アニメ - Anime

Honestly, for me, two of the best things to ever come out of Japan are anime & manga. This time I want to talk about anime.
At this point, it has also become something deeply mixed with Japanese culture, at such point that even the 2020's Olympic games mascots will be many well-known anime characters.

Anime has been present since 1907 when the "first" anime was made. It is a 50 frame animation called Katsudō Shashin (活動写真, "Activity Photo") and only lasts about 5 seconds.

In 1948, the first animation company came along TOEI Animation. Nowadays it's still one of the biggest anime studios, worldwide even. Next to it, another huge studio is Studio Ghibli (that's an entire story for another post). Founded on June 15th, 1985.

At first, anime was made for Japan and was meant to stay there but slowly it managed to expand to other places around the world. In 1963 the first big export came to the USA, Etsuwan Atomu better known here as Astro Boy. It was aired by NBC. This series was originally a manga that was adapted into animation. This became a regular pattern and that's how many anime came to be.

There have been a lot of changes in anime from the 1900's all the way to today. Storytelling has changed and so has the public. Nowadays people of all ages can find something they will enjoy and maybe even inspire. Anime is definitely something worthy of giving a chance.