Animation in Japan began around 1917, as the film industry in the West was in its infant stage. Techniques in drawing and filmmaking would evolve over time, but anime remains rooted in manga (comic and print cartoon) publications. One popular manga, “Tomorrow’s Joe” or “Ashita no Jō” is the prototypical underdog story that first appeared in the Weekly Shōnen Magazine in 1968. Chronicaling the life of a troubled orphan turned World Champion boxer, it was later renamed “Rocky Joe” for the plot correlation to the 1976 American film. The manga classic would spawn the animated series “Joe vs. Joe” in 1970, one of the first dramatic animations ever created globally. Over the past decades, the anime revolution has grown by leaps and bounds in the United States, with networks nabbing classic and promising titles. With the New York Anime Festival starting next week, we pay tribute to Japan’s #4 favorite all-time anime character with this week’s iTunes release of the 1980 film “Champion Joe“.
