Anime: The American Influence
Whenever someone hears the word 'anime' they immediately think of Japanese animation or in the very least Asian cartoon.s Really, though the word 'anime' is derived from the word 'animation'. And the definition of animation is: the making of movies by filming a sequence of slightly varying drawings or models so that they appear to move and change when the sequence is shown. There are more definitions to it, but this is the most frequent used. Animation could come in a number of different forms - claymation, three dimensional animation... - but when it comes to anime, animation means pictures grouped together to form a lot of action sequences and adding audio to it.
Anime has been around for a long time, but animations have been around longer. Animations, or cartoons as we call them here in the United States, began as little political cartoons from the 1800s or earlier on and eventually moved to actually being cartoons shown on television. The first cartoon was made by Walt Disney, featuring Disney's mascot Mickey Mouse in the 1928 cartoon Steam Boat Willy. Since then, Walt Disney has been known as the father of cartoons and American animation, inspiring many others to make their own cartoons (such as Hannah-Barbra's The Flintstones and Chuck Jones' Looney Toons).
But anime didn't get its bearings until the 1940s when a young Osamu Tezuka went to see the movies, Dumbo and Bambi. Whenever he went to see these movies, Tezuka would carry around a sketch pad so that he could practice drawing the big eyes that Disney's characters were known for. Eventually Osamu would draw mangas (comics) and sell them around Japan to make money. His first comics were all about the World War that was going back then and the Great Depression of America.
As he grew up, Osamu Tezuka had defined anime and came out with Japan's first anime/manga, Astro Boy. Astroboy originally came out in the 1960's and featured all the art styles that had come to define anime. But of course, Astroboy didn't really pick up until after Tezuka's death in 1989. Since then, Astroboy has had two anime remakes, and an American cartoon movie spawned from it.
Another of Tezuka's works is the 1963 anime Kimba: The White Lion. Kimba was another popular series, that featured a villain from Astroboy called Hamegg. It was at this time that Disney had begun to recognize Tezuka's talent for animation and had once offered to work alongside him to make a show, but they never did because Walt Disney had died not too long after. But in 1994, Disney came out with The Lion King featuring a storyline and character similar to those of Tezuka's Kimba: The White Lion. Both of the main characters were young lion princes and bore similar names, Kimba/Simba.
Another of Tezuka's work is a manga called Metropolis. Metropolis featured a young boy (who to me looked like Astroboy somewhat) called Kenichi, and a gender changing robot called Tima. Metropolis' storyline was somewhat similar to Astroboy where robots were seen as inferior to humans, yet still useful. Both Tima and Astroboy were created to replace the children of someone that had died, but problems had arose.
Like in Astroboy, Astro's father Dr. Tenma had realized that Astro may look like his son Toby but he would never be Toby. So Astro was then forced to live on his own while having to deal with the discrimination against the humans that he saves. In Metropolis, Tima was created to replace the daughter of a politician and to control a powerful weapon known as the Zigarot, but things go awry when Tima comes in contact with the Zigarot. She tries to wipe out the entire city of Metropolis and all the humans in it.
Another resemblance between these two movies is the character Atlas. Atlas was a robotic villain from Astroboy while he was a human protestor in Metropolis. Metropolis has spawned a movie in 2000 that starred Scott Wienger as the character of Atlas.
Anime has grown over the years and influenced the entire world. Hollywood movies nowadays are heavily influenced by anime, like The Matrix fighting scenes were influenced by the popular anime Ghost in the Shell.
Another result of the many influences of anime is Avatar: The Last Airbender. Many of the scenes from the popular Nickelodeon show were inspired by Naruto, Cowboy Bebop, and Samurai Champloo.
On Nicktoons, Larry Schwarz created a show called Kappa Mikey which pokes light fun at the way Americans do their cartoons and how Japanese do anime. Kappa Mikey features a lot of character designs of many animes, such as Astroboy, Dragonball Z, Clamp, and Speed Racer. And many animes are being turned into Hollywood Movies. Some are: Speed Racer (2008), Street Fighter, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li, Blood: The Last Vampire, and Astroboy.
Japanese animation had a huge influence on America television through a cartoon and comic called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, where a rat trains four mutant turtles to fight a samurai called The Shredder.
While anime was born from American cartoons and movies of the 30s, anime has grown so much that its origins and roots were nearly forgotten over the years.
