We’ll start with the love of my life: anime, and manga. Listen to Wikipedia:
“Anime (アニメ) is an abbreviation of the English word “animation”, originating in Japan. Although the term is used in Japan to refer to animation in general, in English usage the term most popularly refers to material originating from Japan, a subset of animation.
Anime is traditionally hand drawn, but computer assisted techniques have become quite common in recent years. The subjects of anime represent most major genres of fiction, and anime is available in most motion-picture media (television broadcast, DVD and VHS distribution, and full length motion pictures).”
Anime has a very long and varied history. The first anime was a three second clip of a sailor boy, made way back in 1907. Since then, anime became a mainstream form of entertainment, far more than live-action, which was limited by its very reality.
Then came Walt Disney with a little mouse that could talk and dance. The world was on fire: How realistic this cartoon was! And his adventures…how realistic! Kids suddenly began flocking the theaters for him, while parents smiled and said, “How cute!” And it wasn’t just the viewers; the filmmaking community as well as the producers of animated comics were interested in the very liveliness of the character. Among these was a young animator known as Osamu Tezuka. This man, who would later be hailed as a “legend” or a “god”, and more commonly as the “father of anime”, began to make anime, and later manga (漫画), in a way that required almost no expenses and was good to boot. With classic Japanese ingenuity, he began to make anime and manga that seemingly defied the very limitations of creativity. His triumphs included the ever-popular and ever-lovable Astro Boy. After this, as it is said, there was no looking back for Tezuka. His creations continued to roll out of his studios and eventually gained incredible popularity throughout the world. Series like Gundam were acclaimed as pinnacles of creativity. The golden age of anime was here.
