View source for Original net animation

{{Short description|Anime released directly online}}
{{Anime and manga}}
An '''original net animation''' ('''ONA'''), known in Japan as {{nihongo|'''web anime'''|ウェブアニメ|webu anime}}, is an [[anime]] that is directly released onto the [[Internet]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Original Net Anime (ONA)|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/lexicon.php?id=37|website=animenewsnetwork.com|publisher=Anime News Network|access-date=30 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Clements|first1=Jonathan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E03KBgAAQBAJ&q=original+net+animation&pg=PT187|title=The Anime Encyclopedia, 3rd Revised Edition: A Century of Japanese Animation|last2=McCarthy|first2=Helen|date=2015-02-09|publisher=Stone Bridge Press|isbn=978-1-61172-909-2|language=en}}</ref> ONAs may also have been aired on television if they were first directly released on the Internet. The name mirrors [[original video animation]], a term that has been used in the anime industry for [[direct-to-video|straight-to-video]] animation since the early 1980s.

A growing number of trailers and preview episodes of new anime have been released as ONA. For example, the anime movie of ''[[Megumi (manga)|Megumi]]'' can be considered an ONA. ONAs have the tendency to be shorter than traditional anime titles, sometimes running only a few minutes.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Chang|first1=Yuh-Shihng|last2=Chen|first2=Yan-Hong|title=2018 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Manufacturing (ICAM) |chapter=The Analysis of Animation Narration for Short Animation – the Short Film: CARN |date=2018|location=[[Yunlin]], [[Taiwan]]|publisher=[[IEEE]]|pages=477–480|doi=10.1109/AMCON.2018.8614758|isbn=978-1-5386-5609-9|s2cid=58672681}}</ref> There are many examples of an original net animation, such as ''[[Hetalia: Axis Powers]]'', which only last a few minutes per episode. But while that was true for the beginning of the 2010s, this began to change in the second half of the decade as full series began to be licensed exclusively for streaming services like [[Netflix]], [[Amazon Prime Video]], and [[Disney+]].

The majority of the production of animation in Japan is made for television or for other audio-visual formats, which include ONAs that can be viewed on television, mobile devices or computers.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lamarre|first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Lamarre |title=[[The Anime Ecology: A Genealogy of Television, Animation, and Game Media]] |date=2018-03-13|publisher=U of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-1-4529-5694-7|language=en}}</ref>

==History==
[[Makoto Shinkai]] was a pioneer of original net animation (ONA) in the late 1990s, producing his first animated [[short films]] on a [[home computer]] and [[Digital distribution|distributing]] them on the [[Internet]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Novielli |first=Maria Roberta |title=Floating Worlds: A Short History of Japanese Animation |date=2018-01-17 |publisher=[[CRC Press]] |isbn=978-1-351-33481-5 |chapter=From the New Web Perspectives to the Authorial Achievement: Shinkai Makoto |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SFJHDwAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PT26}}</ref> He produced the earliest [[animated short]] ONA, including ''Tōi Sekai'' (''Other Worlds'') in 1997,<ref name=":0" /> ''Kakomareta Sekai'' (''The World Be Enclosed'') in 1998,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-01-03 |title=Makoto Shinkai set to announce a new movie in 2025 after Suzume's success |url=https://www.sportskeeda.com/anime/news-makoto-shinkai-set-announce-new-movie-2025-suzume-s-success |access-date=2025-06-07 |website=[[Sportskeeda]] |language=en-us}}</ref> and ''[[Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko]]'' (''She and Her Cat'') in 1999.<ref name=":0" /> Another early short ONA was [[Azumanga Web Daioh|''Azumanga Web Daioh'']] (2000).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brashear |first=Laurie |title=: Film and Media Studies: Japanese Animation |url=https://eac.libguides.com/c.php?g=723550&p=5215189 |access-date=2025-06-07 |website=[[Eastern Arizona College]]}}</ref>

As [[broadband Internet]] bandwidth began to increase in speed and availability, delivering high-quality [[online video]] over the Internet became a reality. In the early 2000s, the Japanese [[anime]] industry began broadcasting ONA [[web series]] on the Internet.<ref name="ONA">{{cite web |title=Original Net Anime (ONA) |url=https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/lexicon.php?id=37 |website=[[Anime News Network]] |access-date=December 19, 2019 |archive-date=October 2, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002014105/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/lexicon.php?id=37 |url-status=live }}</ref> Early examples of ONA series include ''[[Infinite Ryvius|Infinite Ryvius: Illusion]]'' (2000),<ref>{{cite web |title=リヴァイアスイリュージョン その |url=http://www.ryvius.jp/index.php?m=illusion |website=[[Infinite Ryvius]] (Official Site) |publisher=[[TV Tokyo]] |access-date=December 19, 2019 |language=ja |archive-date=October 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201025001425/http://www.ryvius.jp/index.php?m=illusion |url-status=live }}</ref> ''Ajimu'' (2001)<ref>{{cite web |title=Ajimu (Official Site) |url=http://www.nifty.com/ajimu/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010815184002/http://www.nifty.com/ajimu/ |website=[[Nifty Corporation]] |access-date=December 19, 2019 |archive-date=August 15, 2001 |url-status=dead |language=ja }}</ref> and ''[[Mahou Yuugi]]'' (2001).<ref name="ONA" />

==See also==
{{Portal|Animation|Film|Internet|Society}}

* [[Original video animation]]
* [[Webisode]]
* [[Web series]]
* [[Webnovela]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Animation industry in Japan}}

[[Category:Anime and manga terminology]]
[[Category:Anime ONAs| ]]
[[Category:Web animation]]
[[Category:New media]]
[[Category:Internet-based works]]
[[Category:Multimedia]]