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  • It's the early 60s, anime has struggled to find structure and hasn't yet been able

  • to compete with other industries.

  • It simply hasn't been able to make money in its current form.

  • The best works of the previous decades have been unprofitable or government funded, which

  • has proven to be a slippery slope.

  • But a young man named Osamu Tezuka has a dream to turn anime into a global industry.

  • He rounded up unhappy animators from other studios at the time and started to create

  • Astro Boy, a revolutionary series that would set the template for every Tv anime to follow

  • and establish a business model for anime that hasn't changed in over half a century.

  • You could say that even today, the industry if running because of Tezuka's Astro Boy.

  • Tezuka wanted to break anime into the TV industry, he saw a far more efficient and feasible future

  • for the medium here instead of at the cinema.

  • And he was right, Tv was far cheaper to produce and very profitable if the right sponsor was

  • found.

  • But there was one problem, Anime in its current state was incredibly expensive to produce,

  • it was estimated that for the production of Astro Boy, Tezuka would need 3000 staff and

  • a budget of about 70 million yen.

  • There wasn't even half that many animators in Japan at the time and a TV time slot would

  • never be able to make that money back.

  • But Tezuka adapted and set about re-inventing the wheel.

  • He created a whole new system of anime production, it was called Limited Animation and it established

  • production techniques that are still the most efficient in the industry today.

  • Astro Boy started its broadcast on New Years day 1963 and marked the start of a new age

  • in anime and arguable the start of anime as we know it.

  • From here onwards, every year is filled with profitable, large productions of TV anime.

  • But, it was called limited animation for a reason.

  • Tezuka was able to fund weekly episodes of his series because he cut corners with the

  • production.

  • He used his skills to create a series that would be both look good and not strain the

  • studio.

  • Over the following years, other studios continued with this system and it became the standard.

  • But that was about to change.

  • In this video, I want to look at the wave of creators who came after the advent of limited

  • animation and who tried to blur the lines between high quality animation and profitability.

  • Creating projects that would shape the entire medium.

  • And when talking about this evolution of anime after Astro Boy, science fiction shows are

  • usually cited as the most important over other genres.

  • Shows like Space Battleship Yamato were massively popular at this point which progressed into

  • the colossal Mecha boom in the late 70s and early 80s.

  • And it's easy to get the impression that Science fiction anime for a young male audience

  • was the only the important genre of the time, which just isn't true.

  • Massive chunks of the industry were aimed at completely different audiences.

  • Zuiyo Eizo were a studio at the forefront of one of those markets.

  • They started the 70s doing contracted work for other studios and went on to produce a

  • number of popular shows during the first half of the decade.

  • It's where individuals like Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Yoshiyuki Tomino got their

  • start.

  • And they would be crucial in a very important artistic movement.

  • The studio began production on the series Heidi, Girl of the Alps, taking inspiration

  • from early magic girl shows like Sally the Witch.

  • These shows targeted a young female audience instead, which usually means it gets discredited

  • as females didn't buy robot toys to fund their anime.

  • But In truth they did, just in the form of different merchandising like toy wands.

  • This sector of the market was massively important and not mentioned as much as it should be.

  • The production of Heidi was a hectic one, Miyazaki has noted many times in the past

  • that Heidi was a far more intricate production to most other TV anime at the time.

  • Some episode having as much as 8,000 cels of animation, considerably more than most

  • TV anime.

  • It was also possibly one of the first productions since Astro Boy were critical reception was

  • put on a higher pedestal than financial gain.

  • The creators wanted to make a kids series that was authentic and timeless.

  • The team went the extra mile to make sure Heidi was fully realised, even making trips

  • to Europe for research.

  • Heidi was completed and to an extremely high standard.

  • Miyazaki even discusses how the bar was set to a dangerous high as most other studios

  • wouldn't be able to match it.

  • Although, Heidi wasn't a financial success, it wasn't a disaster but this level of production

  • didn't become the standard.

  • What's important is Heidi's reach and critical success.

  • The series was dubbed and spread across the globe, reaching audiences that wouldn't

  • have even heard about anime before.

  • And it proved that there was a market for shows that weren't action oriented.

  • And Heidi achieves a magnificent look, with gorgeous painted backgrounds and animation

  • that was far more intricate than most other TV anime at the time.

  • What's impressive I think is how well the complex animation blends with the static portions

  • of the show.

  • Moving objects in the world don't stick out like a sore thumb and animation seems

  • very natural.

  • Where Heidi excels most above its competition is in its character animation.

  • The way facial expressions and body movement is presented here is magnificent.

  • What was also important about Heidi, and the shows that followed was that it established

  • a new timeslot in anime.

  • It actually ran alongside Yamato, you would think that ratings would drop because of this

  • but they actually both held very high ratings.

  • Meaning there were two large, different audiences watching TV anime now.

  • One interested in Science fiction and one more interested in drama.

  • One theory is that sons would watch Yamato with their fathers and daughters would watch

  • Heidi with their mothers.

  • Heidi had created a whole new sector of the medium: now known as 'Masterpiece anime'.

  • The idea of adapting classic works of literature into anime to tell compelling stories hadn't

  • really been done before.

  • And this was really changing how creators approached anime, suddenly they could create

  • stories that didn't necessarily rely on fight scenes or space battles, they could

  • put their resources into subtle character animation and melodrama and actually find

  • a market.

  • The Success of Heidi would prove to be extremely valuable.

  • Zuiyo Eizo transformed into Nippon Animation in 1975, bring along its key staff members

  • and gained a lucrative sponsorship deal from the drink Calpis to start the 'World Masterpiece

  • Theater' series.

  • The goal was to adapt a classic piece of literature into anime every year, and from this spawned

  • some of the medium's most polished and tightly written shows.

  • The first two years were instant classics with Dog of Flanders in 1975 and 3000 Leagues

  • in Search for Mother in 1976.

  • These shows repeated the critical success of Heidi and found their way overseas.

  • Dog of Flanders continues the style that Heidi established, fantastically atmospheric backgrounds

  • with simple but evocative character designs.

  • What's incredibly powerful about the series was how sad it was.

  • The infamous ending really moved me when I watched it, i can only imagine how powerful

  • it would of been to a child.

  • Even the town in which is takes places has a slight melancholic feel to it.

  • For a show aimed at kids, this was very different, and it becomes one of defining qualities of

  • World Masterpiece Theater.

  • The following years had no title sponsor but were equally packed to the brim with classics

  • like Akage no Anne and Swiss Family Robinson.

  • Akage no Anne, I think can be seen as a peak of the World Masterpiece Theater series, it's

  • the perfect execution of subtlety and story progression.

  • From an animation standpoint aswell Akage no Anne really excels, especially in its more

  • surreal scenes where Ann's imagination leaks into the reality of the story.

  • I've seen very few other series that have created a world and story that so successfully

  • feels real and dynamic.

  • World Masterpiece Theater carried on until the late 90s where after 23 seasons, it was

  • unfortunately cancelled.

  • Sadly, the younger market were more interested in the new wave of battle shounen anime and

  • World Masterpiece Theater got pushed off the TV.

  • It returned shortly in 2007 but only for a few years.

  • What was is astonishing I think about World Masterpiece Theater is how long it ran and

  • how prosperous it was.

  • Even just a handful of these titles would be a complete gift, but to have so many over

  • the years, developing so much talent within the industry, i think we're very lucky.

  • These aren't shows that would've been easy to fund, and the creators working on them

  • would've have had to put an enormous amount of effort and time in.

  • The level of meticulous animation and storytelling isn't something that can just be produced

  • on a normal timetable.

  • Creators sacrificed years of their life making these shows so that the medium could have

  • something more impactful and children could have a greater range of messages to take away

  • from anime.

  • These shows are crucial for how diverse anime is today, who knows if these other demographics

  • would even exist without World Masterpiece Theater.

  • Especially when looking at studios like Kyoto Animation who thrive off of stories about

  • subtle character moments, would they exist without shows like Akage no Anne?

  • I really don't think so.

  • And who knows if the individuals involved in World Masterpiece Theater would of been

  • able to flourish without it.

  • Surely Takahata and Miyazaki would find it hard to develop the skills that made Studio

  • Ghibli so unique on more mainstream projects.

  • Even creators that didn't necessarily develop into the same style still had their starts

  • here.

  • Toyoo Ashida for example went on to design some of anime's most iconic character designs

  • or Yoshiyuki Tomino who went on to change anime completely when he created the Gundam

  • series.

  • World Masterpiece Theater was crucial in the diversification of anime.

  • Without these shows and the broader market they targeted, anime would have been a drastically

  • different landscape.

  • Like I mentioned, studios like Kyoto Animation create shows that are a product of World Masterpiece

  • Theater and i'm sure many of the staff grew up watching them.

  • It is unfortunate that very few people have watched the World Masterpiece Theater classic,

  • they're not easy to get a hold of as DVD releases of them were rare and streaming sites

  • wouldn't go near them due to their lack of loud shouty protagonists.

  • They've become a kind of lost relic in the community.

  • But i'm not surprised.

  • Most anime fans don't want to sit through 50 episodes of slow meticulous story development.

  • We're in a world of instantly available episodes and 7 second clips of Sakuga.

  • But I think its important that people know the influence of shows like World Masterpiece

  • Theater and respect the individuals who created the medium we all love today.

  • And I hope this video has done just that, given you a good enough understanding of these

  • shows to appreciate their influence.

  • And a lot of my videos recently have been focused on spotlighting various aspects of

  • anime to hopefully create a greater general appreciation of the medium.

  • So make sure you're subscribed and following me on social media to keep an eye out for

  • future projects.

It's the early 60s, anime has struggled to find structure and hasn't yet been able

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