ON THE INTERNET AND TV, TEENS FOLLOW FAVORITE CHARACTERS AND SERIES

For many teens in the Bay Area, there's never enough Anime. They tune in to Japanese animation shows on the Internet and on TV. They draw their own anime and dress up like their favorite characters on occasion. Some even join Japanese language classes. Here are profiles of four popular anime series:

``Naruto''

Though it made its debut on Cartoon Network's ``Toonami'' in September, the animated episodes have been accessible via the Internet since 2000. The popularity of ``Naruto'' has grown since its creation in 1999 by Masashi Kishimoto.

``It teaches life lessons and is super-inspirational and has extreme tragedy that made me almost cry once. And a blend of humor!'' said Justin Shaw, a senior at Lynbrook High School in San Jose.

Synopsis: ``Naruto'' chronicles the passionate, hyperactive teenage ninja Uzumaki Naruto, who strives to become the fourth Hokage, the strongest ninja in the village. Sealed inside his body is Nine-tails Demon Fox, a demon whose character emerges only when Naruto is extremely sad or angry.

``Bleach''

``Bleach'' -- viewable only on the Internet -- has intense sword-fighting scenes and an unpredictable story line.

``It has cliffhangers at the end of most episodes, and you can identify with the characters, which is why it's so popular,'' said Patrick Shyvers, a senior at Cupertino High School.

Synopsis: The evil spirit Hollow attacks 15-year-old Kurosaki Ichigo and his two sisters, but the Shinigami, or death god, Kuchiki Rukia comes to his defense. Rukia gets injured and transfers her powers to Ichigo, who must train to learn the duties of a Shinigami.

``FullMetal Alchemist''

This show gained popularity through viral advertising -- the Internet equivalent of word of mouth.

``Since most animes are watched before they're licensed, they're not advertised anywhere, so really you can only hear about new animes from other people. If it's good, it spreads,'' said Bryant Kou, a senior at Saratoga High School.

Synopsis: Edward and Alphonse Elric lose their mother in childhood and attempt to bring her back using alchemy. They stumble upon curious objects and face moral dilemmas as they learn alchemy.

``One Piece''

``One Piece'' is quirky, ridiculous, strange and wonderful. ``It's absurd and unlike any other anime I've seen,'' said Stephanie Wei, a freshman at Fremont High School in Sunnyvale.

Synopsis: In search of a pirate's loot, 17-year-old pirate Monkey D. Luffy eats a gum-gum fruit, which grants him the power to stretch like rubber. Luffy and his crew struggle to realize their dreams and fight villains.

Where to view anime

Dedicated anime fans watch their favorite shows on the Internet for the convenience and quality. On television, anime has been censored to tone down violence, and voices are dubbed.

``The anime on TV is really bad unless you have Cartoon Network, because the stuff on TV is edited so everything good is taken out,'' said senior Jennie Chen of Cupertino High School. ``People who are true anime fans like watching it online in Japanese with English subtitles.''

``The Internet has made this process very fast. Not only does knowledge of new animes spread quickly, entire animes can be sent to a large amount of people in a relatively short amount of time,'' said senior Bryant Kou of Saratoga High School.

Typically ``fansubbing'' groups in Japan download anime programs, subtitle them in English and upload them to the Internet. Because sometimes it takes years to license anime for the American market, the underground downloading movement continues to make anime available to markets outside Japan.

Anime is usually sent through Web sites such as Bittorrent.com. Anime is to Bittorrent as music is to Kazaa. The legality of file-sharing anime that is licensed in Japan but not in the United States is ambiguous. But once the producer exports those programs to a U.S. licensee, users would be violating the license agreement by downloading it from the Internet.

To view anime, try these Web sites:

www.bittorrent.com, www.animesuki.com

www.moonbeanmanga.net

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