Long before Astroboy, animation in Japan was already thriving. A lot of early anime is lost today, but we have some examples dating as far back as 1917, and we can see the roots of what would become “modern” anime swirling around the Paper Theater stage and the early Manga/Comiku industry.

The fine folks over at the Community Broadcasting Network have put together a short film about the history of Anime, and I think it’s pretty good. (But I’m biased, as it’s based on an essay I wrote to accompany an early anime collection that Mountain Town Toys released for Momocon this year. )

The video is also available on the CBN peertube account, if that’s more your speed.

I’m sure we missed some things, or got some things wrong, so go tell me about it so we can make the next video better.

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