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Anime is distributed theatrically, through television broadcasts, directly to home media, and over the Internet. A characteristic art style emerged in the 1960s with the works of cartoonist Osamu Tezuka and spread in following decades, developing a large domestic audience. The earliest commercial Japanese animations date to 1917. Animation produced outside of Japan with similar style to Japanese animation is commonly referred to as anime-influenced animation. However, in Japan and in Japanese, anime (a term derived from a shortening of the English word animation) describes all animated works, regardless of style or origin. Outside of Japan and in English, anime refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. Anime ( Japanese: アニメ, IPA: ( listen)) is a Japanese term for animation.
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