Anime is a word that was derived from the English word 'animation' and has been adopted to describe the style all over the world. It describes the form of Japanese animation that has become popular in much of the world. Though in the USA animated shows are mostly for children, in Japan animated movies are more common than live action films and are usually more popular. The content of anime films is as big a range as any film industry in the world. It covers things from children's cartoons (Pokémon and Sailor Moon) to more mature themes (Perfect Blue and La Blue Girl).
One of the most notable people in anime history is Dr. Osamu Tezuka. He is known by many and the "Grandfather of All Anime" because he was and is one of the best-known authors of manga (the comic books that are where most anime TV series start) of all time. He wrote enough mangas to fill several warehouses. His first anime/manga that he wrote was called Tetsuwan Atom, or known here in the US as Astro Boy. Astro Boy was on television from 1963 to 1966 and showed somewhere around 193 episodes. In 1989 the anime industry was changed forever when the movie Akira was released. There are many reasons that this one movie changed the industry so much, one major one is the fact that the story line gets the person reading the manga or watching the movie involved and wrapped into it. Another reason that it made such an impact was that it had cutting edge animation for the time and was very good quality.
Though anime was produced during the late 60's and throughout the 70's the 1980's were called "The golden Age of Anime" by fans and the 1990's were nicknamed "The New Age of Anime." During Tezuka's first years as an animator one of his role models was Walt Disney and his company. His first anime series were influenced by Disney's style, but this relationship turned around. In 1966 Tezuka came out with a series called Jungle Emperor, known now as Kimba the White Lion. Kimba is a lion cub that travels back to his father's kingdom to become the "King of the Jungle" and his main enemy is a dark colored lion with a scar over one of his eyes. It turns out that though The Lion King is better known, Kimba the White Lion came first. It is believed by many that the Disney Company took this idea after seeing its success; the company denies this. In the 1980's somewhere around 20-30 anime series came out (for a full list of anime series and years they came out click here.