Postwar environment[edit]

In the post-war years, Japanese media was often influenced by the United States, [10] leading some to
define anime as any animation emanating from Japan after 1945.[28]: 5 In fact, the term itself became
more and more common around this time period.[29]
Anime and manga began to flourish in the 1940s and 1950s, with foreign films (and layouts by
American cartoonists),[30] influencing people such as Osamu Tezuka.[31]
In the 1950s, anime studios began appearing across Japan. Hiroshi Takahata bought a studio
named Japan Animated Films in 1948, renaming it Tōei Dōga,[16] with an ambition to become "the
Disney of the East." While there, Takahata met other animators [32] such as Yasuji Mori, who
directed Doodling Kitty, in May 1957. However, for the Japanese public, it wasn't until the release
of Panda and the Magic Serpent in October 1958 that Japan fully entered into world of professional
animation.[14] While animators began to experiment with their own styles, using Western techniques,
[26]
Tezuka Osamu began drawing shonen manga[33] like Rob no Kishi (Knight of the Ribbon), which
later became Princess Knight, trying to appeal to female readers, while also
pioneering shoujo manga.

Toei Animation and Mushi Production[edit]

See also: List of anime by release date (1946–1959)

Toei Animation and Mushi Production was founded and produced the first color anime feature film in
1958, Hakujaden (The Tale of the White Serpent, 1958). It was released in the US in 1961 as well
as Panda and the Magic Serpent.[34] After the success of the project, Toei released a new feature-
length animation annually.[35]: 101
Toei's style was characterized by an emphasis on each animator bringing his own ideas to the
production. The most extreme example of this is Isao Takahata's film Horus: Prince of the
Sun (1968). Horus is often seen as the first major break from the normal anime style and the
beginning of a later movement of "auteuristic" or "progressive anime" which would eventually involve
directors such as Hayao Miyazaki (creator of Spirited Away) and Mamoru Oshii.[citation needed]
A major contribution of Toei's style to modern anime was the development of the "money shot". This
cost-cutting method of animation allows for emphasis to be placed on important shots by animating
them with more detail than the rest of the work (which would often be limited animation). Toei
animator Yasuo Ōtsuka began to experiment with this style and developed it further as he went into
television. In the 1980s, Toei would later lend its talent to companies like Sunbow
Productions, Marvel Productions, DiC Entertainment, Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, Ruby
Spears and Hanna Barbera, producing several animated cartoons for America during this period.
Other studios like TMS Entertainment, were also being used in the 1980s, which lead to Asian
studios being used more often to animate foreign productions, but the companies involved still
produced anime for their native Japan.[citation needed]
Osamu Tezuka established Mushi Production in 1961, after Tezuka's contract with Toei Animation
expired. The studio pioneered TV animation in Japan, and was responsible for such successful TV
series as Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, Gokū no Daibōken and Princess Knight.
Mushi Production also produced the first anime to be broadcast in the United States (on NBC in
1963), although Osamu Tezuka would complain about the restrictions on US television, and the
alterations necessary for broadcast.[36]