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At the start of the 20th century, Japanese film makers started experimenting with drawing techniques and styles. The oldest animé was published in 1917, and was soon after followed by other works from animators such as Noboru Ofuji and Yasuji Murata. The most famous animator who is considered father of animé Ozamu Tezuka based his works mostly from western cartoons, thus the emergence of animé, the abbreviated term for Japanese animation. Since the 1990’s animé has become a booming industry in Japan, with the continuous export of different series to other countries. In 1997, Princess Mononoke, an anime movie created by Hayao Miyazaki, became the number one grossing film worldwide. Today, famous animators like Masahi Kishimoto, Kubo Tite and Hiro Mashima have created animé series and that captivated a wide array of audiences. Aside from that, television studios continuously produce around fifty different animé series and original video animations (OVAs) to meet the demands of viewers worldwide. What makes animé appealing to its audience is the storyline, cinematic storytelling and unique style of character designs. Animé also opens viewers to unfamiliar, imaginary and challenging customs, ideas, traditions and even worlds; far from what realistic series can offer. There are two main genres of animé, but the most popular genres are shounen and shoujo. Shounen animé cater mostly to young boys ages 13 and above while shoujo animé cater to young girls of ages 13 and above. Shounen animé is typically characterized with high-action, adventurous and humorous plots featuring a male protagonist. The main focus of this animé is to promote camaraderie among the characters, mostly male while pursuing a goal. The protagonist is also usually paired with a female character with exaggerated physical features such as Lucy of Fairy Tail or Bulma of Dragonball Z. People can also easily distinguish shounen animé because the artwork is less flowery than that of shoujo animé. Most of the shounen series and movies were based from original manga (comics) of the creator. Shoujo animé, on the other hand, is described as having highly-dramatic and romantic plots with female protagonists. Shoujo animé focuses mostly on human interaction, romantic relationships and emotions. It covers a variety of subject such as historical drama, boy and girl love, slice of life as well as science fiction. Unlike shounen animé, shoujo animé has a more adorable appeal and has characters that can be described as soft, beautiful and charming. For instance, Ouran High School Host Club has its Tamaki Suoh to captivate female audiences with his charm while Card Captor Sakura brings young girls into their own magical realm. Most of shoujo animé were also based from original manga works from creators such as Yuu Watase and Naoko Takeuchi. As both genres continued to gain popularity among different audiences, Japanese studios extended its market from producing DVD copies to uploading and licensing videos to online streaming sites. For instance, the animé market in the United States alone has garnered $4.35 billion and over 10, 000 viewers in online streaming sites. The phenomenal success of shounen and shoujo animé such as Naruto and Card Captor Sakura has also been the foundations of fandom over the Internet. Avid fans add subtitles to animé videos and anime movie and distribute them throughout different online streaming communities.
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