7 Oldest Anime Ever Created
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Tetsuwan Atomu: The First Japanese Television Anime On January 1, 1963, Fuji Television broadcast a 30-minute animated television series called Tetsuwan Atomu (better known in English as Astro Boy). The show became a surprise hit, starting an anime boom and a period of intense competition for TV audiences.
Kaname Kuran Of 'Vampire Knight' Has Been Alive For Over 10,000 Years. At 10,000 years old, Kaname Kuran is pretty freakin' old.
Sazae-san - 7,701 episodes Recognized by the Guinness World Records, this anime holds the world record for the longest-running animated TV series. The show is about a mother named Sazae-san and her family life.
Before we commence with the historical part, let us just briefly explain the two terms we’re going to talk about.
Manga has a very rich and interesting history, but its exact origins – at least before the appearance of modern manga – aren’t completely clear.
Although likewise not completely clear, the history of anime enables us to give a more precise answer when the animation is concerned.
Although historians can’t pinpoint an exact date, 1917 is often cited as a key year in the development of Japanese animation. In fact, the oldest existing anime film was proved to have been produced in 1917. Unfortunately, due to the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923, most of the first anime was destroyed or lost.
All of the anime on this list date back to the early 20th century and can be viewed (along with several other old anime) on this website celebrating the 100th anniversary of Japanese animated film. 7. Sarukanigassen. English Title: Yasuji Murata’s Monkey and the Crabs. Year founded: 1927.
The film is based on the Japanese folktale about a fisherman traveling to an underwater world on the back of a turtle. 1. Namakura Gatana. English Title: The Dull Sword. Year founded: 1917. Director: Junichi Kouchi. photo source: Wikipedia. Namakura Gatana is the oldest existing anime short film dating back to 1917.
Director: Seitaro Kitayama. photo source: Youtube. Urashima Tarō is one of two films that was discovred in antique shop in Osaka, Japan in 2008; the other film was Nakamura Gatana (listed above). It is one of the earliest examples of anime in existence and a short silent film.
The Hare and the Tortoise is a six minute short animated film based on the classic story that is named after. Dating back to 1924, it is one of the first animations to feature the story of the Hare and Tortoise showing the “slow and steady” tortoise beating the boastful hare in a race.
Murata’s anime depicts the Japanese folktale known as The Quarrel of the Monkey and the Crab, in which a sneaky monkey kills a crab, and is later killed in revenge by the crab’s children.
photo source: animation.filmarchives.jp. Sarukanigassen was Yasuji Murata ’s first animated film and the forms he used for the characters are thought to have influenced the images used in Dainippon Yubenkai Kodansha’s Monkey and the Crabs (1937), a picture book by Sengai Igawa.
In the 1960s, the unique style of Japanese anime began forming, with large eyed, big mouthed, and large headed characters. The first anime film to be broadcast was Moving pictures in 1960. 1961 saw the premiere of Japan's first animated television series, Instant History, although it did not consist entirely of animation. Astro Boy, created by Osamu Tezuka, premiered on Fuji TV on January 1, 1963. It became the first anime shown widely to Western audiences, especially to those in the United States, becoming relatively popular and influencing U.S. popular cult…
Before film, Japan had already several forms of entertainment based in storytelling and images. Emakimono and kagee are considered precursors of Japanese animation. Emakimono was common in the eleventh century. Traveling storytellers narrated legends and anecdotes while the emakimono was unrolled from the right to left with chronological order, as a moving panorama. Kagee was popular during the Edo period and originated from the shadows play of China. Magic lanterns from the Netherlands were also popular in the eighteenth century. Th…
According to Natsuki Matsumoto, the first animated film produced in Japan may have stemmed from as early as 1907. Known as Katsudō Shashin (活動写真, "Activity Photo"), from its depiction of a boy in a sailor suit drawing the characters for katsudō shashin, the film was first found in 2005. It consists of fifty frames stencilled directly onto a strip of celluloid. This claim has not been verified though and predates the first known showing of animated films in Japan. The date and first film publicly displayed is another source of contention: while no Japanese-pro…
Yasuji Murata, Hakuzan Kimura, Sanae Yamamoto and Noburō Ōfuji were students of Kitayama Seitaro and worked at his film studio. Kenzō Masaoka, another important animator, worked at a smaller animation studio. Many early animated Japanese films were lost after the 1923 Tokyo earthquake, including destroying most of the Kitayama studio, with artists trying to incorporate traditional motifs and stories into a new form.
Prewar animators faced several difficulties. First, they had to compete with foreign producers such as Disney, wh…
In the 1930s, the Japanese government began enforcing cultural nationalism. This also lead to strict censorship and control of published media. Many animators were urged to produce animations that enforced the Japanese spirit and national affiliation. Some movies were shown in newsreel theatres, especially after the Film Law of 1939 promoted documentary and other educational films. Such support helped boost the industry, as bigger companies formed through mergers and prompted major live-action studios such as Shochiku to begin producing animation…
In the post-war years, Japanese media was often influenced by the United States, leading some to define anime as any animation emanating from Japan after 1945. While anime and manga began to flourish in the 1940s and 1950s, with foreign films (and layouts by American cartoonists), influencing people such as Osamu Tezuka,
In the 1950s, anime studios began appearing across Japan. Hiroshi Takahata bought a studio named Japan Animated Films in 1948, renaming it Tōei Dōga, with an ambition to become "the Disney of the East." While there, …
Toei Animation and Mushi Production was founded and produced the first color anime feature film in 1958, Hakujaden (The Tale of the White Serpent, 1958). It was released in the US in 1961 as well as Panda and the Magic Serpent. After the success of the project, Toei released a new feature-length animation annually.
Toei's style was characterized by an emphasis on each animator bringing his own ideas to the production. The most extreme example of this is Isao Takahata's film Horus: Prince of the Sun (1968). Horus is often seen as the f…