History of the anime

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Japanese anime industry is one of the largest animation industries in the world and has an extensive history.

Beginnings

Probably the oldest currently known Japanese animation film is a three-second sequence by an unknown artist that was made in 1907 or later. The 50 pictures, printed directly by hand on 35 mm film, show a boy in a sailor suit who writes the words "活動 写真" ( katsudō shashin , moving pictures ) on a board, turns around and greets the viewer. The short film is therefore also known under the title Katsudō Shashin . The film strip was found by the art historian Natsuki Matsumoto in December 2004 in Kyoto along with other film and entertainment items.

1910s and 1920s

From 1912 at the latest, French, American and British short cartoons were shown in Japan. Japanese film companies then began to hire artists to produce their own animated films. The first three Japanese cartoons, black and white, silent and with a running time of a few minutes, were published every few weeks in 1917:

  • Imokawa Mukuzō Genkanban no Maki ( 芋 川 椋 三 玄関 番 之 巻 , German "Mukuzō Imokawa the porter"; chalk drawings on boards), probably in January 1917, by Tenkatsu under the direction of Ōten Shimokawa (1892–1973). Shimokawa was also the first whose cartoons were shown in Japanese cinemas, but withdrew from this area in 1917 after only five cartoons had been produced.
  • Saru Kani Kassen ( 猿 蟹 合 戦 , Eng. "The crab takes revenge on the monkey"; ink drawings on paper), first performance on May 20, 1917, by Nikkatsu under the direction of Seitarō Kitayama (1888–1945).
  • Hanawa Hekonai Meitō no Maki ( 塙 凹 内 名刀 之 巻 , dt. "Hanawa Hekonai's famous sword"; alternative title: な ま く ら 刀 Namakura Katana ), in June 1917, by Kobayashi Shōkai under the direction of Kōuchi Jun'ichi (1886-1970) . This silent film, about two minutes long, was rediscovered in good condition in an antique shop in Osaka in March 2008 (together with the 1918 film Urashima Taro by Seitarō Kitayama), making it the oldest Japanese cartoon that still exists.

Of the early anime pioneers, Seitarō Kitayama played the most important role. His 1918 film Momotarō ( Peach Boy ) ran in Paris in 1921, making it the first Japanese cartoon to be shown outside of Japan. In 1921 he founded the first Japanese animation film studio Kitayama Eiga Seisaku-sho , in which not only entertainment films but also animations for teaching and training purposes were made.

Sanae Yamamoto (1898–1981) learned his trade with Seitarō Kitayama. His earliest films include Obasuteyama ( 姥 捨 山 , The Mountain Old Women Are Left Behind ) and Usagi To Kame ( The Rabbit and the Turtle ), both from 1924. Yamamoto was instrumental in establishing the Toei Animation studio in the mid-1950s mit, a pioneer of the modern anime industry.

Most of the early animated films were drawn in the traditional Japanese style, with often more emphasis on the accuracy of the representation than on the achievement of smooth motion sequences. Classical Asian fairy tales and legends were often portrayed, often with a clear moral index finger. The plot was often only made up of hints and required the viewer to have extensive prior knowledge of the respective stories. Occasionally, however, there were also adaptations of foreign cartoons (e.g. from the US series Felix the Cat ).

1930s and 1940s

One of the technology pioneers of the 1930s was Kenzo Masaoka , who in 1932 produced the first Japanese animated film, Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka ( The World of Power and Women ). He was also the author of the first Japanese animation film to be animated exclusively using foil technology in 1934. Masaoka's assistant Mitsuyo Seo, who founded his own studio in 1933, was to play an important role in animated war propaganda films in the 1940s.

While the sound film was already being used regularly by Disney in the USA , it was initially too expensive for widespread use in Japanese animated films and did not become the standard until the mid-1930s. In 1937 Noburō Ōfuji shot the first color anime with the film Katsura Hime and also the first Japanese color film, apart from propaganda works. The first color Japanese feature film was not made until 1951, but color film was used for propaganda as early as the 1940s.

In the 1930s, the Japanese government began tightening controls on all media content. Animators were also encouraged to emphasize national and cultural elements of Japan in their works. Small studios were closed or merged into large companies. In the period before World War II , Japanese animators had limited financial resources, so productions of the time were rarely of high quality.

The main client of the animation studios was the Japanese military, which produced a large number of propaganda cartoons during the war and had them shown in cinemas before the news. Popular were z. For example, the films produced by the director Mitsuyo Seo starring Momotarō ( peach boy ), a heroic fairy-tale figure who is well-known in Japan and who now went to war for her country. The 37-minute film Momotarō no Umiwashi (桃 太郎 の 海 鷲, Momotarō's sea eagle ), produced in 1942 and premiered on March 25, 1943, was made using the most modern technical means, and the film Momotarō: Umi no Shimpei , which started on April 12, 1945, was part of it the first full-length anime with a running time of 74 minutes; a copy of the film originally thought to have been destroyed was rediscovered in 1983.

After the end of the war, the Japanese animation industry again limited itself to the production of short films for a few years. During the occupation of Japan by Allied troops from 1945 to 1952, foreign control authorities ensured that the Japanese film industry was expressly promoting a basic democratic attitude. The emphasis on typically Japanese elements, which was the main content of the animated films before the war, has been drastically reduced. Instead, most films were initially about fantasy stories with moral claims or implemented internationally known or Western narratives and cultural elements.

1950s and 1960s

Noburō Ōfuji (1900–1961) won prizes at international film festivals with his short animated films from 1952.

The first full-length post-war animated cartoon was Hakujaden ( 白蛇 伝 ), produced by the anime studio Toei Animation , founded in 1956 , and released in Japanese cinemas in October 1958. Hiroshi Okawa, then president of Toei Animation, sent Hakujaden in 1959 as a contribution to the Venice Children's Film Festival, where he won a special award; The Toei Anime Shōnen Sarutobi Sasuke ( 少年 猿 飛 佐 助 ) from 1959 also received an award. As a result, international film distributors began to take an interest in Japanese cartoons. The company Globe brought Hakujaden to US cinemas in 1961 under the title Panda and the Magic Serpent as the first anime, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer secured the rights to Shōnen Sarutobi Sasuke , who ran in the US as Magic Boy and under the Title The Magician and the Bandits 1961 also became the first anime in Germany.

Yasuo Ōtsuka (born 1931) had a significant influence on the further development of animation technology in Japan . As an employee of Toei Animation, together with the anime director Yasuji Mori (1925–1992), he developed the studio's characteristic drawing style for the first few years and was a mentor of illustrators such as Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata , who later became world famous with the establishment of Studio Ghibli obtained. The techniques of dynamically adapting the number of images per second to the course of action and highlighting important scenes or sections of an anime through particularly careful animation and keeping the rest rather simple for cost reasons also go back to Ōtsuka. The first ever anime television series, Otogi Manga Calendar by Otogi Productions, comprised of 54 completed, five-minute episodes that aired from June 25, 1962.

After the war, many American cartoons came to Japan, especially Walt Disney's. This also influenced Osamu Tezuka , who initially had great success as a mangaka. In the 1960s, the Japanese anime industry underwent a great change when he turned his manga Astro Boy into an anime series. To do this, Tezuka founded his anime studio Tezuka Productions in 1961 , which he renamed Mushi Productions in January 1962 . Astro Boy was the first anime television series with a continued storyline with a scope of 193 episodes and ran on Japanese television from January 1, 1963. Astro Boy also started the mecha genre. This was set with the following series Tetsujin 28-gō in 1963 on the scheme of a "boy with his robot". The series Kimba, the White Lion , which was broadcast from October 6, 1965 and also produced by Osamu Tezuka, was the first fully colored anime television series. Both series Tezukas were marketed internationally in their day and were created in cooperation with American companies. In 1967, Tezukas Ribon no Kishi was the first anime series of the Shōjo genre aimed at girls.

The series Mach Go Go Go by Tatsunoko Productions from 1967, which is about a racing driver and his car equipped with technical tricks, was a great success as a speed racer internationally, especially in America. In Germany the series was broadcast in 1971 as the first anime television series, but after only three episodes it was taken out of the program again due to audience protests because of "excessive brutality".

The television series Sazae-san started in 1969 and is based on a manga series by Machiko Hasegawa and is about the everyday experiences of a Japanese family. A separate company in Tokyo produces new short episodes every week for the series, which is still running. So Sazae-san is the longest running anime series. In the same year, Osamu Tezuka's film Senya Ichiya Monogatari , one of the first erotic animes, was released. The film was also experimentally and ambitiously produced, so that it had a great influence on Japanese cinema and literature.

In the late 1960s, anime series with sports content became increasingly popular. Mila Superstar (original title Attack No. 1 ), one of the most outstanding sports anime from this time, ran in Japan with 104 episodes from December 1969 to November 1971 and describes the experiences of a volleyball player and her team. The anime and its manga series are still so well known in Japan that a real-life television series was shot 35 years after the anime first aired.

1970s

On October 24, 1971, the broadcast of the series Lupine III began , which portrayed the adventures of a master thief based on the model of the Arsène Lupine novels by the French writer Maurice Leblanc . Although the series initially had poor audience ratings, it eventually became a classic through repeated reruns. Its success led to two more Lupine III television series, five feature films and television specials that are still produced annually today.

A few weeks after the start of Gatchaman , based on a manga series by the cartoonist Go Nagai from the 1960s and influenced by earlier robot stories such as Astro Boy and Tetsujin 28-gō , Mazinger Z hit Japanese TV screens from December 1972 to September 1974 . This was the first anime series in which children and teenagers pilot giant robots as pilots to protect the world from almost insurmountable threats.

In October 1972 the science fiction anime Gatchaman started , in which the Sentai principle came into play for the first time . The main characters in Sentai anime are five (less often four) people who can assume an alter ego with special abilities in case of danger , whereby each character is assigned a characteristic color and a symbol. The Sentai element, which also includes the definition of certain basic character types and their interaction with one another, has been found in series since then, from worldwide anime successes such as Sailor Moon to realizations such as Power Rangers .

The studio Mushi Productions , founded by Osamu Tezuka in 1961, went bankrupt in 1973, only to be rebuilt in 1977. The former employees of the first studio founded the Studio Madhouse or switched to newly founded studios such as Sunrise .

One of these new attempts was the anime series Heidi, created jointly by Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Zuiyo Enterprise , based on a novel by the Swiss writer Johanna Spyri , which came on television in early January 1974. Their success prompted the studio, renamed Nippon Animation , to found the World Masterpiece Theater ( WMT for short ) project. From 1975 onwards, a television series based on an international literary work was produced every year under this name, such as Niklaas, a boy from Flanders based on a novel by the Englishwoman Marie Louisa de la Ramée , Marco based on a book by the Italian Edmondo De Amicis or Anne mit the red hair based on a novel by the Canadian Lucy Maud Montgomery . Although many outstanding animation artists worked on these series and their international popularity continues unabated today, Nippon Animation had to discontinue the WMT project in 1997 due to financial problems and declining audience ratings.

In the days of Zuiyo Enterprise, the studio also undertook the first international anime cooperation. On behalf of the German ZDF and the Austrian ORF , the three series Wickie and the strong men , Maya the bee and Pinocchio were created from 1974 to 1977 under the direction of Hiroshi Saitō . Other European co-productions were Calimero and Barbapapa .

From 1974 onwards, with Uchū Senkan Yamato , Mobile Suit Gundam , Go Lion and Macross, several science fiction series were created, which were initially successful in Japan and then internationally. When broadcast in other countries, the series were often adapted, sometimes the plot was completely changed or several series were cut together.

1980s

In the 1980s, the first original video animations appeared in Japan , series and films that were sold directly on video cassettes. The first of these animes was Dallos from 1983. The possibility of reaching customers more directly in this way increased the thematic range of anime productions and led to an increase in the fan base outside of Japan, as animes were now more readily available there.

The 1980s are also known as the "golden age" of anime. The many reasons for this include the establishment of new world-class studios, the development of new media and the increasing international perception of anime as a serious part of the entertainment industry.

However, one of the most important points is the emergence of a new subculture in Japan. In connection with science fiction series of the 70s with a serious tone such as Space Battleship Yamato , the first organized anime fan movements had developed, which increasingly concentrated on individual aspects of their hobby. This was the birth of the otaku , highly specialized fans with a certain penchant for fanaticism who were willing to invest a lot of money for their passion. Since they also received influx and support from other areas of the science fiction fandom, their number subsequently grew to levels relevant to the market economy. Newly founded trade magazines such as "Animage" (from 1978) and "Newtype" (from 1985) soon began serving this rapidly expanding market.

In the 1980s, Akira , Ranma ½ and Dragonball anime emerged, which later enjoyed great international success.

1990s

From 1992 to 1997, the magical girl anime Sailor Moon was created , which became a worldwide success. This was followed by the international marketing of Dragon Ball , which had already been produced in the 1980s, and Pokémon from 1997, which were followed by other Shōnen series, such as Yu-Gi-Oh , Monster Rancher and Digimon .

Series of other genres, which were produced in the 1990s, also found wide international distribution, such as Neon Genesis Evangelion , The Vision of Escaflowne , Tenchi Muyo , Blue Submarine No.6 , Ranma ½ and Gundam Wing .

No less complex are the films Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away from Studio Ghibli , which has been creative since the 1980s. In addition, Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow is one of the most important films.

Since June 1, 1998, the Japanese satellite television station Animax has been broadcasting anime around the clock. Since June 2007 the station can also be received in Germany.

After the turn of the millennium

The genre syncretism that was common in the previous generation has now become a "serious" act, which therefore does not have to be clear and straightforward and can therefore be clearly classified in drawers. Rather, complex issues are woven into conflicting storylines; the tragedy of the characters reflects the tragedy of being human. Sometimes many special effects are used, as well as brutality and even perversion.

Representatives of this type are u. a. Arjuna , Inu Yasha , Hellsing , Cowboy Bebop , Noir , X and Detective Conan .

With the award of the Golden Bear at the Berlinale and the Oscars to the anime Spirited Away , the anime genre made its final international breakthrough. Chihiro also became the most award-winning animated film of all time.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jonathan Clements : Anime - A History . Palgrave Macmillan 2013. p. 20.
  2. ↑ FS Litten: On the earliest (foreign) animation films shown in Japanese theaters (PDF; 355 kB)
  3. ↑ Two Nine-Decade-Old Anime Films Discovered , Anime News Network , March 27, 2008
  4. ↑ Still image from Usagi to Kame , 1924 ( Memento of the original from July 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.quilts-club.com
  5. ↑ Jasper Sharp: Pioneers of Japanese Animation (Part 1) , Midnight Eye, September 23, 2004
  6. ↑ Still image from Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka , 1932 ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.quilts-club.com
  7. ↑ Still images from Momotarō no Umiwashi , 1943 (with Japanese description)
  8. ↑ Jasper Sharp: Pioneers of Japanese Animation (Part 2) , Midnight Eye, November 1, 2004
  9. ↑ Description of Hakujades in Toei (Japanese)
  10. ↑ a b Ledoux, Ranney, 1995, pp. 2-5
  11. ↑ a b c d e f g Patrick Drazen: Anime Explosion! - The What? Why? & Wow! of Japanese Animation , pp. 4-15. Stone Bridge Press, 2002.
  12. ↑ Description of Mazinger Z in Toei (Japanese)

literature

  • Patrick Drazen: Anime Explosion! - The What? Why? & Wow! of Japanese Animation. Stone Bridge Press, 2002. (English)
  • German Film Institute - DIF / German Film Museum & Museum of Applied Arts (ed.): Ga-netchû! The Manga Anime Syndrome . Henschel Verlag, 2008.
  • Trish Ledoux and Doug Ranney: The Complete Anime Guide . Tiger Mountain Press, Issaquah (Washington), 1995.

Web links