Anime and its Origin

Anime is commonly referred to as Japanese Animation. It is actually the abbreviated pronunciation of the word "animation" in Japanese language. Well, for some English-speaking countries, we quickly refer to it as "Japanese animation' when we heard the term "Anime."

Japanese animation can be easily distinguished because of its unique animation style. Compared to some Western animation, like the Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, Bambi and Betty Boop, which emphasizes mo re its humorous atmosphere and elements, the Japanese animation depicts a more serious tone and realistic approach to their perspectives.
Anime began st the beginning of the 20th century. The very first recorded Japanese animation was first screened in 1917 - it was a 2 minute short story about a samurai trying to polish his skills with another person but got defeated instead. (The irony!!). From there, relished the growth of Anime. The Japanese government supported this industry in stride to use animation in education and their government projects. It also became the alternative story-telling mechanism in Japan in other than the live-action series, which also is a flourishing industry at that time. Well, it's more cheaper to hire some animators anyway than real actors.
The success of the Walt Disney's 1937 film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs greatly influenced the japanese animators at that time. In 1960's, Osamu Tezuka, a Manga artist (Mangaka in Japanese) and a skilled animator, adapted and utilized many of the Walt Disney's techniquesto reduce cost and limit the number of frames in production. This is only a temporary measure to finish their projects given their tight budget with inexperienced animation staff, but his techniques was carried out later on by many animators, even today.
By 1970's, Manga (commonly Japanese comics) become widely popular, many of them animated later. But it was osamu Tezuka's original works that made remarkable feats in the manga industry. He was then referred to as the "legend" and "God of Manga" because of this amazing contribution to Manga and Anime industry. If you don't know, Osamu Tezuka is the creator of the all time favorites like Astro Boy, Black Jack, Princess Knight, Phoenix (Hi no Tori in Japan), Kimba the White Lion, Adolf and Buddha and many more.
By 1980's, Giant Robot genre was then introduced in the mainstream Japan , this took shape under Tezuka's works like Astro Boy, became widely popular. This is turn developed into the Super Robot genre (examples are Voltes V, Mazinger Z, Daimos, etc.) and then further developed into Real Robot genre. By this time, robot anime like the Gundam Series (includes Gundam V, Gundam W, Gundam Z , Gundam Wings,etc.) and Macross Series (includes The Super Dimension Fortress Macross and Macross Frontier) became classic hits
At the same time, many other genre developed. Manga, having different topics and genres, resulted into various types of genres of Anime. For example, Shounen Manga (manga w/c target boys as audience) became Shounen Anime, Shoujo Manga (manga for girls) became Shoujo Anime, Ecchi Manga (manga that depicts mild sexuality) became Ecchi Anime , a lot of them became popular hit.
By then, the popularity of Japanese animation skyrocketed. It become more accepted in mainstream Japan (but not as much as manga) and it experinced boom in the industry. Later on, these Anime were distributed overseas and it gained massive acceptance in those areas by the late 90's and it still growing up to this day.
Because of this, numbers of self=proclaimed "Otaku" increased in numbers. A lot of Anime-related stuffs became popular and even Anime Conventios all around the globe are being held annually, even monthly.
By now, Anime has become a multi-level industry used all around the world. We can see many company use Anime-related stuffs for their commercials, billboards and advertisements. A whole lots of video games are Anime-inspired, even some Music videos and Infomercials are based on many Anime.
Anime, has a become an icon of modern-day industry, in ways more than one. So by next time another person told us, "You're still watching this childish things.", you should be proud to reason, "ANIME ISN'T CHILDISH, THOSE PEOPLE WHO DON'T UNDERSTAND THE MAGNANIMITY OF ANIME ARE THE CHILDISH ONES!!.
Be Proud your an Otaku!!!

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