We’ve talked about the origins of animation in the United States, but what about the country where anime and manga count as enormous cultural forces? What did animation look like in Japan in the early 1900s?

Gif from Tenor.

There were three prominent animators known to the public then, Ōten Shimokawa, Jun’chi Kōuchi and Seitaro Kitayama. I will talk briefly about the first animator as he seems to have similar career path like Winsor McCay. Shimokawa was originally a political caricaturist and cartoonist for Tokyo Puck. Drawing with a chalk on a blackboard, he made Imokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no Maki (1917), popularly referred to as the earliest professional film  at that time (it’s a lost film now). Nonetheless, due to medical conditions, he only made five films in his lifetime and resumed work as a cartoonist.

Back to animation at that time, Japanese animators had to compete with foreign producers as foreign films were popular and undersold in the Japanese market. In other words, much like the animators in America, it was an uphill challenge for Japanese studios to break even, even with the meagre amount that they were paying Japanese animators with. Furthermore, I found that the majority of techniques such as cel animation and the multiplane camera system was not heavily implemented during the era. Instead, Japanese animation mainly used cutout animation. This was due to the rise of nationalism and WWII, which meant that most of the animations were either commercially-oriented or a form of government propaganda (Yegulalp, 2019). During this period, the cost of celluloids was extremely high; one needed to be wealthy to obtain the raw materials. The Imperial Japanese Navy then was an example of an entity powerful enough; it ordered Mitsuyo Seo to make two animated films, which were 37-minute and 74-minute long.

Animation as propaganda

The former was known as Momotarō no Umiwashi (Momotarō’s Sea Eagles) and released in 1943, while the latter as Momotarō: Umi no shinpei (Momotaro: Sacred Sailors) and released in 1945. These two films employed cel animation, sound and multiplane camera techniques, and were created with the purpose to lift the nation’s morale with regards to the war. The difference between the original film and its sequel is that the former was created with children as the target audience. In it, there were no fatalities shown as it attempts to frame war as the nation’s need and cause for justice. Seo also used Disney’s 1940 film Fantasia as his frame of reference. Additionally, the characters were playful, comical witty animals, which appealed to the mass public (esp. children).

However, in the 1945 version, this was not the case. There was a deliberate attempt by Seo to draw Western context to the story shown onscreen – actual footage of the Pearl Harbor attack was shown in effort to demonize the Americans and British.

Post-war

When the war did end, the General Headquarters of the Allied occupation (GHQ) brought 100 anime artists to form Shin Nihon Dōgasha (New Japan Animation Company) (Yasuo, 2013). This was done with the intention of spreading occupation policies. Nevertheless, it failed as many artists had strong opinions about the direction Japan should take post-war.

Photo from Amazon

It was only in the later part of the 1900s with the character Astroboy (created in 1952 by Osamu Tezuka and premiered as the first popular animated TV series in 1963) that advanced the Japanese animation industry. Its success proved to the market that animation was a profitable business to delve in and not one that could only be used in commercials. Astroboy also set the foundation for an aesthetic that the world today recognizes as “anime”.

Ultimately, I think understanding the difficulties the Japanese animation industry encountered before its flourish offered me insight into the role its government played and on a certain level, how similar Japanese animators’ challenges had been to Americans’.

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Sources:

• Brief History of Anime
• What makes Anime so popular?
• The Evolution of the Japanese Anime Industry