The films were silent, but probably accompanied by live music and certainly accompanied by “benshi,” storytellers who stood by the screen and narrated the film for the audience.īut while the films looked different, the content would be familiar to anyone who watches anime today. This technique was quickly succeeded by the slightly less labor-intensive process of using paper cutouts - essentially 2D stop-motion animation. The earliest films were made with chalk on a board, erasing and re-drawing the lines in-between camera takes. The runtimes were exceedingly short, usually in the five-minute range, and they did not use transparent cels or color. The films they made did not look like the anime being made today. Hired by existing film studios and working with very small crews, these three men were responsible for the remarkable output that first year and have been nicknamed “the fathers of anime.” Manga artists Oten Shimokawa and Junichi Kouchi and painter Seitaro Kitayama were fascinated by this new medium. The first Japanese animated film we know for certain was commercially released was Dekobo Shingacho - Meian no Shippai (Dekobo’s New Picture Book - Failure of a Great Plan) in February of 1917 - but 1917 saw the release of nearly twenty short animated films in Japan! It was the midst of World War 1 and animation was a new curiosity. On the left is one of the first animes, and on the right is legendary artist Shimokawa Oten. The nitrocellulose early films were printed on was extremely flimsy and incredibly flammable – not exactly a good recipe for preservation. What survived that practice was largely lost with the destruction of many film studios and theaters in the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, destroyed in the bombings of World War 2, or simply disintegrated over time. The uncertainty comes from the fact that most early Japanese films were dismantled after the reels were finished. The first animated film released in Japan, and therefore the first anime, was probably released in late 1916 or very early ‘17 by Shimokawa Oten, made with chalk, and less than five minutes long. How did anime come to be regarded as special and grow into the stylized medium we know and love today? The answer stretches back to just over a century ago. Why the distinction? Isn’t animation just a bunch of moving drawings no matter which country you draw them in? We don’t have a specific, well-known word for animation from any other part of the world. In Japan, the word refers to any kind of animation at all, but the rest of the world has adopted it to mean animation specifically from Japan. "Anime." Depending on who you are, the word can conjure up images of exciting adventures, stylized art, or your teenage daughter talking excitedly about her current obsession. Written by: Right Stuf Anime The History of Anime
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |