in the shell

There will be a new OAV released in March named Tank S.W.A.T. 01, which is an adaptation from Dominion Tank Police created by Shirow. There's a trailer on the site and looks fine. http://tank-swat.jp I think Shirow fans might be interested.

Sorry if this is a noob question, but I never really understood the term OAV. I've heard it before in relation to anime, but never understood it.

Thanks.

Original Animation Video, or OVA, Original Video Animation - either way goes. Basically, it's an anime that's sold directly on video, or these days ofcourse on DVD. It isn't a movie, since it usually has several episodes, but isn't shown on TV, either. They were more popular in the 80's and early 90's. These days only a couple get published per year, excluding hentai.

From what I've heard there's a slight difference between the terms OVA and OAV though some people think they're interchangable.

First of all there's Lightice's definintion which is the Orignal Animated Video meaning that nothing like it had ever been shown on TV.

Then there's Original Video Animation meaning that there may have been a TV series that came before that was popular enough to get the companies behind it to make another series. (Though sometimes this happens in reverse order)

For instance Fushigi Yuugi was such a popular TV series that it spawned two OVAs AFTER the TV series. As far as I know in terms of one that went the other way, Record of Lodoss War had it's OAV come first and then had a TV series.

Sorry that was so long winded ^__^