Manga & Anime:How It Began

Ryan Kopf

Between the years of 1760 and 1849, lived an artist named Hokusai. A popular work of his created in the traditional Japanese style is known as The Great Wave, which is only one of over 30,000 original works. He first created the term manga to describe his works and other art like it. In Japanese, “man” means whimsical and “ga” means picture.

In the early 6th and 7th centuries, Buddhist monks created picture scrolls, which featured often used symbols. Their depictions of cherry blossoms and red leaves expressed the passage of time. Other works known as “animal scrolls” or Choujuugiga, showed animals behaving like humans. Art of this sort were some of the first examples of manga.

In later years, European culture began to influence Japanese art. Artists from Europe inserted elements such as word balloons, shading, and perspective. Around the year 1877, humor magazines like Marumaru Chimbun were created from European influence.

Toei Animation released it’s first film, The Tale of the White Serpent in 1958. Films like these paved the way for animated series. Tetsuwan Atomu, created by Tezuka Osamu, was the first animated series for Japanese television.

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