Hyper-animated

Japan’s animators have already helped to shape popular culture worldwide and now with the release of the new movie Appleseed, they are yet again setting new standards in art and entertainment. To mark the occasion KS has arranged a little tour of manga’s hyper-animated universe.

“Pikachu” is part of every North American kid’s lexicon, Daft Punk hires a Japanese cartoonist to make their videos, Spirited Away took away an Oscar last year, and Tarantino is talking of a Kill Bill prequel done anime style.

Japanese animation, or anime, has sunken its claws, tentacles, or what have you, deep into Western pop culture. Its complex characters, intricate storylines and fresh art style continue to snare more and more fans outside of Japan, much to the delight of its producers. As the number of children in Japan decreases, anime companies are looking to the global market to fill their coffers, and making good on their goal. Anime heavyweight Toei, once dubbed “the Disney of the Orient”, currently makes 40% of its sales in America and Europe. But while the last few years have yielded an “anime explosion”, the fuse was actually lit a long time ago.

Animated Invasion

Astro Boy, anime’s most recognized icon, was the first Japanese cartoon to be adapted for Western television. The robot-boy with black cowlick and jet boots, programmed to save the world, fired onto American airwaves in 1963.

His arrival started two major trends. First, it began the practice of Japanese programming being re-packaged and put on U.S. air, a trend still seen today with popular cartoons like Gundam, Hamtaro and Duel Masters.

Second, Astro Boy-artist Osamu Tezuka established one of anime’s defining traits – characters with huge, saucer-like eyes. This optic-elephantiasis is often assumed to be an Asian perception of Occidental facial features. It was, in fact, Tezuka paying homage to his mentors Walt Disney and Max Fleischer by drawing characters with eyes like those of their cartoon animals.

Following in Astro Boy’s success, crime series The Eighth Man was launched in 1965. Much darker than smiling Astro, and predating Robocop by decades, Eighth Man was a slain detective resurrected as a crime-fighting robot. In the original Japanese comic, he smoked energy cigarettes to power up. For American audiences, the more upstanding practice of popping energy pills was used.

As the anime field was showing great promise, three more series went west the following year. Another of Tezuka’s titles, Jungle Tatei, was scooped by NBC Films and shipped overseas. Re-named Kimba, the White Lion, this tale of a domesticated lion named Kimba returning to the savannah was syndicated in America. Concept sound familiar? Anime aficionados thought so and accused Disney of ripping it off for The Lion King, their tale of a lion named Simba who returns to the savannah. Despite the thematic, physical and namesake similarities, Disney maintained their innocence.
Giant-robot story Gigantor, formerly Japan’s Tetsujin28, made its mark that year. Small-time player Global Products also hoped to get in on the anime game with Zoran, Space Boy. Unlike Zoran himself, the series didn’t fly.

The first dual-country cartoon effort between America and Japan came in 1967. Marine Boy (Katai Shonen Marine), an adolescent Aquaman, was released simultaneously in both countries. It was smooth sailing for the series in Japan, but hit rough waters in America. Its cartoon violence was considered too intense for American kids, the National Association for Better Broadcasting calling it “one of the very worst animated shows…[It] expresses a relish for torture and destruction of characters”. Marine Boy’s distributor was compelled to cut three episodes from the original manifest.

The same year, Trans Lux TV in the U.S. picked up Go Mifune, the story of a hip teenager who fought villains in his Bond-esque sports car, renaming it Speed Racer. Not only successful upon its release, Speed Racer was repackaged in the 90s, its theme song done techno, and aired on MTV.

Space Is The Place

The late 60/early 70s was a dry spell for anime overseas, with companies like Hanna-Barbara and Warner Brothers dominating the cartoon market with superhero and western titles. When Star Wars exploded in 1977, however, American youth demanded science fiction shows – a ready commodity in Japan. Game show distributor Sandy Frank, smelling the potential profits, leap-frogged the American animation studios frantically working on sci-fi cartoons, and acquired Gatchaman, a Japanese cartoon series which ran from 1972 to 1974. The plot involved five teenagers who, when not eating junk food or wearing bellbottoms, were an intergalactic superhero team called G-Force. Hanna-Barbara veterans James Brewer and Alan Dinehart III were hired to adapt the series into English, snipping bits out and drawing bits in. Almost one-fifth of the original series hit the editing room’s floor, deemed too graphic for the U.S. market, and a cute narrator droid was pencilled in to patch plot holes. By the spring of 1978, Battle of the Planets was ready for blast off.

The success of Battle, which is most likely still being aired somewhere at this very moment, ushered in a battalion of sci-fi cartoons from the east. Star Blazers, adapted from the 1974 series Uchu Senkan Yamato, hit the airwaves in 1979, followed by Voltron, from Japan’s Voltus 5, in the early 80s. The next year, a giant Japanese robot named Mazinger Z entered America under the title, TranZor Z.

As the Star Wars generation matured and wanted more drama in their space tales, Captain Harlock (pieced together from two different series) and Robotech (pieced together from three!) were introduced. Both series, which appeared on U.S air in 1985, concentrated more on personal struggles and relationships, and less on laser battles and funny robots.

The Next Level

Since the early 90s, one anime series after another has captured the imagination, and Christmas lists, of kids abroad. The adventures of superhero schoolgirl Sailor Moon was an unprecedented anime smash, only to be topped by her successors Pikachu and his Pokemon pals. The creatures of Digimon, the game-inspired stories of Beyblade and Yu-Gi-Oh!, and the kung fu-packed Dragonball have ruled the roost as of late. Youth-targeting channels YTV (Canada) and Cartoon Network (America) currently run 14 to 17 different anime series.

Near-future tale Appleseed, hitting movie screens this month, is being hyped as the next stage in anime’s evolution. Anyone who has seen the trailers believes it. The characters have the look of traditional 2D animation but fluidity of human actors, their action supplied by performers in motion-capture suits. The computer-generated backgrounds are being touted as some of the most realistic ever to grace the screen. Set in a utopian society regulated by humanoids, the story follows members or an elite police force attempting to thwart a terrorist group determined to restore man’s rule. With its club music soundtrack, Matrix-like action, and curious human/android love story, Appleseed will surely keep the anime flame burning abroad.

Text: Rori Caffrey