Uber Brief History of Anime

An Uber Brief History of Anime : 

An Uber Brief History of Anime Courtesy of Chavon-chan-san

First off : 

First off Notice I said brief. Since we were thinking of delving into the classic animes for the month of February (if you paid attention at the last meeting ^_^), I thought “Well hey, it wouldn’t make much sense for us to expand our anime repertoire without learning more about where it came from.

Cont’d : 

Cont’d And, this is brief because, hey. There’s a lot of history to go over. And, I plan on doing something cool at the end of the year with all the history and timelines… So I’m just going to give you the basics

Origins : 

Origins There are a lot of differing theories that I’ve come across, but the average of that info pretty much boils down to this:

Slide 5: 

Anime (obviously) originated in Japan around the 20th Century, when Japanese filmmakers decided to experiment with animation based on things they saw in the west. I think that that is where the idea that manga originally ripped off Walt Disney originated. Not sure if this is true though. I think that they kinda ripped off each other actually…

One of the comparisons that have been made… : 

One of the comparisons that have been made… Kimba the White Lion VS Simba the Lion King

Mystery First Anime : 

Mystery First Anime Sadly, I was unable to track this down, but the first anime ever discovered was created in 1907, and consisted of 50 frames drawn on celluloid. It featured a little boy in a sailor suit writing the kanji "活動 (for moving pictures) on a board, then turning to the camera and saluting The creator is still unknown.

First generation anime creator : 

First generation anime creator Ōten Shimokawa May 1892-1973 Was at first a political cartoonist, but ended up delving into anime. Created Imokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no Maki in 1917, which is considered to be the first real anime movie, as it was the first to be shown in a theater. Unfortunately, no pictures of this still survive, so alas, I couldn’t get it for us.,

Osamu Tezuka : 

Osamu Tezuka Known as the “Father of Modern Anime” Was heavily influenced by Disney Popular productions include “Testuwan Atom” aka Astro Boy and the prior mentioned Kimba the White Lion

Birth of Anime : 

Birth of Anime The 1970s is where anime got the shape we know now. No longer imitating Disney, it created it’s own genre. In the 70s anime began to boom, and one of the most popular genres was the ‘mecha’ animes, such as Gundam, Big O. Things of that nature.

Cont’d : 

Cont’d The late 1970s and early 80s is where we start seeing the emergence of what we now refer to as “classic” animes. They were drawn with a bit more realisitic style, making humans appear like… humans… Cat-people and Chibi’s didn’t really start appearing until the “Great Anime Boom!” of the mid-1990s

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From that era you see a lot of things like: Ghost in the Shell, Millenium Actress (a bit later), Steamboy, the ‘digitally remastered’ Astro Boy, Akira, Lupin III, Ranma 1/2 MAJOR ‘mech’ animes, and early Miyazaki films

Anime in the 70s : 

Anime in the 70s Mazinger Z: One of the first mech animes that started off the trend. The story revolved around an evil mad scientist, Dr. Hell, who had found lost robotic technology and used it to build robots of destruction After this, came what I like to refer to as the Era of Gundams

Other trends of the 70s : 

Other trends of the 70s The 70s also sparked the whole ‘good-guy kinda but not really’ deal Aka the anti-hero. Most 70s animes were a bit more ‘gritty’, with characters suffering from dramas and life like complications

Anime Goes Mainstream : 

Anime Goes Mainstream I think the 90s is where anime really got going. Where there was a big push for animes… good animes might I add. The 90s were also pretty pimp for good music ^_^ Continuing with Tezuka's fundamental trend in telling stories as well as following the drama that was seen in such series as Mobile Suit Gundam, acclaimed manga artist Rumiko Takahashi was (and still is) one of the most prominent figures during this time period

Cont’d : 

Cont’d We owe the anime we know today to the contributions made in the early 20th century, and namely in the 1970s where anime got it’s distinctive styles and was set apart from western cartoons. It’s from this era that we get the style that we all recognize today.

Anime Today : 

Anime Today As you all can attest to, Anime is well alive and kicking but also, it’s continuing to evolve and grow. In Japan, new series are shown on TV networks every day, with seemingly no end in sight, and manga-ka are still eager to create new and exciting anime series.

Cont’d : 

Cont’d While there still are misconceptions and confusions about anime, it’s become remarkably mainstream, to those who don’t even know it’s anime *cough cough Pokemon*

So, to conclude : 

So, to conclude Yeah, yeah, I know this is kinda a skeet presentation. Mostly text. None of my funny pictures. But through innumerable circumstances, Chavon-Chan-San happened to be extremely busy lately. So, like I said, this is the abridged version. Think of this like a preview

Slide 21: 

Fin For Now…