5 Facts You Didn’t Know About Anime Posted Mar 23, 2021
Anime is one of Japan’s biggest cultural exports, and according to the Japan External Trade Organisation, anime shows and films account for 60% of the world’s animation-based entertainment. Considering the size of anime and its popularity around the world, it’s not surprising that there are loads of crazy and interesting things to learn about anime that might just blow your mind. Whether you’re new to anime or consider yourself an Otaku, we bet that some of these anime facts will shock you.
1. The Longest Running Anime Has Over 7,500 Episodes
Sazae-san holds the current records for the longest-running anime series and the series with the most episodes at an incredible 2,500. The series is still in production today, and considering it’s been on the air since 1969, who knows how long it will go on for. Even more incredibly, Sazae-san also includes 7,500 segments, and while some of these are only a few minutes long, the total continuous runtime adds up to nearly forty days. That’s still a lot to watch, even for the most diehard fans. Sazae-san was originally a yonkoma manga series first published in a local paper in 1946. It deals with family life and presents a nostalgia for traditional Japanese society and a time before technology.
2. Lots of Anime Have Been Adapted into Videogames
Some of the best anime has been adapted into videogames, allowing fans of series such as Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, Gundam and Attack on Titan to play as their favourite characters. With these games, you can get lost in the world of your favourite anime and uncover new details about the story or characters. Dragon Ball FighterZ is considered one of the best anime games of all time, combining excellent fighting controls with brilliant graphics to make it one of the most popular fighting games of its generation. You can also play lots of anime games at an online casino, with plenty of anime-themed slots, including a game based on Ghost in the Shell.
3. A Drunk Guy inspires the Titans in Attack on Titan
According to Attack on Titan creator Hajime Isayama, he came up with the idea behind the titans after interacting with a drunk customer he met while working at an internet café. The customer gave him the idea of how difficult it can be to communicate with someone and how humans can be much more terrifying than any monster. Attack on Titan is now one of the biggest anime series in the world, with over 1 million people watching each episode. Other inspirations for Isayama include Japanese horror films and a video game called Muv-Luv: Alternative, about aliens appearing on Earth.
4. Spirited Away was the First Anime to Ever Win an Academy Award
Spirited Away, from Studio Ghibli, is one of the most famous anime films of all time. This fame is partly thanks to it being the first anime to ever win an Academy Award, winning Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards in 2003. This award has been won by studios such as Pixar in the past, but this was the first time a hand-drawn and non-English language film had ever won. Spirited Away was also picked as the 4th best film of the 21st century by the BBC and was voted by the New York Times as the second-best film of the 21st century so far.
Bleach was Originally Rejected
Bleach is a hugely popular series that first started out as a manga created by Tite Kubo. Despite the success of the show and manga today, Kubo’s original work was rejected when he first submitted it the Shonen Jump magazine. Although he was originally discouraged, he continued to work on the series, perfecting it until it was finally accepted. The Bleach TV series now has over 300 episodes and has been broadcast in more than twelve countries and translated into several different languages.
