Anime 101 Part 5: History - Tezuka and Beyond

If this is your first time reading an Anime 101 post, then welcome! I started on history in Anime 101: part 4, and gave basic introductions to anime and manga in earlier posts. If you are a stranger to anime, I recommend you read earlier sections before this one.

If American animation had Disney and Mickey Mouse, then Japanese anime and manga have Dr. Osamu Tesuka and Astro Boy. Dr. Tezuka (1925-1989) studied, enjoyed, and was influenced by Disney’s animations, and proceeded to contribute enormously to the next age of manga and anime (Drazen 5). He incorporated styles inspired by Western cartoons, such as large eyes, with his own style. Patrick Drazen affirms, “His forty years as a cartoonist saw massive changes in the form and content of Japanese comic books, changes that usually traced back to innovations by Dr. Tezuka himself” (5). Almost every one of my sources mentioned Tezuka at some point, so that I found there was no choice but to include him in any writing on the development of anime. Robin Brenner, a librarian and researcher, writes, “Tezuka influenced every manga creator that came after him, whether following in his footsteps or reacting against his style, and he single-handedly defined many of the major characteristics of modern manga” (6).

In 1952, Tezuka’s Astro Boy set out in the manga market on its journey to become one of the most famous and iconic Japanese manga and anime characters of all time. Later, in 1963, Tezuka modified Astro Boy into Japan’s first animated television show (Brenner 7). In the same year, an English version appeared on American TV screens (Patten 22). Another of Tezuka’s acclaimed animated TV series, known in the West as Kimba the White Lion, premiered on Japanese screens in 1964. By the late 1960s, animation secured its place in Japan’s entertainment industry, and with no small thanks to Dr. Osamu Tezuka (Napier 16).

Tezuka and many of his contemporaries admired Disney. “But,” comments Napier, “virtually from the start, postwar Japanese animation has tended to go in a very different direction, not only in terms of its adult orientation and more complex story lines, but also its overall structure” (17). Napier notes that weekly TV series enable “certain narrative structures, most notably serial plots,” allowing long plot lines that cinema can’t present. This weekly structure works well with manga-based features, since manga, too, tend to have long plot series (Napier 17).

Anime quickly became a central fixture in Japanese pop culture. By 1988, about forty percent of the features produced in Japan’s studios were animated, and by 1999, the numbers rose to at least half (Napier 15).

This growth meant that anime made its mark in more places than TV. In the 1970s, anime joined the cinema world (Napier 17). Since the early 1980s, OVAs have also gained ground in the market (18). These OVAs, or Original Video Animations, consist of features that were distributed in video form first, rather that originating on television or the big screen. “Also,” writes Napier, “by the 1990s, intellectually sophisticated anime were increasingly appearing.” Shows like Neon Genesis Evangelion and movies such as Princess Mononoke stirred thinking and “scholarly articles” (Napier 18).

Animation didn’t always have center stage. “For a long time,” says Napier, “it was overshadowed by Japan’s superb live-action cinema and existed only as a fairly marginal and largely child-oriented alternative.” Japanese live action is more than noteworthy: it was among the best in the world during the 1950s and 60s (Napier 16). But American films became so popular, Japanese live action found it difficult to compete. Anime, on the other hand, does pretty well. Napier attributes its success to the fact that anime “does not directly compete with Hollywood behemoth but that still appeals to a broad audience” (19).

Of course, a media this diverse and entertaining, not to mention rich in culture, can’t be contained in one country. In the past few decades, anime spread throughout the world. Simon Richmond points out in his Rough Guide to Anime that “every minute of every day some 600 Japanese animated videos are downloaded from the Internet” (Richmond v). This is in addition to any anime watched on television, home video, and online without downloading. Talk about popular!

The next and final segment of Anime 101 expands on anime’s worldwide popularity before concluding with some of my thoughts. I hope you’ll join me as I wrap this series up.

Pictures from Astro Boy and Princess Mononoke

Sources:

Brenner, Robin E. Understanding Manga and Anime. Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited,

2007.

Drazen, Patrick. Anime Explosion!: The What? Why? & Wow! of Japanese Animation.

Berkeley, Calif: Stone Bridge Press, 2003.

Napier, Susan Jolliffe. Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary

Japanese Animation. New York: Palgrave, 2000.

Richmond, Simon. The Rough Guide to Anime: Japan’s finest from Ghibli to Gankutsuo.

London: Rough Guides, Ltd., 2009.

Anime 101 Part 4 - Pre-Tezuka History

Since the development of manga and anime follow many of the same patterns, I find it necessary to include both when researching anime’s history. The technology for animation is only a little over a century old, so manga’s development comes first. With a little research, I found the history to be satisfyingly rich.

Robin Brenner’s helpful book, Understanding Manga and Anime, notes, “although it is difficult to identify the exact date when manga emerged, many credit the beginning of sequential art in Japan with the creation of scrolls of illustrations by Buddhist monks in the twelfth century” (Brenner 1). In her article, “Manga in Japanese History,” published in Mark MacWilliam’s collection Japanese Visual Culture: Explorations in the World of Manga and Anime, Kinko Ito mentions a particular monk, Bishop Toba, who lived from 1053 to 1140. Toba illustrated a set of scrolls that Ito says became “the most famous early caricature that many scholars consider a prototype of the manga form” (MacWilliams 26). This humorous four scroll set, called Chojo giga, or “The Animal Scrolls,” depicts animals “parodying the decadent lifestyle of the upper class” (26).

The ancestors of manga weren’t always as lighthearted as “The Animal Scrolls.” Many contained serious or religious themes. One example Ito brings up consists of what were known as “Hell Pictures,” meant to “teach children basic Buddhist doctrines and ethics” (MacWilliams 27). These scrolls and pictures of the medieval time period contributed to the visual culture that developed manga. However, unlike today’s manga, they were only available to “a handful ef elites” (27).

The advent of woodblock printing during the Tokugawa Period (1603-1867) made it possible for the common folk to acquire and distribute the pictures (MacWilliams 27). One example of this era’s art was called Toba-e. This name indicates that a similarity was found between Toba-e and the work of Bishop Toba. The Toba-e were especially noteworthy because, “during the eighteenth century, their publication in Osaka marked the beginning of a commercial publishing industry that was based on woodblock-printing technology” (MacWilliams 28).

In the later third of the 1800s, Western comics influenced Japanese artists and merged with their styles. These cartoon hybrids made their way first into newspapers, then magazines (Brenner 4). Brenner writes, “by the end of the 1920s, numerous cartoon strips were read across Japan.” At first, they were published mainly in children’s manga magazines, such as Shounen Club, which is still in circulation (4). Mark MacWilliams notes the next step, manga published in the form of a small red book, called akahon. This red book was “a cheaply made comic for children that had evolved from newspaper comic strips of the 1930s” (MacWilliams 12). The dimensions of these seven inch books are still used in modern volumes of manga.

Western comics and Japanese manga soon gained a relative in the visual world. Animation was pioneered in the U.S. by people like Max and Dave Fleischer, creators of Betty Boop, and Walt Disney, who brought in sound, color, and the first full-length animated movie, Snow White (Drazen 4). Still, writes Patrick Drazen, early U.S. Animations “were often just a sideshow,” shown as shorts before the main feature at the theater (4). In 1909, Western animations began to be shown in Japan, and by 1915, the Japanese produced their own animated creations (Napier16).

In Japan, animation of the early 1900s was not considered separate from live-action productions. Daisuke Miyao states, “animation was not defined as distinct from cinema in terms of social regulations or production concerns. As a result, animation was largely treated in the same way as cinema under similar historical conditions” (Miyao 194). Both anime and live action came under the critical eye of educators, government, and censors (194).

At this point, animation was not an economical hotspot, though its potential was certainly acknowledged. Animation studios were often no more than an animator’s home, with family and friends as the staff (Miyao 204). Then, Miyao writes, “the unhappy financial situation of animation changed dramatically with the advent of the Fifteen-Year War (1931-45).” The government employed animation with frequency, giving the industry financial support and a market, though, naturally, the government took a large part in choosing the subject matter (Miyao 204).

The Japanese government’s involvement in animation helped with its technological growth as well. In Miyao’s words, “Technical advances and military advances went hand in hand” (205). With the start of the Pacific War in December of 1941, Japan’s government increased their use of animation as a tool for propaganda. “In sum,” concludes Miyao, “the wartime government laid the basis for the post-war development of animation – indeed, for the subsequent emergence of anime” by “encouraging technical experimentation, training animators, creating the conditions for teams of animators” (205). The Fifteen-Year War may not have been the pleasantest of times, but it played an important role in the development of anime.

At the same time, manga continued in its own growth. At first, its target audiences consisted of children. Around the 1950s, this audience grew out of juvenile plots, but not out of the medium, and so teen and adult themes and stories came into demand (Brenner 7). At the same time, both manga and anime were on the verge of another stepping stone – this time, in the form of a medical student.

To be continued…

Sources for this section:

Brenner, Robin E. Understanding Manga and Anime. Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited,
2007.


Drazen, Patrick. Anime Explosion!: The What? Why? & Wow! of Japanese Animation.
Berkeley, Calif: Stone Bridge Press, 2003.

Macwilliams, Mark Wheeler. Japanese Visual Culture: Explorations in the World of Manga and
Anime. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2008.

Miyao, Daisuke. "Before anime: animation and the Pure Film Movement in pre-war Japan."
Japan Forum 14.2 (2002): 191-209. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 16 May 2010.

Napier, Susan Jolliffe. Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary
Japanese Animation. New York: Palgrave, 2000.

Pictures:

1. From The Animal Scrolls, found at tufts.edu

2. From the early Japanese animation Issun-boshi: Chibisuke Monogatari (Tiny Chibisuke Big Adventure)

Comments on de Tocqueville's Democracy in America

Before I begin, I must address my facebook friends who see these random notes appear on their homepages: I've made it so my blog posts automatically transfer to facebook notes. Very few of you know about my blog, and none of you read it, so I'm forced to make my posts into facebook notes if I want anyone to read them.

Now, onto the real post...

In my initial studies for the We the People competition, both my textbook and outside articles repeatedly referenced Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, published in 1835. I dutifully acquired the book, read the preface and introduction, and skipped to the chapter relevant to our competition. To my surprise, de Tocqueville drew me in, and I turned back to read from the beginning. A few chapters into this great work, I can understand why so many scholars reference it.

De Tocqueville states that the ideas and conduct of men and nations are best understood when studied from their earliest days. This idea motivates him to begin, after the introduction, by setting the scene with America's geography. He starts with the whole of North America and moves into the details of New England's trees, until I can see the leaves move with the breeze, their shadows rippling across the life-giving decay on the forest floor. With the ease of a novelist, de Tocqueville tours his readers around the States and introduces us to the Natives. In due time, he transitions us into the lives of the colonists, explaining the basic motives and politics of different groups of Anglo-Americans. I am well into the second chapter (or perhaps beginning the third), where de Tocqueville explains much of the principles and governance of the pilgrims and the Puritan societies they formed in New England. The progression of Democracy in America through each explanation feels natural.

My original goal, to prepare for the We the People competition, forced me to skip to the chapter on political associations before I even read the chapters described above. In this chapter, de Tocqueville treats me to his delightful insight regarding my country. I need to learn about voluntary associations in America, and de Tocqueville fulfills that need, broadening my understanding of these associations and the heritage behind them.

"In no country in the world," de Tocqueville claims, "has the principle of association been more successfully used, or more unsparingly applied to a multitude of different objects, than in America. Besides the associations which are established by law," such as townships, "a vast number of others are formed and maintained by the agency of private individuals." De Tocqueville, a foreigner twice to me due to the age and nation he belonged to, describes these associations with a fascination which alerts me that their composition is not universal and not to be taken for granted. I have grown up in a world of voluntary associations, from the larger and politically active groups like Oregon Right to Life or the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) to the community minded groups such as Key club and our local FAN (Family Access Network). In contrast, de Tocqueville considers such associations novel, more replete than those in Europe*.

And what drives the American people to form associations to confront questions and problems around them? De Tocqueville might argue that it is our heritage. "The citizen of the United States," he writes, "is taught from his earliest infancy to rely upon his own exertion in order to resist the evils and the difficulties of life; he looks upon social authority with an eye of mistrust and anxiety, and he only claims its assistance when he is quite unable to shift without it." It is this spirit, Tocqueville believes, which leads citizens to solve problems in their community themselves. De Tocqueville notes that, worldwide, "Societies are formed to resist enemies which are exclusively of a moral nature, and to diminish the vice of intemperance: in the United States associations are established to promote public order, commerce, industry, morality, and religion." We are, according to de Tocqueville, driven to join our exertions in association with an American sense of independence and ingenuity. Reading this, I wonder if, 175 years later, de Tocqueville would observe the same traits of independence from government. I believe his observations would be more mixed. I think that many citizens in the modern United States expect the government to solve more problems than they expected in de Tocqueville's day, and view "Uncle Sam" with less mistrust. At the same time, many maintain the same spirit of independence described in de Tocqueville's work. At the very least, Americans as a whole recognize that our nation is one founded by the people. Should we be dissatisfied with anything in our country, we take for granted the use of freedom of association and freedom of speech.

There I go, rambling again. I shall stop now, and let the reader (if any one does read my blog) experience Democracy in America on their own and thus begin their own reflection on America's constitution, past and present.

*He spends most of the chapter on American political associations, and his comparison of them to their European equivilants are quite interesting. I shall not address this aspect of his work here, as it is a topic best fitted to another post.