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A Global History of Anime
› Introduction
› The Very Beginning (Osamu Tezuka)
› The First Shows Hit US TV
› Other Early Shows
› Androgynous Characters
Introduction
It's truly amazing how many people into Anime
today seem to think that it all started about a year before they
got involved in the hobby. Many will, however, tell almost identical
stories about dim childhood memories of (depending on how old they
are) Astro Boy, Speed Racer, Marine Boy, Gigantor, Robotech, or
Star Blazers. Others wandered into a comic shop and discovered to
their utter amazement that there was an Akira MOVIE to go along
with their comics. Still others fell in love with Ken Ichi Sonoda's
manga (Japanese for comics) style, and had their eyes pulled out
of their sockets by the animated Bubblegum Crisis. There are even
people now who discovered the medium when someone they knew told
them about the Ranma f dubs, or accidentally tuned in the Science
Fiction Channel one Saturday morning ... something that was unthinkable
only a few years ago.
 The real history of the medium is frequently chaotic and bizarre
(as is the medium itself), and to cover it in depth would take hundreds
of pages (I've been threatening for years to write such a book),
but that's not the function of this primer. My goal is merely to
give you, the reader, an idea of what happened and when. Significant
events have been left out of this (I'm not even going to think about
documenting the politics of early US fandom or the recent Evangelion
debacle), and portions of the text presented here are based on rumor
and conjecture. The event sequence is bunched up around the middle,
and there are times when so many things are happening at once that
it became difficult to limit the narrative to a half dozen threads
or so. I feel that this does, however, give a reasonable account
of the tumultuous history of this medium.
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The Very Beginning (Osamu Tezuka)
The world has changed a lot in the last 33
years. When Osamu Tezuka was stunning Japan with his Tetsuwan Atomu
in 1963, Japan was generally considered a place that copied American
goods and produced cheap toys. The economic miracle still hadn't
taken hold. On the whole, the country had not forgiven itself for
events of the 1930's and 1940's. The destruction caused by the Second
World War was not far removed from everyday life, and the atomic
destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima were very fresh memories indeed.
It was therefore a bold move as Tezuka, an established manga artist,
told a story of the little robot boy with an atomic heart. This
robot, disowned by his creator for the unpardonable sin of being
a failure (he never grew), is rescued by people who care. Nurturing
and accepting him, this "heartless" creature becomes the staunch
advocate of the very race who shunned him and all his kind. Robots
are second class citizens in the 21st century ... useful at times,
but not imbibed with the same rights as people. In their gradual
acceptance of Mighty Atom, perhaps, they all become a bit more human.
This show did something else pretty amazing too: Producer Fred Ladd
took a look at it and decided that it might actually sell over in
America ... but the Japanese would have to make it look a little
better.
 Cels were added as American money entered the project, and Astro
Boy was born. NBC had the rights, yet they themselves never aired
it. With national syndication, Astro Boy became a hit, and inspired
many of the First Wave anime fans (like your author). Then, as now,
the US broadcasters complained (quietly at first) about the violence
in the shows, and that characters might actually die during the
course of a story. This, as Uncle Walt had taught us, was a medium
for children, and children could not be trusted with an advanced
concept such as death. That the Japanese were exposed to these stories
and more was not relevant, and American audiences never saw the
last episode.
Perhaps most surprising to many American fans, Tetsuwan Atomu is
not considered to be Tezuka's greatest work ... that singular honor
goes not even to Jungle Emperor (more on that in a moment), but
on his "lifework" Hi No Tori (Bird of Fire). This huge story (12
collected manga volumes at last count) runs from the distant past
to the distant future, and sadly was not completed before his untimely
death (There was, however, a theatrical version). You can get a
suggestion of how good this story sequence was in video only with
the Phoenix 2772: Love's Cosmo Zone movie and the Japanese (not
yet available in the US) series Hi No Tori 1-3 (there was also a
Japanese only 1979 feature called Hi No Tori, which featured some
live-action sequences).
While
2772's story does not take place in the manga series per se, there
are segments which touch on many of the same elements. Even so,
Dr. Tezuka is best remembered for his little robot boy and his sister
(interestingly, Atomu and Uran ... atom and uranium), some of his
more experimental films like Jumping, Broken Down Film, Legend of
the Forest, and his epic series about a little white lion with black
ears ... a series which shares many elements with a Disney film
from a few years ago. The lion in the US version of the series was
called Kimba ... although his original name was Simba. We'll leave
you to draw your own conclusions, but Disney steadfastly denies
that anyone based their story on the Tezuka classic. Some in the
industry find this not to be a defensible position.
Shortly after the firestorm descended on Disney, the company took
the position that it was largely unaware of Japanese Animation in
general, and Tezuka in particular. Their animators, it was categorically
stated, were not influenced at all during the production of their
own King-of-the-Jungle lion film. That entire scenes were lifted
from Tezuka "splash" panels were merely coincidence. It was therefore
a bit of a reversal when shortly afterward Disney and Studio Ghibli
announced that Miyazaki's back catalog of films would be distributed
by Disney ... a company that was officially "unaware" of the medium.
Strange, to say the least, eh?
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The First Shows Hit US TV
Even before Osamu Tezuka died, other powerful
influences were making their marks with manga and television series.
Eight Man (TOBOR, the Eighth Man), Kaitei Shonen Marin (Marine Boy),
and Tetsujin 28 (Gigantor) all found their way to American TV in
the 1960's and very early 1970's. Filling Tezuka's shoes was probably
impossible, but the Starving Seven (an artist hothouse project started
by Tezuka) were each destined to make their own way in this fledgling
industry. Members of this core group are still active today, but
one of the first to break out and take the world by the horns was
Liegi Matsumoto. His Space Cruiser Yamato (Star Blazers) triggered
the Second Wave of fandom almost by itself in the US, and many of
us think that it's only a matter of time before his presence is
felt again in the animation industry. "The Cockpit" (not currently
available in the US) gives very interesting insight about just how
cool this guy's stuff can be ... and we're all just waiting for
an announcement about some of his older stuff being revived as everything
old is new again.
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Other Early Shows
Also a significant force in early Anime was
Ippei Kurei. Many animation fans don't know that name, but almost
all of the older ones (and many becoming fans right now thanks to
the Cartoon Channel) would be able to finish the line "Here he comes,
here comes ..." (after all, he IS a demon on wheels, and he's often
flying as he guns his car around the track). There is now such an
intense interest in this 1967 television show that a recent Volkswagen
TV commercial features Speed (Racer, that is), Trixie and the rest
of the gang along with a Golf GTI. After this success, he went on
to create what Tatsunoko Studio is perhaps best known for: Science
Ninja Team Gatchaman (responsible for the rest of the Second Wave
fans). This property had three different television series over
the years, and more recently, an OVA series (if you don't know what
that is, read on) of its own.
Although it was butchered when it was adapted for the US market,
enough of the original strength of this show comes through even
now. Sadly, the US audiences have only seen the first series (and
not very much of that ... there is a significant and protracted
death as the show winds itself up) as of this writing ... but that's
about to change. Word has it that the second series (the Gelsadora
series) is coming this fall under the name "Eagle Rider". At any
rate, most fans of Ranma 1/2 feel that Ranma is the first character
to change from male to female ... forgetting that Berg Katse (Zoltar)
did the same thing during the first season of Gatchaman (not mentioned
in the US adaptations, but it does explain the lipstick, eh? ) ...
and wasn't too happy about it either. It didn't happen with a bucket
of water, but over time, and it was as inexorable as the tides.
Destined to be born twins, Sosai X (the thing in the flames ...
actually, the bird image is only what it wants to look like) fused
them into a single being with a superhuman intelligence and a schizoid
personality. While you won't see a changing chest, if you watch
the series for any time, you'll see the he sometimes develops ...
hips.
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Androgynous Characters
Androgynous characters are hardly unique
to Berg Katse, although the bulk of them are confined to Shojo (girl's)
shows. Only over the last two years or so have many of these other
shows made it to America (Tezuka's "Princess Knight", of course,
being the early notable exception), and many feel that the jury
is still out on whether the US audiences are accepting them.
Perhaps 15% of the Japanese market are shows aimed squarely at little
girls and the one that most domestic fans will know today is Sailor
Moon. Yes: Sailor Moon is aimed at little girls. Don't get too weirded
out about it though: in Japan between Dirty Pair's Kei and Yuri,
Yuri is the popular one. Several of the US companies are experimenting
with this genre (including The Right Stuf International)
for several reasons (more on this later), but we feel that there
will be at least some more of this type of programming as the year
wears on.
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