The A-I-U-E-O song from Japanese wartime propaganda and first anime feature ever made, "Momotaro: Sacred Sailors" (1945). It's a uniquely disturbing and fascinating film that inspired a generation of animators (most obviously Osamu Tezuka, who referenced it in Jungle Emperor).
https://twitter.com/vulture/status/1313477380527325184
It's fascinating to see what Japanese animation looked like when animators were trying to make their style distinctly and identifiably Japanese.
It's disturbing to see these children and their cute singing animal companions go from learning hiragana to polishing guns.
It's disturbing to see these children and their cute singing animal companions go from learning hiragana to polishing guns.
Also fascinating is the behind-the-scenes, as this wartime propaganda was destroyed, discovered, then reconstructed and beautified by German, British, and American anime companies.
Also disturbing is that the enemy characters were most likely voiced by British prisoners of war.
Also disturbing is that the enemy characters were most likely voiced by British prisoners of war.
This was one of the many worthy titles that the editors cut purely for space, and certainly the deepest cut on the anime side of things. I got almost everything I wanted into the list (or out of it) though, so really can't complain! Anime is well-represented on this list.
Anyway, here's one of the sequences that moved Tezuka to tears and convinced him to make anime for children.
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