Danielle Catherine Mesa
  • Home
  • Comixafluir
  • Blog
  • Writings
    • Pascal & the Timeless Hotel >
      • Pascal and the Timeless Hotel Concept Art
      • Pascal and the Timeless Hotel Concept Art Character Expression Sheets
      • Pascal and the Timeless Hotel Concept Art Backgrounds
      • Pascal and the Timeless Hotel Character Designs
      • Pascal and the Timeless Hotel Updated Sample Art
    • Clumsy Caleb >
      • Clumsy Caleb Series 1 2017-2018 >
        • Clumsy Caleb 01 Vase
        • Clumsy Caleb 02 Stage
        • Clumsy Caleb 03 Deck of Cards
        • Clumsy Caleb 04 Keyboard Kitty
        • Clumsy Caleb 05 Christmas Tree Star
        • Clumsy Caleb 06 Stack of Cans
        • Clumsy Caleb 07 Toy Vending Machine Ball
      • Clumsy Caleb Experimental Interactive Comic
  • Slice of ( N E O N ) Life
    • Slice of ( N E O N ) Life Series 1
    • Slice of ( N E O N ) Life Series 2
  • About
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Comixafluir
  • Blog
  • Writings
    • Pascal & the Timeless Hotel >
      • Pascal and the Timeless Hotel Concept Art
      • Pascal and the Timeless Hotel Concept Art Character Expression Sheets
      • Pascal and the Timeless Hotel Concept Art Backgrounds
      • Pascal and the Timeless Hotel Character Designs
      • Pascal and the Timeless Hotel Updated Sample Art
    • Clumsy Caleb >
      • Clumsy Caleb Series 1 2017-2018 >
        • Clumsy Caleb 01 Vase
        • Clumsy Caleb 02 Stage
        • Clumsy Caleb 03 Deck of Cards
        • Clumsy Caleb 04 Keyboard Kitty
        • Clumsy Caleb 05 Christmas Tree Star
        • Clumsy Caleb 06 Stack of Cans
        • Clumsy Caleb 07 Toy Vending Machine Ball
      • Clumsy Caleb Experimental Interactive Comic
  • Slice of ( N E O N ) Life
    • Slice of ( N E O N ) Life Series 1
    • Slice of ( N E O N ) Life Series 2
  • About
  • Contact



Blog 

Anime dates back much farther than you think. Part 2 of 3

5/18/2017

0 Comments

 
In Part 1 of this blog post, I delved into the early origins of Japanese animation debunking the assumption that Osamu Tezuka’s 1963 beloved animated series Astro Boy is the first anime in existence. Based on a panel presented by Charles Dunbar (Study of Anime) at this year’s Anime Boston, deftly titled, The First Anime: It’s Astro Boy, Right?, I discuss some of the early short films used during the presentation plus some groundbreaking films made in the 1930’s and early 1940’s. I provide some historical context of what went into the making of the earliest known and surviving films as well as lost gems and how the art form built up from 1907 to the 1930’s. Moreover, I also review the new innovative approaches that were emerging in the years prior to the second World War. 
In the early years of anime, animators used cut outs as seen in Namakura Gatana (1917), Urashima Taro (1918), Kobu Tori (1929) and Mura Matsuri (1930) due to the financial cost of materials other countries could afford. The use of cel-animation rose in the mid-1930’s with Chagama Ondo (1934 or 1935), which was created by Kenzo Masaoka. Ari-chan (1941) by Mitsuyo Seo was the first known anime to use multicamera, a technique used in Disney animation such as in Silly Symphonies, which it’s likely that the film was inspired by the 1934 short, The Grasshopper & the Ants. Not only did Seo utilize the multicamera technique in Ari-chan as seen in the Silly Symphonies short, but his character designs and fluidity in his animation display a slight resemblance. With creative innovators like Masaoka and Seo, the boundaries that restricted the art of Japanese animation were slowly fading and the art form was starting to develop in quality. 
Unfortunately, these creative breakthroughs were proven difficult be commercially supported. Due to government control, prewar animation had to be approved and subsidized. This reduced the industry’s productions to public relations (PR) films, as well as educational and propaganda films. One example of a propaganda film of the time was the 1936 short entitled The Toy Chest. This featured Disney’s iconic mascot, Mickey Mouse as the main antagonist attacking Japan. The army accompanying Mickey consists of sinister looking bats and serpents, the islanders are depicted as dolls and stuffed animals and their heroic figure is the Japanese folklore hero, Momotaro, also known as Calm Peach Boy. The film notoriously displayed immense prejudice against Americans and throughout World War II, creative direction was very limited to producing films like it with the same indoctrinating messages. 
In 1945, the first full-length anime feature film, Momotaro: Umi no Shinpei or Momotaro’s Devine Sea Warriors was released less than a month before the war ended. The 74-minute long movie is a sequel to 1943 propaganda short, Momotaro no Umiwashi or Momotaro’s Sea Eagles, which runs at 37 minutes. After the war, the Japanese animation industry was at a standstill and thus, no new films were being made until 1948. Japan was the most financially stable among its neighboring countries and therefore, could rebuild its animation industry. 
During that year, a new company, Japan Animated Films was founded and eventually bought by Toei Animation in 1956. In 1958, they released the first full-length color anime film, Hakujaden or Panda and the Magic Serpent. The story is about a young boy, who is forced to set his pet snake free. What he doesn’t know is that the snake is a spiritual being. Years later while taking on a human form, she seeks out to find him.
Inspired by the Song Dynasty Chinese folktale, Legend of the White Snake, the project was made as an act of reconciliation between Japan and its neighboring countries. According to Charles in response to an email I sent, he speculates that it possibly might have been "a way to go around censors or avoid old fears that Japan might use new animation as a form of bunka eiga". Because of Japan's history of utilizing animation as a propaganda tool, most notably with Norakuro and Momotaro, it's a perfectly plausible assumption. According to AniPages writer and blogger, Ben Ettinger in his post about Toei Dōga, "[t]o strike a tone of reconciliation with the Asian neighbors Japan had so brutally treated in the recent past, Toei president, Hiroshi Okawa decided on a Chinese story for this film, the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs of Japan, the historic implications of which he fully understood". 
Consisting of over 13,000 team members and eight months to complete, Hakujaden was zealously constructed and with every extensive commitment to detail, it became strongly influential all around the world. Bringing the art of Japanese animation another step further, Toei Animation also garnered the nickname as the ‘Disney of the East’ after the film’s debut as it was their first challenge to emulate the level of artistry of Western animation studios. 
The 1960’s was the decade when the anime industry would start to take flight and truly begin to flourish. From the big screen to television, Japan’s first anime television show entitled, Otogi Manga Calendar or Instant History made its debut in 1961. The basic premise of the series, as the title suggests, dealt with major historical events and involved an animated character learning about it through archived footage and photographs. Unfortunately, the series remains lost to this day and never made its way to home releases. Due to technological costs and limitations, none of the episodes were recorded and the master tapes used for television were most likely discarded or repurposed with new content recorded over. The surviving still image from the show documenting its existence, depicting two comedically drawn cavemen, leaves viewers with a basic idea of what the character designs looked like. At first glance, they resemble a Hanna-Barbera cartoon as their appearance shares absolutely no similarities to any traits most viewers associate with anime. This leaves us with not only how Osamu Tezuka contributed to shaping anime, but also how other studios played their part in making the art form what it is today, which will be explored in the third and final part of this blog post. 


0 Comments

    About

    Ever (re)discovered new facts about any art form or part of pop culture that you thought you knew before and realized there might be more to the story than what meets the eye? The Blog section debunks common expectations and assumptions in the art world.



    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017

    Categories

    All
    16th Century
    1920's
    1990's
    19th Century
    20th Century
    21st Century
    2D Animation
    3D Animation
    Andrew Lloyd Webber
    Animation
    Anime
    Antimo Magnotta
    Art Deco
    Art Schools
    Arts Of Japan
    Art Style
    Bach
    Bible
    Bright Sun Films
    Broadway
    Caillebotte
    Cartoons
    Cats Musical
    C.F. Payne
    Charles Baudelaire
    Child Development
    Childhood
    Children's Books
    Chris Oatley
    Classical
    Classical Music
    Classic Art
    Classic Arts Showcase
    Classics
    Comics
    Craftmanshi
    Craftsmanship
    Creativity
    Dada
    Degas
    Disney
    Envy
    Fisher Price
    Fred Rogers
    Gene Luen Yang
    Genesis 4:1-16
    Graphic Novel
    Imagination
    Impressionism
    Indie
    Intellectual Development
    Italy
    Japan
    Jean Piaget
    Jerome Bruner
    Josh Gressel
    Klasky-Csupo
    Kyoto Animation
    Lettering
    Lev Vygotsky
    Litertaure
    Lloyd E. Rigler
    Manga
    Man Ray
    Marc Brown
    Maurice Sendak
    Memorabilia
    Michelangelo
    Mindfulness
    Mixed Media
    Modern
    Modern Art
    Monet
    Mosaic
    Mozart
    Mozart Effect
    MTV
    Museum Of Fine Arts Boston
    Music
    Musical Theater
    NHK World Japan
    Nostalgia
    Oatley Academy
    Old Testament
    Paul Germain
    Philosophy
    Photography
    Pixar
    Pop Art
    Pop Culture
    Psychology
    Recovery
    Renaissance
    Renoir
    Retail Archaeology
    Retro
    Rome
    Screen Savers
    Seven Deadly Sins
    Sistine Chapel
    Socrates
    Spiritual
    Stan Prokopenko
    Steven Spielberg
    Structures
    Stylizing
    Surrealism
    Takashi Murakami
    The Mark Of Beauty
    Tile
    Toy Industry
    Toys
    Toys R Us
    Traditional Art
    T.S. Eliot
    VABeach
    Vintage
    Vinyl
    Windows-95

    RSS Feed

Home

Blog

Writings 

About

Contact

 © 2015-2020 Danielle Catherine Mesa