The 1980s: The Golden Age Of Anime
The 1980s is the Golden Age of anime. This is because there was an explosion of genres and interest in anime at that time. Introduction of VHS, which allowed the viewer to sit in the comfort of his/her home and enjoy anime, was a significant reason. Adding to it was the increasing number of new anime flooding the market, which led to a higher quality product being available to viewers.
Toei animated Akira Toriyamas Dragon Ball, which to this day is one of the most successful and watched anime. Manga, novels, and original stories kept everyone interested, and the advent of video games like Mario Brothers further strengthened anime.
The History Of Animes Journey To America
Anime has taken the world by storm. The abundance of shows and films is matched only by how easy it is to watch your favorite anime. But, how did this export from Japan become such a huge phenomenon in America? Which shows and films paved the way for anime to become the empire it is today?
The First Anime Movie Was A World War Ii Propaganda Film
As wartime propaganda and the first feature-length anime film, Momotaro: Sacred Sailors is a fascinating piece of Japanese history.
Though many people think of Astro Boy as the “first anime,” the history of Japanese animation goes back far further. The first feature-length Japanese animated movie was Momotaro: Sacred Sailors, a 74-minute propaganda film funded by the Japanese Navy in 1945, the final year of World War II. With its dark undertones, wartime production, and goofy, patriotic plot, the film is a fascinating piece of Japanese history.
Momotaro: Sacred Sailors is not the first animated piece of Japanese propaganda. A shorter prequel called Momotaro’s Sea Eagles was previously commissioned by the Japanese Navy in 1943. The film would incorporate the folkloric character Momotaro , a popular hero figure in Japanese stories. Aimed at children, the film followed the story of this hero commanding a naval unit made up of various animals. They fight demons on the famous island of Onigashima . These demons were dramatized British and American adversaries, and the whole thing is more or less a dramatization of the Pearl Habor attacks. The film even uses real footage of the bombings. Momotaro’s Sea Eagles ran 37 minutes, meaning it just missed out on the 40-minute threshold to qualify as a feature-length film. Momotaro: Sacred Sailors would go far and beyond, cementing itself in the history books of Japanese animation.
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Anime History What Was The Very First Anime
Usually when we think of The History of Anime we think of Osamu Tezuka. Which is actually a good place to to start, as his style and production methods has influenced anime as we know it today. Although Japan has an even deeper history of anime than most realize.
Its impossible to say exactly when anime began, since most of the anime prior to the 1920s was either lost or destroyed. This was a time when an animation would only have one copy released, it was very likely that the film was either damaged or lost, due to a combination of disasters such as war, earthquakes or simply disintegrated over time. The cellulose early films were painted on was extremely flimsy and very flammable. There is probably so much material out there we will never know about. Which is why we should share and cherish what we do know! But dont fret, we do have some records of early Japanese animation.
Welcome to an often over looked world.
The 1980s Robots Robots And More Robots
The 1980s would become the golden age of anime as clear fandoms for the art form began to arise. In Japan, the otaku subculture started to grow. Meanwhile, American audiences were being exposed to even more elaborate and higher quality adaptations of anime thanks to improved home video technology.
These shows would mostly arise thanks to imported VHS copies of anime films and television shows. Fansubs became immensely popular with older fans. These were recordings of anime shows that were later subtitled independently by individuals or small collectives of fans. It helped to broaden the amount of content making its way to American eyes.
But, when it came to more mainstream fare, the biggest and most influential show was Robotech. The show was an amalgamation of three unrelated shows Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada that U.S. company Harmony Gold cut together and readapted into a brand new series.
Robotech is still praised for its adult approach, strong storylines, and compelling characters. It helped widen the American fandoms of anime and showcase that these werent just cartoons for distracted kids.
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The 2000s To Today All Anime All The Time
By the early and mid-2000s, anime had broken into American homes and was here to stay. Cartoon Network introduced their Adult Swim block and programmed a lot of anime series that American audiences had not been introduced to. A standout from this era was Cowboy Bebop, a short anime series that is often cited as one of the best anime shows of all time.
As the internet and digital distribution began to explode, fans found it even easier to get a hold of original Japanese versions of their favorite anime shows and films. The influx was incalculable as distributors were being held to task for providing accurate adaptations of these shows.
And by today, anime is a multi-million dollar industry that shows no sign of stopping. There are streaming services that cater specifically to anime shows and releases from Japan. Fan conventions are full of cosplayers dressing up as their favorite anime characters. And the mainstream acceptance of the medium is at an all-time high.
Anime is here to stay. Its journey from Japan to America is a long and storied one, and it will continue to affect American culture in immeasurable ways.
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Tetsuwan Atomu: The First Japanese Television Anime
On January 1, 1963, Fuji Television broadcast a 30-minute animated television series called Tetsuwan Atomu . The show became a surprise hit, starting an anime boom and a period of intense competition for TV audiences. The success marked the beginning of a new kind of anime industry.
The low franchise fees paid to the studio for Tetsuwan Atomu meant that the company needed to come up with a way to drastically cut production costs. They ruthlessly cut the number of drawings, trimmed the number of lines in each image to the bare minimum, and took to using more still images. They worked to make the storylines quicker and devised clever ways of simulating movement, from sound effects to the dialogue.
The company offset its losses with copyright incomelicensing the rights for the Atom character to their corporate sponsor, confectionary maker Meiji Seika, who used the character on a popular brand of chocolates. When the company still posted a loss, Tezuka decided to invest his own income from manga publishing. It was a generous gesture typical of the man they called the god of manga.
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The Wilderness Years And The Appearance Of A Blockbuster
Merchandising became entrenched as part of the basic business model for all the television anime that followed. The most popular genre dealt with science fiction and space, followed by shows about girls with magical powers. In 1968, the popular baseball-themed Kyojin no hoshi began, followed in 1969 by the first episode of the family drama Sazae-san, which continues to this day as the longest-running series in anime history. But not every series could be a winner, and with a glut on the market competition intensified.
At Tei Dga, which continued to run a deficit due to high production costs, labor-management relations deteriorated, leading to a lockout and layoffs in the summer of 1972. Mushi Production went bankrupt in 1973 . The anime industry went into recession. Behind this recession were larger economic issues, such as the Nixon Shock in 1971 and the 1973 oil crisis.
When an animated television series ended, the staff was disbanded. Teis seniority-based employment system fell apart, and they switched to a system of performance-based pay. They were required to change to a corporate style that was more compatible with the shrewd programming policies of television stations.
Brief History Of Anime
Anime dates back to the birth of Japans film industry in the early 1900s and has emerged as one of Japans major cultural forces over the past century.
Much of the work done in these early years was not the cel animation technique that would come to be the dominant production technique, but a host of other methods: chalkboard drawings, painting directly on the film, paper cut-outs, and so on.
One by one, many of the technologies used today were added to Japanese animated productionssound the multiplane camera system and cel animation. But due to the rise of Japanese nationalism and the start of WWII, most of the animated productions created from the 1930s on were not popular entertainments, but instead were either commercially-oriented or government propaganda of one type or another.
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The First Anime Film With Sounds/voiceover
The first Japanese animated film with voiceover was directed by Kenz Masaoka in the year 1933. This animated film called Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka is considered as a lost film since there are no available prints of this film.
However the plot of this film is briefed in Wikipedia.
It is the story of a Japanese man who is married to a woman with an incredibly large physique. At home, he is always criticized and ordered around by his wife to an obnoxious extent. Which is why he cheats his wife for a typist who works in the same company as he does. The mans wife catches wind of this affair when the man accidentally talks about it in his sleep. The woman then confronts her husband and the female typist in their office.
The First 10 Us Anime Imports In Chronological Order
The vast catalog of anime available for U.S. audiences isn’t new. It began way back in the early 1960s.
The vast amount of Japanese anime available to North American audiences isn’t a new thing. The truth is, the U.S. has imported this type of animated fare to their shores for decades. As far back as the early 1960s, to be exact.
Most of these programs premiered in syndication for local and independent channels. The first 10 anime introduced in the U.S. ran the gamut of genres and prepared viewers for the onslaught of anime that would begin in the 1980s.
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Re: Zero Starting Life On Another World
Despite only receiving one season, at the time of writing, Re: Zero Starting Life on Another World is one of the most popular anime of the past few years, with the characters of Rem and Ram being particularly widespread across the anime merchandise.
The series follows Subaru, a young man who ends up being transported from the modern world into a fantasy world. In this world, Subaru learns that if he is killed, he resets to a ‘checkpoint’ allowing him to alter his actions and try again.
The 2000s: Cgi Arrives
CGI became commonly used in the 90s, but its use in anime reached a crescendo in the 2000s. Anime was flourishing, and the success of series after series increased fan-following multifold. One Piece , Naruto and Bleach raised the bar for all anime by cross-promoting manga, video games, and merchandise.
The Internet allowed fans to interact with other fans and discuss minute details, which meant that the artists and studios had to up their game as well to stay in business.
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The 1990s: The Downfall
The market crashed in 1991. The Japans economy took it hard and in turn, many studios ended production But by this time the entertainment provided by anime was a force to reckon with and somehow survived the harsh times.
In 1995, Neon Genesis Evangelion saw the light of day and changed the giant-robot genre forever. With its impressive iconography, dark themes and flawed characters, it caught the attention of the anime world and was a huge commercial success.
Super Mario Brothers is the first video game based on anime. It was released in 1986. However, the game which brought a lot of success and prosperity to this genre was Pokemon. It hit shelves in 1997.
To this day, it is still playing on aid. Various studios are still trying to replicate its international success. 2019 just saw the release of Pikachu with Ryan Renolds playing the titular character which shows the value of Pokemon even after all these years.
The Man Behind The Madness
Stories that are told using pictures are no new invention. The term manga was being used in Japan as an umbrella term for cartoons and comics for quite some time.
So what differentiates todays manga from cartoons and comics in general? The answer is the art style, and for that, we have Osamu Tezuka to thank.
Tezuka is the creator of Astro Boy, a beloved manga series thats been adapted to multiple languages and countries.
Tezuka was born in 1928 and began drawing from a young age. Hes considered the father of the manga revolution in Japan, with his debut manga New Treasure Island.
Tezuka would continue to produce manga all throughout his life to critical acclaim. Hes considered the father of manga and beloved by Japanese people today.
He died at the age of 60 due to stomach cancer and was mourned by his thousands of fans.
Tezuka was unique because he had a characteristic drawing style. He was fascinated with brilliant and large eyes and tried to incorporate this into his characters. He was a fan of Walt Disney and borrowed many style elements from him.
Tezuka went on to university to become a doctor, but he never quit producing manga. The impact of his work remains today, especially with his style. Because of Tezuka, manga become fervently demanded in Japan and subsequently began to follow a particular style.
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The History Of Manga First Manga
Manga has a very rich and interesting history, but its exact origins at least before the appearance of modern manga arent completely clear.
Current research suggest that early forms of manga appeared as early as the 12th century, with some forms also appearing during the 13th century. Books containing drawings reemerged during the Edo period , with Toba Ehon being a notable example. These books paved the way for the emergence of real manga. The term manga was actually consolidated in 1798, the same year Sant Kyden published his picture book Shiji no yukikai, which is considered to be the first actual manga by some modern historians.
The early 19th century also delivered famous predecessors like Aikawa Minwas Manga hyakujo and the celebrated Hokusai Manga books , which contained drawings collected from the sketchbooks of the artist Katsushika Hokusai , one of Japans foremost visual artists in history. Rakuten Kitazawa first used the word manga in the modern sense.
These were all historical predecessors of modern manga, which started to emerge after World War II.
During the years that followed, artists kept innovating and improving the genre, while also creating and defining new subgenres of manga for different audiences this is how manga are classified even today.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
Gundam Wingisnt the first mecha series to air on Toonami, but its the most popular that helped kickstart fascination with the series. Gundam Wing is an edgier take on the Gundam franchise with brooding teenage pilots that seemed like perfect figures to be on Toonami. Gundam Wing was also the first Toonami series to air with an edited and unedited version, with the uncut version airing exclusively on Toonamis Midnight Run block, which set a helpful precedent for more adult anime series.
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The Proliferation Of Japanimation Fans
Meanwhile, Japanese television anime began to become popular among young people overseas. In some countries, adults rejected it, calling it Japanimation and criticizing it as cheap, violent, and sexually explicit. When Kyandi kyandi was broadcast in France, young girls were glued to the television screen. Some parents resented this, claiming their children were being corrupted by a strange culture from the Orient. Nevertheless, the anime fan base continues to grow around the world, mostly among young people. Some fans even wonder, Why cant our country create works that surpass Japanimation? Today, Japanimation means something quite different from the negative connotations it used to have.
The Japanese anime industry is at a turning point. The reality is that many anime production companies are struggling, and have become little more than subcontractors for television stations. The need to improve the status of these companies is foremost among the many issues that need to be addressed if the industry is to continue to develop new talent for the future.
Anime Broke Barriers In The 70s
From October, 1973, to March, 1974, twenty-five episodes of Cutie Honey aired. What was notable about this show was that it featured a female protagonist, the first anime series to do so. The target audience of the series, however, was young men, and the series featured brief nudity as the title character undressed during her transformations from ordinary girl to magical girl. In a nod to Cutie Honey, it is now commonplace for female characters to shed their clothing during transformation scene. Cutie Honey is an android with the ability to create precious jewels at will. She is pursued by an evil villain, out to exploit her riches, and Cutie Honey hides from him by transforming herself into one of seven alter-egos, each with the ability to defend herself. In the 1970s, a time when the rallying cry of womens equality was in the forefront, it is not surprising that we see a lead character who embodies the spirit of gender equality.
Speed Racer
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