Anime and manga have reached the point as a genre where it is so generally accepted and have been there for more than a century that no one really wonders where they originated, much like movies, video games, and regular television.
But what was the name of the first anime or manga? Here is all the information you need.
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The First Known Anime
The earliest known anime short film, ‘Namakura Gatana,’ was created in 1917. Before a copy was found in 2008, the movie was thought to be gone. One of three works—and the only one remaining in existence—credited with being a precursor to Japanese animation films is The Dull Sword. In 2008, Natsuki Matsumoto, a visual culture historian who owns the film’s nitrate positive, assisted in its digital restoration.
At first, it was assumed that Matsumoto’s restoration was identical to the first movie. But in 2014, a more recent nitrate was discovered. The first half of the movie is on nitrate, while the second half is on Matsumoto’s.
Toei Animation was established in 1948 and released Hakujaden, the first color anime feature film, in 1958. ‘The Tale of the White Serpent,’ 1958. With musical sequences and animal sidekicks, this movie had a more Disney-like tone than contemporary anime. However, it is generally acknowledged that it was the very first “colored anime” in the contemporary sense. As Panda and the Magic Serpent, it was published in the US in 1961.
The First Known Manga
That is a really difficult question. Japanese artists assert that manga dates back to the 12th century and was originally created as scroll art. These scroll paintings were commonly four scrolls long and were known as ‘Choju Giga‘, which is Korean for “beast caricature”.
Manga played a significant role from the late 18th century until World War I when it first started to gain popularity. This practice dates back to 1798 and is when the name “manga” was originally used to refer to “whimsical or impromptu illustrations,” Kern notes, several decades before Katsushika Hokusai’s more well-known Hokusai Manga.
The first manga to ever be serialized was Machiko Hasegawa’s Sazae-san, which debuted in 1946, and Osamu Tezuka’s ‘Mighty Atom‘, even though those from the late 18th century have been lost or are incorrectly credited (Astro Boy in the United States; begun in 1951). The first manga to ever be serialized AND later receive an anime adaptation is called Mighty Atom, also known as Astro Boy.
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