Anime

A characteristic art style emerged in the 1960s with the works of cartoonist Osamu Tezuka and spread in the following decades, developing a large domestic audience.

[19] Animation in Japan began in the early 20th century, when filmmakers started to experiment with techniques pioneered in France, Germany, the United States, and Russia.

[25] Other creators, including Kenzō Masaoka and Mitsuyo Seo, nevertheless made great strides in technique, benefiting from the patronage of the government, which employed animators to produce educational shorts and propaganda.

[32] Originally intended as temporary measures to allow him to produce material on a tight schedule with inexperienced staff, many of his limited animation practices came to define the medium's style.

[36] Robot anime series such as Gundam and Super Dimension Fortress Macross became instant classics in the 1980s, and the genre remained one of the most popular in the following decades.

[37] The bubble economy of the 1980s spurred a new era of high-budget and experimental anime films, including Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise (1987), and Akira (1988).

[38] Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995), a television series produced by Gainax and directed by Hideaki Anno, began another era of experimental anime titles, such as Ghost in the Shell (1995) and Cowboy Bebop (1998).

In the 1990s, anime also began attracting greater interest in Western countries; major international successes include Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z, both of which were dubbed into more than a dozen languages worldwide.

[40][41][42][43][44] In 2021, the anime adaptations of Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Tokyo Revengers were among the top 10 most discussed TV shows worldwide on Twitter.

Attack on Titan became the first ever non-English language series to earn the title of World's Most In-Demand TV Show, previously held by only The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.

[67] Tezuka is a central figure in anime and manga history, whose iconic art style and character designs allowed for the entire range of human emotions to be depicted solely through the eyes.

[76] A variety of visual symbols are employed, including sweat drops to depict nervousness, visible blushing for embarrassment, or glowing eyes for an intense glare.

[78][better source needed] Future funk, a musical microgenre that evolved in the early 2010s from Vaporwave with a French house Euro disco influence, heavily uses anime visuals and samples along with Japanese City pop to build an aesthetic.

[79] Since the 2020s anime songs have experienced a rapid growth in global online popularity due to their widened availability on music streaming services like Spotify and promotion by fans and artists on social media.

Vision, and Central Park Media and its imprints, achieved fairly substantial commercial success and went on to become major players in the now very lucrative American anime market.

[115] Since this practice raises concerns for copyright and piracy issues, fansubbers tend to adhere to an unwritten moral code to destroy or no longer distribute an anime once an official translated or subtitled version becomes licensed.

[117] Fansub practices have rapidly declined since the early-2010s due to the advent of legal streaming services which simulcast new anime series often within a few hours of their domestic release.

[130][131] By 2030 the global anime market is expected to reach a value of $48.3 Billion with the largest contributors to this growth being North America, Europe, Asia–Pacific and The Middle East.

Attack on Titan became the first ever non-English language series to earn the title of "World's Most In-Demand TV Show", previously held by only The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.

[186] The word anime alongside other Japanese pop cultural terms like shonen, shojo and isekai have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary.

[189] Hollywood itself has produced live-action adaptations of various anime series such as Ghost in the Shell, Death Note, Dragon Ball Evolution and Cowboy Bebop.

[190][191] One of the few particular exceptions to this includes Alita: Battle Angel, which has become a moderate commercial success, receiving generally positive reviews from both the critics and the audience for its visual effects and following the source material.

[192][193] Anime and manga alongside many other imports of Japanese pop culture have helped Japan to gain a positive worldwide image and improve its relations with other countries.

[194][195][196] In 2015, during remarks welcoming Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the White House, President Barack Obama thanked Japan for its cultural contributions to the United States by saying: This visit is a celebration of the ties of friendship and family that bind our peoples.

[197]In July 2020, after the approval of a Chilean government project in which citizens of Chile would be allowed to withdraw up to 10% of their privately held retirement savings, journalist Pamela Jiles celebrated by running through Congress with her arms spread out behind her, imitating the move of many characters of the anime and manga series Naruto.

[198][199] In April 2021, Peruvian politicians Jorge Hugo Romero of the PPC and Milagros Juárez of the UPP cosplayed as anime characters to get the otaku vote.

The advertisement company views anime as a profitable tool for marketing campaigns in foreign countries due to its popularity and high reception.

[212] While originally derogatory, the terms "Otaku" and "Weeb" have been reappropriated by the anime fandom overtime and today are used by some fans to refer to themselves in a comedic and more positive way.

[241] Similar initiatives have been enacted by the US-based streaming service Crunchyroll,[242] producing titles such as High Guardian Spice and an adaptation of Tower of God.

[248][249] The term gained its circulation in late 1980s, but the origins of the strategy can be traced back to the 1960s with the proliferation of anime, with its interconnection of media and commodity goods.