What is anime?Written by Rosana Hart
Anime is a word that needs no definition to millions of young people around world -- but here's a description anyway, since you may be one of millions who isn't familiar with term. Anime is Japanese animation, and is hugely popular in Japan, a part of everyday life. The word is used to include quite a variety of animated TV series and films. Often anime characters are drawn with large eyes and smallish noses. The animation uses sharp lines and may use less detail than Hollywood-style animation. Video games and mangas (Japanese comic books) are drawn in this style as well. Plots are often more complex and mature than Western-style cartoons or comic books, including violence and characters dying. Fantasy adventures and romance are part of mix as well. There are so many different types of anime that there is something for everyone. Youth culture cuts across national boundaries more and more nowadays, and anime products are a good example. From Japan to United States, from China to Sweden, their popularity only increases. There are many fan events going on worldwide. In U.S. in 2004, over one hundred thousand people attended Katsucon, Otakon, Anime Expo and similar events -- many of them in full costume. Now, anime is being created in places other than Japan.
| | The Lord of the RingsWritten by Rosana Hart
J.R.R. Tolkien's great fantasy novels The Hobbit and three books of The Lord Of The Rings (The Fellowship Of The Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return Of The King) have been keeping readers spellbound for generations. I was quite late for work one morning when I made mistake of picking up The Return of King, thinking I'd just read a few more pages. I got completely wrapped up in story and forgot everything about my everyday life!The absorbing tales begin with The Hobbit when wizard Gandalf involves comfort-loving hobbit Bilbo Baggins in a great conflict between good and evil. The Lord Of The Rings continues with a larger cast of characters in Middle Earth. While The Hobbit might be read by itself, most people who read Lord of Rings trilogy can't stop with first one alone... they go through all three. When Peter Jackson made films of The Lord of Rings, he had to deal with countless devoted fans who would be watching closely to see what he did to stories. How did it work out? Quite simply, he made perhaps greatest trilogy ever brought to film. Tolkien's words were often preserved, and changes that were made in plot were done so sensitively that it was easy to see they were needed for different medium of film.
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