Katsudou Shashin

This could very well be the first anime. Some say it might be from 1907! So i'm going to be lenient, super lenient.

story - 0
There is none, it's just a 5 second long clip of a boy writing.

art - 8
very good! At least, I like it. It's also very interesting, showing the style of the time

sound - 0
its a silent film so...
...
character - 1
there's a dude, he writes, bam done

enjoyment - 7
I love older stuff and history so this was super cool and interesting. Also, it was cute.

overall - 7
ya gotta forgive it, its from 1907! Overall, its the first and its good.

Obviously the conventional rules for reviews aren't going to apply here, since there isn't a story, sound, or characterization to speak of. The art is cute, and my enjoyment was high since I personally like history a lot.

Katsudou Shashin ("Moving Picture") from 1907 is the oldest "anime" ever. Over a hundred years ago... it really leaves you in awe.

I love seeing bits and pieces of history like this, so even if this is only about three seconds long and has no real story elements to it like modern anime, I do think it's a masterpiece, especially given the time period it was made in.

At only three seconds long, the shortest anime ever made, this was intended to be short and sweet, but not because the story didn’t need to be long. This was created around the year 1910 when the concept of animation had only been recently introduced to Japan and so as a still experimental storytelling style they hadn’t developed a cheap enough way to create more animation than this. With 50 frames in total this was as much as they could muster and the end of it doesn’t even look like it’s complete, but considering its age this is acceptable. After all, this wasn’t intended to ... be treated as an anime since anime didn’t exist at the time, this was just meant as both a project and a feat; a mark that animation was possible and a feasible way to show stories.

This doesn’t have so much of a story as just a thing that happens. A boy writes 活動写真 meaning “moving picture” on an unknown background, likely a wall but seeing the way he’s dressed I assumed it could have been a boat, and then bows towards the audience, lifting his hat. Even calling this slice of life would be a stretch since it’s such a small slice. We aren’t told anything about this boy’s backstory or why he’s writing it, nor why he’s wearing a sailor uniform, which has now come to be associated with the female school uniform in Japan. At the very least there certainly isn’t any filler since there isn’t any room for it, but there also isn’t anything that would need filling anyway. Any kind of real story you could get out of this would be more speculation than what’s actually presented in the film.

The art style is unique to say the least. They definitely didn’t have much of a way to even save an animation like this and although it’s understandable that it would be made with a camera as computers were decades away from even existing, let alone being advanced enough to make animations on, but I still do consider camerawork to be shoddy. What was found in 2005 as a celluloid strip so we can assume the camerawork was done then, but it could also be that the strip was intended to be used with a projector or otherwise not be recorded and shown in real time at a festival of some sort making it hard to turn into a recording, which is understandable yet unfortunate. After all, how were they to know that over a century later caucasian neckbeards would be watching this on computers and smartphones? The art is more than merely dated, it really doesn’t have much going on and was clearly made as cheaply as possible, which plays more into the fact that they only managed to make 50 frames. The art isn’t entirely awful, but it’s certainly simple and not very pretty. It’s as good as they could make at the time, though.

The sound is sort of non-existent, which is reasonable since there isn’t really any need for sound. It is a celluloid strip, after all, and so there wasn’t sound recorded with it. When it aired it would be safe to assume they had a band playing as silent films usually do, but since it’s only three seconds long they either might not have or would have repeated the clip several times in order to give people appropriate time to properly enjoy and appreciate it. I’m over a century too late to hear whatever would have played with it, if anything, so I can’t comment on how good the music was, but live music tends to be good. This is a part of the score that will remain a mystery as lost media simply due to the fact that it was intended to be watched live rather than recorded.

Just as any other story or animation would this does have a character, but we aren’t shown what his personality is. He writes “moving picture” on an unknown surface while wearing a sailor uniform and then bows to the audience as if this was some sort of performance. He could have been told to do this and this was all just some act where his uniform only serves as a costume he was forced into, but it could also be that he is a stand-in for the creators and he bowing to the audience who have come to see this moving picture. The second one would be breaking the fourth wall, which doesn’t happen too much in anime, but we’re also given no concrete evidence that this is the intention. This theory doesn’t explain the sailor uniform, though, but when you look at it closely it seems to be the most logical explanation. Another interpretation would be that it is a schoolboy who wears that as his school uniform and he wrote it not to tell the audience what they’re watching but rather just as a demonstration of his Japanese skills. All of these would lead to different personalities for our protagonist and there isn’t enough information in the anime to know which one is the most true. This isn’t a problem with the anime so much as it is a problem with its length. They could only afford to make 50 frames and they chose to draw them close enough together that it presents relatively fluid animation rather than showing a more in depth story with a lower frame rate which would end up being more like a manga than an anime.

I enjoyed watching this mostly for the historical value in knowing where anime came from. It is the first anime, after all. I would have to say that I found more enjoyment in writing this review than I had in watching the anime itself, but that’s mostly due to its short screen time and how old it is. I respect it greatly for the path it paved for all the anime that came after it, but I wouldn’t consider it to be a good anime itself. It certainly wasn’t painful to watch, though, and so I can honestly say I enjoyed every second of it.

I’d have to say that it belongs in an art gallery more than anywhere else, but it’s still a great mark of Japanese achievement and I would consider this to be a must watch for all anime fans.

The subtle animations in this masterpiece brought me to tears. Every time I think back to that silly little red hat, my heart melts and I'm filled with such joy. I love every single part of this movie. Seeing this film in theaters when it first aired is also a once in a lifetime experience that I'm sad most peons would be able to see for themselves. You can clearly see the influence this perfect masterpiece has had on the likes of Studio Ghibli (Who's first 6 films were all attempts to recreate this beautiful story) and also in the manga world in works like ... Berserk and Steel Ball Run. Truly ahead of it's time. Japan has been living in the colossal shadow of Katsudou Shashin, and probably still will be forever.

So let's start.
Story: 10
The plot is chock full of plot twists, comedy and romance that gives it a nice flair.
Art: 10
The art looks beautiful and fluent and the colors just pop right out of the screen.
Sound:
The voice acting is pretty decent, with a few flaws here and there.
Character: 10
The boy is made just perfect, the creators tried to make a hero that everyone should emulate
Enjoyment: 10
... I'm really enjoy this anime. The anime was very suspenseful that after watching the first episode, you just need to watch the next one, and so on for the rest of the season.
Overall: 10

Some words for the end:
I know the fandom is just terrible but that doesn't change the fact that I highly recommend this anime

Made in 1907 (and possibly as early as 1905), this may be the first anime ever made. Thus, it is a fascinating historical document.

It's only 3 seconds long, so there's not much to say. There isn't any story or dialogue. However, I like the art style. It looks pretty neat and given the time of it's release it's an impressive effort.

But it's very interesting nonetheless. It's neat to see these sort of firsts, like Roundhay Garden Scene (possibly the first film ever), or Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (possibly the first animated film ever). I find it interesting to see what started it ... all.

Overall, I guess it's good but since it's so short there's not really much to say. But i'd definitely recommend it to anime fans if they want to see where it all began.

“Anime was a mistake, it’s nothing but trash”

The first ever anime folks, and I gotta admit, it’s not too special, but it’s kinda cute. Don’t go into it thinking it will be the greatest anime ever, it’s over a century old, so watch it knowing this is where it all started

Story: Non existent/10
There’s no story other than some guy writes on a board

Art: 7/10
Not the worst art, it’s pretty charming and simple

Uhh, 5/10 I guess. If it wasn’t the first anime ever made, then I’d probably recommend you skip it, but I’d give it a watch if you want to see an important part of ... anime history. It’s only three seconds so you should be fine. Highly recommend if you’re a history nerd like me

Obviously it isn't fair to review this in the same way that you'd review most other anime. As of the writing of this review, it's the first anime we know of. It's only a few seconds long, and because of that it doesn't have any plot or anything. It's impressive because of it's historical significance, so I think a 7/10 is a fair score.

I'd just suggest for anyone reading this review to watch it yourself. You've spent more time reading this review than you would have spent watching it.

In conclusion, it's very well made for it's time, it is one of the earliest pieces of ... animation that we know of, and it's very fortunate that we still have it today.

It's quite obvious that there's not much to say about this anime because it's so short but I thought I might as well give it a review. Katsudou Shashin is what is currently considered to be the first anime ever made. It was made as early as 1907 so there's no sound and the art isn't any good. For the time this came out it looks great seeing that there were only a handful of other animations. Overall, I thought it was interesting to see the first anime and one of the first animations. If you're interested in the history behind anime I would recommend ... this.

You have to cut this show some slack, ease up and get a massage, go educate yourself, or learn to perceive time like a good boy, if you think that this anime deserves below a 6 star.

To put it simply, this IS the OLDEST anime released to the public, speculated to have been released in 1907, so putting it to any sort of high standards is just nit-picky and stingy, so don't be that guy, it's also hard to believe this show even tried to accomplish anything more than to be a test for future reference, which I believe may have just been leaked to ... public on accident. So if you want to be the harsh all-mighty all-powerful critique to pass judgement on this show and slap the all-mighty 1 upon it's corpse, you were definitely the kid who played 'god' with ants on the park bench, so y'know what, you just go ahead and do that :)

it's stupid to evaluate history, characters or music. This was certainly an experiment. It is also just a fragment, so we cannot know the rest of the work. I want to evaluate it for its importance in history, therefore only for graphics. Also because it makes no sense to evaluate for the sounds, the sounds synchronized with the animation arrived in 1939!

then, I don't mean that you have to love and look at an anime only for its historical importance, but if you are here it means that you are interested. Sorry for my English, I am Italian and I am using google translate ... ... I hope it was useful, bye!

Katsudou Shashin is the oldest known anime in Japan. An essential historical document for learning about the history of Japanese animation. It was created at the beginning of the last century, becoming the first step in a rich timeline.

About the anime, in three or four seconds, the boy in the red cap writes the word "Katsudô Shashin" (Moving Picture) in kanji characters, and bows to the viewer. It's a silent work without story but with a very special meaning. The written message presents Japan with a new artistic manifestation.

(It is necessary when analyzing anime to take into account the richness of artistic production in an ... unfavorable historical context.)

It's easy to fall into the trap of considering the beginning of an artistic tradition as an "Adam and Eve" of an entire movement, to paint the history of a national institution as one flat timeline that has a well defined origin point from which everything else sprung from. Reality is usually far less simple.

Japanese animation, moreso than most cinematic traditions, has much of its early history shrouded in mystery, due to the devastating Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and the nature of censorship, both foreign and domestic, in the years leading up to, and just after WWII. Katsudou Shashin, a tiny three second fragment ... of animation painted directly to celluloid, made quite a splash around animation historian discourse when it was discovered in 2004 and subsequently dated as "being up to 10 years older than the oldest known Japanese animation up to this point". Media outlets turned this little curiosity into national headlines as more and more unfounded interest and praise were piled on top of this discovery, up to claims that this may be the first instance of animated film in the world... These claims have since been walked back, as little can be done to properly substantiate them. From what little information we have (this film has no known creator, nor does it even have proof it was ever exhibited), we know that this was considered something akin to a sideshow novelty, it was discovered among a collection of "Magic Lanterns" (European-derived pre-cinema projection technology).

It's unlikely we will ever be able to directly place this weird little film in the correct context in which it was created, and potentially viewed. We have no way of knowing what, if any, foreign animated films were seen by its creator (such as the works of Emile Cohl), or if the inspiration was one of their own design, but we do know that Katsudou Shashin has not been cited as an influence in any of the surviving histories of early Japanese Animation. The tiny industry that directly succeeded it (1917) had more to say about the early entries in the American cartoon series "Colonel Heeza Liar" than they did about Japanese animation. This trend of non-Japanese animation leading the charge of the innovation in the Japanese cartooning industry, and finding greater favor in the Japanese public, is a defining historical consistency of early Japanese animation in its first decades.

Rather than venerating it as a landmark origin point, the mystery of this film is its primary draw. One wonders how it played into the tapestry of early world animation, if ever at all.

This is a five-second clip of a boy writing that was made in the 1900s, so I'll try my best to make this an outstanding review.
It could be up to your imagination of what the plot is, but it's just a boy writing on the board and then bowing toward the audience. The animation is fluent behind frames though there isn't much color which isn't a big deal for what year this came out.
This animation is a quick watch so if you want to add another anime to your watch list and you don't want to have to watch an anime with a ... bunch of episodes, go ahead and watch this!

This is the oldest known piece of Japanese animation, so it’s going to be difficult to write a thorough review of it, but I guess I’ll try.

The film is extremely basic. A guy writes "moving pictures" and bows, there isn't really much of a plot or character development. The art is simple, but it's readable and holds up quite well. There isn't any sound, which makes sense since there's no real need for it.

Despite how basic this film is though, you should still definitely check it out, especially if you have an interest in art or animation history! It's extremely short, only 3 minutes ... in length, so you might as well watch it.

Rating:

Story - 2/10
Art - 5/10
Sound - Not applicable?
Character - 2/10
Enjoyment - 7/10
Overall - 3/10

I can't say much about it as it is only 3sec long but still les give it a try.

~This is the first ever anime made by Japan (A country that gives us more than 150 anime every year to watch) so, this proves how much the animation industry has progressed.
~This anime is so, old that nobody even knows the exact date of when it was aired or who the author/animator is speculation is that it was aired around 1907-1912.
~Story: You can't expect a story from a 3 sec anime that is a century old. N/10
~Art: The art is great for its time. 7/10
~Character: ... Their is only one character and his character design is decent. 6/10