Anime Quiz — 50 Questions on Studios, Years and Sources

Which film follows a girl called Chihiro who takes work in a bathhouse for spirits?

Answer Spirited Away

It remains the only hand-drawn film not in English to win the animated feature Oscar. Its director did not attend the ceremony, and later explained that he had stayed away because of a war his country was supporting at the time.

Akira, released in 1988, is set in which fictional city?

Answer Neo-Tokyo

The story is set in 2019 and a scene refers to an Olympics the following year. The film was made in 1988, which put both dates far in the future — and reality then arranged the same two events in the same order.

Which series follows the Elric brothers and the law of equivalent exchange?

Answer Fullmetal Alchemist

The rule the story runs on is stated in the first minutes and never bent: to obtain something, something of equal value must be lost. That is unusual for the genre, where power systems normally exist to be escalated rather than obeyed.

Cowboy Bebop follows a crew doing what for a living?

Answer Hunting bounties

Bounty hunting, in a future where the work is legal and badly paid. The series is famous for its music, and the score was written before much of the animation, which is why the timing of scenes so often matches the beat.

Which of these is a film rather than a television series?

Answer Grave of the Fireflies

It was released as a film, and originally shown as a double bill with a far gentler animated feature from the same studio. Audiences went in expecting one thing and left having also seen the other, which is a pairing people still discuss.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is built around teenagers piloting what?

Answer Enormous humanoid units

Enormous humanoid units, though the series is far less interested in the machines than the format promises. The final episodes abandon the plot for the characters' interior states, which caused an argument that has continued for thirty years.

Attack on Titan begins with humanity living inside what?

Answer Concentric walls

Concentric walls, and the arrangement matters — three rings, with the innermost the safest and the wealthiest. The geography is doing the political work before the story explains anything.

Which long-running series centers on a pirate crew searching for a legendary treasure?

Answer One Piece

It has been serialized since 1997 and is one of the best-selling comic series in the world. Its author has said the ending was planned from the start, which readers have been testing against the text for a quarter of a century.

Death Note turns on an object that does what?

Answer Kills anyone whose name is written in it

The rule is stated plainly and the story then spends its length on the edge cases, which makes the writing closer to a legal argument than to a supernatural thriller. The rules page in the manga kept growing as the author closed loopholes readers had found.

Which film features a boy and girl who wake in each other's bodies?

Answer Your Name

The pair swap bodies, but the twist is not the swap — it is that they are also separated by something the film withholds for an hour. Rewatching changes what the early scenes mean, which is the point of building it that way.

Which studio produced Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro?

Answer Studio Ghibli

The studio was founded in 1985 after the success of an earlier film, and named after a Mediterranean wind. Its founders had already worked together for years on television, which is why the first films arrive fully formed.

Hayao Miyazaki is best known as what?

Answer A film director

A film director, though he began as an animator and continued drawing storyboards himself long after most directors stop. He has announced his retirement several times and returned each time.

Osamu Tezuka is often called the father of what?

Answer Modern manga and television anime

Modern comics and television animation both, which is rare — usually a founder is credited with one form. He also established the weekly production schedule that the whole industry still runs on, and its costs are still argued about.

Which director made Your Name and Weathering with You?

Answer Makoto Shinkai

Shinkai wrote, directed, storyboarded and edited them, which is unusual at that scale. His early work was made almost alone on a home computer, and the habit shows in how much of each film is weather, light and empty rooms.

Which studio is known for Ghost in the Shell?

Answer Production I.G

The studio is known for work that treats science fiction seriously rather than as a setting, and its adaptation of this manga influenced live-action films that followed it by a decade.

Toei Animation is notable as what?

Answer One of the oldest anime studios, behind many long-running series

One of the oldest studios in the industry, founded in the 1950s. Several of its series have run for decades without ending, which makes it unusual as a business — most of its revenue comes from titles older than most of its staff.

Isao Takahata directed which film?

Answer Grave of the Fireflies

Takahata directed it, and never drew. He could not animate at all, which was rare for a director of his standing, and he compensated by being exacting about research — the film's insects, food and rubble were checked against records.

What does a series director do that a key animator does not?

Answer Decide the overall direction of every episode

The series director sets the overall approach and reviews every episode; a key animator draws the important poses in one of them. The distance between the two roles is why an episode can look very different from the one before it.

Katsuhiro Otomo is known for which film, adapted from his own manga?

Answer Akira

He drew the manga first and then directed the film himself, redrawing much of it as he went. The film's production was so expensive that it changed what budgets in the industry were assumed to be capable of.

Which of these is a studio rather than a magazine?

Answer Kyoto Animation

It is a studio, and an unusual one — it trains and salaries its own animators instead of hiring per project, which is rare enough to be its defining fact within the industry.

Most long-running shōnen anime begin as what?

Answer Serialized manga

Serialized manga, almost without exception. That order explains most of what people find odd about long series: pacing built for weekly chapters, and adaptations that must slow down when they catch up with the source.

What is a light novel?

Answer An illustrated prose novel aimed at younger readers

Prose with illustrations, published in a small format aimed at younger readers. The category is defined more by how it is published and marketed than by anything in the writing, which is why the boundary is argued about.

What does filler mean in an adapted series?

Answer Episodes not based on the source material, made while it catches up

Episodes invented for the adaptation, made because the source has not produced enough story yet. They exist because broadcast slots are booked in advance and cannot be paused, which is a scheduling problem rather than a creative choice.

Weekly Shōnen Jump is what?

Answer A manga magazine that serializes many well-known series

A weekly magazine, and the format matters: chapters appear alongside a dozen others, and reader surveys have historically decided which series continue. A story can be canceled by the response to a single week.

What is an OVA?

Answer An episode released directly to video rather than broadcast

Released directly rather than broadcast, which historically meant it escaped television content rules and episode-length limits. That freedom is why some of the most experimental work of the 1980s and 1990s took this form.

A cour, in the way broadcast anime is scheduled, is roughly what?

Answer A three-month block of about twelve episodes

About three months, roughly twelve episodes, tied to the broadcast seasons. Series are commissioned in these blocks, which is why so many stop after twelve or twenty-four episodes regardless of where the story has reached.

What does a mangaka do?

Answer Write and draw the manga

Writes and draws it, usually both, which distinguishes the form from Western comics where the two jobs are normally separate people. Assistants handle backgrounds and tones, but the panel layout and figures are the author's.

Why do many adaptations end without resolving the story?

Answer The source manga is still being serialized

Because the source is still running. The adaptation catches up, and rather than invent an ending the production stops — which is why so many series conclude by pointing the viewer at the manga.

What is a seiyū?

Answer A voice actor

A voice actor, and in this industry the role carries a public profile closer to that of a pop performer than to voice work elsewhere. Many release music and appear at events under their own names.

Which of these describes a series aimed primarily at boys and teenage boys?

Answer Shōnen

The word describes the intended readership rather than the content, which is why series in this category can be extremely violent. Categories here are marketing divisions, and the audience that actually reads them is usually broader.

In Dragon Ball, what is the name of the wish-granting objects the cast seeks?

Answer Dragon Balls

Seven of them, scattered and gathered repeatedly across the series. The wish is the engine of the plot and also its weakness — a story where death is reversible has to keep raising the stakes to stay tense.

Pokémon began as what before it was animated?

Answer A pair of video games

Two games released simultaneously with slightly different contents, so that players had to trade to complete a collection. The trading was designed in from the start, and it is the mechanic the whole property was built on.

In Sailor Moon, the transformations are tied to what?

Answer Planets of the solar system

Planets, and the naming follows Roman deities, which is why the associations of each character track those myths. It is also one of the works most often credited with establishing the magical-girl format as it now exists.

Demon Slayer follows a boy whose sister has become what?

Answer A demon

A demon, and the premise inverts the usual one — the sister is the monster and the brother's goal is to restore her rather than avenge her. The animation of its film sequel made it the highest-earning release in the country's history.

Studio Ghibli's Princess Mononoke is set in roughly which period?

Answer Japan's medieval Muromachi era

Japan's medieval period, and the film refuses to give either side of its conflict the moral advantage. That refusal is deliberate: the director has said he did not want a villain, and the result is the studio's least comfortable film.

In Naruto, what is a jinchūriki?

Answer A person with a tailed beast sealed inside them

A person with a beast sealed inside them, which the story uses to talk about how communities treat those they fear. That framing is what gives the early part of the series its shape.

Doraemon is what kind of character?

Answer A robotic cat from the future

A robot cat from the future, sent back to help a boy who fails at everything. The formula is fixed and has run for over fifty years, and the gadgets it invented are regularly cited when real technology catches up.

In Hunter × Hunter, Nen is best described as what?

Answer A system for using one's life energy

A system for using one's own life energy, laid out with rules and categories more elaborate than most such systems. The author's habit of explaining the mechanics thoroughly, then interrupting the story for long strategic sequences, divides readers sharply.

Which series is set in a world where most people have superpowers called Quirks?

Answer My Hero Academia

A world where powers are so common that lacking one is the exception. The premise is a reversal of the usual superhero setup, which is what lets the series treat heroism as a profession with schools and licensing.

Ghost in the Shell is set in a world where people commonly have what?

Answer Cybernetic bodies and networked brains

Replaceable bodies and brains connected to a network, which the story uses to ask what remains of a person once both can be modified. It reached that question years before the technology made it a mainstream conversation.

What is a storyboard in animation production?

Answer A drawn plan of every shot before animation begins

A drawn plan of every shot, made before any animation begins. In this industry it carries more authority than elsewhere — the director draws it, and it functions as the instruction the rest of the production follows.

What does a key animator draw?

Answer The most important poses, which others draw between

The important poses, the ones that define a movement. Everything between them is drawn by someone else, which is why the credit for a striking sequence usually names a specific person rather than the studio.

In-betweening is the work of doing what?

Answer Drawing the frames between the key poses

Drawing the frames between the key poses. It is where most people in the industry begin, it is paid by the drawing, and the rates have been a recurring public controversy.

Why did traditional cel animation get its name?

Answer Because drawings were painted on transparent celluloid sheets

Drawings were painted on transparent sheets of celluloid and laid over painted backgrounds. That is also why backgrounds in older work look richer than the moving figures: they were painted once, in a different medium, with time to spare.

What is limited animation?

Answer Using fewer drawings per second and holding frames longer

Fewer drawings per second, with frames held longer. It began as a cost measure and became a style — the held frame with a slow pan across it is now a deliberate effect rather than a compromise.

What is the difference between dubbed and subtitled?

Answer Dubbed replaces the voice track; subtitled keeps it and adds text

Dubbing replaces the voices; subtitling keeps them and adds text. The choice is not neutral: subtitles cost the viewer attention that would otherwise go to the image, which matters more in animation than in live action.

What is a sakuga sequence, in the way fans use the word?

Answer A stretch of unusually elaborate animation

A stretch of unusually elaborate animation, often by a named animator whose style regular viewers recognize. The word originally just meant the drawing work itself, and the narrower fan usage grew out of that.

What does the production committee system describe?

Answer Several companies jointly funding and sharing rights to a series

Several companies funding a series together and sharing the rights. It spreads the risk and it also spreads the control, which is why the studio that makes a series frequently owns very little of it.

Why are opening and ending sequences usually the same every week?

Answer They are animated once and reused, which saves considerable work

They are animated once and reused every week, which saves an enormous amount of work over a season. The fixed length also serves scheduling — the broadcast slot is exact, and those minutes are known quantities.

What is rotoscoping?

Answer Tracing over filmed footage to produce animation

Tracing over filmed footage. It produces very fluid movement and is often criticized for looking uncanny, because the result carries human timing that hand-drawn animation would normally simplify.