Astro Boy and the Era of Television
1961-1983
Saiyūki - 1960
The film Saiyūki (1960) was a film based both off of the old story of the monkey king but also based off the manga Boko no Son Gokū by Tenzuka Osamu. In the credits Tezuka is said to have directed it, which was actually done by Tōei’s Tabushita Taiji. However, his own task in the film was to be in charge of the storyboard for the film, in accordance to the ‘Disney’ mode of production. Tezuka didn’t take the deadline for the storyboard seriously and was going to be flexible with delivery times such as Manga had been. However this meant no work for the Tōei animators until it was done.
The storyboard proved to be problematic as it lacked proper pacing, and was muddled, at least from a film’s standpoint. Tasuka was used to long open-ended series that could work with his type of storyboard, which was not something a movie could do. As a result the studio would change the storyboard in order to properly produce a film which annoyed Tezuka. However the film set a new record with 100,000 frames but it provided less intricate animation then some of its predecessors.
After the release of the film Tezuka set out to create his own studio, which may have been his intent when he first agreed to work with Tōei as he had admitted that his career in manga was always a stepping stone on the way to animating. He would create the studio Mushi Production (Mushi Pro for short) in 1961. It started out with just five people but it soon expanded to around thirty people.
The first production for Mushi Production was to create a film Aru Machikado no Monogatari (1962, Tales form a Certain Street Corner) which was a film meant to not only meant to be ‘anti-disney’ but also to test the skills of his staff. It was meant to be a warm up exercise and while it was exhibited to a Japanese audience it was not directly distributed to the public until many years later.
Aru Machikado no Monogatari - 1962
The major project that Tazuka and his studio are famous for was the release of the television series Astro Boy (1963- 1966). The first episode was seen eight weeks before its official broadcast in 1962, though they originally intended for two episodes to be shown but the audio turned out to be more difficult than expected and pushed back the second episode to the official release of the series. With previews of this new cartoon for TV hype was already set into motion and it often marks the beginning of a new age of Japanese animation.
The idea of an animated television series seemed like an absurd idea at the time, and it seemed near impossible with the animation industry in Japan at the time. The production issues seemed like it would prove a problem when creating the series Astro Boy, and to create something of the top animation quality, which is standardized by Tōei, would be too costly to create the sixty-five thirty minute episodes and no TV channel would be able to afford it. However Tezuka and his studio were able to find ways to cut costs in each episodes by using less frames, shooting in threes (eight images per second), using stop images, pull cells, repetition, sectioning (animating only parts of the face instead of the whole body), combining use (reusing frames from old episodes), and to use short cuts when animating. While these techniques were not new he was able to use them in a slightly different interpretation.
The average frames per episode on Astro Boy were a mere 2,500 frames. Tesuka even claims that he was able to get it down to 1,200 per episode.
The immediate impact of Astro Boy was the way that it was sold, other American cartoons such as The Flinstones (1960-1966) and Popeye (1960-1963) were sold abroad for such a low price that it made it hard for local companies to compete so when it sought to secure airtime the advertising studio Mannen-sha only offered 300,000 yen for each episode, only 10,000 yen per minute, and it left Tezuku crestfallen. However, this did not include attracting other investors to create revenue and the account executive at Mannen-Sha, Anami Kaoru, sought to create interest in confectionery companies in sponsoring the cartoon. Anami also tried to find new untested format for the television show. Eventually Mannen-sha would agree on a production fee of 550,000 yen, which was comparable to live action children’s TV shows.
Tezuka also faced the issue of understaffing, which he was able to help seem by outsourcing work to other studios. However, this didn’t solve the problem, it just turned it into someone else’s. This outsourcing also involved overtime for staff members in the industry.
Tezuka was able to receive foreign investment, from the US, for fifty-two episodes. However, everyone was under the impression that he had sold it to NBC however it was never sold to the network instead it was sold to NBC Enterprises, a subsidiary that traded lesser imports to smaller local markets. As a result, it is easy to see how this can be easily confused by observers. It may have even been the intention to name it to make it seem like it was a direct affiliation with the network. However, it still provided a vital financial cushion that was needed for the production, as it had only four episodes completed and only enough money to make one more.
However, with the contract with America it also brought in requests to dilute Tezuka’s original vision of the series. He was to avoid adult themes, nudity, and ongoing storylines. This would come at a dispiriting moment when they showed 12 episodes of the series but only 6 of them were approved but another three were later approved due to the editing of some of the scenes.
Astro Boy was never sold the NBC Enterprises parent company, and it instead sold to independent channels across the US. It was also sold at a knockdown price in New York to create some impressive ratings so that it could sell in other markets across the US. It also fought to keep the Japanese Origin obscure due to the fact they were enemies during the war, and that people would think that it was cheap due to the fact that it was made in Japan. Due to this Tezuka started to feature English street signs, summarizing the appeal as ‘denationalizing’ it as it was a sci-fi setting in the future. This element would be shown in later anime as well, as well as the removal of openly ‘Japanese’ elements.
There was also a misunderstanding offer the nature of the order from NBC Enterprises. They didn’t see a need for more than fifty-two episodes as they saw it as enough to repeat indefinitely, and when a sales agent from Mushi Pro studios sought to negotiate another year they had no intention of renewing. It was then Mushi Pro threatened to sell the next fifty-two episodes to a rival company it was then NBC Enterprises agreed to another fifty-two episodes for the next year. Little did the staff know about these problems, they only knew of their success on the American market.
In Japan ratings of success varied from 40% to as low as 15%, and with Astro Boy’s first episode it received a rating of 27.4%, which would be considered a success. It remained just as popular until the final episode in 1966, but it would start waning due to the increasingly outdated monochrome format. The highest rating it would receive when it did a color episode, of which it would achieve a rating of 40.3%.
Astro Boy - 1963
Ōkami Shōnen Ken - 1963
Other companies would soon try to imitate Tezuka’s success and would create their own animated serious, such as Fuji TV’s late-night adult animation Village of the Immortals. At Tōei they would work on a TV animation of their own Ōkami Shōnen Ken (1963, Wolf Boy Ken).
Which would become a major rival for the TV series, however Tezuka had a plan, and he would produce color products in the future. He would do with by creating a color episode for the Astro Boy series. He would then combine this episode with two others in order to create a feature-length film. Some exhibitors were hesitant to show this film however due to the fact it was three episodes spliced together.
With the color episode, a success Tezuka wanted to do a full color animated series. This series would be revealed to his staff in 1964 and was to be based off of his manga Jungle Emperor which ran form 1950-1952. It would be a story of a lion cub struggling to survive the hardships to become the king of the jungle with a quest narrative. It would be first released in 1965, and it is also known as Kimba the White Lion. However, NBC Enterprises, who would also have a contract to sell this series in America, would set some rules like it did with Astro Boy. These rules would include no ongoing story, an avoidance to any cartoon portrayal of blacks, humans could not be cruel to animals (which originally had some scenes of big-game hunters in Africa), and that “evil” characters could only be white. In order to avoid continuity issues, he would have one series focusing on the childhood of Kimba (Leo in Japan) with a later series following his adulthood.
A year after Astro Boys release Tezuka would privately admit that his studio was following a dangerous business model, as in the market the broadcaster would only pay for finished episodes, rather than paying for any that were in production. As a result, he had to use his own money to use for his studio, Mushi Pro, as banks were often reluctant to lend him money as it was an unpredictable market. This would leave to an inevitable decline, as there are only so many children to sell any given thing to in a year. As a result, he would turn his back on television, near the end of the 1960s and turned to animated films for adults. However, these films, Sen’ya Ichiya Monogatari (1969, 1001 Nights) and Cleopatra (1970, Cleopatra: Queen of Sex) would not be a success and the compnay would fall into bankruptcy in 1973.
Strangely, there is remarkably little about the collapse of Mushi Production. There are quite a few who only talk about the rise of the studio and not the fall of it. Tezuka rarely talks about it in his own narratives, often tending to gloss over this and talk about his later company Tezuka Productions that continued the trade into the 1970s. Anami Kaoru, the broker of Astro Boy sought to edge him out of operations, but after his death in 1966 this plan was aborted. Even if Tezuka’s early success with Astro Boy blinded him to the fact that he was investing too much in a flawed business model but he was not alone as other Animation companies did the same.
Despite some people saying that even if Tezuka never would have started his studio and released Astro Boy, that the changes would have surly happened eventually without the advent of Astro Boy one thing is certain: it helped to fling open the doors to an entirely new market for Japanese Animation.
Due the advent of Astro Boy many companies sought to create their own television and what we know as Anime would become more diverse during the 1970s. With the bankruptcy of Mushi Pro the animators would move to newer studios, many former employees from Tōei Dōga would do the same with them laying off people, which would include Miyazaki Hayao, Okuyama Reiko and her husband Kotabe.
During the mid-1960 thought the mid-1970s anime started to have its own distinct qualities that make anime distinguishable to different audiences. In some anime there has been some live anime used, such as in the final episode of Flanders no Inu (1975, Dog of Flanders) in which the main character views the triptych of The Elevation of the Cross from a photo of the painting. This is quite jarring viewing this image in a cartoon in its ‘limited’ quality animation. Other such real life imagery has been used but it could not hide the fact that the general style of anime was making a turn away from reality with its own rules and traditions.
Japan’s TV Guide often showed landmark shows on its cover and from 1963-1984 the cover would occasionally show cartoons during this era, not only in Japan but around the world, however after 1984 it would favor only live action shows. Being on the cover was a major achievement as it was not only an indication of popularity but it also had to be at the right place at the right time, as the TV Guide did prefer live-action shows at this time. Astro Boy would appear on its cover twice.
With Astro Boy other cartoon TV series began to imitate its themes of adventure and sci-fi that was often oriented toward boys. Content began to broaden with the comedy Osomastu-kun in 1966 and series that were aimed toward female audiences, such as Mahō Tsukai Sally (1966, Little Witch Sally). Osomastu-kun often was criticized as the show followed mischievous quintuplets that often got into trouble and were often without adult supervision. Parent Teacher associations often criticized it saying that it was one of the worst programs due to the dangerous situations that they got into. Mahō Tsukai Sally was able to get off a little more lightly, although it was often accused of Satanism and witchcraft.
1966 also saw the advent of sports as an anime theme. These series include Harris no Kaze (1966, Harris’s Wind) about a boy in school who channels his frustrations into various sporting activities, though in many regards it could still be considered a school drama. The anime that many consider the first true sports anime was Star of the Giants (1968-1970). It was based off of the manga of the same name and it fallows a baseball pitcher who is haunted by his father’s stalled career. Star of the Giants was a landmark show for various reasons, such as its awareness of other views besides for children, ‘implied viewers,’ and audiences beyond those younger than twenty years old. The ratings of the show averaged around 30 during its first 3 years implying that it was being regularly consumed by both children and adults alike.
Kimba the White Lion - 1966
Little Witch Sally - 1966
Osomastu-Kun - 1966
Star of the Giants - 1968
One Hundred and One Dalmations- 1961
Disney Animator Ub Iwerks was able to modify the Xerox camera in 1959, adapting it so that it could print the pencil lines of an animator directly onto a cel. This in turn helped to animate the tracing process and allowed more detail to be preserved. It also helped to speed up the animation process as well. This Xerox Photography, or xerography also known as ‘machine tracing’, was first used in the film One Hundred and One Dalmations (1961). Star of the Giants would use machine tracing to remove the simple backgrounds and simple lines to have more complete backgrounds and imagery.
Anime still faced the constant issued of outsourcing, passing on their labor issues to other companies. Many companies had it so that the in-betweening and other elements were completed by foreign labor. Like it he anime Ōgon Bat (1966), which also marked a major moment in Amination history. While many American projects were often outsourced to Japan many companies often had their own periphery in South Korea. However, there were often import and export issues of many companies would still stick to domestic labor when they could, despite not always having enough animators to do the work. Some animators would even manipulate their studios by prioritizing their early sequences, then demanding overtime when they needed to do the harder sequences when the deadlines approached. This also led to the decrease in quality in animation the 1960s and 1970s.
There are arguments about what truly makes ‘anime’ anime can be dated to around the early to mid-1970s. However, others often define anime through criticisms and complaints. In the mainstream seemed often quite violent, as well as more mature themes sneaking into Japanese cartoons. The term ‘Anime’ was also applied during the resurgence of art house animation during the first Hiroshima International Animation Festival in 1985 to differentiate the animation that was made for art, and the animation that was made for the television.
Heidi The Girl of the Alps - 1974
During the 1970s there was a major advent of the sci-fi genre in all mediums of entertainment. These were often male-oriented and not as interesting to female viewers at the time. New alternatives for female viewers would soon appear, such as Little Witch Sally which included the ‘Magic Girl’ with themes oriented towards magic. Another female-oriented series Heidi, The Girl of the Alps (1974) was based off children’s books by Johanna Spyri. The animators put more effort into the animated series then what was commonly seen, and expected, in TV animated shows at the time. They wanted to break away from the compromised and slapdash animation of the time. It was extremely exciting for the staff when the series received positive reviews and audience response. It even became one of the rare animated shows to grave the cover of the TV Guide. The efforts of the staff did lead the finances of the studio, Zuiyō Eizō, to be run into the ground and it would lead to a major restructuring of the company and it would later be re-branded as the Nippon Animation studio. The series helped to create the genre of ‘masterpiece anime’ based off of works of children’s literature.
Tranzor Z - 1972
Anime for boys were often focused around the robot, or most often known the Mecha, a robot that would be changed from machines to pilotable bipedal machines. In the Anime Mazinger Z (1972, Tranzor Z) would take the simple machinery into the more complex realm of pilotable machinery. The series Getter Robo (1974) would start using scenes of robots combining into one super robot instead of robots transforming into another object.
Some Animations were made to sell commodities, and these commodities only had a shelf life of only a few months to a year. So, it became easier to stop a series are twenty-six or fifty-two episodes and then replace it with something similar, but not truly the same.
Some shows, in ways to recover in slumps of popularity, would go to extensive lengths to compensate. The show may start with two mecha to combine together to form one mega robot to three or even five or more. As well as using more colors, and giving hair odd and unique styles to emulate the most recent fashion trend, as well as having an easy way to differentiate a large cast that has been cheaply drawn. Anime remained limited in style, similar to Mushi Pro, but the storyline also favored repetition and fast cutting.