ACG (subculture)


The ACG is an abbreviation of "Anime, Comic and Games", used in some subcultures of Greater China. Because a strong economic and cultural connection exists between anime, manga and games in the Japanese market, ACG is used to describe this phenomenon in relative fields. The term refers in particular to Japanese anime, manga and video games, with the video games usually referring to galgames. The term is not normally translated into Chinese; if the meaning needs to be translated, it is usually "動漫遊戲", "two-dimensional space" or "動漫遊".

Etymology

In 1995, a Taiwanese fan of animation and comics using the name "AIplus" established a board at National Sun Yat-sen University's BBS; the board was named the "ACG_Review Board", referring to animation, comics and games. It is considered the first appearance of the term "ACG". Popularizing by Taiwanese anime and comics critique group Shuffle Alliance, the arrangement of the three letters was stabilized, and the term became popular on the Chinese Mainland, in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
After light novels, which were adapted from anime, comics and video games, became more popular, the term "ACGN" was coined. However, the term ACG is still used in the majority of situations and is generally thought to include light novels even without "N."

In other regions

Japanese do not use the term ACG, though a similar concept is "MAG", meaning "Manga, Anime and Games". Japanese speakers usually use Nijigen to refer a series of anime and manga culture. The Otaku culture refers to the related-subculture, while Otaku industry refers to related industries.
The term ACG is not prevalent in English-speaking regions.