The history of anime is notably broad, yes, and it shall take hundreds of pages if I will make a chapter about it. I could, but it will take over a year or maybe more for me to compile it. My primary focus is just not to present a chronological dissertation of anime history in its broadened sense, since it's, as I said, broad. But it's part of my cause to present to you, the readers, a simplified presentation of the anime history. So in this article, my cause is to give a simplified yet awakening view for us Christians about anime and its history. Understanding the history, as always, will not make us ignorant of today's sophistication. Furthermore, as Christians, it's important for us to know or to trace back the roots before we jump into temptations of the kind.

To start with, the term "anime" is primarily in line with the original Japanese pronunciation of the American word "animation." It really is the style of animation in Japan. The Urban dictionary defines it stereotypically as: the anime style is characters with proportionally large eyes and hair styles and colors that can be very colorful and exotic. The plots cover anything from very immature (kiddy stuff), click through the following article teenage level, to mature (violence, content, and thick plot). It is also very important to observe that American cartoons and Japanese animes are different. The storyline of an anime might be more complex while that of a cartoon is simpler. While cartoons are intended for kids, anime, at the same time, might be more intended for the adult viewers.

However the establishment of anime was basically as a result of the influence of the Western countries that began at the start of 20th century (when Japanese filmmakers experimented with the animation techniques that were being explored within the West) it was also inspired through the production of manga (comic) that was already present in Japan even prior to the production of anime.

Around the beginning of the 13th century, there were already pictures of the afterlife and animals appearing on temple walls in Japan (most of them are similar to modern manga). At the start of 1600's, pictures were not drawn on temples any longer but on wood blocks, called Edo. Subjects in Edo arts were less religious and were often geographically erotic. Noting this, without a doubt, it gave me this insight:

"The explicit presentations of manga, that could later influence the industry of anime, were already existent in the 13th century. That is decades before anime emerged into view!"

Now it should not be too surprising, right? There are plenty of mangas (often known as comics) of currently that are too vulgar and explicit and otherwise, there will be at least one character in her showy appearance. I'm not proclaiming that all mangas are full of nudities, if that's what you're thinking by now. But instead, this exploitation of eroticism (or at least a hint of amorousness) on mangas isn't actually new. They already existed even before the World War I and II. They, on the flip side, advanced into something else. Manga, to a good extent, is a factor as to how and why anime existed. The truth is, most animes and live actions are adaptations of mangas or comics.

Japanese cartoonists already experimented with different style of animation as early as 1914, although the glorious growth of anime nonetheless began shortly after the next World War where Kitayama Seitaro, Oten Shimokawa, and Osamu Tezuka were pioneering as then notable Japanese animators. Among-the pioneering animators during that time, it was Osamu Tezuka who gained the most credits and was later known as "the god of comics."

Osamu Tezuka was best known in his work "Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atomu)" the very first robot boy with the atomic heart who had wished to be a real boy. His works were noteworthy and his style of animation contributed a lot within the production of Japanese anime, such as large and rounded eyes. Tezuka's works did not only focus to entertain young viewers but he also conceived and initiated the creation of Animerama. It's a series of thematically-related adult anime feature films made at his Mushi Production studio from the late 1960's to early 1970's. Animerama is a trilogy consisting of three films: A Thousand & One Nights, Cleopatra, and Belladona. The very first, A Thousand & One Nights, was the first erotic animated film conceived by Osamu Tezuka, the god of comics.

Although anime made its way, it was only within the 1980's that anime was fully accepted in the mainstream of Japan. Since then, more and more genres emerged into being. From slice of life, drama, mechas, tragic, adventure, sci-fi, romance, ecchi, shounen-ai, shoujo as well as a lot more of genres. While a lot of the anime shows shifted from more superhero-oriented, fantastical plots to somewhat more realistic space operas with increasingly complex plots and fuzzier definitions of right and wrong-in short, anime in its broadened sense is simply complicated.

At the same, time, later during the boomed experience of Japanese animation, a whole new medium was then developed for anime: the OVA (Original Video Animation). These OVAs were direct-to-home-video series or movies that catered to much smaller audiences. The OVA was also answerable for allowing the very first full-blown anime pornography.

As Japanese animation further gained more audience and acceptance through the world, a subculture in Japan, who later called themselves "otaku", began to develop around animation magazines such as Animage or later NewType. These magazines became known in respond to the overwhelming fandom that developed around shows for example Yamato and Gundam in the late 1970's and early 1980's and during this time period the mecha genres were prominent.

Everything started from ancient paintings, wood block arts, artistic depiction of life, nature, and animals as early as the 13th century. Until these, nonetheless, evolved into moving frames when different experimentations of mangas and animation were made within the pre and post-wars era.

Even as early as 13th century, mangas on wooden blocks, described as Edo, were already existent not simply for the sake of art but it was there I believe as a medium of entertainment... a form of art and entertainment that could gradually evolved in time.

In conclusion, the history of anime was broad in its sense and this article has not presented all of it. Though the point is, we must realize that anime itself carries a great deal of genres and motives that will be alarming more than we can see right now.