Anime Classics Episode 2 - A History of Anime

Show Notes:

This episode is a brief history of anime and serves and as part one of an introductory primer to classic anime.

Here are some links to points of interest on the show:

Episode Transcript:

Intro:

Are you interested in hearing a brief history of anime? If so, you have tuned into the right podcast.

Hi, I’m Rowegn, and I’m the host of the anime classics podcast.

On today’s episode, we are covering a brief overview of the history of anime. And this episode is part one of a mini-series that will serve as an introductory primer to classic anime. We are going to go way back to the start of anime and discuss the notable events leading up to 2001.

Thank you for listening.

-Intro Music

Thank you again for joining us, you’re listening to the anime classics podcast.

On last week’s episode we discussed the purpose of the show, who I am, and provided 5 solid classic anime picks to get you started. So, if you didn’t listen to that episode, I highly recommend you go check it out after this episode.

As I mentioned in the introduction, this episode is a brief history of anime. We are going to discuss a lot of the things you are about to hear in more depth on later episodes, but this will at least give you a good starting point for your dive into classic anime.

And whether you are a new fan of anime or a seasoned vet, you are sure to hear something new and interesting. So be sure to send me an email at rowegn@animeclassics.com and let me know what you found most interesting or let me know if I missed anything important.

So with that said, we’re going to get things started by taking a look back to the early 20^th century, which is where anime got started.

Beginning of Anime

Back in 1907, a 3 second filmstrip called Katsudo Shashin was created and is currently recognized as the earliest recorded Japanese animation in history. Now, 1907 is actually kind of an educated guess, because interestingly enough, this animated film sat undiscovered for nearly a hundred years until it was found in a collection of films and projectors in 2005.
The discovery of this film received widespread attention in Japan, because it is presumed that the film was made prior to 1912, which predates the flow of western cartoons into the country.
The film is comprised of 50 frames, or 16 frames per second, and depicts a young boy in a sailor suit writing “motion picture” on a board before removing his hat and taking a bow.
By today’s standards, this is quite unremarkable, so the significance of this is purely historical.
In fact, if you look Katsudo Shashin up on myanimelist.net, you’ll see that it currently has a score of 5.47 and has not reviewed favorably. Obviously, this is all in jest and the community is having a bit of fun with this, but if you’re interested in seeing this film, it can be found on youtube and we’ll have a link to this in our show notes that can be found on animeclassics.com. At a staggering 3 seconds, this will be one of the easiest anime commitments you ever make.
So Katsudo Shashin came out around 1907, and around 1912, animation from Europe and the United States started flowing into Japan.
As you can imagine, this was the very earliest stage of animation, and it was pretty crude and basic. You’d have a general concept of a story, but animation at this time was in a bit of novelty stage and so there was more emphasis on showcasing the technology as opposed to using it as a medium for compelling stories.
These early animated films did serve as an inspiration to Junichi Kouchi, Seitaro Kitayama, and Oten Shimokawa who are commonly recognized as the fathers of anime.
In 1917, these three men created a handful of short, animated works and so 1917 is commonly recognized as the year that Japanese animation officially became a thing.
Unfortunately, many of these classic works were lost to time, however they do occasionally pop up in antique stores and flea markets. So we can always hold out hope that we’ll see them again someday. But for now, we can only imagine what we are missing out on.
In the subsequent years, interest in animation grew and small animation studios began to crop up creating many more short films.

1923 Earthquake

Unfortunately, Japan saw untold devastation in 1923 from the Great Kanto earthquake.
If you’re not familiar with this bit of Japanese history, the Great Kanto Earthquake was a 7.9 magnitude earthquake that destroyed Tokyo and the surrounding areas. In all, there were an estimated 143,000 deaths and the aftermath left a lasting impression on the entire country.
As you can imagine, this was an incredibly tragic event, and I’d highly recommend you look into this further if you have any interest.
Unfortunately, the freshly birthed Japanese animation industry was not immune to this destruction, and many of the works of this time were lost forever.
Obviously, this event did not destroy the Japanese animation industry entirely, however it was not the only setback they faced at this time.

Foreign Animation

By the early 1930s, foreign animators had already made significant strides in animation production and technology. In fact, some animation studios, such as Disney, were even animating in color.
By comparison, Japanese animation studios were still primarily using cutout animation. And if you don’t know what cutout animation is, it’s a technique where the animators cut out characters, backgrounds, and props from materials, such as paper, and film them in action using stop-motion animation.
This is how the pilot episode of south park was animated, using construction paper. So if you’re looking for a good example of cutout animation, go check that out.
The reason Japanese animation studios used cutout animation was mostly related to cost. And of further consequence, it was much cheaper to import foreign cartoons at the time versus animating them locally.
So the result was that you had these masterfully animated works of art from foreign animation studios receiving a lot of attention, whereas the Japanese offerings were subpar by comparison.
Despite this, there were still a persistence in the Japanese animation industry to push forward and create better animation.
And by the mid-30s Japanese animation started featuring voice actors and the industry began a shift toward cel animation.
Despite these advances, animation was still not commercially viable, so most of the funding for animation came from the government or corporate PR departments.
By the late 30s, things started to shift in a different direction for the Japanese animation industry.

World War II

In 1939, Japan began a period of Cultural Nationalism, leading up to their involvement in World War 2. This resulted in a shift in the animation industry toward government propaganda pieces and limited the importation of foreign animated features.
This boosted the anime industry and companies began to merge and form larger companies and this grew the industry overall.
In 1941, the first full feature length Asian animated film, Princess Iron Fan, was released by China, and was exported to Japan the following year.
Princess Iron Fan is said to have had an impact on a teenage Osamu Tezuka, who we’ll talk more about later, and it also spurred the Japanese Ministry of the Navy to produce the first full feature-length anime movie, Momotaro, Sacred Soldier of the Sea, which released in 1945.

Post War Era

Over the next decade, more animation studios opened up and production increased to keep up with the rising interest in animation. Of the studios that opened during this time, the most noteworthy are Toei and TMS entertainment.
These two studios are still around today and you probably recognize some of their work.
With Toei you have shows like Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, Galaxy Express 999, and One Piece to name a few.
And TMS Entertainment has produced a ton of anime including Magic Knight Rayearth, Golgo 13, and Akira.
In the 1950s, anime would continue to be mostly comprised of short films, however in 1958 Toei released the first feature-length Japanese animated film in color, Panda and the Magic Serpent.
This was also one of the first three animated movies that saw a theatrical release in the United States in 1961. The other two movies were Magic Boy and Alakazam the Great, which were also Toei productions.
And two years later in 1963 is when you see the first glimmer of what the anime industry would become.

1963

This is the year when the first weekly anime series would hit the air in both the United States and Japan. And you may have already guessed, but the show I’m talking about is Astro Boy.
Earlier in this program, I made a reference to Osamu Tezuka, and he is one of the people who can be credited for popularizing anime on an international scale.
Now, there is a lot to unravel when it comes to Osamu Tezuka and Astro Boy, but we’ll save that for another episode. If this has piqued your interest though, I’d highly recommend you look into it more.
In any case, Astro Boy is really the first anime to have any sort of significant presence in the United States.
And the significance of Astro Boy is that at the time, animation in general was costly and time consuming. But with Astro Boy, Osamu Tezuka took full advantaged of animation shortcutting methods for quickly producing episodes for a very cheap price.
When Tezuka first created the show, each episode had a budget of 550,000 yen, which equates to 4,200 American dollars. Which, if adjusted for inflation equates to roughly $40,000 in today’s money.
By comparison, most modern anime series have a budget that is 2 to 5 times that amount. So Astro Boy was produced for dirt cheap.
Astro Boy is also significant in that the show featured characters with big eyes, big heads, and the use of sound during still frames to compensate for the lack of animation, and these things have all become part of the identity of the anime industry.
The show was a wild success with young boys, and 3 years later in 1966, Sally the Witch was broadcast and was the first magical girl anime AND the first anime targeted at young girls.
And as these children grew up during the 60s and 70s, even more anime was produced to keep up with the demands of these aging fans.

Anime grows in popularity

It’s incredible to think about how much the industry grew during this time. By comparison to the modern era, there wasn’t a ton of anime coming out, however compared to the 40s and 50s, this was unprecedented.
There was also a general shift toward television programming, and while there were still anime films being produced, the substantial increase in the production of anime was clearly tilted toward broadcast networks.
When Astro Boy aired in 1963, it was one of six anime shows to debut that year, and by 1978, there were triple to quadruple that amount being release every year, and this is in addition to the shows that had already started in previous years.
So there was a massive spike in anime interest, and this ultimately lead to a boom of sorts in the late 70s to the late 80s, which we’ll talk more about in a minute.
This increase in popularity also resulted in sponsorship deals where large brands were suddenly tying their company to these shows that were being produced.
For example, in 1963 Toei produced their first anime tv show, Wolf Boy Ken, which was sponsored by Morinaga Candy Company.
Another example is the large Japanese soda company, Calpis, sponsored the Calpis Comic Theater in 1969, and this is what would later become the World Masterpiece Theater.
By the mid-1970s, anime was in full swing in Japan, and many classics got their start during this time such as Mazinger Z, Lupin III, and Space Battleship Yamato. And these shows would be a sign of things to come.
Anime also started to mature in some ways and shows such as Space Battleship Yamato began to feature complicated storylines with overarching plots that spanned the entire series.
Previously, most anime was episodic in nature, this means that the storylines started and finished within the same episode. This worked better for reruns and for younger kids, however the shift to more mature storytelling was symbolic of the aging anime fan who demanded a more compelling watch.
And by the late 70s, the stage was set for what is commonly referred to as the Golden Age of anime.

Golden Age of Anime

If you go online and do a little googling, you’re going to find a lot of opinions on the Golden Age of Anime. Some people say it was in the 90s, some in the 2010s, and to be honest, they all have good reasons for saying this.
As for me, I believe that the 1980s is the Golden Age of anime. During this time, Japan was experiencing an economic boom, and the anime industry was feeling the full effect of this.
Furthermore, during this time, the popularity of the VCR and cable television was increasing drastically. This meant more avenues for broadcasting and selling anime on home video.
This brought about the advent of OVAs, or Original Video Animations, which was anime that was sold directly to home viewers on VHS, or laserdisc.
This is also the time when you started to see a drastic uptick in the quality of animation and storytelling. And the industry was not afraid to experiment with anime and try new and different concepts.
Additionally, Studio Ghibli started up during this time, and they created family friendly anime that could be enjoyed by people of all ages.
You could certainly make an argument that later decades produced better anime, but this would be purely subjective, however you can’t deny that the 80s is when anime really became what we see today, which is an international entertainment industry.
Let’s take a look at some of the movies that came out in the 80s:
- Akira, straight off, one of the best anime movies of all time. And this is actually the movie that made me an anime fan.
- Then you have other movies that weren’t quite as popular, but still pretty well known. These are movies such as Grave of the Fireflies, Vampire Hunter D, Angel’s Egg, Wing’s of Honneamise, Wicked City and we could really go on at length about this.
- Then as for shows and OVAs, there’s Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Bubblegum Crisis, Gunbuster, and Saint Seiya.
- And let’s not forget about the Studio Ghibli offerings of this era; My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Castle in the Sky, and Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind, which isn’t technically a Ghibli movie since it was created a year before the studio formed, but it’s made by the same people. And maybe sometime we’ll talk about the Warriors of the Wind abomination that kept Hayao Miyazaki from distributing his movies internationally for quite some time.
So just with those handful of shows, you have a strong case that the 80s was the golden age of anime. Now, again, you’ll find different opinions on this, so please, shoot me an email at rowegn@animeclassics.com and let me know what you think. I would love to hear from you!

Japan’s Lost Decade

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and I’m not talking about this show, I’m talking about Japan’s economic boom in the 1980s.
In 1991, Japan began an economic recession that would be commonly known as the Lost Decade. We’re not going to get into the specifics of the recession or how it happened, but if you google “Japan’s Lost Decade,” you’ll find a ton of resources to help educate you, and in fact I’ll drop a link to a documentary that I watched recently on this in the show notes.
This recession did impact the anime industry, and there was a lot less risk taking with big budget movies. That’s not to say that you didn’t have any good movies coming out in the 90s, it’s quite the opposite actually.
In the 90s, you have movies such as Ninja Scroll, Ghost in the Shell, Perfect Blue, and Princess Mononoke.
And of course there are an incredible number of tv shows that are still popular to this day, including Berserk, Yu-Yu Hakusho, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Cowboy Bebop.
One other side effect of the Japanese recession was that there was more of a priority on international distribution.
This is evident in Studio Ghibli’s distribution deal that they secured with Disney in 1996 after 4 years of negotiation.
Prior to this, Hayao Miyazaki wasn’t too impressed with western movie studios butchering up his anime and rewriting parts to make it more “friendly” to western audiences.
However, with the stressed economy, anime studios became more reliant on foreign dollars to continue to survive.
In the United States, we also saw cable networks such as cartoon network broadcasting Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon on Toonami. And these shows have the rare distinction of breaching the niche world of anime fandom into mainstream popularity. I mean, it’s saying something when your grandparents have heard of Dragon Ball Z.
Around this time, DVDs became the favored format, and they were cheaper to produce and distribute. So it was finally possible to purchase anime shows for a reasonable price. That’s not to say it was cheap, but when you consider buying an entire season or series of a show for 70 to 80 dollars compared to 200 to 300 dollars, it’s a little bit easier to stomach that price.

The 2000s

If you listened to the first episode, you’ll know that our cutoff for classic anime is 2001. But since this is an anime history episode, we’re going to briefly touch on the 2000s and the 2010s.
In the early 2000s, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim ramped up their anime offerings, and you started seeing shows like Tenchi Muyo, Cowboy Bebop, and Inuyasha air on these channels.
And this is right around the time when you started seeing the first inklings of streaming services. Crunchy Roll got started in 2006, and it was originally a website where users could upload pirated anime, however they went legit in 2009.
In 2007, Netflix began it’s streaming service, and Hulu was launched in this same year.
These streaming services didn’t initially offer a large anime selection, but as you are probably well aware, that has changed.
The 2000s also saw the resurgence of big budget blockbuster anime movies such as Millenium Actress, Paprika, Metropolis, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Summer Wars.
Additionally, thanks to the immense popularity of pokemon in the late 90s, there was a surge of kid’s anime such as Yu-Gi-Oh, Digimon, Beyblade, and Bakugan.
So the 2000s is when anime really established a solid mainstream presence in the United States.
And in the 2010s, the additional anime streaming services that cropped up in this time are a testament to the continued growing popularity of anime.

Closing

Well, that’s it for this episode of Anime Classics.
On today’s episode, we dove into a brief history of anime, as the first part of a mini-series that will serve as your primer for diving into the world of classic anime.
On next week’s episode, we’re going to cover five notable people who stand out in the history of anime.
And remember, this show is for you, so if you have any feedback on the presentation or me as a host or even requests for classic anime topics you’d like to hear covered on this show, then be sure to send me an email.
Again, my email address is rowegn@animeclassics.com, and I promise I read every single email I receive.
You can find our show notes and links at animeclassics.com.
Also, be sure to check out my blog, 90sanime.com and sign up for our newsletter.
This show is a production of Desmor Media LLC, music is Kaleidoscopes by RomanBelov via Pixabay
Thank you so much again for tuning in, and until next time, enjoy some classic anime.

Anime Classics Episode 2 – A History of Anime

Show Notes:

Episode Transcript:

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