History of anime
Today, anime is a major part of global pop culture, known for its unique art styles, storytelling depth, and expansive influence across media..[1] Before the advent of film, Japan already had a rich tradition of entertainment with colourful painted figures moving across the projection screen in utsushi-e (写し絵), a particular Japanese type of magic lantern show popular in the 19th century.
Possibly inspired by European phantasmagoria shows, utsushi-e showmen used mechanical slides and developed lightweight wooden projectors (furo) that were handheld so that several performers could each control the motions of different projected figures.
The description matches James Blackton's Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, though academic consensus on whether or not this is a true animated film is disputed.
[1] In 1914, U.S. and European cartoons were introduced to Japan,[8] inspiring Japanese creators like Junichi Kouchi and Seitaro Kitayama,[9] both of whom were considered the "fathers of anime".
[5] The works of these two latter pioneers include Namakura Gatana ("An Obtuse Sword", 1917) and a 1918 film Urashima Tarō, which were believed to have been discovered together at an antique market in 2007.
[11] Yasuji Murata, Hakuzan Kimura, Sanae Yamamoto and Noburō Ōfuji were students of Kitayama Seitaro and worked at his film studio.
Many early animated Japanese films were lost after the 1923 Tokyo earthquake, including destroying most of the Kitayama studio, with artists trying to incorporate traditional motifs and stories into a new form.
[22] Such support helped boost the industry, as bigger companies formed through mergers and prompted major live-action studios such as Shochiku to begin producing animation.
This included films such as Maysuyo Seo's Momotarō: Umi no Shinpei (Momotaro: Sacred Sailors) (1943) which focused on the Japanese occupation of Asia.
Hiroshi Takahata bought a studio named Japan Animated Films in 1948, renaming it Tōei Dōga,[15] with an ambition to become "the Disney of the East."
[48] In the 1980s, anime started to go through a "visual quality renewal" thanks to new directors like Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, who founded Studio Ghibli in 1985, and Katsuhiro Ōtomo.
It also allowed the film's director Hayao Miyazaki and his longtime colleague Isao Takahata to create their own studio under the supervision of former Animage editor Toshio Suzuki.
This period of lavish budgeting and experimentation would reach its zenith with one of the most-expensive anime film productions ever: Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise (1987).
The domestic failure and international success of Akira, combined with the bursting of the bubble economy and Osamu Tezuka's death in 1989, marked the end of the 1980s era of anime.
[54][55][56] Ghost in the Shell, alongside Evangelion and the neo-noir space Western Cowboy Bebop, helped further increase the awareness of anime in international markets.
[52] By 1998, over one hundred anime shows were aired on television in Japan,[48] including a popular series based on the Pokémon video game franchise.
Elfen Lied in particular being aired on subsidiary premium network AT-X, allowing director Mamoru Kanbe to push the boundaries of violence, nudity, and story themes, as well as employ unique artistic elements such as artwork inspired by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt.
[66] The show was an instant success, the only problem being the air time was late and at night, meaning that the audience was subject to a small number of people.
Anime based on eroge and visual novels increased in popularity in the 2000s, building on a trend started in the late 1990s by such works as Sentimental Journey (1998) and To Heart (1999).
The revival of earlier anime series was seen in the forms of Fist of the North Star: The Legends of the True Savior (2006) and Dragon Ball Z Kai (2009).
Later series also started receiving revivals in the late 2000s and early 2010s, such as with Studio Khara's Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy (2007–2021), and new adaptations of Masamune Shirow's manga Appleseed XIII (2011) and Ghost in the Shell: Arise (2013–2016).
The decade also dawned a revival of high-budget feature-length anime films, such as Millennium Actress (2001), Metropolis (2001), Appleseed (2001), Paprika (2006), and the most expensive of all being Steamboy (2004) which cost $26 million to produce.
Following the launch of the Toonami programming block on Cartoon Network in the United States in March 1997, anime saw a giant rise in the North American market.
Kid-friendly anime such as Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Digimon, Doraemon, Bakugan, Beyblade, Sonic X, and the 4Kids Entertainment adaptation of One Piece have all received varying levels of success.
This era also saw the rise of Anime-influenced animation, most notably Avatar: the Last Airbender and its sequel The Legend of Korra, Megas XLR, Code Lyoko, Ben 10, Chaotic, Samurai Jack, The Boondocks, RWBY and Teen Titans.
As such, anime further became entrenched in U.S. households with the launch of Adult Swim by Cartoon Network in 2001, aimed at those in the "older OVA & tape trading crowd," with a new fandom forming.
(2014), Parasyte -the maxim- (2014), One-Punch Man (2015), Dragon Ball Super (2015), My Hero Academia (2016), Boruto: Naruto Next Generations (2017), and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (2019).
[72] Several prominent staffers, including producer Yoshiaki Nishimura and director Hiromasa Yonebayashi, left to form their own Studio Ponoc, premièring with Mary and the Witch's Flower (2017).
[88] 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 X (then known as 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.
