Coming
soon to Blazing Toys, the imaginative world of Anime and Manga!
We will soon be carrying DVD's, CD's, Books and Figurines
in the popular style of Japanese Animation, or, "Anime"!
Stay Tuned!
History of Anime
The history of anime begins at the start of the 20th
century, when Japanese filmmakers experimented with the animation
techniques that were being explored in France, Germany, the
United States, and Russia. The oldest known anime is in 1907,
a three second clip of a sailor boy.
By the 1930s, animation became an alternative format of storytelling
compared to the underdeveloped live-action industry in Japan.
Unlike America, the live-action industry in Japan remained
a small market and suffered from budgeting, location, and
casting restrictions. The lack of Western-looking actors,
for example, made it next to impossible to shoot films set
in Europe, America, or fantasy worlds that do not naturally
involve Japan. The varied use of animation allowed artists
to create any characters and settings.
Starting with Snow White, Walt Disney demonstrated animation's
potential as a medium. The success of Disney's works influenced
Japanese animators. Osamu Tezuka adapted and simplified many
Disney animation precepts to reduce the budget costs and number
of frames in the production. This was intended to be a temporary
measure to allow him to produce one episode every week with
an inexperienced animation staff. Some animators in Japan
overcome production budgets by utilizing different techniques
than the Disney or the old Tezuka/Otsuka methods of animating
anime.
During the 1970s, there was a surge of growth in the popularity
of manga - which were often later animated - especially those
of Osamu Tezuka, who has been called a "legend"
and the "god of manga". As a result of his work
and that of other pioneers in the field, anime developed characteristics
and genres that are fundamental elements of the art today.
The giant robot genre (known as "mecha" outside
Japan), for instance, took shape under Tezuka, developed under
Go Nagai and others, and was revolutionized at the end of
the decade by Yoshiyuki Tomino. Robot anime like Gundam and
Macross became instant classics in the 80s, and the robot
genre of anime is still one of the most heard of in Japan
and worldwide today.
In the 1980's, anime was accepted in the mainstream in Japan,
and experienced a surge in popularity. From the mid-to-late
'90s, and up to today, there is an increased popularity and
interest in anime, overseas.
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