As noted by the portal ShareAmerica, in Japan immediately after World War II, manga and its numerous science-fiction action stories pointed the way to a new future. The father of modern manga is considered to be illustrator Osamu Tezuka. He became the founder of the style and tone that remain relevant today, with adventure stories about the future and other worlds, some of which contain subtle hints of the era in which they were written.
"Tezuka was greatly influenced by Western culture, which aroused his enormous interest," says Eida Palmer, a professor of history at the University of Chicago and a leading expert on Tezuka and the history of anime. Tezuka's father firmly believed that Japan's future prosperity was tied to cooperation with the United States and raised his son on American imagery. "In his works, Westerners constantly appear as peaceful scientific collaborators. That's how he imagined the future."
Along with many other manga creators, Tezuka turned his creation into an animated series in the 1960s. "He created works for export from the very beginning," Palmer notes. His most famous creation is "Astro Boy," a powerful robot who fights injustice.
In subsequent decades, many other anime series were successful in the United States, including children's adventure action series "Gigantor," "Tobor (The 8th Man)," and "Speed Racer." But it was only in the 1990s that anime became a subject of intense attention from American fans.
One indicator of anime's growing popularity is the significant increase in attendance at anime conventions across the country. In the first year of Anime Boston in 2002, organizers expected 500 participants, but two thousand fans showed up. In recent years, attendance has regularly exceeded 20,000. The largest anime event in the United States is Anime Expo, held annually at the Los Angeles Convention Center, with over 100,000 attendees.
Over the past two decades, imported anime series such as "Pokémon," "Sailor Moon," and "Attack on Titan" have been hugely popular with Americans. Similarly, English-language versions of films by animator Hayao Miyazaki, distributed through Walt Disney Company, attract both children and adult audiences. His film "Spirited Away" won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001.
Americans' love for anime has entered American cinema. "The Matrix," which itself is an extremely influential film, borrowed heavily from the style and tone of anime in its aesthetics, says Palmer. Academy Award-winning director Quentin Tarantino used an extended anime sequence to tell a character's backstory in his feature film "Kill Bill."
In recent years, Hollywood has created live-action film adaptations of anime and manga stories, such as "Ghost in the Shell" and "Oldboy," trying to capture the energy and creativity of these forms just as Tezuka used Western models for his early anime. "I would describe it as a kind of dialogue," Palmer explains. "Cultural contacts and cultural exports are not just about money, but also about positive relations between these countries for a peaceful and productive future."
What are anime and manga?
In Japan, anime is simply short for "animation." Outside Japan, anime refers to a specific Japanese style of animation. Thus, while animation from any country is called "anime" in Japan, in the United States and other countries, "anime" is animation produced in Japan.
Similarly, for Japanese people, manga means any comics and cartoons. The word comes from two Japanese characters meaning "whimsical" and "picture." Outside Japan, manga refers to the Japanese style of comics for both children and adults.
A large percentage of anime is adapted from existing manga-style books, and some successful anime series have been adapted into manga versions.