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this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2025
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I mean... It was essentially the occupation that did it. The Americans effectively colonised Japan after the war, wiping away the previous culture and going "No, you believe THIS now. You get to keep the Emperor because I'm feeling nice, but if there's a part of your culture I don't like, I'm getting rid of it whether you like it or not".
...Turns out there was quite a lot of Japanese culture at the time that needed wiping out, and the Americans were very effective at doing it.
It's kinda interesting how two different approaches to conquering ex-authoritarian states concluded. In Germany, it was all about collective guilt and confronting the German people about the holocaust. In Japan? Not so much. They kinda just swept all those atrocities under the rug with a "That was the old me! This is the new me, right? I did what you wanted Mr America! I'm on your side now!". Maybe it was the fact that Japan was conquered wholesale by the US and could be put together as a more cohesive front against the Communist Chinese, whereas Germany was split into two and needed to be kept in line to avoid any grumblings about being Communist?
it wasn't the occupation that did it, the first anime was released in 1917. japan had been making anime for decades before ww2.
Sure if you want to broaden the definition to "anything that has ever been animated in Japan ever" then sure they've been doing anime for decades, but the stuff we would colloquially call 'anime' generally kicked off after the war, inspired by American culture. The signature 'anime' style is directly inspired by Disney cartoons, and it wasn't even called anime until the 60s.