*Special Notes*

Anime is the Japanese name for animated features.  Some refer to it as Japanimation but this is generally a subdivision based up the Americanising of the original scripts and liberal translations of the dialog.  This site makes no distinction between the two except as noted in some select reviews.

Anime is a media and not a genre, as such it is broken up into categories/genres just as Movies and Books are.  Each title is placed in the category that it seems to best fit into.  Anime includes movies, T.V. series, and direct to video anime referred to as OVAs (Original Video Animations).  Two of the categories may require special mention.

The first is the Magical Girl category that encompasses most shows that involve that a girl, or group of girls, who are given mystical powers with which to fight evil.  There are certain conventions followed in Magical Girl anime and shows that do not follow them tend to end up in other categories.

The second is the Mecha/Big Robot category that encompasses most shows where a person, or people, pilot giant robots which are commonly known as mecha in anime.  Also this category includes any anime with other large robots that may or may not require an outside intelligence for them to operate.