History of Animation & Visual Effects

Module V - Class 1
Japanese Animation
Japanese Animation
The earliest commercial Japanese animation dates to 1917, and
production of anime works in Japan has since continued to
increase steadily. The characteristic anime art style emerged in
the 1960s with the works of Osamu Tezuka and spread
internationally in the late twentieth century, developing a large
domestic and international audience. Anime is distributed
theatrically, by television broadcasts, directly to home media,
and over the Internet. It is classified into numerous genres
targeting diverse broad and niche audiences. The following
presentation will introduce you to the world of Japanese
animation.
What is Manga, Mangaka and Anime?
Manga is the Japanese word for comics. In Japan, manga is used to refer to
all comics, but in Western countries, the word refers specifically to comics
created in Japan or following the style of Japanese comics.

Likewise, Anime is the Japanese word for animated films and television
shows.

Mangaka is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside Japan
manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the
author of the manga, who is usually Japanese.

The major difference between anime and American cartoons is that unlike
American cartoons, which are only watched by children, anime is popular
among the Japanese adults and is watched by millions. The audience is not
merely directed to children but to teens and adults as well. The same applies
to Japanese comics known as manga.
Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989)
Osamu Tezuka was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist, animator, film producer
and activist. He is best known as the creator of the comics series “Astro Boy”,
“Kimba the White Lion”, “Black Jack” and “Phoenix”. His prolific output,
pioneering techniques and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such titles
as "The Father of Manga", "The Godfather of Manga" and "The God of Manga".

When Tezuka made a name for himself in the industry, he managed to establish his
own production company in 1962. He formed Mushi Productions, where he
released his best work, “Astro Boy”. Tezuka headed the animation production
studio Mushi Production, which pioneered TV animation in Japan. The distinctive
"large eyes" style of Japanese animation was invented by Tezuka, drawing
inspiration from Western cartoons and animated films of the time such as “Betty
Boop”, “Mickey Mouse” and other Disney movies.

His legacy has continued to be honored among Manga artists and animators.
Artists such as Hayao Miyazaki and Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball) have cited
Tezuka as inspiration for their works. Astro Boy, known in Japan by its original
name “Mighty Atom” is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu
Tezuka from 1952 to 1968. The manga was adapted for TV as Astro Boy, the first
popular animated Japanese television series that embodied the aesthetic that later
became known worldwide as anime.
Hayao Miyasaki
Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter, animator,
author, and manga artist. He has come to be known as the Walt Disney of
Japan due to the immense popularity of his films. Through a career that has
spanned five decades, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a
masterful storyteller and as a maker of anime feature films and along with
Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli, a film and animation studio. The
success of Miyazaki's films has invited comparisons with American animator
Walt Disney and American directors Steven Spielberg and Orson Welles.

Miyazaki began his animation career in 1963, when he joined Toei Animation.
From there, Miyazaki worked as an in-between artist for “Gulliver's Travels
Beyond the Moon”, where he pitched ideas that eventually became the
movie's ending. He continued to work in various roles in the animation
industry until he directed his first feature film, “Lupin III: The Castle of
Cagliostro”, released in 1979. After the success of his next film, “Nausicaä of
the Valley of the Wind” (1984), he co-founded Studio Ghibli, where he
continued to produce many feature films.
Hayao Miyasaki
While Miyazaki's films have long enjoyed both commercial and critical success
in Japan, he remained largely unknown to the West until Miramax Films
released “Princess Mononoke” (1997). “Princess Mononoke” was briefly the
highest-grossing film in Japan until it was eclipsed by another 1997 film,
“Titanic” and it became the first animated film to win Picture of the Year at the
Japanese Academy Awards. Miyazaki's next film, “Spirited Away” (2001),
topped at the Japanese box office, won Picture of the Year at the Japanese
Academy Awards, and was the first anime film to win an American Academy
Award.

Miyazaki's film “The Wind Rises” was released on July 20, 2013 and screened
internationally in 2014. The film would go on to earn him his third American
Academy Award nomination and first Golden Globe Award nomination.
Miyazaki announced on September 1, 2013 that “The Wind Rises” would be
his final feature-length movie. In November 2014, Miyazaki was awarded an
Honorary Academy Award for his impact on animation and cinema. He is the
second Japanese filmmaker to win this award, after Akira Kurosawa in 1990.
Isao Takahata
Isao Takahata is a Japanese film director, animator, screenwriter and producer who has
earned critical international acclaim for his work as a director of anime films. Takahata is the
co-founder of Studio Ghibli along with long-time collaborative partner Hayao Miyazaki. He has
directed films such as the grim, war-themed “Grave of the Fireflies”, the romantic drama “Only
Yesterday”, the ecological adventure “Pom Poko” and the comedy “My Neighbors the
Yamadas”. Unlike most anime directors, Takahata does not draw and never worked as an
animator before becoming a full-fledged director. Takahata's most recent film is “The Tale of
the Princess Kaguya”, which was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best
Animated Feature Film at the 87th Academy Awards.

Takahata was originally intrigued by animation after having seen the French animated cartoon
feature “The King and the Mockingbird” based on a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. He
was impressed by the film, asking "Can these kind of things be done by animation?".

While he was job hunting at his university, Takahata was tempted to join Toei Animation by a
friend who knew the company wanted an assistant director. For fun he took the company's
entrance examination as he had been originally interested in animation. When he was notified
of the informal decision, he joined the company.
Isao Takahata
Later in 1971 Zuiyo Enterprise invited Takahata and Miyazaki to direct an animated
series of the novel Heidi and all they took the offer. The result was “Heidi, Girl of the
Alps”. Afterwards, when the production section of Zuiyo was established as a
subsidiary company of the animated cartoon production of Zuiyo Entertainment
(present: Nippon Animation), they both joined the company.
In 1982, Takahata was elected the director of Little Nemo, which was produced by
Telecom. Takahata went to America, but the discord between in the Japan-U.S.
difference in production technique, meant Takahata resigned and left Telecom.
Miyazaki and others followed him. On the other hand, the cultural exchange was
born between Japanese animator and seniors of Disney who had been cooperating
in this project.
Afterward, Takahata was invited by Miyazaki to join his animation production
company Studio Ghibli after the success of Miyazaki's “Nausicaä of the Valley of the
Wind”. The first movie directed by Takahata for Ghibli was “Grave of the Fireflies”.
The film was widely acclaimed by film critics, like prominent and influential film critic
Roger Ebert who considered it "one of the greatest war films ever made".
My Neighbor Totoro
“My Neighbor Totoro” is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film
written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio
Ghibli.

The film tells the story of the two young daughters (Satsuki and Mei)
of a professor and their interactions with friendly wood spirits in
postwar rural Japan.

Totoro has made cameo appearances in multiple Studio Ghibli films,

including Pom Poko, Kiki's Delivery Service and Whisper of the Heart,
even appearing on Studio Ghibli's logo.
Japanese Studios - Studio Ghibli
Studio Ghibli, Inc. is a Japanese animation film studio based in Tokyo, Japan. The studio is best known for its anime feature films, and has also
produced several short films, television commercials, and one television film. It was founded on June 15, 1985 after the success of Nausicaä of the
Valley of the Wind (1984).
Founded on June 15, 1985, the studio is headed by the directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and
the producer Toshio Suzuki. The studio was founded after the success of the 1984 film “Nausicaä of the
Valley of the Wind”, written and directed by Miyazaki for Topcraft and distributed by Toei Company. The
origins of the film lie in the first two volumes of a serialized manga written by Miyazaki for publication in
Animage as a way of generating interest in an anime version. Suzuki was part of the production team on the
film and founded Studio Ghibli with Miyazaki, who also invited Takahata to join the new studio. The studio
has mainly produced films by Miyazaki, with the second most prolific director being Takahata (most notably
with Grave of the Fireflies).
Japanese Studios - Toei Animation Studio
The studio was founded in 1948 as Japan Animated Films. In 1956, Toei
purchased the studio and it was reincorporated under its current name. Over
the years, the studio has created a large number of TV series, movies, and
adapted many Japanese comics by renowned authors to animated series,
many popular worldwide. Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Leiji Matsumoto
and Yoichi Kotabe have all worked with the company in the past.

Toei Animation produced the anime versions of works by many legendary

manga artists, including Mazinger Z, One Piece, Cyborg 009, Sally the
Witch,Dragon Ball, Galaxy Express 999, and Sailor Moon.

Anime created by Toei Animation that have won the Animage Anime Grand
Prix award have been Galaxy Express 999 in 1981, Saint Seiya in 1987, and
Sailor Moon in 1992.
Japanese Studios - Nippon Animation Studio
Nippon Animation is a Japanese animation studio. The company is headquartered in
Tokyo. Nippon Animation is famous for producing numerous anime series based on
works of literature such as Anne of Green Gables and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

What is now Nippon Animation is descended from Zuiyo Enterprises, an animation

studio that produced several popular series in the early and mid-1970s, including 1974's
Heidi, Girl of the Alps, an adaptation of Johanna Spyri's popular children's book Heidi.
The Heidi anime was enormously popular in Japan and in Europe. Zuiyo Enterprises
soon found itself in financial trouble because of the high production costs of a series
presumably Maya the Bee it was attempting to sell to the European market.

In 1975, Zuiyo Entertainment was split into two entities: Zuiyo, which absorbed the debt
and the rights to the Heidi anime and Nippon Animation, which was essentially Zuiyo
Entertainment's production staff. Officially, Nippon Animation Co., Ltd. was established
in June 1975. The newly rechristened Nippon Animation found success right away with
“Maya the Bee” and “A Dog of Flanders”, which became the first entry in the World
Masterpiece Theater series to be produced under the Nippon Animation name.
Questions
Part A - Answer the questions in one word, phrase or sentence

1. Name the first studio where Miyasaki and Thakahata worked together.

Ans - The two worked together for some years at Toei Animation studio.

2. Who is known as the Walt Disney of Japan?

Ans - Miyazaki has been referred to as the Japanese Walt Disney.

3. Who is known as the God of Manga?

Ans - Osamu Tezuka is known as the “God of Manga”.

4. Who is known as the Father of Anime?

Ans - Osamu Tezuka is known as the “Father of Anime” after the success of “Astro Boy”.

5. Who is Osamu Tesuka?

Ans - Osamu Tezuka was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist, animator, film producer and activist. He is known as the "the father of
Anime" and "The god of manga".
Questions
6. What is Anime?

Ans - Anime is the Japanese word for animated films and television shows.

7. Who is Astro boy?

Ans - Astro Boy, known in Japan by its original name Mighty Atom is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka
from 1952 to 1968. The manga was adapted for TV as Astro Boy, the first popular animated Japanese television series that embodied the aesthetic
that later became familiar worldwide as anime.

8. Who is the creator of Astro boy?

Ans - Osamu Tezuka is the creator of Astro boy.

9. My Neighbor Totoro.

Ans - “My Neighbor Totoro” is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio
Ghibli.

10. Spirited Away.

Ans - Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. It won
the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards, the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival.
Questions
11. What is Manga?

Ans - Manga is the Japanese word for comics. In Japan, manga is used to refer to all comics, but in Western countries, the word refers
specifically to comics created in Japan or following the style of Japanese comics.

12. What is Mangaka?

Ans - Mangaka is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside Japan manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and
mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese.
Questions
Part C - Paragraph Answer

1. History of Anime.

2. Toei Animation studio.

3. Who is Hayao Miyasaki?

4. Who is Isao Takahata?

5. Studio Ghibli.

6. Nippon Animation Studio.

7. What are the important animated features from Studio Ghibli?

Part D - Essay Answer

1. Write an essay on history of Japanese Animation.

2. What are the important animation studios in Japan?