| Anime, or Japanese Animation, had its start in the | | | | in 1923 destroyed most of Seitaro's studio. With |
| beginning of the 20th century. Anime is Japan's | | | | Seitaro's studio destroyed and knowing how lucrative |
| competitor against the high-budget Hollywood in | | | | animation production can be, the students spread |
| America; Anime allowed Japan to create films under | | | | throughout Japan and founded their own studios. |
| tight budgets and without location restrictions. | | | | During this era, the Monbusho (Ministry of Education) |
| First Era of Anime | | | | began supporting and encouraging films that contained |
| Recently discovered in 2005, the earliest known Anime | | | | educational value. This created a high demand for |
| was created around 1917; it consisted of 50 frames | | | | animation films and created a lasting place in academic, |
| sketched onto a strip of celluloid. The clip is about 3 | | | | political and business use. |
| seconds in length and depicts a young boy donning a | | | | The War Era of Anime |
| sailor suit writing the kanji for moving pictures | | | | When the Japanese government began enforcing its |
| (katsudou shashin) on a board. He then turns toward | | | | policy of strict nationalism in the 1930's, strict control |
| the viewer, removes his hat and salutes. It is unknown | | | | and censorship of all published media began to shape |
| who created the clip. | | | | the Anime landscape. Animators were pushed to |
| This is one of the few complete clips that have | | | | create films which promulgated the Japanese spirit and |
| survived from this period of animation. One of the | | | | national affiliation. The films were shown in |
| reasons for the demise of most clips was due to | | | | News-Cinemas and as News-Cinemas boomed, so did |
| these reels being sold to smaller cinemas - after they | | | | these Anime films. |
| had their run - and being disassembled to be sold as | | | | Disney played an important role in molding the Anime |
| strips or frames. | | | | of the era. Due to the lack of financial backing of |
| One of the pioneers of early animation was Kitayama | | | | animation studios, Japanese animators fell short of |
| Seitaro; he used a chalkboard method technique and | | | | producing the same quality as Disney and were often |
| eventually moved onto paper animation, sometimes | | | | pale in comparison. |
| using pre-printed backgrounds. Kitayama Seitaro went | | | | Also at this time many of the smaller studios closed or |
| on to start his own animation studio called Kitayama | | | | were merged with larger studios - by the end of this |
| Eiga Seisakujo which eventually closed down due to | | | | period only 3 large studios remained. The merging of |
| lack of financial success. | | | | production companies allowed for bigger projects, |
| Second Era of Anime | | | | which gave Anime a leg of its own to stand on. |
| Kitayama Seitaro had several influential students while | | | | Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors is the first notable |
| his film studio was still in operation. Ofuji Noboro, | | | | animation of length made in Japan. After the war, the |
| Yamamoto Sanae, Kimura Hakuzan and Murato | | | | rapid economic success of Japan allowed Japan to |
| Yosuji were his most influential students during the late | | | | emerge as a world leader in animation. |
| 1910's and early 1920's. The Great Kantou earthquake | | | | |