Chibi (term)

Chibi (ちび or チビ) is a Japanese slang word meaning "short person" or "small child". The word has gained currency among fans of manga and anime. It means someone or some animal that is small in stature. It can be translated as "little", but is not used the same way as chiisana [小さな] (tiny, small, little in Japanese) but rather cute. A prototypical example of the former usage in the original Japanese which brought the term to the attention of Western fans is Chibiusa, a pet name for the diminutive daughter of Sailor Moon formed from Chibi Usagi ("Little Rabbit").

In English-speaking anime and manga fandom (otaku), the term chibi has mostly been conflated with the "super deformed" style of drawing characters with oversized heads or it can be used to describe child versions of characters.

Chibi style is usually used in depicting scenes which are cute and/or humorous, and it is extremely rare for it to be used for an entire anime series. It is quite popular in manga, however, such as the Chibi Maruko-chan series.

Chibi

Chibi may refer to:

The Birthday Massacre

The Birthday Massacre (abbreviated TBM) is a Canadian band, formed in 1999 in London, Ontario, and currently based in Toronto, Ontario. The current line-up consists of Chibi (vocals), Falcore (guitars), Rainbow (guitars), Owen (synthesizers), Nate Manor (bass guitar) and Rhim (drums).

When the band formed in 1999, they were known as Imagica. This name was inspired from the fantasy novel Imajica (1991) by Clive Barker. In 2002, they changed the name to The Birthday Massacre after one of their earlier songs in order to avoid confusion with another group. The song "The Birthday Massacre" was then renamed to "Happy Birthday". According to their vocalist Chibi: "it kind of works well for the music that we're making. Sort of contrasty, you know? Birthday, and massacre. Light, and dark. Cute, and evil".

TBM have released six studio albums: Nothing and Nowhere (2002), Violet (2005), Walking With Strangers (2007), Pins and Needles (2010), Hide and Seek (2012), and Superstition (2014).

Super deformed

Super deformed or SD is a specific style of Japanese caricature where characters are drawn in an exaggerated way, typically small and chubby, with stubby limbs and oversized heads, to make them resemble small children. This style forms an integral part of what Japanese and American anime fans refer to as chibi.

Japanese media

The super deformed style is part of Japanese culture and is seen everywhere from advertising and subway signs to anime and manga. The style was popularized by franchises like Dragon Ball and SD Gundam in the 1980s.

It is often also used on anime and manga in brief interjections to show an extreme or exaggerated emotion, such as anger or surprise, that would be difficult to portray or would seem out of character if expressed on a more realistic face. They are meant to be cute and are often used in humorous diversions from the storyline.

American media

The super deformed art style has appeared in anime-influenced American series, such as Avatar: The Last Airbender's Super Deformed shorts. In the shorts, all characters are depicted as chibis, parodying the main series and characters.

Term

Term may refer to:

Lengths of time

Term (architecture)

In Classical architecture a term or terminal figure (plural: terms or termini) is a human head and bust that continues as a square tapering pillar-like form.

The name derives from Terminus, the Roman god of boundaries and boundary markers. If the bust is of Hermes as protector of boundaries in ancient Greek culture, with male genitals interrupting the plain base at the appropriate height, it may be called a herma or herm. The crime of Alcibiades and his drinking-mates, for which Socrates eventually indirectly paid with his life, was the desecration of herm figures through Athens in the dead of night.

At the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Lady of Ephesus, whom the Greeks identified with Artemis, was a many-breasted goddess encased in a tapering term, from which her feet protruded. (See illustration at Temple of Artemis).

In the architecture and the painted architectural decoration of the European Renaissance and the succeeding Classical styles, term figures are quite common. Often they represent minor deities associated with fields and vineyards and the edges of woodland, Pan and fauns and Bacchantes especially, and they may be draped with garlands of fruit and flowers.

Terminology

Terminology is the study of terms and their use. Terms are words and compound words or multi-word expressions that in specific contexts are given specific meanings—these may deviate from the meanings the same words have in other contexts and in everyday language. Terminology is a discipline that studies, among other things, the development of such terms and their interrelationships within a specialized domain. Terminology differs from lexicography, as it involves the study of concepts, conceptual systems and their labels (terms), whereas lexicography studies words and their meanings.

Terminology is a discipline that systematically studies the "labelling or designating of concepts" particular to one or more subject fields or domains of human activity. It does this through the research and analysis of terms in context for the purpose of documenting and promoting consistent usage. Terminology can be limited to one or more languages (for example, "multilingual terminology" and "bilingual terminology"), or may have an interdisciplinarity focus on the use of terms in different fields.