| Anime |
Japanese animation. |
| Catgirl |
A curiously Japanese creation, which varies widely. Essentially a girl with cat features, these features can range from obviously being in a costume, to just having cat ears on their head, to being a fully fledged furry. See also Neko / Nekko. |
| CG |
"Computer Graphics" or "Computer Gallery", CG is used as a term mainly on Japanese websites to denote picture galleries. |
| Chibi |
Japanese term for "Kid" or "Little". Refers to reduced sized anime / manga characters. See also Superdeformed. |
| Ecchi |
Means "Sex" in Japanese. Adult only Japanese art and comics. Not much different than Hentai websites, but usually refers to nude pinup art, not sexual intercourse. |
| Hentai |
Means "Pervert" or "Kinky" in Japanese. Adult only Japanese art and comics. Usually involves sexual intercourse, bondage, etc. Until recently, Japanese law prohibited the viewing of genitals (bare breasts are okay apparently) so many on-line images have that area of the body blurred, covered up or cut out. |
| Kappa |
A Japanese water spirit. Descriptions vary, but it is a green humanoid with the body of a tortoise and a noticable circular depression in the top of their head that contains a liquid that is the source of the Kappa's power. By bowing to it, it must return the bow, and the liquid falls out of the depression, weakening it. It is also fond of cucumbers. Kappas art sometimes used as a morph in Japanese art, where a character is being turned into one. To those unfamiliar with the legend, it looks like they are being turned into a turtle. |
| Kemono |
(?) Apparently the Japanese equivelent of "Furry". |
| Kitsune |
Japanese for Fox. Usually refers to a spirit fox that has magical powers, including the ability to change shape. Sometimes applied to anthromorphic foxes. |
| Manga |
Japanese comic books, as opposed to animation. Many Japanese cartoons start off as comics though. When reading them on the web, you should note that Japanese comics are "reversed" - what is the front page on an American comic book is the back page of a Japanese comic book. Translators either flip them (and you get reversed logos and type in the background) or try to use them as is, although sometimes they forget about switching "right" and "left" in the translated copy. |
| -Mon |
Shorthand in Japanese for "Monster". |
| Neko/Nekko |
Japanese for "Cat" - Japanese Cat Girl pages are very popular. |
| Nekomimi |
Japanese for Cat Girl. |
| Ningyo |
A Japanese term for Mermaid. However, these creatures only had the head of a woman and the body of a fish. |
| Otaku |
1. A obsessive, dedicated fan of Japanese Anime or Manga. 2. Any sort of obsessive dedicated fan. |
| Oni |
Japanese for Demon. |
| Ranma 1/2 |
Title of a popular Japanese manga / anime series, centered around a young martial artist Ranma Saotome who transforms into a girl every time he is splashed with cold water, and turns back into a boy when he is doused with hot water. This is due to a dunking in the legendary "Training Ground of Accursed Springs"(see entry) which cursed him, and many other supporting characters of the comic with this unique affliction. The transformations are usually instant in nature or are obscured by water. While it is a martial arts comic, there is plenty of humor involved during the battles, and of course the periodic hunt for a cure to the curse of the springs. |
| Rokurokubi |
A type of Japanese demon that appears as normal person (generally female) but have the ability to stretch their necks out to impossibly long lengths to scare or spy on people. |
| SD |
Shorthand for SuperDeformed. |
| SuperDeformed |
A Japanese art style where a mainstream character of Anime or Manga is portrayed with small limbs, a stubby body and a large head. They are usually used in asides in Manga, or in humorous mini-strips. However, it is quite popular, and you can find superdeformed characters as figurines, models and so forth. |
| Tattoo |
An ancient art form practiced on human skin where pigments are inserted (usually via a needle) into a layer below the skin so they are visible and permanent. While most tattoos are lone pieces of art, some cultures, notably in Japan, create almost full body tattoos depicting scenes which are added to and enhanced over the life of the person recieving them. |
| Tengu |
In Japanese folklore, a kind of shape-shifting mountain spirit who have a tendency to take on bird-like forms. |
| "Training Ground of Accursed Springs" |
A key part of the popular Japanese Ranma 1/2 series mythos. Located near Mt. Quanjing,in the Bayankala Range of the Qinghai Province of China lies a group of accursed springs with bamboo poles rising out of them. Each spring is cursed with a tragic legend of a tragic person or animal that drowned there ages ago. Anyone falling into a spring is transformed into that drowned creature, and will turn back into that creature whenever they are doused with cold water. Hot water restores them to normal. A dunking in multiple springs will result in the transformation of the person into a composite of the creatures that drowned there. For whatever reason, some martial artist though it would be a good place to train, thus drawing other marital artists to the area, as well as other victims. In addition there is a guide to the spring who appears to be on hand to shout out a warning too late about which spring the visitor might have fallen into. Among the many springs, there are ones which transform people into pandas, girls, pigs, ducks, cats, bulls, and even an octopus (how an octopus could drown remains unclear) See also entry on Ranma 1/2 and Springs. |
| Transformers |
"Robots in disguise". A toy line and cartoon show from the 1980's that featured giant robots from the planet Cybertron that were able to change from a humanoid configuration to a vehicle (a car, plane, tank, whatever). Most could change from one state to a second state, but as the series progressed, some had three different transformation modes, or could combine with others to form an even larger robot. The series returned at the end of the 1990's with "Beast Wars" and "Beast Machines" a computer generated version building on their original's foundation, only now the robots could transform into animals or bio-mechanical animals. In 2003, the latest incarnation "Transformers: Armada" brought back the original Japanese anime look to the series. The series centers on a centuries long conflict between the Decepticons / Predecons who are evil, and the Autobots / Maximals who are good. |
| Yin & Yang |
A Chinese concept (also known as "in & yo in Japan) it reflects the opposites - yin symbolizes the female, north, darkness, and cold (among other things) while yang symbolizes the male, south, light and warmth (again among many other things). The two forces are intended to balance one another in harmony, not to have one dominate over the other. While not a cause of transformations, it is often used as a reference point where a subject is somehow split into their good and evil halves, and must be reunified. A somewhat different unification of female and male aspects was expressed in Europe and the Middle East as "androgyne" (See entries on Androgyne, Hermaphrodite) where a state of "perfect" being on the mortal plane could occur by the unification of male and female aspects into one being. |
