Anime, pronounced"Ah-nee-may" in English, is an abbreviation of the word "animation". Outside Japan, the term most popularly refers to animation originating from Japan; and to the Occidental way of thinking, not all animations are considered anime. Anime is therefore usually considered to be a subset of animation. Anime is adapted from "manga's"[literally meaning "comic drawn"]which is traditionally hand drawn, but like in most animation computer assisted animation techniques have become quite common in recent years. The story-lines of anime represent most major genres of fiction or based on tradditional japanese legends and most motion-picture media (television broadcast, DVD and VHS distribution, and full length motion pictures).


The history of anime begins at the start of the 20th century, when Japanese filmmakers experimented with the animation techniques that were being explored in France, Germany, the United States, and Russia. The oldest known anime is in 19 07, a three second clip of a sailor boy. By the 1930s, animation became an alternative format of storytelling compared to the underdeveloped live-action industry in Japan. Unlike America, the live-action industry in Japan remained a small market and suffered from budgeting, location, and casting restrictions. The lack of Western-looking actors, for example, made it next to impossible to shoot films set in Europe, America, or fantasy worlds that do not naturally involve Japan. The varied use of animation allowed artists to create any characters andsettings.

Starting with Snow White, Walt Disney demonstrated animation's potential as a medium. The success of Disney's works influenced Japanese animators. Osamu Tezuka adapted and simplified many Disney animation precepts to reduce the budget costs and number of frames in the production. This was intended to be a temporary measure to allow him to produce one episode every week with an inexperienced animation staff. Some animators in Japan overcome production budgets by utilizing different techniques than the Disney or the old Tezuka/Otsuka methods of animating anime. During the 1970s, there was a surge of growth in the popularity of manga—which were often later animated—especially those of Osamu Tezuka, who has been called a "legend"and the "god of manga". As a result of his work and that of other pioneers in the field, anime developed characteristics and genres that are fundamental elements of the art today. The giant robot genre (known as "mecha" outside Japan), for instance, took shape under Tezuka, developed under Go Nagai and others, and was revolutionized at the end of the decade by Yoshiyuki Tomino. Robot anime like Gundam and Macross became instant classics in the 80s, and the robot genre of anime is still one of the most heard of in Japan and worldwide today. In the 1980s, anime was accepted in the mainstream in Japan, and experienced a boom in production (it should be noticed that manga has significantly more mainstream exposure than anime in Japan). The mid-to-late '90s, on into the 2000s, saw an increased acceptance of anime in overseas markets. However,the first anime to be made a "hit" for all japanese animes to come was Akira.

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