TV and movies.
"The investor community does not look at this as money wasted," Macquarie analyst Ben Schachter says.
Since promising to share ad revenue with its most popular uploaders in 2007, YouTube has invested in original content mainly by paying for equipment and training new artists, but it was never as big as this.
Backing up its new strategy, YouTube also revamped its homepage to prioritize channels and recommendations above just the most-viewed videos. The revamp allows advertisers to target popular channels or categories of content more easily.
YouTube's funding plan takes a page from Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) playbook. When the iPhone maker launched its App Store in 2008, a $100 million seed fund created by Silicon Valley investor John Doerr spawned hundreds of thousands of new apps.
"Our developers are not software engineers," YouTube's vice president of global content partnerships, Robert Kyncl, told a convention in January. "Our developers are Hollywood stars, are online stars, are regular folks like you and I."
If nothing else, the injection of funds will spawn content never before been seen on any screen, large or small.
"Fast Five" director Lin, who is teaming up with YouTube stars Ryan Higa and Kevin "KevJumba" Wu on the "YOMYOMF" channel, said his focus is not to try to find audiences with stereotypical Asian-American content. Rather, the idea is to give a platform to people who have unique voices but haven't been heard yet.
He says Higa and Wu didn't follow any set rules when they jumped to popularity with a mix of oddball humor, brutal honesty and rap.
"They just did what they loved, and people came," Lin said. "If we're going to fail, I would rather go out with that philosophy."
BRUSSELS/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp has asked EU antitrust regulators to intervene in a patent dispute with Google Inc and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc as it stepped up its battle against Google.
Microsoft complained that Motorola Mobility was charging Microsoft too much for use of its patents in Microsoft products a week after the European Commission -- the EU's executive arm -- and the U.S. Justice Department approved Internet search leader Google's $12.5 billion acquisition of mobile phone-maker Motorola.
Google had pledged to license Motorola patents on fair and reasonable terms if the deal were allowed to go ahead in the week before EU approval for the deal, which is still being reviewed by China's regulators.
But Microsoft argued that "Motorola has refused to make its patents available at anything remotely close to a reasonable price" in a blog posted by its deputy general counsel Dave Heiner on Wednesday.
As a result Heiner said Microsoft had filed a formal competition law complaint against Motorola Mobility and Google.
"We have taken this step because Motorola is attempting to block sales of Windows PCs, our Xbox game console and other products," he said in the blog.
Heiner had initially named just Motorola Mobility in the blog post but in an update said the complaint also included Google.
Heiner said Motorola had filed lawsuits in the United States and in Europe demanding Microsoft take its products off the market, or else remove their standards-based ability to play video and connect wirelessly.
"Motorola is on a path to use standard essential patents to kill video on the Web, and Google, as its new owner, does not seem to be willing to change course," Heiner said.
Antoine Colombani, a spokesman for competition affairs at the EU Commission, said the regulator has received the complaint and will examine it.
Neither Motorola nor Google commented on the specific allegations. Motorola Mobility spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson said Motorola had not received a copy of the complaint but was "committed to vigorously defending its intellectual property."
Google dismissed the complaint as "just another example of their attempts to use the regulatory process to attack competitors." It did not give other examples in an emailed statement from a spokeswoman.
Apple Inc has also complained to the EU Commission about Motorola Mobility's patent charges, Motorola Mobility said in a regulatory filing last week.
EXCESSIVE CHARGES?
Microsoft said that Motorola asked it to pay a royalty of $22.50 for a laptop computer worth $1,000 for its use of 50 Motorola patents that apply to a video technology standard.
This compares with a 2 cent royalty charged by a group of 29 companies that offer the use of more than 2,300 patents for products following the same video standard, according to Microsoft.
Motorola Mobility makes cellphones and television set-top boxes and does not compete in the market for game consoles and computer operating systems.
The Microsoft complaint follows a Cisco Systems Inc appeal of the EU approval of Microsoft's own purchase of Internet communications provider Skype.
EU regulators are also investigating whether Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has infringed EU antitrust rules in its patent disputes with Apple in courts across Europe.
This was Microsoft's second complaint with EU antitrust regulators involving Google. Last March, it accused the company of systematically thwarting rivals.
Microsoft was the target of antitrust action for two decades in Europe and the United States. EU regulators imposed fines of more than a billion euros on the company for breaching EU antitrust rules.
Anime is commonly defined as animation originating in Japan. (アニメ?, an abbreviated pronunciation in Japanese of "animation", pronounced [anime] ( listen) in Japanese, but typically /ˈænɨmeɪ/ ( listen) or /ˈænɨmə/ in English.) The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, anime is also referred to as "Japanese animation".
While the earliest known Japanese animation dates to 1917, and many original Japanese cartoons were produced in the ensuing decades, the characteristic anime style developed in the 1960s—notably with the work of Osamu Tezuka—and became known outside Japan in the 1980s.
Anime, like manga, has a large audience in Japan and recognition throughout the world. Distributors can release anime via television broadcasts, directly to video, or theatrically, as well as online.
Both hand-drawn and computer-animated anime exist. It is used in television series, films, video, video games, commercials, and internet-based releases, and represents most, if not all, genres of fiction. Anime gained early[when?] popularity in East and Southeast Asia and also attained popularity in various communities throughout the world.
History
Anime began at the start of the 20th century, when Japanese filmmakers experimented with the animation techniques also pioneered in France, Germany, the United States, and Russia. The oldest known anime in existence first screened in 1917 – a two-minute clip of a samurai trying to test a new sword on his target, only to suffer defeat. Early pioneers included Shimokawa Oten, Jun'ichi Kouchi, and Seitarō Kitayama.
By the 1930s animation became an alternative format of storytelling to the live-action industry in Japan. But it suffered competition from foreign producers and many animators, such as Noburō Ōfuji and Yasuji Murata still worked in cheaper cutout not cel animation, although with masterful results. Other creators, such as Kenzō Masaoka and Mitsuyo Seo, nonetheless made great strides in animation technique, especially with increasing help from a government using animation in education and propaganda. The first talkie anime was Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka, produced by Masaoka in 1933. The first feature length animated film was Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors directed by Seo in 1945 with sponsorship by the Imperial Japanese Navy.
The success of The Walt Disney Company's 1937 feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs influenced Japanese animators. In the 1960s, manga artist and animator Osamu Tezuka adapted and simplified many Disney animation-techniques to reduce costs and to limit the number of frames in productions. He intended this as a temporary measure to allow him to produce material on a tight schedule with inexperienced animation-staff.
The 1970s saw a surge of growth in the popularity of manga – many of them later animated. The work of Osamu Tezuka drew particular attention: he has been called a "legend" and the "god of manga". His work – and that of other pioneers in the field – inspired characteristics and genres that remain fundamental elements of anime today. The giant robot genre (known as "Mecha" outside Japan), for instance, took shape under Tezuka, developed into the Super Robot genre under Go Nagai and others, and was revolutionized at the end of the decade by Yoshiyuki Tomino who developed the Real Robot genre. Robot anime like the Gundam and The Super Dimension Fortress Macross series became instant classics in the 1980s, and the robot genre of anime is still one of the most common in Japan and worldwide today. In the 1980s, anime became more accepted in the mainstream in Japan (although less than manga), and experienced a boom in production. Following a few successful adaptations of anime in overseas markets in the 1980s, anime gained increased acceptance in those markets in the 1990s and even more at the turn of the 21st century.
Terminology
Japanese write the English term "animation" in katakana as アニメーション (animēshon, pronounced [animeːɕoɴ]), and the term アニメ (anime, pronounced [anime] ( listen) in Japanese) emerged in the 1970s as an abbreviation.[17] Others claim that the word derives from the French phrase dessin animé. Japanese-speakers use both the original and abbreviated forms interchangeably, but the shorter form occurs more commonly.
The pronunciation of anime in Japanese, [anime], differs significantly from the Standard English /ˈænɪmeɪ/, which has different vowels and stress. (In Japanese each mora carries equal stress.) As with a few other Japanese words such as saké, Pokémon, and Kobo Abé, English-language texts sometimes spell anime as animé (as in French), with an acute accent over the final e, to cue the reader to pronounce the letter, not to leave it silent as English orthography might suggest.
Word usage
In Japan, the term anime does not specify an animation's nation of origin or style; instead, it serves as a blanket term to refer to all forms of animation from around the world.[18][19] English-language dictionaries define anime as "a Japanese style of motion-picture animation" or as "a style of animation developed in Japan".
Non-Japanese works that borrow stylization from anime are commonly referred to as "anime-influenced animation" but it is not unusual for a viewer who does not know the country of origin of such material to refer to it as simply "anime". Some works result from co-productions with non-Japanese companies, such as most of the traditionally animated Rankin/Bass works, the Cartoon Network and Production I.G series IGPX or Ōban Star-Racers; different viewers may or may not consider these anime.
In the UK, many video shops will classify all adult-oriented animated videos in the "Anime" section for convenience, regardless of whether they show any stylistic similarities to Japanese animation. No evidence suggests that this has led to any change in the use of the word.[citation needed]
In English, anime, when used as a common noun, normally functions as a mass noun (for example: "Do you watch anime?", "How much anime have you collected?"). However, in casual usage the word also appears as a count noun. Anime can also be used as a suppletive adjective or classifier noun ("The anime Guyver is different from the movie Guyver").
Synonyms
English-speakers occasionally refer to anime as "Japanimation", but this term has fallen into disuse. "Japanimation" saw the most usage during the 1970s and 1980s, but the term "anime" supplanted it in the mid-1990s as the material became more widely known in English-speaking countries. In general, the term now only appears in nostalgic contexts. Since "anime" does not identify the country of origin in Japanese usage, "Japanimation" is used to distinguish Japanese work from that of the rest of the world.
In Japan, "manga" can refer to both animation and comics. Among English speakers, "manga" has the stricter meaning of "Japanese comics", in parallel to the usage of "anime" in and outside of Japan. The term "ani-manga" is used to describe comics produced from animation cels.
Visual characteristics
Many commentators refer to anime as an art form. As a visual medium, it can emphasize visual styles. The styles can vary from artist to artist or from studio to studio. Some titles make extensive use of common stylization: FLCL, for example, has a reputation for wild, exaggerated stylization. Other titles use different methods: Only Yesterday or Jin-Roh take much more realistic approaches, featuring few stylistic exaggerations; Pokémon uses drawings which specifically do not distinguish the nationality of characters.
While different titles and different artists have their own artistic styles, many stylistic elements have become so common that people [who?] describe them as definitive of anime in general. However, this does not mean that all modern anime share one strict, common art-style. Many anime have a very different art style from what would commonly be called "anime style", yet fans still use the word "anime" to refer to these titles. Generally, the most common form of anime drawings include "exaggerated physical features such as large eyes, big hair and elongated limbs... and dramatically shaped speech bubbles, speed lines and onomatopoeic, exclamatory typography."
The influences of Japanese calligraphy and Japanese painting also characterize linear qualities of the anime style. The round ink brush traditionally used for writing kanji and for painting, produces a stroke of widely varying thickness.
Anime also tends to borrow many elements from manga, including text in the background and panel layouts. For example, an opening may employ manga panels to tell the story, or to dramatize a point for humorous effect. See for example the anime Kare Kano.
Character design
Proportions
Body proportions emulated in anime come from proportions of the human body. The height of the head is considered by the artist as the base unit of proportion. Head heights can vary as long as the remainder of the body remains proportional. Most anime characters are about seven to eight heads tall, and extreme heights are set around nine heads tall.
Variations to proportion can be modded by the artist. Super-deformed characters feature a non-proportionally small body compared to the head. Sometimes specific body parts, like legs, are shortened or elongated for added emphasis. Most super deformed characters are two to four heads tall. Some anime works like Crayon Shin-chan completely disregard these proportions, such that they resemble Western cartoons. For exaggeration, certain body features are increased in proportion.
Eye styles
Many anime and manga characters feature large eyes. Osamu Tezuka, who is believed to have been the first to use this technique, was inspired by the exaggerated features of American cartoon characters such as Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse, and Disney's Bambi. Tezuka found that large eyes style allowed his characters to show emotions distinctly. When Tezuka began drawing Ribbon no Kishi, the first manga specifically targeted at young girls, Tezuka further exaggerated the size of the characters' eyes. Indeed, through Ribbon no Kishi, Tezuka set a stylistic template that later shōjo artists tended to follow.
Coloring is added to give eyes, particularly to the cornea, some depth. The depth is accomplished by applying variable color shading. Generally, a mixture of a light shade, the tone color, and a dark shade is used. Cultural anthropologist Matt Thorn argues that Japanese animators and audiences do not perceive such stylized eyes as inherently more or less foreign.
However, not all anime have large eyes. For example, some of the work of Hayao Miyazaki and Toshiro Kawamoto are known for having realistically proportioned eyes, as well as realistic hair colors on their characters. In addition many other productions also have been known to use smaller eyes. This design tends to have more resemblance to traditional Japanese art. Some characters have even smaller eyes, where simple black dots are used. However, many western audiences associate anime with large detailed eyes.
Facial expressions
Anime characters may employ a variety of predetermined facial expressions to denote moods and thoughts. These techniques are often different in form than their counterparts in western animation, and they include a fixed iconography that's used as shorthand for certain emotions and moods.
There are a number of other stylistic elements that are common to conventional anime as well but more often used in comedies. Characters that are shocked or surprised will perform a "face fault", in which they display an extremely exaggerated expression. Angry characters may exhibit a "vein" or "stress mark" effect, where lines representing bulging veins will appear on their forehead. Angry women will sometimes summon a mallet from nowhere and strike another character with it, mainly for the sake of slapstick comedy. Male characters will develop a bloody nose around their female love interests (typically to indicate arousal, which is a play on an old wives' tale). Embarrassed or stressed characters either produce a massive sweat-drop (which has become one of the most widely recognized motifs of conventional anime) or produce a visibly red blush or set of parallel (sometimes squiggly) lines beneath the eyes, especially as a manifestation of repressed romantic feelings. Characters who want to childishly taunt someone may pull an akanbe face (by pulling an eyelid down with a finger to expose the red underside). Characters may also have large "X" eyes to show a knockout, or in some cases, even illness. This is typically used for comedic purposes.
Animation technique
Like all animation, the production processes of storyboarding, voice acting, character design, cel production and so on still apply. With improvements in computer technology, computer animation increased the efficiency of the whole production process.
Anime is often considered a form of limited animation. That means that stylistically, even in bigger productions the conventions of limited animation are used to fool the eye into thinking there is more movement than there is. Many of the techniques used are comprised with cost-cutting measures while working under a set budget.
Anime scenes place emphasis on achieving three-dimensional views. Backgrounds depict the scenes' atmosphere. For example, anime often puts emphasis on changing seasons, as can be seen in numerous anime, such as Tenchi Muyo!. Sometimes actual settings have been duplicated into an anime. The backgrounds for the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya are based on various locations within the suburb of Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan.
Camera angles, camera movement, and lighting play an important role in scenes. Directors often have the discretion of determining viewing angles for scenes, particularly regarding backgrounds. In addition, camera angles show perspective. Directors can also choose camera effects within cinematography, such as panning, zooming, facial closeup, and panoramic.
The large majority of anime uses traditional animation, which better allows for division of labor, pose to pose approach and checking of drawings before they are shot – practices favored by the anime industry. Other mediums are mostly limited to independently made short films, examples of which are the silhouette and other cutout animation of Noburō Ōfuji, the stop motion puppet animation of Tadahito Mochinaga, Kihachirō Kawamoto and Tomoyasu Murata and the computer animation of Satoshi Tomioka (most famously Usavich).
Distribution
While anime had entered markets beyond Japan in the 1960s, it grew as a major cultural export during its market expansion during the 1980s and 1990s. The anime market for the United States alone is "worth approximately $4.35 billion, according to the Japan External Trade Organization". Anime has also had commercial success in Asia, Europe and Latin America, where anime has become more mainstream than in the United States. For example, the Saint Seiya video game was released in Europe due to the popularity of the show even years after the series has been off-air.
Anime distribution companies handled the licensing and distribution of anime outside Japan. Licensed anime is modified by distributors through dubbing into the language of the country and adding language subtitles to the Japanese language track. Using a similar global distribution pattern as Hollywood, the world is divided into five regions.
Some editing of cultural references may occur to better follow the references of the non-Japanese culture. Certain companies may remove any objectionable content, complying with domestic law. This editing process was far more prevalent in the past (e.g. Voltron), but its use has declined because of the demand for anime in its original form. This "light touch" approach to localization has favored viewers formerly unfamiliar with anime. The use of such methods is evident by the success of Naruto and Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block, both of which employ minor edits.[citation needed] Robotech and Star Blazers were the earliest attempts to present anime (albeit still modified) to North American television audiences without harsh censoring for violence and mature themes.
With the advent of DVD, it became possible to include multiple language tracks into a simple product. This was not the case with VHS cassette, in which separate VHS media were used and with each VHS cassette priced the same as a single DVD. The "light touch" approach also applies to DVD releases as they often include both the dubbed audio and the original Japanese audio with subtitles, typically unedited. Anime edited for television is usually released on DVD "uncut", with all scenes intact.
Some fans add subtitles to anime on their own and distribute the episodes. These are known as fansubs. Often, people will collect these fansubs and upload them to websites which they also put advertisements on so as to earn money, which violates copyright laws in many countries. The ethical implications of distributing or watching fansubs are topics of much controversy even when fansub groups do not profit from their activities. Once the series has been licensed outside of Japan, fansub groups often cease distribution of their work. In one case, Media Factory Incorporated requested that no fansubs of their material be made, which was respected by the fansub community. In another instance, Bandai specifically thanked fansubbers for their role in helping to make The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya popular in the English speaking world.
The Internet has played a significant role in the exposure of anime beyond Japan. Prior to the 1990s, anime had limited exposure beyond Japan's borders. Coincidentally, as the popularity of the Internet grew, so did interest in anime. Much of the fandom of anime grew through the Internet. The combination of internet communities and increasing amounts of anime material, from video to images, helped spur the growth of fandom. As the Internet gained more widespread use, Internet advertising revenues grew from 1.6 billion yen to over 180 billion yen between 1995 and 2005.
Broadcasting
TV networks regularly broadcast anime programming. In Japan, major national TV networks, such as TV Tokyo broadcast anime regularly. Smaller regional stations broadcast anime under the UHF. In the United States, cable TV channels such as Cartoon Network, Disney, Syfy, and others dedicate some of their timeslots to anime. Some, such as the Anime Network and the FUNimation Channel, specifically show anime. Sony-based Animax and Disney's Jetix channel broadcast anime within many countries in the world. AnimeCentral solely broadcasts anime in the UK.
Influence on world culture
Anime has become commercially profitable in western countries, as early commercially successful western adaptations of anime, such as Astro Boy, have revealed. The phenomenal success of Nintendo's multi-billion dollar Pokémon franchise was helped greatly by the spin-off anime series that, first broadcast in the late 1990s, is still running worldwide to this day. In doing so, anime has made significant impacts upon Western culture. Since the 19th century, many Westerners have expressed a particular interest towards Japan. Anime dramatically exposed more Westerners to the culture of Japan. Aside from anime, other facets of Japanese culture increased in popularity. Worldwide, the number of people studying Japanese increased. In 1984, the Japanese Language Proficiency Test was devised to meet increasing demand. Anime-influenced animation refers to non-Japanese works of animation that emulate the visual style of anime. Most of these works are created by studios in the United States, Europe, and non-Japanese Asia; and they generally incorporate stylizations, methods, and gags described in anime physics, as in the case of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Often, production crews either are fans of anime or are required to view anime. Some creators cite anime as a source of inspiration with their own series. Furthermore, a French production team for Ōban Star-Racers moved to Tokyo to collaborate with a Japanese production team from Hal Film Maker. Critics and the general anime fanbase do not consider them as anime.
Some American animated television-series have singled out anime styling with satirical intent, for example South Park (with "Chinpokomon" and with "Good Times with Weapons"). South Park has a notable drawing style, itself parodied in "Brittle Bullet", the fifth episode of the anime FLCL, released several months after "Chinpokomon" aired. This intent on satirizing anime is the springboard for the basic premise of Kappa Mikey, a Nicktoons Network original cartoon. Even clichés normally found in anime are parodied in some series, such as Perfect Hair Forever. Anime conventions began to appear in the early 1990s, during the Anime boom, starting with Anime Expo, Animethon, Otakon, and JACON. Currently anime conventions are held annually in various cities across the Americas, Asia, and Europe. Many attendees participate in cosplay, where they dress up as anime characters. Also, guests from Japan ranging from artists, directors, and music groups are invited. In addition to anime conventions, anime clubs have become prevalent in colleges, high schools, and community centers as a way to publicly exhibit anime as well as broadening Japanese cultural understanding.
Viewers may also pick up on Japanese terms either within or related to anime, though at times those words may take on different connotations. For instance, the Japanese term otaku is used as a term for anime fans beyond Japan, more particularly the obsessive ones. The negative connotations associated with the word in Japan have lessened in foreign context, where it instead connotes the pride of the fans.
Kono saki ni tsuzuku michi ni wa
Hana ga saite iru darou ka?
Up ahead on the path
Will I find flowers blooming?
Magari michi ookute mayou koto...
Konna koto aru darou ka
With so many twisting roads, wouldn't it...
Wouldn't it be easy to lose your way?
Sukoshi furueteru kokoro to karada
Sugoku fuan da
My heart and body are shivering slightly
I'm really anxious
Naka nainda dekirunda
Kowaku nanka nainda
Nandomo ii kikasetanda
Naka nainda dekirunda
Kowaku nanka nainda
Tsuyoki de inai to
Kuzurete shimau ki ga shite
I won't cry, I can do it
There's nothing to be scared of
I told myself many times
I won't cry, I can do it
There's nothing to be scared of
If I can't be strong
Then I feel I'll collapse
Furi dashita ame ga kokoro ni
Hana sakasete kureru kara
As the rain begins, inside my heart
Flowers begin to bloom
Me no mae ga mie nakunatte mo
Kono michi wo aruku kara
Even when I can't see what's in front of my eyes
I'll continue to walk this path
Daremo hitori ja nai
Sasae atte ikite irunda
Nobody is really alone
We live for the sake of supporting each other
Make nai kujike nai
Dekinai koto wa nanimo nai
Nandomo ii kikasetanda
Make nai kujike nai
Dekinai koto wa nanimo nai
Tsuyoki de inai to
Kuzurete shimau ki ga shite
I won't lose, I won't be beaten
There's nothing I can't do
I told myself many times
I won't lose, I won't be beaten
There's nothing I can't do
If I can't be strong
Then I feel I'll collapse
Fuan nante kiete shimaeba...
Ii
I want this anxiety to disappear...
It's okay
Naka nainda dekirunda
Kowaku nanka nainda
Nandomo ii kikasetanda
Make nai kujikenai
Dekinai koto wa nanimo nai
Subete wo uketomerareru to
Sou chikau kara
I won't cry, I can do it
There's nothing to be scared of
I told myself many times
I won't lose, I won't be beaten
There's nothing I can't do
I can take anything that comes at me
I swear it.
Description: Movie 5 Theme
Lyrics by MARIA
Composed by TATTSU
Arranged by Hyoue Yasuhara
Performed by MARIA
Transliterated by chaac
Translated by Lithiumflower
