What does the second element mean?

Early Japanese animation, comics, games and other works are all composed of two-dimensional images, and the pictures are flat, so the virtual world created by these carriers is called "secondary world" by animation lovers, which means "overhead", "imagination", "fantasy" and "fiction".

One dimension is a straight line, two dimensions are planes, and three dimensions are solids. Three-dimensional animation directly draws two-dimensional plane images in the three-dimensional space established by computer, thus producing three-dimensional effects. With the birth of three-dimensional animation, two-dimensional is no longer just a two-dimensional virtual world. As long as the plane comics are processed by special technical means, they can also produce three-dimensional effects, from which 3D comics come.

The use of "secondary element" to refer to characters in animation, games and other works is because animation, games and other works take printed matter or screen as the carrier, but this does not mean that everything presented in printed matter and screen is "secondary element". "Second element" is used by Japanese anime fans, and photos, movies and TV plays of real people are naturally not within the scope of "second element".

Extended data:

Evolution of word meaning:

The original meaning of "secondary element" is a two-dimensional plane and a concept of spatial dimension. Any point of the second dimension can be located by two coordinate axes (such as X axis and Y axis). When representing the area of the second dimension, it is usually in units of 1 pixel.

The use of the word "secondary element" to refer to "overhead" originated in Japan, and now it is also used in Chinese circles outside Japan (the English word "fantasy" has similar meaning, but the word "fantasy" is not commonly used).

Japan's early animation and manga works are all composed of two-dimensional images, and the pictures are flat, so they are called "the second world" by anime lovers, and on the contrary they are "the third world", that is, the real world. The ACGN cultural circle uses the word "secondary element" to mean "overhead", "imagination", "fantasy" and "fiction", and then refers to "overhead world".

With the development of ACGN culture, the second element also began to refer to animation, comics, games (mainly GalGame and Japanese card games, including but not limited to this), novels (including but not limited to light novels), virtual idols, some movies, some TV dramas, and their derived fan creations and peripheral products.

Since the 20th century, the animation industry in China has developed rapidly, and "secondary element" has also been misused on various occasions, extending some new meanings.

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia-Second Hospital (special term for ACGN sub-cultural circle)