Anime, especially anime movies, have been around for a long time, from the start of the 20th century to be exact. Though they were a niche form of entertainment, in the midst of WWII, the emperor commissioned propaganda films (Momotaro: Umi no Shinpei was the first anime feature film ever). For a long time, anime remained dormant because of the overwhelming American influence on Japanese culture and economy following the second world war.
After the softening of American influence, Japan’s contemporary culture began to bloom.
During the 1970s, anime separated itself from its Western roots, and developed distinct genres such as mecha and its super robot subgenre. An example of these is world famous “Astro boy”. In this time period there was a lot of experimentation too and in 1974, “Heidi, girl of the Alps” aired and was a huge success not only in Japan, but all across Europe too.
In the 1980s, anime became mainstream in Japan due to rise in popularity of anime like “Dragon Ball”, and genres such as space opera (inspired by Star Wars, 1977) and cyberpunk (with titles like ”Ghost in the shell” which was adapted to a high budget live action movie recently).
The 90’s were the time period where the “classics” were aired. Cowboy Bebop (1997) and the highly controversial Neon Genesis Evangelion, that increased censorship in anime in general because of its violent and sexual scenes, are from this time period. Some of the most established/famous Anime franchises are too from this time period. Examples of these are “One piece” (1999-present), “Naruto” (1999-2014), “Pokemon” (1997-present) or “Sailor Moon” (1992-1997). Dozens of new anime genres spawned in this time period such as martial arts super hero, magical girl, action adventure, etc… given anime’s popularity and the amount of Mangaka (Manga creators) and animators active at the time. The 90’s were the rise of award winning Studio Ghibli with the most expensive anime movie at the time (20 million dollars/32 million adjusted to inflation), “Princess Mononoke”
In conclusion, although it was very niche, Anime technically existed prior to the 70’s but only from this decade forward could it shine as it was being suppressed by American influence. Nowadays, Anime still has a huge impact in Japanese culture end even Western culture.
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