"Mighty Atom" was reformatted and over-dubbed for wide release in America as "Astro Boy"

As the decades went on, production studios began to make genre specific animes. In the 1960s and 1970s the birth of the “super robot” and the “space opera” genres were brought about by the releases of marquee animes from major companies. This begun the inclusion of futuristic elements, such as space travel and the mecha-character (half-human, half-machine) archetypes often used and seen in anime.

“Tetsujin 28-go” (1963) is an animated TV series about a young boy who controlled a robot, Tetsujin 28-go, built by his late father. It is commonly touted as the first of the “super robot” genre, which eventually led to the more widely-known and loved “real robot” genre, via titles such as “Mobile Suit Gundam” (1978) and the “Macross” series (1982).

Renderings of characters from the popular ‘Macross’ series

Likewise, “Space Battleship Yamato” (1974) is said to be the beginning to the “space opera” genre. All of these anime employ a certain amount of fantasy in plot, animation, and often the distinction between right and wrong. This trend continued on through the 80s and 90s with releases like “Ghost in the Shell” (1995)—a more psychological and ambient trope on the real robot genre—the wildly popular space opera TV series “Cowboy Bebop” (1998) and the anime classic “Akira” (1988), which is about a boy who succumbs to his own powers of destruction in the fictional city of Neo-Tokyo.

Cover of ‘Akira’, a ground-breaking Japanese anime, 1988

However, not all anime studios were producing such fantastical work. Ghibli Studios would emerge as an anime powerhouse and their pictures retained a more realistic and innocent feel. The first of these notable animes—what was a crushing success—“Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” (1984) established more prestige for the anime genre, and a torrent of like-minded, big-budget films continued to flow from various production studios into the new millennium. However, “Valley of the Wind” was a landmark, and the first commercial success for the production team that would become Studio Ghibli. Following “Valley of the Wind”, Studio Ghibli and writer/director Hayao Miyazaki put out commercial successes “Kiki’s Delivery Service” (1989), “Princess Mononoke” (1997), and the highest grossing film in Japan, and Academy Award Winner for best Animated Film in 2001, “Spirited Away”.

[insert filename: “SPIRITED AWAY”; caption: “Movie poster for Hayao Miyazaki’s classic anime, ‘Spirited Away’ which broke records in Japan and won awards in America for its heart-warming story and it’s groundbreaking technique.”]

Movie poster for Hayao Miyazaki’s classic anime, ‘Spirited Away’ which broke records in Japan and won awards in America for its heart-warming story and it’s groundbreaking technique

Through the latter half of the 20^th century, which the NYTimes has dubbed the 2nd Golden Age of Japanese Cinema (the first being the 1950s and 60s where directors such as Akira Kurosawa saw wide acceptance and acclaim from western audiences) anime developed and diversified along with animation technologies and the personal preferences of fans and critics world-wide. Experimental genres like the groundbreaking “Serial Experiment Lain” (1998) and “Paranoid Agent” (2004) found a place on late night Tokyo TV, and even hentai, or pornographic animes, found an audience through straight to video releases.  Today, anime movies and TV shows are diverse as ever, with many series coming back with fresh installments of older animes—such as “Neon Genesis Evangelon” (1995) which was a popular rebirth for mecha-anime—as well as influences in some of today most popular shows (Pokemon, Powerpuff Girls, etc.) and movies (the Wachowski Brothers’ “Animatrix” and Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” series). No longer purely an eastern phenomenon, anime has made an indelible mark on the face of western culture.

To read A Concise History of Anime: The First Anime, Part I click here.

To read the blogger’s preface to A Concise History of Anime click here.