Today it is sensei to you

Unfortunately after some consideration I have decided to just heap the whole history lesson into one post and make the absolute focus of my blog on drawings. So here is the brief yet hopefully interesting and educational post on the awesome history of anime and manga.

When people hear the word anime most of them immediately think of Akira or Pokemon, but how many people do you think know about where anime and manga originated from? When translated literally manga actually means “random (or whimsical) pictures”. It was first heard in the late 18^th century in reference to Suzuki Kankei's "Mankaku zuihitsu" (1771) and Santo Kyoden's picturebook "Shiji no yukikai" (1798). However manga-like simplistic characteristics are seen in drawings dating back to the 12^th century. That makes it pretty ancient huh? Modern manga has come a long way from its predecessors the woodblock printed books, one of the most well known series being Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by the famous artist Katsushika Hokusai.

Around 1930 manga was made using low-priced paper and ink, and it wasn’t sold in bookshops but rather in children’s toy shops. After World War II ended the United States started to influence Japanese culture again. Osama Tezuka (known as the “Father of Anime” or the “God of Manga”) was influenced by Walt Disney and in turn influenced a great number of mangaka. He introduced story to manga, and is probably best known as the creator of Astro Boy, the first ever anime series. He began it as a manga series in 1951 and after its huge success it was remade as an anime series in the 1980s.

One of the biggest anime companies ever is Studio Ghibli, their first film being Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind. They provided the video rights to Walt Disney to a lot of huge feature length animes such as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke (you must see this one if you haven’t already). This company opened the way for Hollywood to get into the anime business with Akira. The phenomenal success of Akira in the West made people aware of this different style of cartoons and comics.

However, because there was nothing as big as Akira following for years anime didn’t make it all the way, there were just occasional big hits such as Sailor Moon (although this was hugely edited in places), Dragonball, and of course Pokemon. It was Pokemon that opened me and everyone I know from my generation up to anime. It’s my ambition to somehow watch pure Pokemon that has not been dubbed, for we all know that dubs are evil. The effect that Pokemon had on the world was incredible, it was all over television, and I don’t just mean the episodes. Try searching for Ant and Dec on S.M.T.V. Live and Pokemon and there is disturbing evidence of their very own Pokemon battles…

Well class is over. Gomen nasai for the length and randomness.