Anime and Manga By: Angelina Chen When and Where was Anime Created? The word “anime” is simply an abbreviation of the word “animation”. In Japan, “anime is used to refer to all animation, whereas everywhere else in the world uses “anime” referring to only animations from Japan. Anime was first created in Japan as an influence from Western cartoons. The earliest examples of anime can be traced back all the way from 1917. It was extremely similar to Disney Credit: “7 Oldest Anime Ever Created”. Oldest. https://www.oldest.org/culture/anime/. cartoons and became more of its own Japanese style we know today in the Namakura Gatana, the oldest anime. 1960s through the work of Osamu Tezuka. How did Anime Begin? The history of anime stretches back to more than the 20th century. At first, traditional Japanese art was done on scrolls. This form of art was very time-consuming and expensive, so artists decided to create a new form of art called manga. Western cartoons inspired Japanese manga to go wider through cartoon characters that entertain others through newspapers and magazines. In America, Walt Disney and other cartoonists used the idea of silent films—films American Animation featuring humans that are silent—and created a way for the cartoons to come alive as animations. Japanese followed their example and while the Western cartoons advanced to more realistic character expressions, they continued to have dramatic movements and other features that truly define their work as Japanese. This is why the word “anime” only means all the animation of Japan, whereas the word “animation” refers to all the animations from the rest of the world. Japanese Anime How WW2 Affected Manga Artists and Anime One of the propaganda films of Japanese motivation citizens WW2 affected manga and anime to join war and criticizing the Western enemies. artists greatly. During the war, Japanese governments banned all foreign movies such as American cartoons and animations and required artists to only draw government- supporting or native related art. This caused many manga artists to flee Japan, and the others just published The art manga artists drew couldn’t show their own artwork secretly. Anime their true creativity and the variety of manga comic strips narrowed down to only films during WW2 were more war posters and simple propaganda cartoonish and criticized Western cartoons. After the war, most manga strips enemies, trying to motivate soldiers to and anime were promoting peace, justice, join the Japanese army. and freedom. How Has Anime Changed Over Time? You might think anime as a modern creation, but Japanese animation actually became its modern form after centuries of evolution. At first, anime was simple and called shorts—meaning that it was only a few minutes long. There weren’t colors or vocals in the films and the plots were simple. However, that didn’t last long as manga and anime artists were following Walt Disney’s example and creating better drawings and editing for anime films. They started using exaggerated expressions and movements even after there were audio recordings and made the action figures more complicated and not-casual. Famous manga artist Osamu Tezuka started making anime drawings more like the modern anime we see today, and created lots of new interesting characters. As technology advanced, anime drawings got more and more complicated with tiniest details in their hair. Japanese styled animations highlighted the characters’ eyes very specifically and just by looking at it can mean a lot about their personality or feelings. Nowadays, anime became a popular form of expressing your creations and great character developments and story plots have made people everywhere around the world in love with this form of television. What Responsibilities do Anime/ Manga Artists Have? There are many responsibilities that anime and manga artists have. An manga artist should make their story full. There should be great characters and an interesting story plot that won’t bore readers. An anime should have Japanese styled animations with exaggerated expressions and dramatic movements. According to anime expert Keagan Rowe, an artist should always have a goal in mind of where he or she wants the story to go and how it should end, and then they should capture this story with their own unique art style. The manga or anime made by the artist should also be sure that their statements are true to their topic. An anime artist shouldn’t mix up the facts on wether it is based on cultural or historical topics because if young children watch Spirited Away Anime Movie their anime and are told details that are false or wrong, the children might believe something that is untrue. Should Children Watch Anime? (Kid-Friendly Anime) In my opinion, I think it depends on wether the anime is appropriate for little kids to watch, meaning excluding violent and blood-thirsting scenes and teaching important lessons such as friendship or not being greedy. Children should definitely read or watch anime such as “Spirited Away” or “Pokemon”, two great kid-friendly anime that teaches others about important lessons. I agree that some anime may be pretty violent, but other than that, children can learn a great deal from children-approved anime or manga. Thank You for Watching!.