Is anime only Japanese?
Television in Japan
, taken from half of the Japanese pronunciation of "animation", is the Japanese word for animation in general, but is used more specifically to mean "Japanese animation" in the rest of the world. Anime dates from about 1917. TV networks regularly broadcast anime programming. In Japan, major national TV networks, such as TV Tokyo broadcast anime regularly. Smaller regional stations broadcast anime on UHF. "Naruto", "Pokémon", "Bleach", "Dragon Ball", and "One Piece" are examples of anime. While many popular series air during the daytime and evening hours, most air only at night from 12:00am – 4:00am. These series usually make profits primarily through BD (Blu-ray Disc)/DVD sales and merchandising rather than through television advertisement. Some anime series are original, but most are intended to promote something else, such as an ongoing manga, light novel, or video-game series.
List of anime by release date (pre-1939)
This is a list of anime by release date which covers Japanese animated productions that were made between 1917–1938. Anime in Japan can be traced back to three key figures whom in the early 20th century started experimenting with paper animation. It is unknown when the first animated film was made, but historians have tied the year 1917 as being the key date. Very few of the first animations that were made survive to this day due to the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. At one point it was even thought that all animated works made before the earthquake were lost until the discovery of two films in 2008. Production of animated works resumed again after the earthquake, and by the early/mid 1930s sound, and cel animation were starting to appear. Later in the decade, Japan went to war with China, resulting in paper needed for the war to be used sparingly. As a result, new manga stories disappeared from the public while the Japanese government stepped in to regulate what was being released through the cinemas to take its place. The mid to late 1930s saw more animated works that were propaganda-themed to rally the public's support.