Japan Animation has a long history of animation that, in fact, dates back to cartoon animation. It is even presumed that Japanese animation may predate American cartoon animation. In July 2005, several Japanese newspapers reported the discovery of a small series of animated films at a private residence in Kyoto, Japan.
The aged film was approximately fifty frames long, representing a little over three seconds of screen time. The film shows a boy in a sailor’s uniform drawing characters for a movie on a blackboard.
Unfortunately, this great Japanese animation is very unknown. The discoverers were unable to pinpoint the artist responsible for this great discovery, nor can they accurately date the exact age of the film. However, it is speculated that the film may be dated around 1907, which would predate the first Japanese animation in ten years and the first American cartoon animation in seven years.
However, since the film cannot be accurately dated, the jury is still out on declaring the little Kyoto film the world’s first animation.
But even without the discovery of the Kyoto movie, Japanese anime still has a very long history. In January 1917, the first five-minute anime short was publicly screened and created by Oten Shimokawa. Mukuzo Imokawa the goalkeeper (Imokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no Maki).
To produce the Japanese anime Mukuzo Imokawa the Doorman, Oten Shimokawa used a similar technique that was used in the first animated short called Humorous phases of funny faces, produced by J. Stuart Blackton in 1906.
To produce the animation, both artists used stop-motion techniques that were applied to virtually the same principles that make still images in a flip-book appear as if the animation is moving at the speed of the thumb. The essential method consisted of drawing separate images on a blackboard with chalk, filming them for a frame or two, modifying them slightly, and filming them again.
As Japan Animation progresses into the 1920s, much like cartoon animation, many excellent films were produced as theatrical shorts. Some of the first and still visible today are: The mountain where old women are abandoned (Obasuteyama) 1924 and The tortoise and the hare (Usagi to Kane) 1924.
One of the most notable anime films of the 1920s was The whale (Kujira) 1927 as it is the first anime with sound. The feature of the anime Whale (Kujira) was just a simple silhouette, animated to move to the beat of William Tell Overture’s instrumental song.
But nonetheless, Japanese animation has a long and exhaustive history dating back to the ever-expanding history of animation. And although many of these anime animations are now forgotten, Japanese anime still continues to invent and reinvent new styles of animation for the global audience.
