JAPANESE

ANIMATION
アニメ
CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................... 3
HISTORY OF JAPANESE ANIMATION ............................................................................................ 4
WHY ANIME IS MUCH POPULAR AROUND THE GLOBE?.............................................................. 6
TOP 5 ANIME SERIES OF ALL TIME .............................................................................................. 7
1.Death Note .......................................................................................................................... 7
2. Attack on Titan -Shingeki no Kyojin ..................................................................................... 7
3. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood ...................................................................................... 8
4. Naruto Shippūden ............................................................................................................... 8
5. Naruto................................................................................................................................. 8
CHARACTORS .............................................................................................................................. 9
MOST POPULAR ANIME CHARACTORS EVER ............................................................................. 10
1.L - Death Note .................................................................................................................... 10
2.Son Goku............................................................................................................................ 10
3.Vegeta................................................................................................................................ 10
4.Edward Elric ....................................................................................................................... 11
5.Naruto Uzumaki ................................................................................................................. 11
HOW HAS ANIME INFLUENCED JAPAN? .................................................................................... 12
HOW HAS ANIME INFLUENCED THE REST OF THE WORLD? ...................................................... 13
TRENDS IN JAPANESE ANIMATION ............................................................................................ 14

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INTRODUCTION

The word ANIME — pronounced "ah-knee-may" — is an

abbreviation of the word animation. In Japan, the word is
used to refer to all animation. However, outside of Japan,
it has become the catch-all term for animation from Japan.
For decades, anime was produced by and for Japan, with a
distinct look-and-feel to not just the artwork but the
storytelling, the themes, and the concepts. Over the last
forty years, it has become an international phenomenon,
attracting millions of fans and being translated into many
languages. A whole generation of viewers in the West has
grown up with it and are now passing it on to their own
children.

Why Anime Is So Special?

Most anime fans can sum this up in two words: "It's different." Anime is as unlike most
American cartoons like "Batman" and "Spider-Man" are different from the comics that run in
daily papers. These differences show up in many ways including the artwork storytelling,
breadth of material and even cultural nuances exhibited by the characters. It doesn't shy away
from epic storylines, either, which often run for dozens (sometimes hundreds) of episodes. The
best anime, though, no matter what their length, all demand great emotional involvement
from the viewer.

Anime, for Whom?

Because anime's so broad-reaching in its
subject matter, it's possible to find anime
aimed at just about every age group. Some
titles are specifically for younger viewers or
are suitable for all ages like the animated
series "Pokémon", But Japanese cultural
attitudes about sexuality and violence
require some titles to be placed a category
higher than they might normally be. Nudity,
for instance, is handled much more casually
in Japan; sometimes a show that isn't meant specifically for adults will have material which
may seem racy to Western viewers.

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HISTORY OF JAPANESE ANIMATION

➢ The first years

Anime dates back to the birth of Japan’s own film
industry in the early 1900s and has emerged as one
of Japan’s major cultural forces over the past
century. But due to the rise of Japanese
nationalism and the start of WWII, most of the
animated productions created from the 1930s on
were not popular entertainments, but instead
were either commercially-oriented or government
propaganda of one type or another.

Namakura Gatana, the earliest surviving

Japanese animated short made for
cinemas

➢ Post-war and the rise of TV

in 1948, the first modern Japanese animation production
company, one devoted to entertainment, came into being:
Toei. Their first theatrical features were explicitly in the vein of
Walt Disney’s films. One key example was the ninja-and-
sorcery mini-epic Shōnen Sarutobi Sasuke (1959). What really
pushed animation to the fore in Japan was the shift to TV in
the Sixties. The first of Toei’s major animated shows for TV
during this time were adaptations of popular manga.

Shōnen Sarutobi Sasuke

➢ The First Exports

Up until this point, Japanese animated productions had been made
by and for Japan. But gradually they began to show up in English-
speaking territories, although without much in the way to link them
back to Japan.1963 heralded Japan’s first major animated export to
the U.S.: Tetsuwan Atomu—more commonly known as Astro Boy.

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In the 1970s, the rising popularity of TV put a major
dent in the Japanese film industry—both live-action
and animation. Many of the animators who had
worked exclusively in film gravitated back to TV to
fill its expanding talent pool. But another major
innovation that came along during the Eighties
made it possible for those films—and just about all
of anime—to find new audience long after their
release: home video. Cutie Honey(1973)
➢ The Video Revolution
Home video transformed the anime industry in the Eighties even more radically than TV had.
It allowed casual re-watching of a show apart from the rerun schedules of broadcasters, which
made it that much easier for die-hard fans—otaku,—to congregate and share their
enthusiasm.
➢ the Internet
Two other major forces arose towards the end of the Nineties that helped anime find broader
audiences. The first was the Internet—which, even in its early dial-up days, meant that one
didn’t have to go digging through back issues of newsletters or hard-to-find books to glean
solid information about anime titles. Mailing lists, websites, and wikis made learning about a
given series or personality as easy as typing a name into a search engine. The second force was
the newly-emergent DVD format, which brought high-quality home video into the home at
affordable prices.

➢ Surviving and Enduring

Most importantly, new shows continue to emerge, among
them some of the best yet made: , Death Note , Fullmetal
Alchemist. The anime we get in the future may bear that
much less a resemblance to
what’s come before, but
only because of anime lives
and evolves along with the
society that produced it and
the world that savors it.
Death Note

Fullmetal Alchemist

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WHY ANIME IS MUCH POPULAR AROUND THE GLOBE?

Anime and manga have long been at the heart of Japanese culture, with a consistent wave of
popularity between the generations. Over recent years, the popularity for anime and its comic
strip counterpart manga has grown considerably in the UK and the West.
One of the main reasons why anime has stood the test of time and grown in popularity across
the world is due to its unique ability to grow with its viewers. The famous anime expert,
Takamasa Sakurai, claims that the genre has been widely accepted due to its unconventional
nature, “Japanese anime broke the convention that anime is something that kids watch”.
Anime differed from standard Western cartoons. With complicated stories, deep character
development and themes fit for adults, anime eschews the label of cartoon and makes claims
on being a higher art-form. Overseas fans of anime claim that they enjoy the intensity of the
storylines with the endings being difficult to predict as anime is often targeted at adult
audiences.
In the UK, many children watched
anime TV shows as they were
growing up, namely: Dragon Ball
Z, Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! At the
time of watching, kids won’t have
realized that they were watching
Japanese animation but the
popularity of the shows meant that it
created a soft spot in their hearts for
anime. Now, with the growth of the Dragon Ball Z
internet and streaming services such
as Netflix, it has meant that anime has become much more
accessible and accommodating for adults to relive their
childhoods through more age-appropriate popular anime films.
These include Spirited Away and TV programs such as A Place
Further than the Universe.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

Anime has become more popular overseas in recent years due to a shrinking Japanese
population leading to an increased export-minded trade. This has meant that anime producers
have started to make content more suited to Western tastes, as well as producing anime
overseas as it is much cheaper. Famous anime producers such as Tezuka now produce and
push for their work to be sold internationally.

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TOP 5 ANIME SERIES OF ALL TIME

1. Death Note

Death Note is number one for many reasons. Firstly, it has

been voted the number one anime series of all time by
Japanese fans. It is also ranked as number 1 most popular
anime series on the ‘MyanimeList’ website.
Death Note is rather dark, and its protagonist isn’t a
stereotypical good guy like in many other series. The film goes
to places where other anime series haven’t dared, and this is
what makes it absolutely enthralling. The original series was
published from 2003 to 2006 and includes 12 volumes and 108
chapters. The series became so popular that there was even a
Broadway musical written and composed based on it.

2. Attack on Titan -Shingeki no Kyojin

Voted the Best Action Anime by Ranker, Attack on Titan is definitely a fantastic and
revolutionary anime.
The series is about a young man
called Eren Jaeger who vows to
destroy all the giant humanoid
Titans on earth after they destroy
his hometown and kill his mother.
The imagery, the incredible
storyline and the atmosphere of
this TV series is what makes it so
special and why it is loved by most
anime fans. The captivating
storyline and the entire production of the anime series have made it as popular as the longest-
running anime series, even though the original Attack on Titans has only 25 episodes.
In 2018, the Attack on Titan manga has sold 74 million printed copies which has made it one
of the best-selling manga series in history.

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3. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

The series is written by Hiroshi

Onogi and directed by Yasuhiro Irie
and premiered in 2009 and ran until
2010. It includes 65 engaging
episodes which will keep you
interested and craving or more. It
was subtitled in English almost
immediately following its release
which made it very popular among
non-Japanese viewers as well. DVD and Blu-ray box sets have been released around the world,
and the series aired on various channels in the US, UK, Australia and many other countries and
attracted millions of fans worldwide.

4. Naruto Shippūden

Naruto has become a huge franchise ever

since the first Naruto series was released
back in the years. Since then numerous
comics, films, games and series and related
products have been made and sold to the
growing army of Naruto fans.
Naruto Shippuden explores the life and
adventures of Naruto Uzumaki who is a
young, hyperactive and loud ninja looking to become the strongest ninja in the village (Hokage).

5. Naruto

If you have heard of manga and anime,

then you have probably heard about
Naruto. It holds the third place in the
bestsellers manga list in history with over
235 million copies sold in over 35
countries.
Apart from the series, Naruto fans can
watch one of the 11 movies and 11 original
video animations, as well as video games, light novels and trading cards based on the
characters and storyline from Naruto. The Naruto series has won numerous awards and is still
a captivating anime to watch with its mixture of adventure, action, martial arts, comedy and
Shounen in each 23-minute episode of the original series.

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CHARACTORS

Body proportions of human anime

characters tend to accurately reflect
the proportions of the human body in
reality. Head heights can vary, but most
anime characters are about seven to
eight heads tall. Anime artists
occasionally make deliberate
modifications to body proportions to
produce super deformed characters
that feature a disproportionately small
body compared to the head; many
super deformed characters are two to
four heads tall. Some anime works
like Crayon Shin-chan completely
disregard these proportions.

A puppet model for anime boy

A common anime character design convention is

exaggerated eye size. This iconic art style and character
designs allowed for the entire range of human emotions
to be depicted solely through the eyes. The artist adds
variable color shading to the eyes and particularly to the
cornea to give them greater depth.

Eye design

Hair in anime is often unnaturally lively and colorful or

uniquely styled. The movement of hair in anime is
exaggerated and "hair action" is used to emphasize the
action and emotions of characters for added visual effect.

Hair design of anime

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MOST POPULAR ANIME CHARACTORS EVER

1.L - Death Note

L Lawliet, exclusively known by the mononym L, is a

fictional character in the manga series Death Note,
created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. L is
dynamic, interesting, developed and a top rate
character. He is intelligent, funny, direct, and a
wonderful liar.

2.Son Goku

Son Goku is a fictional character and main protagonist of the

Dragon Ball manga series created by Akira Toriyama. He is based
on Sun Wukong, a main character in the classic Chinese novel
Journey to the West. Goku is introduced in Dragon Ball chapter
#1 Bulma and Son Goku, as an eccentric, monkey-tailed boy who
practices martial arts and possesses superhuman strength.

3.Vegeta

Vegeta is an anime fictional character from the anime series, Dragon

Ball Z, created by Akira Toriyama.

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4.Edward Elric

Edward Elric, commonly nicknamed Ed, is a fictional

character and the protagonist of the Fullmetal Alchemist
manga series and its adaptations created by Hiromu
Arakawa.

5.Naruto Uzumaki

Naruto Uzumaki is a fictional character in the anime and

manga franchise Naruto, created by Masashi Kishimoto.

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HOW HAS ANIME INFLUENCED JAPAN?

Japanese culture can be seen in many anime TV shows. High schools are similar to that in real
life, and characters often eat with chopsticks and stay in traditional ryokan inns. Popular anime
characters can be seen all over Japan on
toys, t-shirts, accessories, and stationery.
Some restaurants, such as Coco
Ichibanya, have even created their very
own anime-style characters to promote
their children’s meals.

Anime toys

T-shirt with anime image

Anime Stationary

Anime also inspired the creation of Japan’s first vocaloid singer, Hatsune Miku, who is a cartoon
sixteen-year-old girl who makes pop music. Despite not being a real person, she has a huge
fanbase and people even go to her live concert! In addition, many companies use cute anime-
style characters as mascots to attract young people to their brand. Often, popular video games
have inspired the creation of a spin-off anime series, or vice versa. A good example of this
would be the Pokemon series, which has aired since the 1990s to present and boasts dozens
of games. Anime has certainly influenced Japanese pop culture over the years.

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HOW HAS ANIME INFLUENCED THE REST OF THE
WORLD?

Anime has become one of the best resources nowadays to tell stories in an animated form,
with freedom of expression in any genre and for any audience, which contrasts against
traditional cartoons which are generally aimed at children. Anime gained success in other
countries when early series such as Dragonball, Astro Boy, Sailor Moon, and Slam Dunk aired.
There are many people who started to become interested in Japan after watching some of
these shows. Sometimes, they are even inspired to learn Japanese. As a result, in 1984, the
Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) was created.

The early 1990s served as what was known to

be an “anime boom”. Anime clubs gave rise
to anime conventions with this "anime boom”.
Anime conventions are large gatherings that
may take place over a period of days, in order
for fans of anime and manga to show their
passion and dedication. Fans can also gather to
buy merchandise and try “cosplay”. The term
“cosplay” is derived from the words “costume
play”, and it is when fans dress up as their
favorite character from a series and
impersonate that character for the day. Anime conventions
Another popular aspect of anime is the art
style. The style that stems from the anime genre is
unique, characters generally sporting big eyes and
unique hairstyles. Western countries have also
developed series using that particular style. One of the
more popular series which has adapted this art style is
the Avatar: The Last Airbender, which has gained
international success.

Anime Cosplay

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TRENDS IN JAPANESE ANIMATION

➢ The biggest undeniable trend in anime is anime

movies. It’s not like this is new, Studio Ghibli has
been making movies for years and over the years
incredibly popular series always were likely
candidates to get a whole season told in movie
form. But not only is this even more popular than
ever, separate standalone animated movies are
receiving critical and financial success. “Kimi no Na
wa” (Your Name) has been a financial hit in Japan
and overseas where it has been released.

Kimi no Na wa

➢ Western-style Superheroes It's impossible to

ignore My Hero Academia at this point. The series
is a certifiable hit with a third season already in
production. The series is unique in that, while
there are plenty of shōnen shows focusing on
special abilities and magic, there are few modern
ones that adopt the entire Western superhero
style aesthetic, capes and alter egos and all.

My Hero Academia

➢ Post-Apocalyptic : There's an underlying sense of brooding in the anime scene these

days, and the result is an uptick in stories about humanity surviving a large-scale
apocalypse. Each series' vision of the future varies greatly, but they all focus on humans
eking it out against dangerous monsters, barren landscapes, or even exploring a world
of animal-human hybrids.

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