AMINE AND MANGA

Shōjo manga and Ladies' Comics from 1975 to today
In the following decades (1975-present), shōjo manga continued to develop stylistically while simultaneously evolving different but overlapping subgenres.Major subgenres have included romance, superheroines, and "Ladies Comics" (in Japanese, redisu レディース, redikomi レヂィーコミ, and josei 女性 じょせい), whose boundaries are sometimes indistinguishable from each other and from shōnen manga.

In modern shōjo manga romance, love is a major theme set into emotionally intense narratives of self-realization. Japanese manga/anime critic Eri Izawa defines romance as symbolizing "the emotional, the grand, the epic; the taste of heroism, fantastic adventure, and the melancholy; passionate love, personal struggle, and eternal longing" set into imaginative, individualistic, and passionate narrative frameworks. These romances are sometimes long narratives that can deal with distinguishing between false and true love, coping with sexual intercourse, and growing up in a complex world, themes inherited by subsequent animated versions of the story. These "coming of age" or bildungsroman themes occur in both shōjo and shōnen manga.

In the bildungsroman, the protagonist must deal with adversity and conflict, and examples in shōjo manga of romantic conflict are common. They include Miwa Ueda's Peach Girl, Fuyumi Soryo's Mars, and, for mature readers, Moyoco Anno's Happy Mania, Yayoi Ogawa's Tramps Like Us, and Ai Yazawa's Nana.In another shōjo manga bildungsroman narrative device, the young heroine is transported to an alien place or time where she meets strangers and must survive on her own (including Hagio Moto's They Were Eleven, Kyoko Hikawa's From Far Away, Yû Watase's Fushigi Yûgi: The Mysterious Play, and Chiho Saito's The World Exists For Me).

Yet another such device involves meeting unusual or strange people and beings, for example, Natsuki Takaya's Fruits Basket—one of the most popular shōjo manga in the United States—whose orphaned heroine Tohru must survive living in the woods in a house filled with people who can transform into the animals of the Chinese zodiac. In Harako Iida's Crescent Moon, heroine Mahiru meets a group of supernatural beings, finally to discover that she herself too has a supernatural ancestry when she and a young tengu demon fall in love.

With the superheroines, shōjo manga continued to break away from neo-Confucianist norms of female meekness and obedience.Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor Moon (Bishōjo Senshi Sēramūn: "Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon") is a sustained, 18-volume narrative about a group of young heroines simultaneously heroic and introspective, active and emotional, dutiful and ambitious.The combination proved extremely successful, and Sailor Moon became internationally popular in both manga and anime formats. Another example is CLAMP's Magic Knight Rayearth, whose three young heroines, Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu, are magically transported to the world of Cephiro to become armed magical warriors in the service of saving Cephiro from internal and external enemies.

The superheroine subgenre also extensively developed the notion of teams (sentai) of girls working together, like the Sailor Senshi in Sailor Moon, the Magic Knights in Magic Knight Rayearth, and the Mew Mew girls from Mia Ikumi's Tokyo Mew Mew. By today, the superheroine narrative template has been widely used and parodied within the shōjo manga tradition (e.g., Nao Yazawa's Wedding Peach and Hyper Rune by Tamayo Akiyama) and outside that tradition, e.g., in bishōjo comedies like Kanan's Galaxy Angel.

In the mid-1980s and thereafter, as girls who had read shōjo manga as teenagers matured and entered the job market, shōjo manga elaborated subgenres directed at women in their 20s and 30s. This "Ladies Comic" or redisu-josei subgenre has dealt with themes of young adulthood: jobs, the emotions and problems of sexual intercourse, and friendships or love among women.

Redisu manga retains many of the narrative stylistics of shōjo manga but has been drawn by and written for adult women. Redisu manga and art has been often, but not always, sexually explicit, but sexuality has characteristically been set into complex narratives of pleasure and erotic arousal combined with emotional risk. Examples include Ryō Ramiya's Luminous Girls, Masako Watanabe's Kinpeibai and the work of Shungicu Uchida Another subgenre of shōjo-redisu manga deals with emotional and sexual relationships among women (akogare and yuri), in work by Erica Sakurazawa, Ebine Yamaji, and Chiho Saito. Other subgenres of shōjo-redisu manga have also developed, e.g., fashion (oshare) manga, like Ai Yazawa's Paradise Kiss and horror-vampire-gothic manga, like Matsuri Hino's Vampire Knight,Kaori Yuki's Cain Saga, and Mitsukazu Mihara's DOLL, which interact with street fashions, costume play ("cosplay"), J-Pop music, and goth subcultures in complex ways.

By the start of the 21st century, manga for women and girls thus represented a broad spectrum of material for pre- and early teenagers to material for adult women.


Shōnen, seinen, and seijin manga
Manga for male readers can be characterized in different ways. One is by the age of its intended audience: boys up to 18 years old (shōnen manga) and young men 18- to 30-years old (seinen manga). Another approach is by content, including action-adventure often involving male heroes, slapstick humor, themes of honor, and sometimes explicit sexuality. Japanese uses different kanji for two closely allied meanings of "seinen"—青年 for "youth, young man" and 成年 for "adult, majority"—the second referring to sexually overt manga aimed at grown men and also called seijin ("adult," 成人) manga. Shōnen, seinen, and seijin manga share many features in common.

Boys and young men were among the earliest readers of manga after World War II. From the 1950s on, shōnen manga focused on topics thought to interest the archetypical boy: sci-tech subjects like robots and space travel, and heroic action-adventure. Shōnen and seinen manga narratives often portray challenges to the protagonist’s abilities, skills, and maturity, stressing self-perfection, austere self-discipline, sacrifice in the cause of duty, and honorable service to society, community, family, and friends.

Manga with solitary costumed superheroes like Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man did not become popular as a shōnen genre. An exception is Kia Asamiya's Batman: Child of Dreams, released in the U.S. by DC Comics and in Japan by Kodansha. However, lone heroes occur in Takao Saito's Golgo 13 and Koike and Kojima's Lone Wolf and Cub. Golgo 13 is about an assassin who puts his skills to the service of world peace and other social goals, and Ogami Itto, the swordsman-hero of Lone Wolf and Cub, is a widower caring for his son Daigoro while he seeks vengeance against his wife's murderers. However, Golgo and Itto remain men throughout and neither hero ever displays superpowers. Instead, these stories "journey into the hearts and minds of men" by remaining on the plane of human psychology and motivation.

Many shōnen manga have science fiction and technology themes. Early examples in the robot subgenre included Tezuka’s Astro Boy (see above) and Fujiko F. Fujio’s 1969 Doraemon, about a robot cat and the boy he lives with, which was aimed at younger boys. The robot theme evolved extensively, from Mitsuteru Yokoyama's 1956 Tetsujin 28-go to later, more complex stories where the protagonist must not only defeat enemies, but learn to master himself and cooperate with the mecha he controls. Thus, in Neon Genesis Evangelion by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Shinji struggles against the enemy and against his father, and in Vision of Escaflowne by Katsu Aki, Van not only makes war against Dornkirk’s empire but must deal with his complex feelings for Hitomi, the heroine.

Sports themes are also popular in manga for male readers.These stories stress self-discipline, depicting not only the excitement of sports competition but also character traits the hero needs to transcend his limitations and to triumph. Examples include boxing (Tetsuya Chiba’s 1968-1973 Tomorrow's Joe and Rumiko Takahashi's 1987 One-Pound Gospel and basketball (Takehiko Inoue’s 1990 Slam Dunk

Supernatural settings have been another source of action-adventure plots in shõnen and some shõjo manga in which the hero must master challenges. Sometimes the protagonist fails, as in Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's Death Note, where protagonist Light Yagami receives a notebook from a Death God (shinigami) that kills anyone whose name is written in it, and, in a shōjo manga example, Hakase Mizuki's The Demon Ororon, whose protagonist abandons his demonic kingship of Hell to live and die on earth Sometimes the protagonist himself is supernatural, like Kohta Hirano's Hellsing, whose vampire hero Alucard battles reborn Nazis hellbent on conquering England, but the hero may also be (or was) human, battling an ever-escalating series of supernatural enemies (Hiromu Arakawa's Full Metal Alchemist, Nobuyuki Anzai's Flame of Recca, and Tite Kubo's Bleach).

Military action-adventure stories set in the modern world, for example, about World War II, remained under suspicion of glorifying Japan’s Imperial history and have not become a significant part of the shōnen manga repertoire. Nonetheless, stories about fantasy or historical military adventure were not stigmatized, and manga about heroic warriors and martial artists have been extremely popular. Some are serious dramas, like Sanpei Shirato's The Legend of Kamui and Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiro Watsuki, but others contain strongly humorous elements, like Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball.

Although stories about modern war and its weapons do exist, they deal as much or more with the psychological and moral problems of war as they do with sheer shoot-'em-up adventure. Examples include Seiho Takizawa's Who Fighter, a retelling of Joseph Conrad's story Heart of Darkness about a renegade Japanese colonel set in World War II Burma, Kaiji Kawaguchi's The Silent Service, about a Japanese nuclear submarine, and Motofumi Kobayashi's Apocalypse Meow, about the Vietnam War told in talking animal format. Other battle and fight-oriented manga are complex stories of criminal and espionage conspiracies to be overcome by the protagonist, such as City Hunter by Hojo Tsukasa, Fist of the North Star by Tetsuo Hara, and in the shōjo manga From Eroica with Love by Yasuko Aoike, a long-running crime-espionage story combining adventure, action, and humor (and another example of how these themes occur across genres).

For manga critics Koji Aihara and Kentaro Takekuma, such battle stories endlessly repeat the same mindless themes of violence, which they sardonically label the "Shonen Manga Plot Shish Kebob", where fights follow fights like meat skewered on a stick. Other commentators suggest that fight sequences and violence in comics serve as a social outlet for otherwise dangerous impulses. Shōnen manga and its extreme warriorship have been parodied, for example, in Mine Yoshizaki's screwball comedy Sgt. Frog (Keroro Gunso), about a platoon of slacker alien frogs who invade the Earth and end up free-loading off the Hinata family in Tokyo.


Sex and women's roles in manga for males
In early shōnen manga, men and boys played all the major roles, with women and girls having only auxiliary places as sisters, mothers, and occasionally girlfriends. Of the nine cyborgs in Shotaro Ishinomori's 1964 Cyborg 009, only one is female, and she soon vanishes from the action. Some recent shōnen manga virtually omit women, e.g., the martial arts story Baki the Grappler by Itagaki Keisuke and the supernatural fantasy Sand Land by Akira Toriyama. However, by the 1980s, girls and women began to play increasingly important roles in shōnen manga, for example, Toriyama's 1980 Dr. Slump, whose main character is the mischievous and powerful girl robot Arale Norimaki.

The role of girls and women in manga for male readers has evolved considerably since Arale. One class is the pretty girl (bishōjo). Sometimes the woman is unattainable, but she is always an object of the hero's emotional and sexual interest, like Belldandy from Oh My Goddess! by Kosuke Fujishima and Shao-lin from Guardian Angel Getten by Minene Sakurano. In other stories, the hero is surrounded by such girls and women, as in Negima by Ken Akamatsu and Hanaukyo Maid Team by Morishige. The male protagonist does not always succeed in forming a relationship with the woman, for example when Bright Honda and Aimi Komori fail to bond in Shadow Lady by Masakazu Katsura. In other cases, a successful couple's sexual activities are depicted or implied, like Outlanders by Johji Manabe. In still other cases, the initially naive and immature hero grows up to become a man by learning how to deal and live with women emotionally and sexually, like Yota in Video Girl Ai by Masakazu Katsura, Train Man in Train Man: Densha Otoko by Hidenori Hara, and Makoto in Futari Ecchi by Katsu Aki. In poruno- and eromanga (seijin manga), often called hentai manga in the U.S., a sexual relationship is taken for granted and depicted explicitly, as in work by Toshiki Yui and in Were-Slut by Jiro Chiba and Slut Girl by Isutoshi. The result is a range of depictions of boys and men from naive to very experienced sexually.

Heavily armed female warriors (sentō bishōjo) represent another class of girls and women in manga for male readers. Some sentō bishōjo are battle cyborgs, like Alita from Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro, Motoko Kusanagi from Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell, and Chise from Shin Takahashi's Saikano. Others are human, like Attim M-Zak from Hiroyuki Utatane's Seraphic Feather, Johji Manabe's Karula Olzen from Drakuun, and Alita Forland (Falis) from Sekihiko Inui's Murder Princess.

With the relaxation of censorship in Japan after the early 1990s, a wide variety of explicitly drawn sexual themes appeared in manga intended for male readers that correspondingly occur in English translations. These depictions range from mild partial nudity through implied and explicit sexual intercourse through bondage and sadomasochism (SM), zoophilia (bestiality), incest, and rape. In some cases, rape and lust murder themes came to the forefront, as in Urotsukidoji by Toshio Maeda and Blue Catalyst from 1994 by Kei Taniguchi, but these extreme themes are not commonplace in either untranslated or translated manga.


Gekiga
Main article: Gekiga
Gekiga literally means "drama pictures" and refers to a form of aesthetic realism in manga. Gekiga style drawing is emotionally dark, often starkly realistic, sometimes very violent, and focuses on the day-in, day-out grim realities of life, often drawn in gritty and unpretty fashions. Gekiga arose in the late 1950s and 1960s partly from left-wing student and working class political activism and partly from the aesthetic dissatisfaction of young manga artists like Yoshihiro Tatsumi with existing manga. Examples include Sampei Shirato's 1959-1962 Chronicles of a Ninja's Military Accomplishments (Ninja Bugeichō), the story of Kagemaru, the leader of a peasant rebellion in the 1500s, which dealt directly with oppression and class struggle, and Hiroshi Hirata's Satsuma Gishiden, about uprisings against the Tokugawa shogunate.

As the social protest of these early years waned, gekiga shifted in meaning towards socially conscious, mature drama and towards the avant-garde.Examples include Koike and Kojima's Lone Wolf and Cub and Akira, an apocalyptic tale of motorcycle gangs, street war, and inexplicable transformations of the children of a future Tokyo. Another example is Osamu Tezuka's 1976 manga MW, a bitter story of the aftermath of the storage and possibly deliberate release of poison gas by U.S. armed forces based in Okinawa years after World War II. Gekiga and the social consciousness it embodies remain alive in modern-day manga. An example is Ikebukuro West Gate Park from 2001 by Ira Ishida and Sena Aritou, a story of street thugs, rape, and vengeance set on the social margins of the wealthy Ikebukuro district of Tokyo.

Tezuka and Hasegawa were also both stylistic innovators. In Tezuka's "cinematographic" technique, the panels are like a motion picture that reveals details of action bordering on slow motion as well as rapid zooms from distance to close-up shots. This kind of visual dynamism was widely adopted by later manga artists. Hasegawa's focus on daily life and on women's experience also came to characterize later shōjo manga.

Between 1950 and 1969, increasingly large audiences for manga emerged in Japan with the solidification of its two main marketing genres, shōnen manga aimed at boys and shōjo manga aimed at girls. Up to 1969, shōjo manga was drawn primarily by adult men for young female readers.

Two very popular and influential male-authored manga for girls from this period were Tezuka's 1953-1956 Ribon no Kishi (Princess Knight or Knight in Ribbons) and Matsuteru Yokoyama's 1966 Mahōtsukai Sarii (Little Witch Sally). Ribon no Kishi dealt with the adventures of Princess Sapphire of a fantasy kingdom who had been born with male and female souls, and whose sword-swinging battles and romances blurred the boundaries of otherwise rigid gender roles. Sarii, the pre-teen princess heroine of Mahōtsukai Sarii, came from her home in the magical lands to live on Earth, go to school, and perform a variety of magical good deeds for her friends and schoolmates.Yokoyama's Mahōtsukai Sarii was influenced by the U.S. TV sitcom Bewitched, but unlike Samantha, the main character of Bewitched, a married woman with her own daughter, Sarii is a pre-teenager who faces the problems of growing up and mastering the responsibilities of forthcoming adulthood. Mahōtsukai Sarii helped create the now very popular mahō shōjo or "magical girl" subgenre of later manga. Both series were and still are very popular.


[edit] Shōjo manga
In 1969, a group of women mangaka later called the Year 24 Group (also known as Magnificent 24s) made their shōjo manga debut (year 24 comes from the Japanese name for 1949, when many of these artists were born). The group included Hagio Moto, Riyoko Ikeda, Yumiko Oshima, Keiko Takemiya, and Ryoko Yamagishi[20] and they marked the first major entry of women artists into manga. Thereafter, shōjo manga would be drawn primarily by women artists for an audience of girls and young women.

In 1971, Ikeda began her immensely popular shōjo manga Berusaiyu no Bara (The Rose of Versailles), a story of Oscar François de Jarjayes, a cross-dressing woman who was a Captain in Marie Antoinette's Palace Guards in pre-Revolutionary France. In the end, Oscar dies as a revolutionary leading a charge of her troops against the Bastille. Likewise, Hagio Moto's work challenged Neo-Confucianist limits on women's roles and activities as in her 1975 They Were Eleven, a shōjo science fiction story about a young woman cadet in a future space academy.

These women artists also created considerable stylistic innovations. In its focus on the heroine's inner experiences and feelings, shōjo manga are "picture poems" with delicate and complex designs that often eliminate panel borders completely to create prolonged, non-narrative extensions of time. All of these innovations – strong and independent female characters, intense emotionality, and complex design – remain characteristic of shōjo manga up to the present day.

After World War II


Modern manga originates in the Occupation (1945-1952) and post-Occupation years (1952-early 1960s), when a previously militaristic and ultranationalist Japan was rebuilding its political and economic infrastructure. Although U.S. Occupation censorship policies specifically prohibited art and writing that glorified war and Japanese militarism,those policies did not prevent the publication of other kinds of material, including manga. Furthermore, the 1947 Japanese Constitution (Article 21) prohibited all forms of censorship. One result was an explosion of artistic creativity in this period.


Tezuka's "cinematographic" technique as seen in Shin Takarajima (New Treasure Island).In the forefront of this period are two manga series and characters that influenced much of the future history of manga. These are Osamu Tezuka's Mighty Atom (Astro Boy in the United States; begun in 1951) and Machiko Hasegawa's Sazae-san (begun in 1946).

Astro Boy was both a superpowered robot and a naive little boy. Tezuka never explained why Astro Boy had such a highly developed social conscience nor what kind of robot programming could make him so deeply affiliative. Both seem innate to Astro Boy, and represent a Japanese sociality and community-oriented masculinity differing very much from the Emperor-worship and militaristic obedience enforced during the previous period of Japanese imperialism. Astro Boy quickly became (and remains) immensely popular in Japan and elsewhere as an icon and hero of a new world of peace and the renunciation of war, as also seen in Article 9 of the Japanese constitution. Similar themes occur in Tezuka's New World and Metropolis.

By contrast, Sazae-san (meaning "Ms. Sazae") was drawn starting in 1946 by Machiko Hasegawa, a young woman artist who made her heroine a stand-in for millions of Japanese men and especially women rendered homeless by the war. Sazae-san does not face an easy or simple life, but, like Astro Boy, she too is highly affiliative and is deeply involved with her immediate and extended family. She is also a very strong character, in striking contrast to the officially sanctioned Neo-Confucianist principles of feminine meekness and obedience to the "good wife, wise mother" (ryōsai kenbo, りょうさいけんぼ; 良妻賢母) ideal taught by the previous military regime. Sazae-san faces the world with cheerful resilience, what Hayao Kawai calls a "woman of endurance". Sazae-san sold more than 62 million copies over the next half century

Before World War II


All writers like Takashi Murakami have also stressed events after WWII, but Murakami sees Japan's staggering defeat and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as having created long-lasting scars on the Japanese artistic psyche, which, in this view, lost its previously virile confidence in itself and sought solace in harmless and cute (kawaii) images. However, Takayumi Tatsumi sees a special role for a transpacific economic and cultural transnationalism that created a postmodern and shared international youth culture of cartooning, film, television, music, and related popular arts, which was, for Tatsumi the crucible in which modern manga have developed.

For Murakami and Tatsumi, transnationalism (or globalization) refers specifically to the flow of cultural and subcultural material from one nation to another.In their usage, the term does not refer to international corporate expansion, nor to international tourism, nor to cross-border international personal friendships, but to ways in which artistic, aesthetic, and intellectual traditions influence each other across national boundaries. An example of cultural transnationalism is the creation of Star Wars films in the United States, their transformation into manga by Japanese artists, and the marketing of Star Wars manga to the United States. Another example is the transfer of hip-hop culture from the United States to Japan.Wong also sees a major role for transnationalism in the recent history of manga.


Japanese wood block illustration from 19th centuryHowever, other writers stress continuity of Japanese cultural and aesthetic traditions as central to the history of manga. They include Frederik L. Schodt, Kinko Ito, and Adam L. Kern. Schodt points to the existence in the 1200s of illustrated picture scrolls like Chōjū-giga that told stories in sequential images with humor and wit. Schodt also stresses continuities of aesthetic style and vision between ukiyo-e and shunga woodblock prints and modern manga (all three fulfill Eisner's criteria for sequential art).

Schodt also sees a particularly significant role for kamishibai, a form of street theater where itinerant artists displayed pictures in a light box while narrating the story to audiences in the street. Torrance has pointed to similarities between modern manga and the Osaka popular novel between the 1890s and 1940, and argues that the development of widespread literacy in Meiji and post-Meiji Japan helped create audiences for stories told in words and pictures. Kinko Ito also roots manga historically in aesthetic continuity with pre-Meiji art, but she sees its post-World War II history as driven in part by consumer enthusiasm for the rich imagery and narrative of the newly developing manga tradition. Ito describes how this tradition has steadily produced new genres and markets, e.g., for girls' (shōjo) manga in the late 1960s and for Ladies Comics (redisu) in the 1980s.

Kern has suggested that kibyoshi, illustrated picture books from the late 1700s, may have been the world's first comic books.These graphical narratives share with modern manga humorous, satirical, and romantic themes. Although Kern does not believe that kibyoshi were a direct forerunner of manga, for Kern the existence of kibyoshi nonetheless points to a Japanese willingness to mix words and pictures in a popular story-telling medium.The first recorded use of the term "manga" to mean "whimsical or impromptu pictures" comes from this tradition in 1798, which, Kern points out, predates Katsushika Hokusai's better known Hokusai Manga usage by several decades.

Similarly, Inoue sees manga as being a mixture of image- and word-centered elements, each pre-dating the U.S.A. occupation of Japan. In his view, Japanese image-centered or "pictocentric" art ultimately derives from Japan's long history of engagement with Chinese graphic art, whereas word-centered or "logocentric" art, like the novel, was stimulated by social and economic needs of Meiji and pre-War Japanese nationalism for a populace unified by a common written language. Both fuse in what Inoue sees as a symbiosis in manga.

Thus, these scholars see the history of manga as involving historical continuities and discontinuities between the aesthetic and cultural past as it interacts with post-World War II innovation and transnationalism.

The History of manga begins in the late 18th Century. Manga is a Japanese term that generally means "comics" or "cartoon", literally "whimsical sketches." Historians and writers on manga history have described two broad and complementary processes shaping modern manga. Their views differ in the relative importance they attribute to the role of cultural and historical events following World War II versus the role of pre-War, Meiji, and pre-Meiji Japanese culture and art.

The first view emphasizes events occurring during and after the U.S. Occupation of Japan (1945-1952), and stresses that manga was strongly shaped by United States cultural influences, including U.S. comics brought to Japan by the GIs and by images and themes from U.S. television, film, and cartoons (especially Disney).Kinsella also sees a central role for how the booming post-war Japanese publishing industry helped create a consumer-oriented society in which publishing giants like Kodansha could shape popular taste.

Just what is it about anime? What makes anime so fun to watch? These are my reasons anyway...


Character Depth
How many times do you get to know fictional characters so well that they seem to have a personality all their own? They become so real you almost wouldn't be surprised if they leapt off the screen and started interacting in real life. Anime characters have so much depth: they have their own little quirks, pet peeves, and bad habits. I find myself many times feeling emotions like regret, sadness, pride, joy for the characters as if their situation were real. One can see the characters actually grow as a "person" over time. Yet, they do not always make simple jumps in their character, but change slowly and continuously like in reality. Bottom line, the characters in anime get as developed as any show here.


Plot
I had never seen such interesting and varied plots as in anime. Even ones that seem like 'the same old thing' always find a way to make it interesting or hilarious. How about a story about a guy who tries to order takeout and he accidentally orders a goddess who then becomes his girlfriend? Or a girl who gets pulled into an ancient book and must act out the story before she can return home, or she never will. Ever heard of a guy who fell into a cursed well and now turns into a girl when is splashed with cold water? If you haven't, you need to watch more anime =P


The bishounen =P
In English, the 'pretty boys'

A bit of a joke here... Everyone knows about how anime has created the image of the stereotypical 'Japanese school girl'. In fact, the <>...appearence of the typical anime female is one of the most well-known aspects. But ladies, if you really think about it, boy do they know how to draw guys! My personal favorite? Tamahome from Fushigi Yuugi. His eyes are a deep purple and his hair falls into his eyes just right. When he looks at Miaka, there is just no beating that!

Since there are still a lot of people who don't really know what anime is, it stands to reason that they wouldn't know that some of the cartoons they might have watched were anime. I didn't even know these were anime until I got into it myself.
Star Blazers = Space Cruiser Yamato
Speed Racer = Ippei Kurei
Voltron = GoLion

Dubbed Anime
Anime in the US usually means dubbed anime. While subtitled and unedited anime is becoming more available on DVD, the majority of video tapes are dubbed and often edited. Editing is especially prominent on anime shown on TV. The anime shown in Japan is often considered unacceptable for US children in its original form due. So even mildly violent scenes and language are either taken out or changed. In my humble opinion, I don't think the dubs that the US has produced are as good compared to the original. While this seems to be changing for the better, the US still has an idea that animation is for children and anime is often edited with that in mind. Without a source of subtitled anime, dubs are great to introduce yourself to the world of anime. That is how I got into anime after all. However, I recommend seeing subtitled anime if its available.

Anime Invades America
There was a lot more anime released in the US. In fact, anime in the US dates back to the introduction of 'Astro Boy' in the US in the early sixties. Astro Boy was the first major anime series released in Japan by Osama Tezuka. The end of Astro Boy was never shown due to the prevailing idea that cartoons should not make people think or be portrayed as human. After Astro Boy came Gigantor Tetsujin 28 and The Eighth Man. Speed Racer arrived in the late sixties. Then there was Star Blazers and Voltron to rounded out the 70's and 80's. In the 90's and today, anime seemed to flood the US. Sailor Moon, Gundam Wing, Ronin Warriors, Dragonball Z, Tenchi Universe are some of the anime that has been shown on Cartoon Network. Also, plenty of anime is available on video and DVD. There has been some controversy on whether Disney was in turn being influenced by anime. Kimba the White Lion was a popular anime in Japan. Simba was a young lion from Disney's The Lion King. Kimba....Simba.... Both young lions in Africa... I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

It's Everywhere!
Anime appears in the US in other ways than the actual shows. If you look carefully, you can see anime "appearances" in other TV shows and even music. Here are some of them. Unless otherwise noted, I found these myself

The Simpsons --there is an episode where Bart and Lisa were watching TV and the show was obviously making fun on anime shows. The show was subtitled and none of the characters mouths matched their speaking =P Another episode of the Simpsons refers to the aforementioned Disney *cough cough* rip off *cough* of the anime Kimba the White Lion. When Bleeding Gums Murphy dies, and then visits Lisa in a cloud, the face of Mufasa appears next to him just like in the Lion King. Mufasa says "...Kimba...I mean, Simba"

Malcolm in the Middle --If you watch the opening credits carefully, you'll see some anime clips. The anime is called Nazca.

Everybody Loves Raymond --A Keropi doll, from Hello Kitty, is thrown across the room in a frantic effort to clean the living room.

Reboot --In an episode where Mainframe is being destroyed, some of the binomes look suspiciously like the inner sailor senshi. In fact, they ARE the Sailor Senshi right down to the hair dos.

One Week by Barenaked Ladies --Listen carefully to the lyrics and you'll hear '...get in tune with Sailor Moon 'cause that cartoon has got the boom anime babes that make me think the wrong thing'

No Doubt music video --In this video there is a bathroom fight scene. This scene is taken from the anime movie, Kite, with the only difference being the video version is live action.

(Note: for convenience, where English-language titles have been established for Japanese films, they are used in this article even when they are not accurate translations. For example, the 1958 theatrical feature Hakuja Den, or The White Snake Enchantress, is referred to by its 1961 American title, Panda and the Magic Serpent.)

The earliest Japanese animation was by individual film hobbyists inspired by American and European pioneer animators. The first three Japanese cartoons were one-reelers of one to five minutes each, in 1917. Animation of the 1920s ran from one-to-three reels. A few were imitations of foreign cartoons, such as the Felix the Cat series, but most were dramatizations of Oriental folk tales in traditional Japanese art styles.

Notable silent-era animators include Oten Shimokawa, Junichi Kouchi, Seitaro Kitayama, Sanae Yamamoto (whose 1924 The Mountain Where Old Women Are Abandoned seems to be the earliest anime title still extant), Yasuji Murata, and the master of paper silhouette animation, Noboru Ofuji. Most of them worked in small home studios, though they came to be financed by Japanese theatrical companies which provided production money in exchange for distribution rights.

During the 1930s, folk tales began to give way to Western-style fast-paced humor. These gradually reflected the growing influence of Japanese militarism, such as Mituyo Seo's 1934 11-minute cartoon Private 2nd-Class Norakuro, an adaptation of Suihou Tagawa's popular newspaper comic strip about an unlucky dog soldier in a funny-animal army. After Japan went to war in China in 1937, the need to get productions approved by government censors resulted in a steady stream of militaristic propaganda cartoons. In 1943, the Imperial military government decided Japan needed its first animated feature. Mituyo Seo was authorized to assemble a team of animators for the task. Their 74-minute Momotaro's Gods-Blessed Sea Warriors was a juvenile adventure showing the Imperial Navy as brave, cute anthropomorphic animal sailors resolutely liberating Indonesia and Malaysia from the buffoonish foreign-devil (with horns) Allied occupiers--too late for even wishful dreaming, as it was barely released (in April 1945) before the war's end.

Japan's World War II battlewagon was restored and sent into space to defend Earth in Space Battleship Yamato (US title: Star Blazers).
Courtesy of Fred Patten. © 1974, 1980, Yoshinobu Nishizaki

Animation returned to the individual filmmakers right after World War II. However, they were hampered for the next decade by the slow recovery of the Japanese economy. They also found their amateur films competing with the polished cartoons from American studios, which poured into Japan with the Occupation forces. The first Japanese full-color animation did not appear until 1955. It soon became clear that the future of Japanese animation lay in adopting the Western studio system. (However, independent anime artists have never disappeared. Thus, the first Japanese animator to achieve international name recognition was Yoji Kuri, whose art films of usually less than a minute each appeared in international film festivals throughout the 1960s and 70s.)

American-Style Studios
Attempts to create American-style studios began right after the war, but the first real success did not come until Toei Animation Co. was organized in 1956. Its earliest leading animator, Yasuji Mori, directed Toei's first notable short cartoon, Doodling Kitty, in May 1957. But to the general public, Japan's entry into professional animation came with the company's first theatrical feature, Panda and the Magic Serpent, released in October 1958.

Akira, 1988. A theatrical sensation in Japan and the first major release of the new American anime market in 1990.
Courtesy of Fred Patten. © Akira Committee

Toei's first few features followed the Disney formula very closely. They were produced a year apart; they were based upon popular folk tales--Oriental rather than European--and the heroes had many cute, funny-animal companions. The first six were distributed in America, usually a couple of years after they were first shown in Japan. The second through sixth (with their American titles but Japanese release years) were Magic Boy (1959), Alakazam the Great (1960), The Littlest Warrior (1961), The Adventures of Sinbad (1962, all five directed by Taiji Yabushita), and The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon (1963, directed by Yugo Serikawa with an avant-garde stylized design by Yasuji Mori). Unfortunately, these were not successful in the US and Japanese theatrical animation disappeared from America for the next two decades--unless it could be sold to TV as an afternoon children's movie.

Something Unexpected
But Alakazam the Great led to something unexpected. Although directed by Yabushita, it was based upon a popular 1950s comic-book adaptation by Osamu Tezuka of the ancient Chinese Monkey King legend. The young Tezuka was Japan's most popular comic-strip and comic-book artist during the 1950s, who virtually invented Japan's modern manga industry. Since the movie used his plot and visual style, he was consulted on its adaptation and became involved with its promotion. This caused him to switch his attention from comic books to animation.

Tezuka was also impressed by the appearance in Japan of the first Hanna-Barbera television cartoons of the late 1950s, which led him to conclude that he could produce limited animation for the new TV market. More importantly, he realized from the popularity of his comic books--especially such futuristic titles as Astro Boy--that there was a strong demand for modern, fast-paced fantasy which the animation establishment, with its narrow focus on fairy tales in antique storybook settings, was completely ignoring.

Japan's earliest TV animation: the pilot episode of Astro Boy (1963). Astro Boy's inventor-father feels that he is "not trying hard enough" to grow up like a real boy.
Courtesy of Fred Patten. ©1963, Mushi Production Co.

As a result, Tezuka organized Japan's first TV animation studio, Mushi Productions. Not counting an experimental art film, Stories on a Street Corner (1962), its first release was a weekly series based upon Astro Boy, which debuted on New Year's Day 1963. It was such an instant success that, by the end of 1963, there were three more television animation studios in production and Toei Animation had opened a TV division. By the end of the 1960s, the popularity of TV science-fiction action-adventure anime was so overwhelming that Toei began to alternate it with fairy-tale fare for its theatrical features.

One of those "magical little girls": Toei Animation's Lun-Lun, the Flower Child (1979-80).
Courtesy of Fred Patten. ©1979, Toei Animation Co., Ltd.

Television animation became much more popular in Japan than it ever was in America. This was largely due to Tezuka's influence. He had drawn in just about every medium available, including childrens' picture books, romantic comic-book soap operas for womens' magazines, risqué humor for mens' magazines, and political cartoons for newspapers. He established the attitude that cartooning was an acceptable form of storytelling for any age group; this is in sharp contrast to the United States, where the attitude became, "Cartoons and comic books are only for children." Tezuka himself brought sophisticated adult animation to movie theaters with his 1969 art feature A Thousand and One Nights (which left in the eroticism of the original Arabian Nights) and the 1970 Cleopatra (a time-travel farce with anachronisms such as Julius Caesar as a cigar-chomping, American-style politician). By the 1970s, TV studios such as TCJ (Television Corporation of Japan), Tatsunoko Production Co., Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS), and Nippon Animation, to name just the major ones, were churning out animated mystery dramas, older-teen sports-team soap operas and Western literary classics such as Heidi, Girl of the Alps (directed by Isao Takahata) and The Diary of Anne Frank, along with traditional juvenile fantasy adventures.

Giant Robot & Outer Space Adventures


1970s TV anime was dominated by dozens of giant-robot adventure serials. This example is of Leiji Matsumoto's Planetary Robot Danguard Ace. Courtesy of Fred Patten. © 1977, Toei Animation Co., Ltd.

There was a flood of toy-promotional fantasies, featuring action-heroes for boys and "magical little girls" who could transform into older-teen heartthrobs for girls. Among the most influential was Toei's adaptation of comic-book artist Go Nagai's Mazinger Z, the first of the sagas about a gigantic flying mechanical warrior controlled by an (invariably teen) human pilot to defend Earth against invading space monsters. This combined the dramatic aspects of knights in armor battling dragons, with fighter pilots in aerial combat against enemy armies. Mazinger Z and Nagai's direct sequels Great Mazinger and UFO Robot Grandizer ran for 222 weekly episodes from 1972 through 1977. By the mid-1980s there had been over 40 different giant-robot anime series, covering virtually every channel and every animation studio in Japan. It was these shows, subtitled on Japanese-community TV channels in America, which started the anime cult among American fans in the late 1970s.

Closely related were the futuristic outer-space adventures which began in 1974 with Space Battleship Yamato; basically a wish-fulfillment replay of World War II, with the united Earth armies (Japan) fighting from planet to planet across the galaxy (Pacific) against the conquering Gamilon invaders. Yamato was fortunately timed for the explosive popularity of space operas following the importation of Star Wars from the US; a series of Yamato TV-series and theatrical-feature sequels followed. During the late 1970s and early 80s, the hottest cartoonist in anime was Yamato's creator Leiji Matsumoto, with TV cartoon series and theatrical features based upon his other space-adventure manga, such as Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999 and The Queen of 1,000 Years.


Miyazaki and Takahata

Tombstone For Fireflies (Grave of the Fireflies) by Isao Takahata
Courtesy of the Singapore Animation Fiesta



By the mid-1980s, anime had been dominated by TV production for two decades. Two developments changed this. One was the return to prominence of theatrical feature animation, through the films of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. The two were friends who had worked both together and separately at various anime studios in Tokyo since the 1960s.

In the early 1980s, Miyazaki began a science-fiction comic-book adventure, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, for Animage, an animation-fan magazine from one of Japan's largest publishers, Tokuma. This led to a Tokuma-financed feature which Miyazaki also directed. The 1984 Nausicaä was a smash success, resulting in Tokuma subsidizing a new animation studio, Studio Ghibli, for the personal theatrical features of Miyazaki and his friend Takahata. Studio Ghibli has released an average of a feature a year since then, alternating between the productions of Miyazaki and Takahata: Miyazaki's Laputa: the Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) and The Crimson Pig (1992); and Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Only Yesterday (1991) and Pom Poko (1994). Many of these have become Japan's top-grossing theatrical films, live-action or animated. Takahata's Pom Poko was also submitted as Japan's candidate for being an Academy Awards nominee for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. Some other notable theatrical features during the past decade include writer-director Katsuhiro Otomo's cyberpunk thriller Akira (1988) and director Mamoru Oshii's adaptation of Masamune Shirow's sci-fi manga novel Ghost in the Shell (1995).

Original Anime Video
The second development was the emergence of the home-video market. Beginning in 1984, animation began to be produced especially for this market (resulting in a Japanese-created English term, OVA or OAV--for Original Anime Video--which has been adopted by American anime fandom as well). OAV animation is usually higher in quality than TV animation, but not as rich as theatrical animation. As with most aspects of popular culture, 90% of it is little better than trash, while 10% may be brilliantly imaginative and innovative. Video productions can run from a half-hour to 2 hours, and from independent titles to serials of from 2 to 10 videos. OAVs are often better than either movies or television for stories which are too long for a standard theatrical release, but not long enough for a TV series. The OAV market is not subject to the public standards for television, so it often becomes notorious for its most lurid examples of violence and pornography. At the other extreme, some of its better examples (such as the Patlabor near-future police-procedural dramas or the No Time for Tenchi teen sci-fi comedies) have become so popular and acclaimed that they have led to their own anime TV series and theatrical films. There are anime-fan magazines devoted to just the anime video market, which list an average of 40 to 45 new releases per month, one-third of which are brand-new OAVs, with the rest being reissues and video releases of theatrical, TV and foreign titles. These OAV titles are the main source for the anime being released in America today, since their licenses are more affordable than those of expensive theatrical features or of multi-episode TV series.



Crying Freedom, 1988. An example of adult-themed, violent and sexually explicit anime for the home video market.
Courtesy of Fred Patten. © 1988, 1993 Toei Video Co., Ltd.

Today, animation in Japan is considered to be in a creative doldrums. Due to the sheer volume of the output over the past three decades, the good ideas have "all been used up." The current trend is for OAV remakes of anime favorites of 20 or 30 years ago, featuring a flashy 90s art slant and a more "sophisticated" (cynical) story line--very similar to the American trend for turning classic live-action TV series into big-budget theatrical films. But many of the titles and concepts that are stale in Japan are still fresh to American audiences, so anime still has an encouraging growth period ahead of it in the US.


Fred Patten has written on anime for fan and professional magazines since the late 1970s. He currently writes a regular anime column for Animation Magazine.

Assignment

How has Japanese animation evolved since World War II? Who were the people who contributed to its change and how was it influenced by the war?
Background on Art and Animation (Manga and Anime)

The Invasion:

Many people in the U.S. probably heard of cartoons like Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z, Voltron, Gundam Wing, Speed Racer, Digimon, and the ever so popular Pokemon; Famous cartoons that have bizarre character designs: female characters with beautiful round eyes, hair that is incredibly big, and gorgeous figure and physique. Male characters would usually have enormously huge muscles (as seen in Dragonball Z and GT), powerful bodies and maybe, on occasion, have gigantic robots as seen in cartoons like Robotech and Gundam Wing.

Where did all these cartoons come from? To find the answer one must look no further than in Japan, the birthplace of Japanese animation, the main source for all of this madness.

Japanese animation, also known as anime (pronounced "ani-may"), is a popular form of animation in Japan which is quickly spreading in the U.S. The major difference between anime and American cartoons is that unlike American cartoons, which are only watched by children, anime is popular among the Japanese adults and is watched by millions. The audience is not merely directed to children but to teens and adults as well. The same applies to Japanese comics known as manga.

In order to understand anime and its invasion into the US, a look into its history would be most appropriate. The best place to start is around World War II, since that was the time when the anime and manga (Japanese comics) industry evolved significantly.

During World War II the entire Japanese nation was mobilized. The people were forced to conform to the government's demands or pay the ultimate price. According to Frederik Schodt's book, Manga Manga: The World of Japanese Comics, those who failed to cooperate were punished by "preventive detention, bans on writing, and social ostracism, while those who recanted were rewarded with rehabilitation programs and support from the community...artists who had spent most of their lives criticizing the government did an about-face and offered wholehearted support to the militarists" (Schodt, 55).

Around 1940, many organizations for artists and cartoonists were formed. Among them were the New Cartoonists Association of Japan (Shin Nippon Mangaka Kyokai) and the New Cartoonists Faction Group (Shin Mangaha Shudan). During that time, the government used the few remaining cartoonists, who were not banned from working or who were not in the army, to influence the people through their artwork by creating comic strips filled with propaganda to use against the nation's enemies.

Animation in the US:

In another part of the world, an influential artist who went by the name of Walt Disney was struggling as a cartoonist. Long before Mickey Mouse, he started out with Alice's Wonderland and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in the 1920s. Then on November 16, 1928, Mickey Mouse was born and became an instant hit in the US. Disney decided to work on other projects and started on an animated feature film called Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The film, released in 1937, was a spectacular hit. Things went smoothly for the Disney Studio until World War II came along. Nevertheless, Disney continued to work and released Pinocchio and Fantasia in 1940. Although the two were technical masterpieces, the studio was losing a great deal of money since they were losing the foreign market due to the war. Disney then released Dumbo,on a very limited budget, in 1941 and Bambi in 1942. As a result of releasing many expensive and costly films during the war, Disney began to diminish in influence.

During the war, Walt Disney Studios released two more films Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros in South America. Throughout the war, Disney concentrated on making propaganda and training films for the military. After the war, Disney Studios struggled to make it back to top as they released several "package" films containing groups of short cartoons packaged together. Among these films were Make Mine Music and Melody Time. By 1950, Disney Studios regained success with the live action film, Treasure Island, and the animated feature, Cinderella.

With all the success, Walt Disney felt there was still something he had not yet accomplished. It was not until he found his intriguing attraction to amusement parks that pushed him to build his own theme park, one that children, parent, and people of all ages could enjoy. Thus after many years of planning, construction, and development, Disneyland was built in 1955. It became a monumental park that brought visitors from around the world.

Though Disneyland kept Disney rather busy, he, along with his studio and team, continued releasing quality entertainment. Disney released 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Shaggy Dog, the popular TV series Zorro, and Mary Poppins. Unfortunately, the 1960s brought the end of an era: in December 15, 1966 Walt Disney died. However, the Walt Disney Studios managed to survive under the plans that Walt left behind and under the guidance of his brother Roy Disney. Disney remained under Roy's leadership with further releases of The Jungle Book in 1967, The Love Bug in 1969, and The Aristocrats in 1970. By 1971 Roy Disney died and for the next decade, the company was led by a team who was originally trained by the Disney brothers. The team included Card Walker, Donn Tatum, and Ron Miller.

The Master Brings Life to Animation:

Back in Japan, after World War II, a young aspiring artist named Osamu Tezuka became a cartoonist and released his first work Shintakarajima (known in English as "New Treasure Island"). As a child, Tezuka was a fanatical fan of Walt Disney's early animations. Many were impressed by Tezuka's original style. However, it was not until Tezuka released his ultimate work Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy) that he achieved success; he was pronounced "the Father of Manga and Anime".

When Tezuka made a name for himself in the industry, he managed to establish his own production company in 1962. He formed Mushi Productions, where he released his best work, Astro Boy. With Astro Boy, Many recognized Tezuka's original style and approach that was new to the entire industry. The style of his illustrations and characters came from French and German cinema. His characters exploded with life and emotion, and his stories would unfold themselves on hundreds of pages. By 1963, Astro Boy crossed international borders and was premiered on NBC stations all over the US and was still successful with American audiences.

After the success of Astro Boy, Tezuka released another work, Jungle Taitei (Kimba the White Lion). There was much controversy in the past about this anime after Disney released a similar version with the movie The Lion King with Simba as the main character. Although Disney denies this, many believe that Disney stole the anime and recreated it with their own version. (To learn more about the conflict between Disney and Tezuka visit Tezuka's "Jungle King" and Disney's "Lion King").

Yet with all the success Tezuka receives, he often confesses that comics are his "wife" and animation is his "mistress." (Schodt 160). In 1973, two years after Roy Disney died, Mushi Productions went bankrupt. However, Tezuka still creates comics and animation with a new company. Some of his works include Buddha, Hi no Tori (Phoenix), and one of his more recent works, Black Jack, which is about an outlaw doctor. Besides comics and animation, Tezuka is a liscenced physician with a medical degree from Osaka University's College of Medicine. That would probably explain why many of his works "are characterized by their humanism and respect for life... [and] often have a scientific or medical bent." (Schodt 160)

Later on, other artists came to take some of the spotlight such as Akira Toriyama, Rumiko Takashi, Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and many others. Miyazaki, who works for Studio Ghibli, is one of the most famous and most respected anime artists of today. Some of Miyazaki's works are Kiki's Delivery Service, Heidi, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, and his recent masterpiece Princess Mononoke.
My Background on Anime and Manga:

As for me, I have been an avid otaku (fan) of anime for a very long time. I am more of an anime fan than a manga fan since I own and view more anime. I started out with anime ever since I started watching cartoons when I was little. I was exposed to anime back in Saudi Arabia because till this day, mostly all of the cartoons they show for children are originally anime except they are translated in Arabic. I moved here in the U.S. around 1990, when I was about 7 or years old, and for the next few years started watching nothing but American animation. I always thought to myself that the cartoons here were very different from the cartoons back in Saudi Arabia (I never really knew it was anime at the time.).

Though I hardly found any Japanese animation in the states I continued to watch my Arabic translated anime since we owned a Sony VCR brought from Saudi Arabia. On occasion when my father would travel, I would give him a list of anime that I wanted and he would get it for me. Of course, many of these tapes were under different titles than the original anime from Japan. Among the Arabic anime I have seen are Mazinger, Grandizer, Metal Man (Al-Rajul Al-Hadidy), Sandibell, Sally (The Little Princess), Lady, Captain Majid, Captain Thabit, Ninja, Al-Darba Al-sa Iqa, Al-Ramyatul Multahiba, and many more. For many of you otakus out there, you may not recognize these titles. Unfortunately, I do not know the original Japanese title they were under. However, those of you familiar with Arabic anime may recognize some of these titles. Anyhow, that was my source of anime but it still was not enough for me. I knew there had to be anime here is the states, I just did not know where to look.

It was not until I found Sailor Moon which aired on in the US around 1995. I recognized the style of animation and I was sure that it was not American animation. That was when I learned that all the cartoons I have loved were originally from Japan and were called "anime." I took up drawing and sketching as a hobby which, and I tried to draw characters from various anime I've seen.

Around 1998, I came across Cartoon Network, and I started seeing more anime. I watched more Sailor Moon, as well as Robotech, Voltron, Ronin Wariors, and many others. Then I did some research on the internet and learned more about anime, the different types of anime, and some terms used in the Japanese pop culture. Along with that, I also learned about manga and realized that many anime start out as Japanese comics before they become animated features.

Till this day, I still continually learn more about anime and manga. Some recent anime I have watched or have been watching are Ranma 1/2, Dragon Ball Z, Gunadam Wing, Lain, Princess Mononoke, Tenchi Muyo, Slayers, Weiß Kreuz, and the latest would probably be Ruruoni Kenshin. I also continue to draw, developing my own style and forming my own characters, hoping that someday I will create my own anime and manga. As Osamu Tezuka was a fan of Walt Disney, I will always be a fan of Osamu Tezuka and Hayao Miyazaki.

Marwah Zagzoug (aka Shinigami)


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Timeline

1914 - Cartoonists were among the first Japanese artists to experiment with animated motion pictures.

1918 - Momotaro by Kitayama Seitaro became Japan's first world wide success. However, the manga industry was still growing slowly and had a long way to go.

1932 - Before the WWII, Seitaro released the anime, Chikara To Onna No Yononoka.

1941- The Japanese government used cartoonist to make comic strips with propaganda to use against their enemies.

1947 - After World War II, Osamu Tezuka became a cartoonist and released his first work Shintakarajima (known in English as New Treasure Island).

1951 - Osamu Tezuka created the milestone manga, Tetsuwan Atom or Astro Boy, as it was known in the US. As a result, years later he became a pioneer in anime, and was the man responsible for the success of anime and manga worldwide.

1956 - The production company, Toei Animation, was founded by Hiroshi Okawa and released its first feature, The Tale of the White Serpent.

1958 - Tezuka furthers his talents entering the anime world.

1961 - Tezuka founded the Osamu Tezuka Production Animation Department, which eventually became Mushi Productions.

1962 - Manga Calendar was the very first anime to be aired on television.

1963 - Tezuka's Astro Boy premiered on NBC stations.

1970's- Various "mecha" anime (anime with giant robots) took over. Among them were G-Force, Battle of the Planets, Great Mazinger, and Star Blazers.

1979 - Mobile Suit Gundam, the originial version of the current anime Gundam Wing premiered and was a huge success which turned into a nation wide obsession. As a result, the series was released into three theatrical films.

1986 - The artist, Akira Toriyama, released the series Dragon Ball, which became one of Japan's most popular anime shows. Later, the series went on forming Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT.


1988 - The world receives a blast with the graphically violent and gruesome anime, Akira, which was an international hit.

1995 - The girls anime, Sailor Moon, was aired in the US.

1997- Cartoon Network launched Toonami, a segment that showed non-American cartoons which later on proved themselves to be more than worthy of watching in the US.

1999 - Pokemon was released in the US and it hit the country by storm! Sometime during the same year, Miyazaki released the movie, Princess Mononoke with help from Disney.

2000 - Gundam Wing, the anime descended from Mobile Suit Gundam, was released. Along with it came Tenchi Muyo, Card Captors, Blue Submarine 6, and the short lived Vision of Escaflowne.

2001 - Outlaw Star, the most current anime to be aired in the US, is showing on Cartoon Netwrok's Toonami.