has been intended for a much broader audience, appealing to fans of all ages.

Transcription

1 Dilley 1 Jay Dilley English November, 2010 Informative Essay In the last few decades, a new kind of entertainment has risen to importance: Japanese animation, or anime. The word anime is a Japanese contraction of the English word animation ( animeeshon ), and is used in Japan to signify animated works as a whole, but western fans of the genre use anime to refer specifically to animated works from Japan. Although anime has been heavily influenced by western animation, such as Walt Disney's works, there is one major distinction: unlike American cartoons that are meant primarily for children, anime is and always has been intended for a much broader audience, appealing to fans of all ages. Anime has it's roots in the early works of independent Japanese animators creating short films from the early '20s through World War II (Patten, par. 1). During the war, many of these artists were coerced by government censorship to produce militarized propaganda, and the government organized several animation groups to produce propaganda, like the New Cartoonists Association of Japan (Shin Nippon Mangaka Kyokai) and the New Cartoonists Faction Group (Shin Mangaha Shudan) (Zagzoug, par. 7). Shortly after the end of the war, these groups were dissolved and animation returned to the individual directors who were hindered by slow economic recovery and strong competition from the western animation studio's well-made films. These animators soon realized that the western studio system was the best way to make their place in the industry (Patten, par. 4). Eventually, Hiroshi Okawa founded the first Asian animation studio, Toei Animation. Founded in 1956, Toei released their first feature-length film, The Tale of the White Serpent, in 1958 (O'Connell, par. 10). At first, Toei followed in Disney's footsteps quite closely, their movies

2 Dilley 2 being only a year apart, based on Oriental folk tales instead of European, and containing funny and cute animal characters (Patten, par. 6). One comic artist named Osamu Tezuka, who was working for Toei when they were founded, impressed audiences with his individual comic book work. His work was extremely popular because unlike his more straight-forward contemporaries, Tezuka wrote his stories using intense emotion and prolonged narration to make certain moments much more intense and more immersive for the reader (O'Connell, par. 7). One of his largest contributions to the anime industry was how he drew his characters, using large eyes and simplified facial features to express a broad range of emotion, a concept that has carried down to modern anime (O'Connell, par. 8). After noticing the success of futuristic fantasy titles like his own comic, Astro Boy, Tezuka organized Japan's first TV animation studio, Mushi Productions, whose first release was a weekly series based on Astro Boy and released on New Year's Day, 1963 (Patten, par. 9). The TV series Astro Boy was so immediately successful that others followed suit, creating their own TV studios like the Television Corporation of Japan, Tatsunoko Production Co., Tokyo Movie Shinsha, and Nippon Animation, who all began producing animated mystery shows, soapopera-like sports anime and remakes of Western classics like The Diary of Anne Frank (Patten, par. 10). In the '70s, many studios followed the science fiction genre, creating a surplus of spaceor robot-related series, such as Kagaku Ninja-Tai Gatchaman, Great Mazinger, Uchu Senkan Yamato, Galaxy Express 999, Gigantor, Mobile Suit Gundam, and many other similar titles, many of which helped popularize the giant robot brand of show (O'Connell, par ). In the 1980's, the studios responded to the increased demand for animated content by looking for more varied sources and markets. Many began to produce direct-to-video movies,

3 Dilley 3 also known as OVAs (Original Video Animation), which due to the lack of censorship often contained more sexually explicit or excessively violent content. Studios also pulled inspiration from more sources, adapting stories from popular comics like Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball, making more humorous anime like the gender-bending Ranma ½, or making cyberpunk-inspired anime like the now-famous movie Akira or the series Bubble Gum Crisis and Ghost in the Shell (O'Connell, par ). Some directors explored much more serious topics, like Grave of the Fireflies, a movie that attempts to capture the horrors of the fire-bombing of Japan during World War II. This movement towards more serious and emotional movies made audiences more receptive of works that weren't comical or action-packed (O'Connell, par ). In the midst of this surge of anime, two studios rose to prominence: Studio Gainax and Studio Ghibli. Studio Gainax helped buoy the popularity of the now overly-mass-produced anime market with two ground-breaking hits, Nadia in 1990 and Neon Genesis Evangelion in These two works set a higher standard for the anime industry, encouraging studios to be more original with their work ( A Global History of Anime, par. 1-7). Studio Ghibli, formed by former Toei employees and on-and-off partners Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki, created a long string of movies, many of which have become Japan's top-grossing theatrical films, out of both live-action and animated. Among these films are: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Grave of the Fireflies, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away (Patten, par. 14). Starting with the release of Kiki's Delivery Service, Studio Ghibli made a deal with Disney to professionally release all of their films in the U.S., which helped bring anime to the attention of U.S. Audiences (O'Connell, par. 37). As Western interest in anime increased,

4 Dilley 4 companies like Central Park Media, AnimEigo, and AD Vision rose to license, translate, and redistribute anime in Western countries. Now, anime has quite a large following around the world, with companies like the older AD Vision (now ADV), and the newer companies FUNimation, Bandai, Bang Zoom, and Viz Media translating and distributing the latest shows from Japan. Meanwhile, animation studios like Ghibli and Gainax have been joined by newer studios such as Bones, Gonzo, and Production I.G. in creating new TV shows and movies for audiences to enjoy around the world.

5 Dilley 5 Works Cited A Global History of Anime: Part 4. RightStuf.com. The Right Stuf International Inc., N.d. Web. 14 Nov < O'Connell, Michael. A Brief History of Anime. CorneredAngel.com. N.p., Web. 14 Nov < Patten, Fred. A Capsule History of Anime. AWN.com. Animation World Network, Web. 14 Nov < Zagzoug, Marwah. The History of Anime & Manga. Black Horizon Anime, 06 Apr Web. 14 Nov <