Posts Tagged ‘japan’

Doraemon: Japanese Cultural Icon

Doraemon is a popular cartoon robot cat which is created by Japan. The size of this cartoon is similar to a human size. The purpose of this cartoon is to promote animation and culture of Japan. Doraemon is becoming more and more popular among many people around the globe. The fame and pride of this cartoon has led to the creation of cartoon movies based on the Doraemon character. Now this cartoon character is being promoted at many platforms in the world. Japan is trying to convey the message to the whole world using this cartoon that what Japanese are trying to achieve in future. Japan is also trying to tell the world about their culture and lifestyle through this unique and popular cartoon character. This famous cartoon is created by a cartoonist Fujiko F. Fujio. It is said to be the first cartoon ambassador for Japan. If you are a fan of this unique and anime robot cat then you should buy it from the market or from online auction stores. There are a large number of websites which offer Doraemon cartoon character in various designs and colors.

Doraemon is acting as Asian franchise to promote the culture and the animation of cartoons of Japan. This cartoon character has been awarded Japan Cartoonists Association Award for excellence. This award was given to this cartoon character in 1973. In 1982, Doraemon was awarded another award of Shogakukan Manga Award for children’s manga. The main purpose of promoting this cartoon character is to let the people understand and go deeply in the culture of Japan. Another purpose of promoting this cartoon character is to let the people understand the Japanese anime in detail. This cartoon character is officially announced as cultural icon by the foreign ministry of Japan. According to the survey made by Time Asia magazine this anime character has been considered as an Asian Hero.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Animation | No Comments »

History of Japanese Animation Part 1

The history of Japanese Animation (The term Anime started to emerge in the 1970’s) began around the dawn of the 20th century, as filmmakers from Japan started experimenting with animation techniques that had been pioneered in France, Germany, the United States, and Russia. The oldest known Japanese animation in existence screened in 1917 was a two-minute long clip showing a samurai attempting try out his new sword on an opponent, but he ends up being defeated. Early forerunners of the art form included Shimokawa Oten, Junichi Kouchi, and Seitar Kitayama.

In the 1930s, animation had become an alternative method of storytelling alongside the film and theatre industries in Japan. However, animators were faced with stiff competition from foreign producers. To make matters more difficult, many of the top Japanese animators were still working with a cheaper cutout format and not with cell animation, which was and is still the standard, although the results they achieved are nothing short of masterful. Other creative animators made huge progress in animation technique, aided in no small part by the increased funding provided by the government for the production of animations to be used in education and propaganda. In 1933 the short animation Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka, became the first Japanese animated “Talkie”. The success of the film led to several of the voice actors becoming stars. Mitsuyo Seo’s 1945 film Momotaro’s Divine Sea Warriors was the first feature length animated film in Japan. It was sponsored by the Japanese Imperial Navy. The enormous success of Disney’s 1937 feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was of great influence to Japanese animators as it was the the rest of the world. It would also inspire one young animator who would later alter the course of Japanese graphic story-telling forever….

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Animation, History | No Comments »