Of course, Princess Iron Fan wasn't the first anime Osamu Tezuka watched. The recognized first year of Japanese animation is 1917, until the beginning of World War II, Japan has always had the production of animated short films, during which time such an epoch-making animation giant as Kenzo Masaoka was born. However, the development process of these two decades is intermittent, and most of the works launched are exploratory short films with a limited audience.
What really got Osamu Tezuka's interest in animation was American cartoons. His father was a die-hard movie fan, and he had a large collection of film films at home, including many animated shorts produced by Fleischer and Disney, and he often held "family movie specials" for children in his spare time. Popeye, Mickey Mouse, Miss Bobby... Both are terazuka's childhood favorites. At the 1986 Zagreb International Animation Film Festival, Osamu Tezuka and Chinese animator Ada watched the Fleischer brothers animation scene together, and Tezuka told Ada that Fleischer had a much greater influence on him than Disney
▲ Selected from Ada manga work "With Mr. Tezuka", originally published in the August 1, 1986 edition of Manga World, the Collection of the Kuzo Anime Archive. Note: Walt Disney's old translation is "Walt Disney", Fleischer's old translation is "Fu Nai Xian", "Freicher" and so on.
It can be seen that Osamu Tezuka and anime have a very early relationship, and their horizons are much broader than those of their peers. So why did "The Princess of the Iron Fan" impress him? To know that "Iron Fan Princess" was completed by Wan Liming and Wan Gu Toad Brothers leading nearly two hundred unfounded animation trainees in more than a year, the technical maturity is indeed different from American animation.
According to Osamu Tezuka before his death, the following two reasons can be summarized. First of all, a feature film of nearly 70 minutes (nearly 90 minutes in the original "Princess of the Iron Fan" and about 65 minutes in Japanese) has a much greater appeal and audience than a short film known for its funny gimmicks, and Tezuka's enthusiasm and dedication to "story" has long been reflected in his childhood comics and essays. "The Iron Fan Princess" just brought him into an unusual fantasy world, and this kind of communication effect that attracted children, adults, insiders, and laymen at the same time was the goal he had been trying to achieve.
▲ Promotional stills of "The Iron Fan Princess" (1941).
Secondly, the oriental mythological atmosphere created by "Princess Iron Fan" is generally different from the aesthetic taste of American cartoons (although there are references to some modeling symbols and gimmicks), coupled with Japanese dubbing, it can more arouse Tezuka's sense of cultural identity, and also meet his expectations and imagination about "local style" animation: "Animation is the exclusive art of Westerners, it seems that Westerners can engage, we Orientals can also engage." ”（6）
Of course, the later "Momotaro Sea God Soldier" gave Tezuka a further understanding and exploration of animation, and even after his debut as a manga artist after the war, his enthusiasm for animation became even worse. Whenever a new American cartoon is released, Osamu Tezuka will frantically "make up lessons" like a hunger.
In May 1951, "Bambi" was released exclusively at the Subaru Theater in Tokyo, and Osamu Tezuka rushed to the ticket office as soon as he learned about it, bought all 7 tickets throughout the day, and maintained this state for several consecutive days. According to Tezuka's own statistics, he said that he had seen "Bambi" 130 times less, and the thinking and inspiration brought by watching the movie helped him a lot in creating "The Forest Emperor".
▲ Osamu Tezuka and his "animal world"
It can be seen that Osamu Tezuka's path to animation creation is determined by multiple factors and is inevitable. Well, rather than "Princess Iron Fan" prompting Osamu Tezuka to be interested in animation creation, it is better to make him fall in love with Sun Wukong and "Journey to the West". This is evident in the manga My Monkey King and a series of spin-off cartoons.
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