Generally, most Anime first starts as Manga in magazines, such as Shounen Sunday or Dragon magazine. They are usually Black and White and very short (not usually more than ten pages per issue). If the Manga does well, the creator puts together a number of issues and releases it as a book (these books are called tankobon). If the series remains popular for some time, the creator will contact a production company (or vice versa) to animate it (I believe it's the creator's decision about whether to make it a TV series, OAV or movie).

One of the earliest Animes people know is Astro Boy. Astro Boy, called Tetsuwan Atom in Japan, was aired on TV in 1963, although it was not the first Anime series (I think it might have been the first aired overseas). Astro Boy ran 193 episodes and was probably the Anime that started people's interest in Anime.

However, the first Anime series aired on TV was Instant History (Otogi Manga Calendar) in 1961. This series ran a total of 312 episodes, although each episode was merely 3 minutes long (and you thought DiGi Charat was short).

Since then, Anime has grown and has genres of its own:

• Shoujo Anime (focused towards a female audience) is probably the largest and most well-known Anime. Such Anime includes Sailor Moon, Shoujo Kakumei Utena (Revolutionary Girl Utena) and Kareshi Kanojo no Jijo (His & Her Circumstances).

• Shonen Anime (geared towards a male audience) are also well-known in America. These shows usually have a lot of action (sometimes without plot), such as Dragonball, Pokémon and M.D. Geist.

• Mecha Anime (considered a subsidiary of Shonen Anime) are usually aimed at male audiences, but contain giant robots (usually; some Mecha are human-sized) that almost always resort to using swords to defeat their opponent (that's not required for an Anime to be Mecha, but it's very common).

• Adult (no, not porn) is mainly more serious and aimed at an older audience (these usually have violent or depressing themes). Probably the most known Anime of this genre is Grave of the Fireflies.

Anime Essentials by Giles Poitras (author of The Anime Companion which I have yet to buy) - This is a great book to introduce anyone into Anime, and it gives a few facts about nearly everything in Anime (I think it could have gone a little more in depth into kanji, hiragana and katakana but that's just me).

The Anime Encyclopedia by Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy - An awesome book that gives a description for every Anime I've ever heard of and hundreds more I haven't. This is more for someone who's a fan of Anime, looking for information about an Anime or trying to learn more of a background for it. Under each Anime, it gives the Japanese name, translation of that, English title (if different), creator, director, artists, production companies, release dates, # of episodes/movies, length of each episode/movie and so on (that's just what's listed at the top). It then gives a paragraph or more with information as to what the Anime's about, background on it and usually gives a few other Animes as reference (usually Anime from the same creator). If you're in charge of an Anime Club, Anime organization, a site with any Anime information or just plain want to show off in front of your friends with your ineffable Anime knowledge, this book is a must-have.