Image courtesy of the Anime Network
Anime: Monsters, Robots, and Ultra-Cuteness
The Japanese animated art form is wildly popular around the world. Take a look at some of its hottest series
By Brian Bremner
Japan is well-known as a monster export economy that ships Toyota sedans, Sony wide-screen televisions, and Canon printers around the world. However, it's also a successful exporter of its own culture, and is emerging as a major source of global entertainment. Japan's anime DVDs and television programs, derived from comic book or manga story lines, are hugely popular in other parts of Asia, Latin America, and the U.S. Anime is now a $4.2 billion industry, running across print, television, and film, DVDs, and computer video games.
In the U.S., the Anime Network is dedicated exclusively to this stylish genre of Japanese programming. It offers video-on demand and cable programming in many major markets, and reaches more than 40 million households. Here's a sampling of what's hot, ghoulish, and ultra-cute in the anime entertainment world these days.