Manga is the oldest form of animation in the world. Everyone from Walt Disney to Warner Bros. owe their fortunes to Japanese artists, who started creating mangas in 500BC. It was the japanese artists who pioneered the 'big eyes' look typical of most manga cartoons and later, Disney cartoons. The word 'Manga' (Man-gaa) actually means Man Go, referring to the technique of animation which was pioneered by the Japanese and copied by westerners many hundreds of years later. The Japanese were the first to develop the mental awareness to realise that changing each picture slightly will create a moving image!
Perhaps the most famous manga of all in the west is Akira, this was first an anime comic before it became a Manga film. At 6,000 pages long, it is the longest and best piece of literature ever seen! Akira was released on the inferior PAL VHS format in 1990, and also the much better and infinitely practical Laserdisc. Unfortunately the first release was dubbed because westerners are incapable of reading subtitles whilst looking at moving images. The comic was published in several publications, Including Meltdown, which folded after 6 issues because Xenophobic westerners were incapable of understanding Akira's plot. Then it was published in Manga Mania magazine, perhaps the best magazine of its type in the 90s despite it being written by a primarily western team.
Manga films continue to break new ground, with tentacle rape scenes only dreamed of a decade ago. The Japanese pioneered CGI techniques which were then spliced with the Manga animation. Some Japanese Mangas now have moving characters and moving backgrounds at the same time! Traditionally, one or the other was static, allowing even westerners to follow the action. I recently bought a DVD called 'Sky Blue' which proclaimed itself a New Akira - however, on closer inspection, i realised it was ACTUALLY KOREAN :( This means it is NOT a true manga, so be aware of imitations. An interesting fact about Akira is that Akira is actually a very common name, like Steve! Imagine calling a film Steve! That's another reason I LOL Japan so much!! ^_^
COPIED? - Disney's Inaugural manga, Steamboat Willie seems to borrow heavily from this contemporary manga film - coincidence? I don't think so! Notice how both characters are smiling, have large eyes and wear almost matching hats. Greenery can also be seen in both backgrounds
