“Whatever happens now, you always have to do something from the past.”
The history of anime is remarkably long, yes, and it will take hundreds of pages if I write a chapter about it. I could, but it will take me a year or more to compile. My main goal is not to present a chronological dissertation of anime history in its broadest sense, as it is, as I said, comprehensive. But it is part of my cause to present to you, the readers, a simplified presentation of anime history. So in this article, my cause is to give a simplified but awakening view for us Christians about anime and its history. Knowing the history, of course, will not make us ignore the current sophistication. Also, as Christians, it is important for us to know or trace the roots before throwing ourselves into temptations of any kind.
For starters, the word “anime” is primarily based on the original Japanese pronunciation of the American word “animation.” It is the animation style in Japan. The Urban dictionary defines it stereotypically as: the anime style are characters with proportionally large eyes and very colorful and exotic hairstyles and colors. The plots range from very immature (children’s things), through adolescence level, to mature ones (violence, content and thick plot). It is also important to note that American cartoons and Japanese anime are different. The plot of an anime is more complex while that of a cartoon is simpler. While cartoons are intended for children, anime, on the other hand, is more intended for adult viewers.
Although the creation of anime was basically due to the influence of Western countries that began at the beginning of the 20th century (when Japanese filmmakers experimented with animation techniques that were being explored in the West) it was also inspired by the production of manga (comic ) that was already present in Japan even before the production of the anime.
At the beginning of the 13th century, there were already images of the afterlife and animals that appeared on the walls of the temples in Japan (most of them are similar to modern manga). At the beginning of the 17th century, images were no longer drawn in temples, but on wooden blocks, known as Edo. Edo arts themes were less religious and often geographically erotic. Noticing this, without a doubt, gave me this idea:
“Explicit manga introductions, which would later influence the anime industry, already existed in the 13th century. That’s hundreds of years before anime came into view!”
Now, it shouldn’t be too surprising, right? There are many manga (aka comics) these days that are too vulgar and explicit and if not, there will be at least one character in their flashy appearance. I’m not saying that all manga are full of nudes, if that’s what you’re thinking right now. But rather, this exploitation of eroticism (or at least a hint of love affair) in the manga is not really new. They already existed even before the First and Second World War. However, they moved on to something else. Manga, to a large extent, is a factor in how and why anime existed. In fact, most anime and live actions are adaptations of manga or comics.
Japanese cartoonists already experimented with different styles of animation as early as 1914, but the glorious growth of anime began shortly after WWII, where Kitayama Seitaro, Oten Shimokawa, and Osamu Tezuka pioneered as then notable Japanese animators. Among the pioneering animators during that time, it was Osamu Tezuka who earned the most credits and was later known as “the god of comics.”
Osamu Tezuka was best known for his work “Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atomu)”, the first robot boy with an atomic heart who had wished he was a real boy. His works were remarkable and his animation style contributed a lot in the production of Japanese anime, such as big round eyes. Tezuka’s works not only focused on entertaining young viewers, but he also conceived and initiated the creation of Encourage. It is a series of thematically related adult anime feature films made at its Mushi production studio from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. Animerama is a trilogy consisting of three films: Arabian Nights, Cleopatra, and Belladonna. The first, A Thousand & One Nights, was the first erotic animated film conceived by Osamu Tezuka, the god of comics.
Although anime made its way, it was only in the 1980s that anime was fully accepted into mainstream Japan. Since then, more and more genres emerged. From pieces of life, drama, mecha, tragic, adventure, science fiction, romance, ecchi, shounen-ai, shoujo and many more genres. While most anime shows shifted from more superhero-oriented fantasy plots to somewhat more realistic space operas with increasingly complex plots and more confusing definitions of right and wrong, in short, anime in its most wide is just complicated.
Also, later, during the boom experience of Japanese animation, a new medium for anime was developed: the OVA (Original Video Animation). These OVAs were direct-to-home video series or movies that targeted much smaller audiences. The OVA was also responsible for allowing the first full-blown anime porn.
As Japanese animation gained more audience and acceptance around the world, a subculture in Japan, who later called themselves “otaku”, began to develop around animation magazines such as Animage or later NewType. These magazines became known in response to the overwhelming fandom that developed around shows like Yamato and Gundam in the late 1970s and early 1980s and during this period the mecha genres were prominent.
It all started with old paintings, wood block arts, artistic depictions of life, nature and animals from the 13th century. Until these, however, evolved into moving frames when different experimentations of manga and animation were conducted in the pre and post war era.
Even as far back as the 13th century, the woodblock manga, known as Edo, already existed not just for the sake of art, but it was there, I think, as a medium of entertainment … a form of art and entertainment that would gradually evolve . on time.
In conclusion, the anime’s history was broad in its sense and this article has not presented it in its entirety. But the point is, we must know that anime itself carries many genres and motifs that may be more alarming than we can imagine.
As Christians, we should really consider the motives of the heart of the creators or animators. We should do a background check and if we are sentenced to stop watching a certain anime, let’s not take it for granted.