At the time I doubt many American kids even glimpsed the long and distinguished history that this art form had up to that point. We knew that the robots were cool, we regarded some of the imported and often inadequately translated manga as intriguing, but that was about it.
So consider this entry as more of an attempt to supplement my own faulty education. I'm hoping to understand some of the trends that led to the anime I knew as a boy, and perhaps to also find through lines from the oldest examples of anime to more recent efforts. I may not get there but I'll try.
Some of the motivation for this entry also comes from the tokusatsu shows I've been watching. At a certain point in the 80s improved animation techniques and storytelling methods led to anime's supplanting the live-action tokusatsu shows to some extent, and I'd like to take a better look at how that might have happened.
1. Katsudo Sashin (1907)
This is considered to be the first anime. It's a simple, short loop of a student writing four characters on a blackboard.
2. Namakura Gatana (1917)
Ten years later Jun'ichi Kouchi, one of the three "fathers of anime" produced this extremely short silent film about a dim-witted ronin. A lot of the animation from this period was lost in a great fire that took place in 1923, and Namakura Gatana was only recently rediscovered in 2008 at an antique shop in Osaka.
3. Ugokie ko Ri no Tatehiki (1933)
This is one of the first anime to incorporate sound (the sound in the Namakura Gatana clip above was added later). It's a fairly incomprehensible tale of shape-changing spirits playing tricks on each other, but its incomprehensibility is comparable to many American cartoons of the same time period.
4. Momotaro: Sacred Sailors (1945)
Japanese Imperial propaganda! This is one of the weirdest things I've seen in a while, being a Disney-influenced discourse on Japan's right to liberate Asian people from their Western oppressors. Watching funny animal friends pack parachutes, bayonet Allied opponents and dictate terms to captured Westerners is a very surreal experience. The weirdest part is the fable about the island off the coast of Goa which somehow mandated Japan's divinely inspired mission.
I fell asleep in the middle of this one and had the strangest dreams. After I woke up I had to go back and watch the parts I missed just to convince myself that yes, this movie actually happened.
5. Three Tales (1960)
This was the first anime ever shown on (Japanese) television. It was aimed squarely at children and the animation is extremely primitive. Historic, yes, but not really worth watching.
6. Instant History (1961-1964)
The first anime television series. Like Three Tales this was aimed at kids and there's little in it to interest adults. The video linked above is more of a discussion of the show with clips shown in the background.
7. Astro Boy (1963-1966)
The great granddaddy of them all, this anime's influence on subsequent creations cannot be underestimated. The original manga's creator, Osamu Tezuka, created a host of memorable characters, everything from this show's titular character to Black Jack and Kimba the White Lion.
I watched the first five episodes. Astro Boy is still an endearing character, and this show is both very wacky and a lot of fun. Watching it in 2026 brought Steven Spielberg/Stanley Kubrick's 2001 film A.I.: Artificial Intelligence to mind. I wonder, could Astro Boy have been an influence on Kubrick's much later film?
8. Gigantor (1963-1966)
Like Astro Boy above this series takes place in the year 2000. How does it feel to live in the distant future?
It's not entirely clear whether Gigantor (a.k.a. "Iron Man 28," a.k.a. "Tetsujin 28") has a mind of his own or if the boy is controlling him. Whichever the case, Gigantor and his youthful controller seem to be battling a shadowy criminal organization reminiscent of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. from the James Bond movies. It's worth noting that the Ian Fleming novels appeared a few years before the manga which inspired the anime, and that Dr. No hit theaters a year before the anime aired on television.
I had a Gigantor toy when I was little. It was a prized possession.
9. Speed Racer (a.k.a. Mach GoGoGo) (1967-1968)
Color is nice, but it's also a leap forward in terms of animation.
Speed Racer follows the travails of first name Speed last name Racer as he attempts to secure his father's place in the auto industry. In hindsight it might seem an unlikely hit in the States, but it happened to appear at just the right moment in American culture, when young men were entertaining thoughts about cars, girls, and racing. There's also another Bond connection, in that the Mach 5 was to some extent inspired by Bond's Aston Martin in the movie Goldfinger.
For the record I LOVE the 2008 film. I think it captures the silliness of the anime perfectly.
10. Dororo (1969)
Osamu Tezuka's influence on anime and manga cannot, again, be underestimated. He was behind Astro Boy, he was behind Princess Knight, and he was behind Dororo, perhaps the darkest and most disturbing of his many creations.
In Dororo a young orphan befriends a wandering swordsman out to recover lost body parts from a host of demons. It's bloody, it's unsettling, and I loved it. If you're in the mood for something weird I hightly recommend this one.
11. Princess Knight (1967)
No idea what Osamu Tezuka was smoking when he created this one but I sure would like some. This show made me feel HIGH.
Also not sure how this tale of a gender-bending princess would be received in 2026. She has to dress up like a boy, OK, but what about that scene with "the creator" passing out genders? And what pantheon does that "creator" belong to, exactly? Princess Knight's sidekick is an angel, but in the same conversation they mention Roman gods?
I dunno, this one's a headscratcher for sure. So weird it's worth watching, but perhaps not worth thinking about too deeply.
12. The Golden Bat (1967)
Quite possibly the world's first superhero? Depictions of the character predate Batman and Superman.
The anime arrived shortly after a live action adaptation featuring none other than Sonny Chiba.
The story? Well, most of the episodes I watched don't make complete sense, but apparently a girl is able to summon an Atlantean superman after discovering his tomb and reviving him in the lost capital of that vanished civilization. The Golden Bat then proceeds to battle Nozo, a being with four differently colored eyes bent on world domination, and over the course of 52 episodes manages to best this adversary.
Notes on All of the Above:
A. I watched at least five episodes of #7-#12 above. Dororo was my favorite by far. I could watch all of them again except for maybe Princess Knight, which is hard to watch without the aid of drugs.
B. The 1960s anime discussed above might have been the most popular/influential, but there are dozens more shows that aren't discussed in this entry - everything from Attack No.1 to Cyborg 009.
C. Momotaro: Sacred Sailors is worth a look. It offers a unique insight into Imperial Japan at the end of WWII.
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