The term "Anime" refers to Japanese animation movies, sometimes called as Japanimation. Japanese comics called Manga heavily influence Anime movies. They are made of bright colors and stylized images with variety of settings and storylines. They cater to a large and varied audience all over the world.
The term Japanimation preceded Anime but has now fallen to disuse. Earlier, in the1970's and 1980's the term was common. But in 1990's, animation movies reached worldwide market, so Japanimation refers now only to domestic animation. In Europe, Japanese animation is also called as Manga after the Japanese comics.
Osamu Tezuka's "Astro Boy" in 1963 was the first popular Anime series. In the 1970's the Japanese animation industry split from its Western roots and started unique genres like Giant Robots. The 1980's saw a boom in anime production and 1990's and 2000's saw the rising popularity of anime in the overseas market. In 2003, Spirited Away won the Oscar for best animated feature.
Anime covers a wide range of genres like science fiction, romance, live action, fantasy, erotica, adventure, and even social commentary. Most Animes come in three formats-films, television series and original video animation. Films are released in theatres and have the highest budgets and the best video quality. Popular Anime films include Akira and Spirited Away. A television series is syndicated and broadcast on T.V. and an original animated video is similar to a made for TV movie.
There's is a controversy around fan subs that are Animes subtitled by fans and released for download through Bit Torrent and distributed for free. Also problematic are bootleg versions of Animes from Southeast Asia.
Free Anime movies are available at a few sites that allow free downloads of several types of movies or are exclusively dedicated to Anime movies. For example, a new site called Anime Monarchy is a one-stop site for free shows like Pokemon and movie downloads like Kiki's Delivery Service, Anime games and Anime lyrics. Besides these, Anime Collections.com, 1StopMovies.com and TV Central have free Anime movie downloads.