the history of anime

[stubby42]

I've been getting back into anime recently and I've been really enjoying it but I've been wanting to learn more about the history of anime, how the style developed in the way that it, what were the most important animations and why animation ended up being the most popular form of media?

I'd espcially like to read up on the last question because animation never really took off in the west, its always been seen as a kids genre and producing an animation is far more time consuming and expensive than shooting a live action show (until you get to the big budget special effects films).

Is anyone aware of any good books to get me started on the subject matter? or alternativly web resources?

[Guardian Enzo]

I like "The Anime Encyclopedia" by Clements and McCarthy. Should be easy enough to find a copy.

[Jan-Poo]

why animation ended up being the most popular form of media?

Wow i think this is quite of an overstatement. Worldwide speaking movies and musics are definitely more popular, while in Japan manga overweight anime by a ton.

Anyway if you want a brief overview of the history of animation in japan, there is a very nice article on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anime