Me and Ant hanging out... thought this was interesting - trip trip trip
Japanese animation (anime) is an entire film industry, and the UK only sees a tiny fraction of it. Kicked off by the five-minute Mukuzo Imokawa the Doorman in 1917, the industry was a mix of funny-animal cartoons and military propaganda by the 1930s, best illustrated by Black Cat Banzai (1933), in which Japanese toys defeat an evil Mickey Mouse.
In the post-war period, anime started to rely more on Japanese comics (manga) as its source. The master manga artist Osamu Tezuka realised that there was an untapped demand for sci-fi instead of fantasy, and turned his own Astro Boy manga into Japan's first full-length TV series in 1963.
By the 1970s, TV animation studios were churning out sitcoms, mysteries, sports dramas, and Western favourites such as Heidi (1974) and Little House on the Prairie (1975). Toy marketing began to drive the industry, with tales such as Mazinger Z (1972), the first of many sagas about teenagers in giant robots saving the world. The phenomenon reached its peak with Gundam (1981), the first of an ongoing succession of interlinked serials, detailing a future war between Earth and orbital colonies.
In 1984, animation studios began to make shows straight-to-video for smaller markets. Pornography thrived in this more private medium, as did sci-fi for an older audience weaned on the TV robot shows. These shorter titles are the main source for the anime released abroad, since they are more affordable than expensive movies or long-running TV series. Hideaki Anno's Gunbuster (1989) retold the Pacific War as a galactic conflict in which humanity (i.e. Japan) is fighting on the wrong side, mixing powerful drama with arch in-jokes about previous shows. Bubblegum Crisis (1987) mixed anxieties about the fragile "bubble" economy with fast-paced action, as female vigilantes in mechanical "hard-suits" fight robot crime in a sprawling super-city extrapolated from modern Tokyo. The series was an immense success, but fell apart amid studio disputes; Bubblegum Crash (1989) is a distaff sequel salvaged from the remains.
The video market became a testing ground for new ideas; the most notable success-story being Patlabor (1988), which graduated from video to TV series and eventually two theatrical features - a third will be with use very soon. Though much of the anime available outside Japan were originally made for video, the boom in anime was fuelled by cinema features. Katsuhiro Otomo's cyberpunk thriller Akira (1988), which had a budget far higher than most other anime, gained high praises, but also created high expectations. In its wake, English-speaking companies began to fight over the "newly-discovered" anime business, grabbing SF like Genocyber (1993), but ignoring most other genres. Deliberately released to court controversy, the infamous sex-horror Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend (1987) was followed by a flood of lesser erotica; although anime is often regarded by the media as violent pornography, many of these titles sell better abroad than they ever did in Japan.
The 1990s saw a boom in "retro anime" as producers realised that the Astro Boy generation would now have children of their own. Capitalising on nostalgia, anime were made with a deliberately old-fashioned feel, including adaptations of Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack (1993) and Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Giant Robo (1992). In a creatively barren environment, Hideaki Anno's apocalyptic sci-fi series Evangelion (1995) enticed back many disenchanted fans and made TV, not video, the new animation medium of choice. The late 1990s were characterised by short-lived TV serials rushed out to cash in on the Evangelion mystique, though perhaps only Escaflowne (1996) compared favourably. Starved for talent in an era that valued marketing over creativity, studios cloned old video shows like Bubblegum Crisis, or adapted proven franchises in a proliferation of game tie-ins like Street Fighter (1995) and Pokémon (1997).
Japanese animation has come a long way since 1917. Only ten years ago, it was a tiny niche market in video stores; now it is a TV phenomenon with global audiences. It is now much imitated in Western animation, from Titan AE to the Power Puff Girls. After years in which tapes were made in thousands and Akira's five-figure sales were the peak, Pokémon videos leave stores by the millions. Budgets and expectations now make it difficult for cinema anime to make their money back without foreign sales X:The Movie (1996) and Jin-Roh (2000) are too inwardly-focussed to find true success abroad. The future, on the big and small screen, lies in works such as Blood (2000) or Sol Bianca (1999) that take the non-Japanese audience into account. In that regard, anime's very success outside Japan could destroy much of what makes it unique.
Jonathan Clements
In the post-war period, anime started to rely more on Japanese comics (manga) as its source. The master manga artist Osamu Tezuka realised that there was an untapped demand for sci-fi instead of fantasy, and turned his own Astro Boy manga into Japan's first full-length TV series in 1963.
By the 1970s, TV animation studios were churning out sitcoms, mysteries, sports dramas, and Western favourites such as Heidi (1974) and Little House on the Prairie (1975). Toy marketing began to drive the industry, with tales such as Mazinger Z (1972), the first of many sagas about teenagers in giant robots saving the world. The phenomenon reached its peak with Gundam (1981), the first of an ongoing succession of interlinked serials, detailing a future war between Earth and orbital colonies.
In 1984, animation studios began to make shows straight-to-video for smaller markets. Pornography thrived in this more private medium, as did sci-fi for an older audience weaned on the TV robot shows. These shorter titles are the main source for the anime released abroad, since they are more affordable than expensive movies or long-running TV series. Hideaki Anno's Gunbuster (1989) retold the Pacific War as a galactic conflict in which humanity (i.e. Japan) is fighting on the wrong side, mixing powerful drama with arch in-jokes about previous shows. Bubblegum Crisis (1987) mixed anxieties about the fragile "bubble" economy with fast-paced action, as female vigilantes in mechanical "hard-suits" fight robot crime in a sprawling super-city extrapolated from modern Tokyo. The series was an immense success, but fell apart amid studio disputes; Bubblegum Crash (1989) is a distaff sequel salvaged from the remains.
The video market became a testing ground for new ideas; the most notable success-story being Patlabor (1988), which graduated from video to TV series and eventually two theatrical features - a third will be with use very soon. Though much of the anime available outside Japan were originally made for video, the boom in anime was fuelled by cinema features. Katsuhiro Otomo's cyberpunk thriller Akira (1988), which had a budget far higher than most other anime, gained high praises, but also created high expectations. In its wake, English-speaking companies began to fight over the "newly-discovered" anime business, grabbing SF like Genocyber (1993), but ignoring most other genres. Deliberately released to court controversy, the infamous sex-horror Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend (1987) was followed by a flood of lesser erotica; although anime is often regarded by the media as violent pornography, many of these titles sell better abroad than they ever did in Japan.
The 1990s saw a boom in "retro anime" as producers realised that the Astro Boy generation would now have children of their own. Capitalising on nostalgia, anime were made with a deliberately old-fashioned feel, including adaptations of Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack (1993) and Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Giant Robo (1992). In a creatively barren environment, Hideaki Anno's apocalyptic sci-fi series Evangelion (1995) enticed back many disenchanted fans and made TV, not video, the new animation medium of choice. The late 1990s were characterised by short-lived TV serials rushed out to cash in on the Evangelion mystique, though perhaps only Escaflowne (1996) compared favourably. Starved for talent in an era that valued marketing over creativity, studios cloned old video shows like Bubblegum Crisis, or adapted proven franchises in a proliferation of game tie-ins like Street Fighter (1995) and Pokémon (1997).
Japanese animation has come a long way since 1917. Only ten years ago, it was a tiny niche market in video stores; now it is a TV phenomenon with global audiences. It is now much imitated in Western animation, from Titan AE to the Power Puff Girls. After years in which tapes were made in thousands and Akira's five-figure sales were the peak, Pokémon videos leave stores by the millions. Budgets and expectations now make it difficult for cinema anime to make their money back without foreign sales X:The Movie (1996) and Jin-Roh (2000) are too inwardly-focussed to find true success abroad. The future, on the big and small screen, lies in works such as Blood (2000) or Sol Bianca (1999) that take the non-Japanese audience into account. In that regard, anime's very success outside Japan could destroy much of what makes it unique.
Jonathan Clements