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Starting in 1965 Topps baseball cards early 1960s, anime has blossomed into one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the world. Originating in Japan as comic books and magazines, and going on to animated forms, the series of incredible stories developed with various characters, their life and growth have attracted fans around the entire planet, both young and old.

Anime is, of course, an abbreviation of the word "animation." There are a wide variety of artistic styles in anime because it depends on the specific style of the artist or studio and what they create in their own imagination. In many series, the characters have large, round eyes and big hair but this isn't always the case.

All animation must first be hand-drawn by the artist, and these artists have mostly also done comic renditions for comic books and started out with that as their goal. This then expanded into the animation sector, and was often assisted by other animators in studios, sometime using computer techniques. The procedure of turning drawn cartoons into animation is a long and complicated one but fulfilling for both the artist and eventual viewer.

Early on, the Japanese film industry solved the problem of low budgets and other restrictions by making their movies from the characters in the early comic books. The artist could have free reign to create whatever kind of characters they wanted. Since Japanese anime usually emphasizes backgrounds for atmosphere, any scene whatsoever was possible, from the big city, nature, to different countries around the globe and even outer space settings. Thus any story line could be complimented by the illustration coming from the artist's free creativity. Any sort of action and activity was feasible, from wild fights, to whole cities blowing up. The possibilities were endless.

The artists of these characters and story lines often took part in the animation process, sometimes devoting literally years to creating the series. The anime went on to become television broadcasts and occasionally full-length movies.

One of the most popular anime series is called Inuyasha, a feudal fairy tale. Rumko Takahashi, a Japanese manga (comic book) artist, developed the tale originally. Her incredible talents led her to become the best selling female comic artist in history. Studios adapted her comic illustrations to the screen, and now there are currently about 167 episodes of Inuyasha on DVD for all to enjoy. It is still an on-going plot and thus fans can continue to enjoy Inuyasha far into the future.

DragonBall, another extremely popular series, was created by Akira Toriyama who spent over 11 years producing hundreds of episodes. Over 160,000 people a month search for DragonBall Z on the main search engines, and it is likely growing by the day.

Credit must be given to the Japanese culture for producing such original and thoroughly enjoyable entertainment for all ages. It has competed with the American cartoon industry that has mostly concentrated on the children of our culture, but now competes with the animated movies becoming more and more popular in present day.

The author is a is the Admin of the Anime Friends Network site AnimeMine, where you can meet new friends and discuss your favorite anime and manga subjects. This article can also be found at our free article directory Smarticlesmart. For more anime information please go to AnimeMine.com today. For more free articles please try Smarticlesmart.com.

# posted by hieej : 6:47 AM  0 comments

Ever heard the expression: "If you want to get something done, give it to a busy person?" How is it that the busiest people get the most done? What highly effective people do is allow themselves to be "controlled" by their trusted support systems and their datebooks.

Many high-level executives have no idea what they are doing from one day to the next. They walk in the office and ask their assistants what is on the agenda for the day. They are essentially told what they are doing and when. Of course, they have veto power. That is the beauty of a valuable assistant and support staff. The word "executive" means one who executes, accomplishes, performs. Are you able to carry out all the action steps to attain your goals? If not, it may just be that you don't have the proper support staff or tools to aid you in what radio talk show host/author/speaker Greg Smith calls "GSD" - - - Getting Stuff Done!

If you don't have an assistant or a company of 100 employees you can delegate tasks to, allow your Blackberry, Day Planner, or calendar to be your personal assistant. One suggestion: If you want a big life, get a big datebook/calendar. Some people have dainty, Barbie Doll sized calendars. Live large! Also, pick a color or fabric or texture that you like. If you have a beautiful datebook, you create a beautiful life.

Try "Living in Domains." It is a simple time management system that you can easily implement and be the CEO of your life. I was trained in it years ago and have been using ever since because it has allowed me to create enough time I need for what is most important to me.

Part 1: Make a list of all the activities you do in a typical week: work, health/fitness, relationship time, social life, grocery shopping, church, chores, etc. There are 168 hours per week. In a perfect world, how many hours do you want to spend sleeping? Working? Exercising? Going to class? Meetings? Spending time with family/friends? Watching TV? Most of us budget our money but fail to budget our time. And there never seems to be enough of either, does there? This system will show how much time we all waste and how to make the most of it, and actually have more leisure time.

After you've accounted for all the hours per week you choose to invest in sleep, relationships, health/fitness, parenting, socializing, working, chores, errands, commuting, etc., all the remaining hours are yours for fun, relaxation, vegging, or perhaps for a new hobby...writing that book or taking that scuba diving class. The first time I budgeted my time in this fashion, I was shocked that I had over 48 hours of wasted time! That is two whole days! Imagine what one can do with an extra two days a week. I started seeing that I unconsciously wasted hours a day with TV shows I didn't care about, playing on the Internet, and the like. When I started rationing those activities, I immediately created plenty of time to write the book I'd said I didn't have enough time to write.

Part 2: Choose a color to correspond to each domain of your life (i.e, work is red, health is blue, family is green, leisure is purple, spirituality is pink, etc.) and then take your calendar and mark in the exact hours you wish to invest in each area for the next week. I.e., work is 9-5 Monday through Friday, so draw a red box around those hours. Then draw a blue box around the block of times you plan to exercise that week. Then draw a green box around the hours you spend with your family. And so on. Consolidate your waking hours into general domains and color code them and design your week and your life! Give yourself a few weeks to tweak it and see what works and what does not.

When you write things down, you are giving your subconscious instructions. Don't you always show up for your DDS appointments when you have them written in your datebook? Hair appointment? Job interview? Well, here is a sure-fire technique for showing up for self. When you write down everything that is important to your life in your calendar, you make it happen. You are psychologically geared up for it. Of course emergencies will come up from time to time, but you re-design.

The beauty of Living in Domains is threefold. (1) You can see at a 1961 Fleer baseball cards what is not functioning or productive ......not enough family time, too much leisure, etc. (2) It is guilt-free living. You are not worried about exercising when you are at your volunteer job because you have planned it and can completely engage in the selfless community service. You're not worried about work when you are with your mate because you have already accounted for enough hours for work and now you can "shift gears" into the romantic domain. (3) You are in control of your time and make it work for you. You put yourself in the driver's seat of your life, rather than bouncing around in the back, driven by "fate." I've yet to see anyone not find more time to do what they want as a result of this technique.

If there is something you want to do more of (work out), choose a color you love. If there is something you want to do less of (TV), choose your least favorite color. We tend to be drawn toward what we like and move away from what we don't. A simple self-hypnotic suggestion!

You deserve to live your life by your own design to the absolute fullest. Now whip out your datebook, magic markers, and execute!

Dr. Nancy B. Irwin is a Los Angeles-based psychotherapist/therapeutic hypnotist, and author of nonfiction YOU-TURN: CHANGING DIRECTION IN MIDLIFE, a collection of over 40 stories of people over 40 who made successful life transitions.

# posted by hieej : 6:10 AM  0 comments