Anime is commonly defined as
animation originating in Japan.
(アニメ?, an abbreviated pronunciation in Japanese of "animation", pronounced[anime] (
listen) in Japanese, but typically /ˈænɨmeɪ/ ( listen) or /ˈænɨmə/ in English.) The definition sometimes changes depending on the context.
[1] In English-speaking countries,
anime is also referred to as "Japanese animation".
[2] While the earliest known Japanese animation dates to 1917,
[3] and many original Japanese cartoons were produced in the ensuing decades, the characteristic anime style developed in the 1960s—notably with the work of
Osamu Tezuka—and became known outside Japan in the 1980s.
Anime, like
manga, has a large audience in Japan and recognition throughout the world. Distributors can release anime via television broadcasts, directly to
video, or theatrically, as well as
online.
Anime began at the start of the 20th century, when Japanese
filmmakers experimented with the
animation techniques also pioneered in France, Germany, the United States, and Russia.
[4] The oldest known anime in existence first screened in 1917 – a two-minute clip of a samurai trying to test a new sword on his target, only to suffer defeat.
[5][6] Early pioneers included
Shimokawa Oten,
Jun'ichi Kouchi, and
Seitarō Kitayama.
[7]The success of
The Walt Disney Company's 1937 feature film
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs influenced Japanese animators.
[13] In the 1960s, manga artist and animator
Osamu Tezuka adapted and simplified many Disney animation-techniques to reduce costs and to limit the number of frames in productions. He intended this as a temporary measure to allow him to produce material on a tight schedule with inexperienced animation-staff.
The 1970s saw a surge of growth in the popularity of
manga – many of them later animated. The work of
Osamu Tezuka drew particular attention: he has been called a "legend"
[14] and the "god of manga".
[15][16] His work – and that of other pioneers in the field – inspired characteristics and genres that remain fundamental elements of anime today. The giant
robot genre (known as "
Mecha" outside Japan), for instance, took shape under Tezuka, developed into the
Super Robot genre under
Go Nagai and others, and was revolutionized at the end of the decade by
Yoshiyuki Tomino who developed the
Real Robot genre. Robot anime like the
Gundam and
The Super Dimension Fortress Macross series became instant classics in the 1980s, and the robot genre of anime is still one of the most common in Japan and worldwide today. In the 1980s, anime became more accepted in the
mainstream in Japan (although less than
manga), and experienced a boom in production. Following a few successful adaptations of anime in overseas markets in the 1980s, anime gained increased acceptance in those markets in the 1990s and even more at the turn of the 21st century
