A Brief History of Anime ~ Doujin Manga Society

Defined by the Oxford dictionary as: "A style of Japanese film and television animation, typically aimed at adults as well as children."

Akira (1988)

Welcome to another post in the "Anime/Manga Vs. Cartoon/Comic" today we will have a brief look at one of the most iconic symbols in Japanese culture(or at least one of the most known world wide)

Anime.

At the start of the of the 20th century Japanese filmmakers were experimenting with animation techniques that were being explored in the West. Some of the first animators that started experimenting with this techniques and are known as the "Fathers" of anime. Animators such as Oten Shimokawa, Jun'ichi Kouchi and Seitaro Kitayama; their work in the late 1910 is considerate the first generation of animation.

During World Ward II Japanese government demanded from animators and filmmakers the production of animated films that would increase the nationalism and serve as propaganda to influence the children during the war. Films like Momotaro no Umiwashi and Momotaro: Umi no Shimpei

Propaganda Films...an adorable graphical view to something so horrid as war.

Monkeys with guns..nuff siad

Years later in 1963 we have the appearance of the first widely popular anime series, Ozamu Tesuka's popular manga Astro Boy. In 1970 anime developed further from it's western roots, trying and explorers new genres such as the Mecha and it's Super Robot sub genre, from this times shows such as Lupin III and Mazinger Z were created .

"And remember kids, eat your vegies and fruits every day!"

Is just me or that mini skirt is not even covering.....nvm...

By 1980 anime was accepted in the mainstream in Japan, experiencing a boom in it's production and the creation of several popular anime series such as the Gundam franchise, Macross, Dragon Ball and many others. The film Akira set records in 1988 for the production cost of an anime film and became a success world wide, years later several other films such as Ghost in the Shell became world wide success and anime acceptance in the west grew.

I know certain someone that loves this franchise *cough* ~~Victor~~ *cough*

To this date anime is widely recognized as a very influential style of animation, several anime films are recognized as classics and recognized with several awards. The work of animation studios such as Studio Ghibli and their anime featured films are among the most influential and well known animated movies world wide.

My Neighbor Totoro, if this is not influential I don't know what is!

Well that concludes this little post about the origins of anime, I hope all of you enjoyed it and remember to check often for the next post in the section. Also don't forget to share your thought and opinion on our comment section below.

For those who might have missed the other post in this section I will leave the previous one below: