Anime (アニメ) refers to Japanese animation: a style of animation that originated in Japan and is known for characters with large eyes, voluminous colored hair, and exaggerated emotions. The word comes from the shortened form of "animation" in Japanese. In Japan, any animation, even Disney, is called "anime", but outside Japan the word is used only for Japanese animation.
Anime is above all serial, and most of it is adapted from manga (Japanese comics), light novels or video games. Contrary to a common assumption, it is not only for children; a large share of anime is made for teenagers and adults. This page reviews the history of anime from the first short films to today's million-dollar box office.
How large is the anime market?
According to the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA), the anime industry market in 2023 reached a record of about 3.3 trillion yen, and for the first time more than half of it came from outside Japan. That means anime is now an export product whose foreign market has become larger than its domestic market. Online streaming platforms played a large part in this growth; Netflix said that in 2020 more than 100 million households worldwide had watched at least one anime, fifty percent more than the year before.
Japan, the United States, South Korea, Taiwan, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia, the United Kingdom and France are among the anime industry's largest trading partners in the world. More than 43 percent of sales contracts for series and theatrical anime were concluded with Asia, 16 percent with Europe and 11 percent with North America.
The first Japanese anime
The oldest anime in Japan were very short films inspired by American animations, made on folklore and comic subjects. Katsudo Shashin is the oldest and first Japanese anime. This 3-second short film, which has only 50 frames, dates from 1907. But because the film archives of this period have been destroyed, it cannot be said with certainty that Katsudo is the oldest animation.
In 1917, still in the silent-film era, several animated films were released in Japan. One of these films was titled The Dull Sword. This 4-minute work was about a samurai's foolish purchase of a blunt-edged sword and was also remade in 2014. In 2017 the National Film Center at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, published a website to mark the hundredth anniversary of the anime industry. On this website, 64 short animated films produced between 1917 and 1941 were made available. The Dull Sword is the oldest anime film on this site.
The world's most famous and oldest animators
Oten Shimokawa, Junichi Kouchi and Seitaro Kitayama were three well-known animators in the anime industry. Oten was a magazine cartoonist who, after making 5 animations for the Tenkatsu studio, returned to caricature. Junichi was a painter whom the animator studio hired. Seitaro made anime on his own and eventually founded his own animation studio. These three, who are known as the fathers of anime, laid the foundations of Japan's anime industry by creating their works in 1917.
The Great Kanto earthquake in Japan | the rebirth of the animation industry
At the beginning of the 1920s, Japanese animators were struggling with many problems. They had to carry out cheap projects in small animation companies with few staff. Meanwhile their rivals were large companies such as the Disney animation studio, which made color, sound products. Until the mid-1930s, the Japanese used the cut-out technique instead of cel animation to save on the cost of making anime. With all these difficulties, Japanese anime production was progressing on its path when the Great Kanto earthquake destroyed Tokyo. Japan's animation studios, with all their works, were buried.
The anime industry in Japan started its work again from point zero. This time Japanese animators turned to popular techniques and innovated. In this way the first Japanese sound anime, titled "The World of Power and Women", was made in 1933. Two years later, the film "Chagama Ondo" was also screened as the first complete short animation. In this period, one of the most important sources of income for animators in Japan to cover costs, which also helped raise their standing, was making commissioned anime.
Japan's anime industry under the shadow of world war
In the years leading up to World War II, the Japanese government launched a plan to strengthen cultural nationalism. One of the ways of applying this program was tight control of the media through restrictive laws. Japanese animators were also asked to strengthen the Japanese patriotic spirit by making anime. This direction caused many small Japanese animation companies to merge with one another. In the end all animation studios were merged into three large companies. These three anime studios made many cartoon films for the army whose aim was to show Japanese victory. The animated film "Momotaro: Sacred Sailors" was made in 1945 with the help of the navy and was the first feature-length anime in history.
Making Eastern Disney animations in the first anime studio
Three years after Japan's defeat in World War II, that is in 1948, Kenzo Masaoka and Zenjiro Yamamoto founded the Japan Animated Films animation studio in Japan. The Toei company bought this anime studio in 1956 with the dream of turning it into the Walt Disney of the East, and changed its name to Toei Doga. This Japanese anime studio is now the largest, oldest and first anime studio in Japan.
Toei studio's anime include more than 550 titles of series animation, theatrical anime and video games. Many Japanese animators and well-known Japanese animation studios came out of this company. This studio later changed its name to toei animation.
There are currently 622 animation companies active in Japan, of which 542 are in Tokyo. Studios such as Sunrise, TMS entertainment, A.P.P.P, Madhouse, Been Train, studio plerrot, J.C Staff, Studio Deen, Studio ghibli, Tatsunoko Production, Bones, Production I.G and Nippon Animation are among the largest and best animation companies in Japan.
The best anime of the 60s and 70s
Among well-known old anime, in 1958 the first color theatrical anime, titled "The Tale of the White Serpent", was made. This film imitates Walt Disney products with a modern feel and was released in the United States in 1961 under the name "Panda and the Magic Serpent". In that year the first series anime, titled "Otogi Manga Calendar", was also released.
The first anime series is Astro Boy, which premiered on television on New Year's Day 1963. This old Japanese anime is based on a science-fiction manga that tells the story of a robot boy with human feelings. This boy is a replacement for his inventor's deceased child. This very short synopsis reminds us of the Pinocchio cartoon. It confirms that the Japanese anime industry in this period was deeply influenced by Western animation, especially Disney products. The Astro Boy cartoon was the first old Japanese series anime that went remarkably beyond Japan's borders and was welcomed by Western audiences. This anime is considered a symbol of Japanese animation in aesthetic terms.
In this decade the first mecha anime on the subject of super robots, named Tetsujin 28-go, and the first animation series on the subject of magical girls, named Sally the Witch, were produced.
From 1970, by focusing on producing and making anime based on landmark works of world literature, Japan's animation industry was able to increase its animation exports around the world. The cartoons Heidi, Girl of the Alps, Vicky the Viking and Barbapapa, among the best animations of the 60s and 70s, are well-known old anime broadcast on television.
The best anime of the 80s
The 1980s are known as the golden age of Japan's anime industry. In this period many young animators turned to directing and new talents blossomed in the world of anime. Mecha robotic anime, super robots and real robots were produced in this period. The Captain Tsubasa animation series, known in Iran as the Footballists cartoon, was broadcast in 1981. The first football sports anime, which scored a major success. The global popularity of this series animation also paved the way for sports anime such as Fighting Spirit, The Prince of Tennis and Slam Dunk.
Studio Ghibli, which has a large share of the anime industry's success, was also founded in this period. Studio Ghibli's first film, "Laputa: Castle in the Sky", was made in 1986 and is one of Hayao Miyazaki's most ambitious films. Studio Ghibli's Kiki's Delivery Service, also among well-known old anime, was released in 1989. By earning 40 million dollars at the box office, it became Japan's highest-grossing and best-selling film in 1989.
The Dragon Ball anime television series premiered on television in 1986. This Japanese manga introduced the martial-arts genre, which was highly influential in the growth of anime's popularity.
The best well-known anime of the 90s
In the 1990s, with the release of sports series anime such as "Dragon Ball Z" and "Slam Dunk", the popularity of anime spread worldwide. The "Dragon Ball Z" anime film series was later dubbed into 12 languages and achieved great success. The basketball sports anime "Slam Dunk" also left a deep cultural impact that led to increased popularity of basketball among young people during this decade.
In 1995 the series "Neon Genesis Evangelion" redefined the mecha genre by posing a philosophical question about the meaning of being human and reflecting the anxieties of the time. This anime was made at a time when the anime industry in Japan appeared to be in a slump. But its impact on Japanese art and popular culture was considerable. The success of this series was a rebirth for the Japanese anime industry in the world.
The well-known anime "Sailor Moon" entered the scene in this decade. This anime endured as one of the core elements of magical-girl series animation. This animation film series offers powerful models of feminism and the empowerment of young women.
The "Pokemon" television series was broadcast in 1997, adapted from video games of the same name, and with more than a thousand episodes became one of the longest-running and highest-grossing anime series. The record for the longest anime in history, however, belongs to "Sazae-san", which has been broadcast from 1969 to the present.
The well-known Japanese anime "Princess Mononoke", with a cost of 20 million dollars, also became one of the most expensive animations in the world in the 90s.
The highest-grossing animations of the past twenty years
Studio Ghibli's anime "Spirited Away" was made in 2001. This animation is one of the best Japanese anime in animation history, and it managed to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The well-known Spirited Away animation was the world's highest-grossing anime before the release of "Your Name".
The theatrical anime "Your Name" is a Japanese romantic fantasy anime, taken from the novel Your Name, that was produced in 2016. With worldwide sales of about 380 million dollars, this film was for years the world's highest-grossing anime, and its IMDb score is about 8.4.
The theatrical animation "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train" by Haruo Sotozaki, also adapted from a manga series of the same name, was released in 2020. Mugen Train was the first best-selling Japanese film to cross the 400 million dollar mark. In the end, with sales of about 500 million dollars, it became the world's highest-grossing animation in 2020.
The world's most popular animations
One of the best ways to identify the world's most popular anime is to use Google search data. On this basis, by examining Google searches in 146 countries of the world, we arrive at the ten most popular anime, with the Naruto animation at the top. 15 years have passed since the original series of this animation series was released. But it has still kept its popularity worldwide through the promotion of merchandise and video games. After Naruto, the world's top animation, the well-known Pokemon and Sailor Moon animations are in second and third place on the list of the world's best animations.
The most popular and most-watched genres of Japanese anime
In 2022 the action and adventure genre had the largest share of the anime market at 34 percent, and it is expected to dominate the market in the future. This can largely be due to the historical dominance of, and preference of television series for, the action and adventure genre. Well-known series anime such as Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Naruto and Bleach are among series animations in the adventure and action genre.
Anime in Iran: old Japanese cartoons
Many of the cartoons that the generations of the 1360s (1980s) and 1370s (1990s) grew up with were Japanese, even though most viewers at the time did not know this. Well-known examples:
- "The Footballists" (Captain Tsubasa, 1983)
- "Ikkyu-san" (1975)
- "Heidi" (1974)
- "Sinbad" (1975)
- "Anne of Green Gables" (1979)
- "Dr. Ernest's Family" (1981)
- "Daddy Long Legs" (1990)
- "Pinocchio" (1976)
Many of these were adapted from European children's literature, which made them suitable for broadcast on Iranian television. Today anime in Iran is watched mostly through online platforms and home video, and its audience is teenagers and young people. On Filimo, animation (Japanese and non-Japanese) is the largest section of the catalog.
Anime taste is not the same in other countries either. In the Animation in China and Russia dashboard, Namafar compared eighteen thousand titles and showed how much the popular anime genres in these two markets differ from each other.
Frequently asked questions about anime
Which country is anime from?
Japan. Anime is a style of animation that originated in Japan, and most anime is made in Japanese studios, especially in Tokyo. In crossword puzzles too, the answer to "a well-known style of animation that originated in Japan" is this same "anime".
What is the difference between anime and animation?
Animation means any film made with moving images. Anime is the Japanese type, with its own visual style and narrative. So every anime is an animation, but not every animation is anime.
What is the world's first anime?
The oldest known piece is "Katsudo Shashin", a three-second film fragment made around 1907. The first anime made for public screening were released in 1917, and "The Dull Sword" is the oldest example that survives today. The first feature-length anime is "Momotaro: Sacred Sailors" (1945).
What is the highest-grossing anime in history?
"Demon Slayer: Mugen Train" (2020) with about 500 million dollars in worldwide sales. Before that, "Your Name" (2016) and earlier "Spirited Away" (2001) held this title.
Sources
- Association of Japanese Animations, Anime Industry Report 2024
- National Film Center of Japan, archive of early anime (1917 to 1941)
- Box Office Mojo, worldwide film grosses
- nippon.com
Machine-translated from Persian by Namafar; the Persian original is authoritative. Read the original in Persian