Anime is considered as a form of art because as a visual medium, it tends to emphasize styles. Varying from artist to artist and studio to studio, there are a lot of anime shows which exhibit stylized and ordinary plot and characters. You might be wondering why anime characters have big, rounded eyes when Japanese people are known for having almond-shaped eyes? To give you an idea of the unique characteristics of an anime artwork, here is a list of collected pieces of information.

Anime drawings are often characterized by their magnified physical features like big hair, huge eyes, long limbs and many more. The body proportions of anime characters are based on the human body’s actual proportions. In illustration, the height of the head is commonly used as the base unit of the body’s proportion. Meanwhile, in anime drawings, a character usually is about 7 to 8 heads tall.  Phlebotomy training classes might come in handy for learning this. Of course, variations can be done to better fit the appearance of the anime character to its personality.

One of the most noticeable features of anime illustration is the eye. Osamu Tezuka, who was supposed to be the one who started to use big eyes on anime and manga characters, got the inspiration from the caricatured features of some cartoon characters in America like Mickey Mouse, Betty Boop and Bambi.

The eyes of the anime character are given some color to add depth. It must be noted though that not all Japanese anime creations have huge eyes. Take for instance, Toshiro Kawamoto and Hayao Miyazaki are known for creating characters which have realistically-proportioned eyes and hair.

The hair of anime characters is also interesting. Some have long and flowy tresses while others have short hair. You can find green, pink, orange, red and silver hair on anime characters too!

Another notable feature of an anime artwork is the facial expression. Anime fans find it amusing to see different expressions shown by the faces of their favorite characters. The countenance adds more interest to the anime character and it gives the viewer some clues about his or her personality. Some of the most loved facial expressions are the wide smile, the glassy eyes, the teary eyes, red face and hair standing at attention.

Different versions of Dragon Ball games came out but what they have in common is there destructive environments, ability to pick players, their signature ‘pursuit attacks’, and of course their devastating strikes. Dragon Ball is basically a strategy game that would require players to boost their combat abilities to reach the ultimate level.

With over hundreds of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z games that were produced, it is really hard to list all of them. I was not much a fan of Dragon Ball video and online games but since my brothers love to play them it started to grow on me. We usually sit for hours in front of the television playing the battle mode.

Strategies used to gain the upper hand in the game vary greatly depending on what dragon ball game version you will be playing. For instance, if you are playing the Dragon Ball Z Final Tournament, you and your opponent will have to choose up to four players each. This is generally a three-player battle wherein they will all fight in a tournament arena. When the first character, from the team, is defeated the next chosen character will have to enter the arena and fight the winner from the opposing team. Each character will have two values – Endurance and Aura – that will appear on top of the screen. All you have to do is to defeat all the members of the opposing team by depleting their endurance which can be done by attacking them. When the character’s endurance reaches zero, the next character will replace and so on until the last player is left standing.

Those who do not own game consoles do not have to fret since there are now plenty of Dragon Ball and DBZ games that can now be accessed for free online. Like their video game predecessors, online Dragon Ball games are all strategy based. When playing DB games, you need to have superb mental ability and mind work. If not, you will be likely defeated in the game. The great thing about DB games is that you can come up with your own strategy depending on the character you are using and, of course, your fighting preference. Some players resort to getting cheats online, which can also be considered a strategy (a pretty smart one, actually!), in order to gain the upper hand in the game. However, I am not saying that you should cheat to win the game. It is still nice to win a DB battle fair and square, at least in my opinion.

Pokemon
Hailed as the “cream of the crop”, this anime-based game is undoubtedly the best when it comes to success in the video game department. The pack, led by Pikachu and its trainer Ash, has been able to touch the hearts of millions of children all over the world with a smash TV series and an amazing video game. Gameboy and Gameboy Advanced have released numerous versions of the Pokemon game—Red, Yellow, Blue, Gold, Silver and many more. Players love the cute characters and the special abilities of each pocket monster which can be used to defeat the enemies led by Jesse and James.

Dragonball Z
This anime series is a mega epic not only on television but also in the world of video gaming. DBZ has spawned several fighting games. Budokai 3 Fight is a 3D fighting game that has an epic story and amazing visuals.

Bleach
This particular anime has made a lot of young people fall in love with its characters. At present, you will see numerous teenagers suing images of Ichigo, Rukia, and other Bleach characters in their social networking sites. A number of video games have been released to cater to the demands of Avid Bleach fans such as “The Blade of Faye” for Nintendo DS.

Naruto
Everybody seems to love ninja battles especially when these are fought by Naruto! The Ultimate Ninja Series for Sony Playstation are considered as the best games of the Naruto franchise.

Final Fantasy VII
Known as an RPG/anime which has a beautiful, rich and amazingly complex plot, Final Fantasy VII boasts of its state-of-the-art graphics and super cool soundtrack. Many people are going crazy over this game, and we can attribute this to the anime’s well-created visuals and excellent storyline.

Final Fantasy XIII-2

First on the list is the very popular Final Fantasy Franchise. There have been a lot of rumors circulating about the release of a new game version of Final Fantasy in early 2012. Good news is that, it is now finally confirmed. Final Fantasy XIII-2, which is published and developed by Square Enix, is scheduled to be released on the 31st of January 2012 in North America, and on the 3rd of February 2012 in Europe. Japan, however, will get an early release since Final Fantasy XIII-2 game will be out in the Japanese market on the 15th of December this year. If you are fortunate enough to be in Japan during the time of the game’s release, then might as well grab a copy if you cannot wait to see what the new Final Fantasy game has to offer. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the sequel of the 2009 RPG Final Fantasy XIII. The game is designed to be played on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

Street Fighter X Tekken

This is a highly anticipated crossover fighting game from Capcom. Yoshinori Ono, Capcom producer, announced that the game is in development during the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International. Slated for official market released on March 2012, Street Fighter X Tekken will be available on Playstation Vita, Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3. This crossover game will feature characters from Namco’s Tekken and Capcom’s Street Fighter. Namco is currently working on their version of the crossover game which has a tentative working title ‘Tekken X Street Fighter’.

Pokemon

Dengeki Nintendo magazine hinted that they will be releasing a review on the upcoming Pokemon game on their May 2012 issue. However, no further information was released as to what version of the popular anime game will be released early next year. It was not even mentioned when the game will be officially available in the market. Many believe that the Pokemon game to be released on 2012 is most likely to be a spin-off game but Pokemon lovers will have to wait for more details to confirm if there is any truth to this news or not.

By the eighties, anime was welcomed with open arms in the Japanese mainstream. Surge in anime production was also evident around this time, with famous anime like Space Opera, Dragon Ball, Gundam, Macross, and Real Robot setting the boom of animated tv series.

Over the succeeding years, more and more Japanese animators confidently released their own anime movies and tv shows. However, as animated tv series become popular, the anime movie market shrunk significantly due to intense competition from anime made for tv.

The success of anime in the tv and movie market presented the perfect opportunity for game developers to introduce everyone’s favorite anime in a game format. This marked the start of anime-based games. However, the sad truth is that, not all video games based from popular anime series are capable of surviving in a very tough gaming market. In fact, very few of them earn the success of the anime were they were based from, which is very unfortunate. Some of the anime-based games that gain a decent following include the Dragon Ball, Tekken, Final Fantasy, Inuyasha, Sakura Wars, Sonic the Hedgehog, Ranma ½, Pokemon and Digimon.

One of the oldest anime-based games conceived was the Final Fantasy series which was first introduced in 1987. It was Sakaguchi’s last effort in the gaming industry; fortunately the title became a real success which resulted to more sequels not only for the motion picture but also for the science fantasy role playing game.

The 2D game version of the popular anime Ranma ½, which is the first English-dubbed anime to be shown in the US, received mixed reviews when it was released in 1990. In 1993, the game version of Dragon Power entitled Street Combat did not make it alive in the market; however, the tv series was able to maintain a solid following.

In 1996, the video game version of the very successful anime series ‘Pokemon’ joined the list of anime-based games competing in this very cutthroat market. Owned and published by Nintendo, the Pokemon game was made by Satoshi Taijiri. It earned the merit as the 2nd most successful game franchise sold around the world. Pokemon was released in various gaming platforms, from Xbox, gameboy, playstation, and other popular game consoles.

Over the years, a number of video and even online games based on popular anime series emerge but not all rake in enough earnings to be considered successful.