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You might have heard the word animé uttered by most of your classmates and peers. It’s not a surprise though; animé has become a leading entertainment, not only in television but also over the Internet. The phenomenal animé industry has taken the world by storm with its cinematic storytelling, unique character designs and interesting plots. Animé series such as Naruto, Fairy Tail and Vampire Knight have become popular anime movies and series to a wide variety of audience, regardless of age and gender. Most animé enthusiasts may wonder: When and where did animé originated? The arrival of western cartoons in the east had an impact on Japanese art. Younger generations of artists were fascinated with the styles and formats of the western cartoons that they immediately decided to create their own version. During the 20th century, a lot of Japanese animators tried to create a new form of graphic design based on western cartoons. By this period, manga (comics) have become a popular form of literature among the Japanese. As such, animators tried to adapt and fuse their manga styles with western cartoons to create what we call as animé today. The first generation of animators completed only a few series which were composed of short films. The first animated film was made by Shimokawa Oten, a political caricaturist and cartoonist, after which he was followed by Kouchi Junichi and Kitayama Seitaro who made their advanced animation during the 1910s. The second generation of animators were students of Kitayama Seitaro, namely Murato Yosuji, Yamamoto Sanae and Noburu Ofuji. Marketing animé during this period was difficult since there is a growing competition with Disney animated films. When pre-war period took a turn, animé were incorporated into scholastic, political and industrial use. Animé series that present educational values were highly supported by the Ministry of Education, giving animé producers to showcase their works in regular theaters. After the WWII, Ozamu Tezuka, the father of animé, was the first one to successfully complete a series that caught the attention of millions worldwide. His work, Astroboy (Tetsuwa Atom), was first released in 1963 and became the highest rated animated show in television. Aside from Tezuka, Hayao Miyazaki also became a prominent name in the animé industry with his works such as Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro. Series and movies produced by Tezuka and Miyazawa are still widely acclaimed in today’s animé industry. During the post-war period, big animé studios were also established such as Toei Animations and Mushi Productions. The most popular among all the series they released were Dragonball (1986) and Sailormoon (1992) which targeted audiences, regardless of gender and age. From 1958 up until the present, Toei and Mushi continue to produce animé series that can be comparable to western style cartoons. Many other studios such as Bandai and Clamp animation soon followed to produce different series such as Gundam Wing and XXXholic. These animation studios produce at least 50 different series and original version animation (OVA) each year. Animé reached its peak during the 1990s, when they were introduced in different countries. A lot of animé titles dominated the primetime slots during this period with audiences from different age groups. One of the popular animé series during the 90’s was Pokemon (1996) which was based from a game released by Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri. When the new millennium came, artists such as Misashi Kishimoto and Hiro Mashima captivated a lot of people with a new set of series and anime movies (Naruto and Fairy Tail) that are still gaining popularity even until today.
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