Yes this is all Japanese. but the influence has spread though all over the planet.
a few highlights....
Anime is animation. For supper classic old school stuff check out Astro Boy. You will see how that is very much like early american cartoons... Then stuff like Speed Racer and lupin the 3rd came about and then Taro dragon boy and then Hayao Miyazaki did NausicaƤ of the Valley of the Wind... and then Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo and then Ghost in the shell and so forth
Really you should be checking out the anime thread for more stuff... but I'll more then likely post more here anyway...
Manga, you would not have anime at least everything that makes it anime and not "cartoons" with out manga. Manga are Japanese comics in short. Almost always in B&W and mostly read back to front, right to left. I'll have more to say on this later..
Here is a quick list of anime I like:
Ghost in the shell [everything]
FLCL
Serial Experiments Lain
Die Buster
Dagger of kumai
Samurai Champloo
Akira
Blood The Last Vampire
Cat Soup
Dead Leaves
Hellsing OVAs
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi
Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Ninja Nonsense
Requiem From The Darkness
Spirited Away
Taro the Dragon Boy
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Here is a quick list of manga I like:
So... Manga [Japanese conics], I love manga, more then anime anymore actually... so here are some I feel are must reads...
GUNNM ~ KISHIRO Yukito [Also known as Battle Angel Alita]: This is what got me hooked, This is the shit! Post-apocalyptic earth, Cyber Punk, Si-Fi, martial arts, awsomeness!
Koukaku Kidoutai ~ SHIROW Masamune [also known as Ghost in the shell ] Cyber Punk, Si-Fi, Cyber Punk post WW3, Cyber Punk, Cyber Punk. If you have watched the anime [and you all should, right now!, yes stop what you are doing and go watch it!] the manga will blow your mind.. not at first but it will when you realize it's all in there...
Elfen Lied ~ OKAMOTO Lynn: Si-fi, horror-ish great mix of dark and light sour and sweat moe and psychotic.
Hellsing ~ HIRANO Kouta: Vampires and Nazis do battle
Franken Fran ~ KIGITSU Katsuhisa: Horror, comedy. This alway makes me LOL hard, cool twisted shit!
Blue Drop [all series] ~ YOSHITOMI Akihito: Alien lesbians have taken over the earth... si-fi, yuri, post-apocalyptic earth...
Mirai Nikki ~ ESUNO Sakae: Horror, mindfuck, Parallel Universe, Play or Die Situation, Yandere. I find this very endearing.
Island ~ KOMI Naoshi: One shot, READ IT, post-apocalyptic earth type thing as well...
Goth ~ Otsuichi and OOIWA Kenji: Dark mystery type thing, really hart warming.
Yakuza Girl MASAKI Motonaga and YU-GO Okuma: Weird fucked up oddness... from what I remember...
Personant ~ KOMI Naoshi: post-apocalyptic earth type cyber puck like thing...
Nana to Kaoru ~ AMAZUME Ryuta: S&M
Black Lagoon ~ HIROE Rei : Do you like violence? one liners? then read this.
Nononono ~ OKAMOTO Lynn: Cross dressing girl wants to be a Olympic ski jumper...
Yeah I cut a pasted it... it's late...
Soon you will learn of words like Otaku... and Yuri... and Moe
