Anime (pronounced 'annie-may'): Animation in the style developed and commonly used in Japan since the 1950s. Generally refers to the artistic style, but also a style of characterization and stories. Can also be used to describe comics and other still art drawn in the same style: see manga. Comes from the Japanese word for animation. Used by some people to refer specifically and exclusively to animation produced in Japan, regardless of style.
Anamorphic: Videophile term used to describe high-quality widescreen DVDs. Full explanation: a DVD of a widescreen production (such as a theatrical movie) can be created with a standard 4:3 width to height ratio, and have the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen included as part of that picture. On anamorphic (also known as "enhanced widescreen") DVDs the widescreen version of the video is squeezed to fill the whole frame, resulting in more detail in the image. On a standard TV, most DVD players automatically add the black bars to the image, but on a widescreen TV an anamorphic DVD will look better than a "standard" widescreen one. Most DVDs (anime or otherwise) of theatrical releases are anamorphic.
Baka: The Japanese word for "idiot" or "fool". A common (in fact it's one of the only ones) Japanese (and as a result anime) insult, this has been picked up by English-speaking fans. Very commonly used in fanfics or just as an expression. The sentence version, "[name] no baka", is also relatively commonly used (probably picked up from Akane's frequent use of the phrase "Ranma no baka" in Ranma 1/2).
BGM: Background music. The music (usually insturmental) that you hear in the background.
Catboy: Male version of catgirl; see below.
Catgirl: A female, anthropomorphic cat-human hybrid character; generally a cute girl with catlike ears and possibly a tail up through humanoid girls with fur and generally feline features (whiskers, claws, etc). Catboy is also occasionally used. See furry, below, for a more general term for furry humanoids.
Cel: A single drawing used in animation. Cels are (usually) hand painted on a piece of transparent acetate and overlaid on a background picture to produce one frame of the animation we see. Cels are popular anime collectors' items, and can be bought from numerous web-based businesses.
Character Designer: The person who designs the look (face, hair, usually clothes) of each character in an animated production. Does a prototype, on which the animated art will be based, for each character's facial expressions relating to different moods and emotions.
Con: Short for convention--an official gathering of anime vendors and fans. These range from relatively small regional affairs to massive gatherings of thousands of fans from all over the country; standard features include anime viewing rooms, autograph sessions and talks by special guests (at large cons these are usually Japanese comic artists and voice actors), cosplay areas (see below), and vendor rooms in which anime goods of all sorts can be bought.
Cosplay: A "Costume Play", a sort of amature theater in which fans dress up as favorite characters and enact scenes from anime, usually at conventions. This is an Americanization of a Japanization of "Costume Play"; that phrase was adopted by the Japanese and shortened into "Cosu-purei", which has been readopted into English as Cosplay (both versions have the same meaning).
CG: Computer Graphics. Usually this referrs to 3D animation (or backgrounds rendered from 3D models) done with computers, which is becoming common in newer anime productions. It can also be used to describe art drawn on a computer, including traditional-looking animation, but that is less common.
Digisub: Digital fansubs. A digitally produced and distributed fansub (see fansub, below). Produced by fans who digitize as-yet-unavailable-in-English anime and add subtitles, they are extremely popular. Digisubs are usually shared/traded by fans using Internet file sharing software such as the now-defunct Hotline, Morpheus, Limewire, and many others.
Doujinshi: Doujinshi can mean several things. Most generally, it is an unofficial comic book (or other art, possibly digital), usually by an amateur, that is based on characters not "owned" by the writer/artist. Some-what like fan-fiction. Depending on who publishes these, they can range from legitimate to completely illegal, usually the latter.
Dub: Re-recording the dialogue (and, at times, songs and sound effects) of a program with dialogue in another language. In the context of Anime, it means a Japanese show dubbed in English. Generally more popular than subtitled anime (though it depends on the series), some fans only like these, others ("purists") hate them with a passion, and a small third group will accept either.
Ecchi (sometimes written "H"): A Japanese word for "pervert" (though the connotations are somewhat more mild--see Hentai, below). Usually used by American fans to refer to anime and related art of an adult nature. Commonly used term on the web. Properly written "H" and pronounced "ecchi" in Japanese, this is an interesting bit of linguistics; the Japanese word for "pervert" is Hentai. This is sometimes abbreviated (by the Japanese) as H, which is, in turn, pronounced (again, by the Japanese) "ecchi".
Eyecatch: An image or very short bit of animation, usually including music and a series' title, that is usually inserted into the middle of each episode of a Japanese TV series (two halves of the eyecatch frame the mid-episode commercial break). Some newer OAVs also include these, though there would have been no commercial, because fans like them.
Fandub: A variant of the fansub, below, these are anime videos dubbed by fans. Very uncommon.
Fanfic: A story written by fans that involves characters from an existing anime series. Usually written in installments and published on the internet, the content ranges from continuations of the official story to improbable situations to erotica.
Fansub: A video translated and subtitled by anime fans, rather than a professional company. They are of widely varying quality (from near-professional to barely watchable), and were for years distributed by fans willing to spend the time to copy and mail tapes for the cost of shipping and the blank video. Recently, digisubs have become the preferred method of distribution--digital movie files transferred through file sharing over the Internet. Though quasi-legal, since they are only usually available for series that have not yet been translated into English "officially", and when done properly are not used to make a profit, they are generally accepted without much hassle, and are relatively popular with hardcore fans, as well as those who like uncut (and perhaps subtitled) versions of series such as Sailor Moon or Dragonball.
Fan Service: Usually used to mean, basically, stuff to titilate adolescent male fans. It mostly includes those shower/bath scenes that usually have little to do with the story but seem to be generally appreciated by the fans (or at least the teenaged male ones). Also can be used more generally (if less frequently) to refer to almost anything unrelated to the story but included to please fans--fancy outfits, flashy mecha, a cute animal, that sort of thing.
Furry: Used as a noun to refer to anthropomorphic, usually humanoid versions of animals--most commonly cat/human hybrids (aka "catgirls"). Almost always humanoid with full-body fur, but specific features can range from mostly human (though cat/dog like ears on top of the head are very common) to more animal like, featuring muzzle, whiskers, and paws.
H: Short for the Japanese word "hentai" and pronounced (at least by the Japanese) "ecchi". See the definition for both of those terms for details, but note that "H" is frequently combined with other words to point out adult content: "H-anime", for example, would be adult anime.
Hentai: The Japanese word for "pervert" (see Ecchi above, which is a milder form). It is commonly used by English-speaking fans to refer to pornographic anime (note that it usually has slightly stonger connotations than Ecchi). Also used occasionally (particularly on the web or in fanfics) as an insult, with the same meaning as it has in Japanese. For reference, the connotation of "Hentai" in Japanese is closer to the English "deviant" or "pervert", while "ecchi" is more like "lech" or "dirty", and generally milder.
Image Album: A CD of music written to accompany a comic book. In Japan, popular comic series will frequently have CD of music produced for fans to listen to--a sort of soundtrack (and one more thing to buy, if you're a fanatic).
Japanime: Clunky Americanization of "Japanese anime", now rarely used--see anime.
Japanimation (Japanamation): Another old, rarely used Americanization of Japanese Animation--see anime. Now sometimes used derisively by fans to refer to crudely produced anime; things that resemble shows like Speed Racer, which were popular when the term was in use.
Keyframe: A detailed animation cell drawn by one of the head artists producing animation. The space between keyframes is filled with more frames by other (lower paid) artists, producing a smooth transition from, say, one position to another.
Lemon: A Japanese expression that has made it's way into the vocabulary of English-speaking fans; it is used to refer to "mature" content. For example, fanfics containing raunchy material or erotic scenes are frequently referred to as "lemony" or something similar. Also see Ecchi, although lemon usually has milder connotations.
Letterbox: Those black bars at the top and bottom of the screen that let a 4:3 width-to-height ratio TV display a movie filmed with a wider aspect-ratio (up to 16:9). Getting more and more common on video tapes in America. In anime, you will usually only see this on movies that were released theatrically in Japan (and even then, some movies weren't filmed in widescreen ratio). Note, though, that shows made for the HDTV format are usually widescreen, and since this is getting more and more popular in Japan, widescreen anime may also become more common.
Manga: In English, generally used to mean Japanese comic books. Occasionally also used (even by the Japanese) to refer to animation (as in Manga Video). Pronounced "mahn-ga".
Magical Girl: There is some disagreement about the exact definition, but this term is generally used to refer to the genre of stories, geared toward younger (preteen) female viewers, involving a normal schoolgirl who is given magical powers (inevitably involving transformation of some sort) and expected to save the world. Some definitions focus more on the magical superhero-style powers, while others assume that being thrown into an alternate world as a savior is more important. Sailor Moon is the classic example, though the genre has been around since the 70s. The Japanese language version, mahou shoujo, is also occasionally used.
Mahou Shoujo: Japanese for Magical Girl; see above.
Mecha (pronounced 'meh ka', like the place): Comes from the Japanese word for mechanical, meka, which in turn came from English. It usually shows up in the credits of anime as "Mecha design", being the folks who design the look of the mechanical stuff in that anime. Among American anime fans, it is usually used a little more specifically to refer to the big robots that are so common in anime (Robotech and the like), but it can also be used to mean mechanical stuff in general (including cars, spaceships, and giant robots as well).
OAV: Original Animated Video. A sort of Anime miniseries produced to be released directly to video. Usually 4 to 8 parts, each one 30 to 45 minutes long. Frequently released in the US on volumes containing two or more OAVs. Also called OVA.
OVA: Original Video Animation: see OAV, above.
Otaku: Japanese word used by English-speaking anime fans to refer to an avid anime fan. In Japanese it is more of an insult (having a lot of negative connotations) and more general. An "anime otaku" would be something like saying an "obsessive anime fanboy" in English, but you could also have a "mecha otaku" (person obsessed with mechanical stuff), a "computer otaku" (obsessed computer geek), or any other variety of otaku.
Ronin: The Japanese term for a samurai without a master. Basically, they wandered around looking for work as a hired sword, and have a sort of cool, "lone gunslinger" image--think Clint Eastwood. The most popular instance along those lines is probably the movie "Yojimbo," but there are many others, including plenty in anime.
SD: Short for "Super Deformed." This is the art style where everybody has really huge heads and tiny bodies; often used along with anime or manga series as a kind of self parody (for example, a few short comic strips at the end of a comic book).
Sub: Short for "subtitled"--used to refer to a subtitled Anime program. Generally less popular than dubbed anime, but preferred by many "serious" fans. See also: Dub, above.
Seiyuu: The Japanese word for voice actor (or actress). Commonly used by English speaking fans on the web.
Shoujo: A style of artwork and story created for girls. Characterized by plots that focus on emotion and relationships, and art that tends toward the florid, with lanky characters and rather effeminite (but always attractive) men. Mostly popular with teenagers in Japan, most shoujo-style work has not spread widely, but it does occasionally gain recognition outside Japan (some examples are Revolutionary Girl Utena and X). The most common uses are "shoujo manga", litterally meaning "girls' comics", and "shoujo anime" meaning "girls' animation." Also romanized as "shojo" (actually a different word in Japanese).
Yaoi: Commonly used by English-speaking fans (particularly of the type who write fanfics) to refer to stories involving male-male relationships (generally between young, pretty hero types).
