wasn’t until the 1990s that they began to take over children’s TV in the United States. By
the early part of the twenty-first century the manga and anime influence was felt through-
out the international marketplace. Companies like Toei Animation, TMS Entertainment,
Nippon Animation, Pierrot Co., and Gonzo-Digimation were producing television series for
both the Japanese and international markets. Bandai Visual produced animation for broad-
band distribution. In 2004 Japan revised laws to allow government financial support to ani-
mation companies.
The popularity of television animation led to an increased interest in animation in the
theaters in Japan as well. Some TV series were repackaged as features, and animated films
for adults gained popularity. Many Japanese films have been financed by a consortium of
companies, each company benefiting from a different area of the overall film and market-
ing profits. Animation directors became stars: These included Isao Takahata (Celo Hiki no
Goshu, 1980), Tadanari Okamoto (Hana to Mogura), Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell,
Innocence), Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue,Millennium Actress), and the star of stars, Hayao
Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro,Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away).
The art film thrived in Japan, too, with Tokyo Image Forum helping independent ani-
mators. Kihachiro Kawamoto was an important puppet animator who worked briefly in
Prague. Yoji Kuri claimed to have made about three thousand films in the 1970s alone. Other
animators were Renzo Kinoshita, Shinichi Suzuki, Taku Furukawa, and Koji Yamamura. The
Hiroshima Animation Festival, which began in 1985, has been one of the most important
animation festivals in the world.
Animation in Other Asian Countries
Dong-Hun Shin was a pioneer of animated shorts in South Korea in the 1960s. Soon
South Korea became a haven for animation service companies making television produc-
tions for the United States, Japan, and Western Europe. One of the largest was Dong-Seo
Animation, and others have included Sunwoo Entertainment, AKOM, Animation Art
Center, Anirom Animation Production, Ansan Animation Production, Han Shin, Seoul
Animation, Ocon Animation, Dongwoo Animation, and Anitel. KOCCA, the Korean
Culture and Content Agency, helped the Korean animation community find distribution
for their product inter-nationally. The government assisted in funding Korean animation
as well. Korean films, like Lee Sung-gang’s My Beautiful Girl, Mari, began to find inter-
national acceptance.
In 1948, the same year that North Korea became a Communist state, the Pyongyang ani-
mation studio was founded. The studio educated North Korean children by making ideo-
logical films, many based on tales by Marshal Kim II Sung. Hundreds of films with drawings,
puppets, or cutouts were made since the studio opened, and in the 1980s the studio employed
about 600 people. One of the best-known films is Kim Chun Ok’s The Flying Horse(1986).
Early Chinese and European records seem to indicate that the Chinese made the first
zoetrope or magic lantern by the second century and developed the first slide or trans-
parency projection system by the seventeenth century and probably earlier. The Chinese
28
1986–1987
The TV show The Simpsons
has its first season.