Origin of Animé
By AniméXpress Team

Animé is a Japanese art and animation that is its own cartoon genre. It is now not only popular, but also an artifact that everyone knows belongs to Japan. It was based on Western animation in the 1960's (mainly Disney animation). Animé is usually animated versions of manga, which means "comic book" in Japanese. There are television series like Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, Ronjin Warriors, and Pokemon to name a few, but there are more types of Animé available, such as movies. When people watch Animé, they usually say "WOW!" because of the impressive style of animation. However, people are either impressed with Animé or they hate it. Animé can be drawn with diverse story lines, like romance, sci-fi, action, children, fantasy, history, and realistic fiction.

The Origin of Animé:
Osamu Tezuka was the originator of Animé. During World War II, the atomic bombs that were dropped in Japan killed many people. It was depressing, and made the Japanese people angry. Osamu Tezuka then released the first Animé, it was called Tetswan Atomu. That Animé was about a little machine boy with an atomic heart whose creator disowned him because he wasn't able to grow. Caring people then rescued him by nurturing and accepting him as one of their own. This smoothed over some of the nation's anger and was a big step in allowing people to forgive. Another major step toward the growth of Animé, was when a producer liked the idea and decided bring it to America. American investments gave Japanese artists money and equipment (such as cartoon cels) to make the product look better. Astro Boy (which is Tetswan Atomu in English) had become a hit in America. Unfortunately, US broadcasters complained that there was too much violence in the shows and there could be involvement with death during the course of a story. Walt Disney said that children could not be trusted with death or a concept as complicated as death. So, American fans never got to see the last episode of Astro Boy! That was how Animé started.

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