113 Facts About Animal Cruelty

Animals caught in traps can suffer for days before succumbing to exposure, shock, or attacks by predators.
Traps often kill "non-target" animals, including dogs and endangered species.
To cut costs, fur farmers pack animals into small cages, preventing them from taking more than a few steps back and forth.
Crowding and confinement is especially distressing to minks- solitary animals who occupy up to 2,500 acres of wetland in the wild.
The frustration of life in a cage leads minks to self-mutilate- biting their skin, tails, feet- or frantically pace and circle endlessly.
"PETA investigators witnessed rampant cruelty to animals. Workers beat pigs with metal rods and jabbed pins into pigs' eyes and faces."
Snakes and lizards are skinned alive because of the belief that live flaying makes leather more supple.
Piglets are separated from their mothers when they are as young as 10 days old.
Once her piglets are gone, the sow is impregnated again, and the cycle continues for three or four years before she is slaughtered.
Approximately 3 to 4 million cats and dogs- many of them healthy, young, and adoptable- must be euthanized in animal shelters every year.
Cows produce milk for the same reason that humans do- to nourish their young - but on dairy farms calves are taken away at 1 day old.
1 day old calves are fed milk replacements (including cattle blood) so that their mothers' milk can be sold to humans.
Animals can suffer brain damage or death from heatstroke in just 15 minutes. Beating the heat is extra tough for dogs.
Each year, approximately 10,000 bulls die in bullfights.
Most cows are intensively confined, unable to fulfill their most basic desires, such as nursing their calves, even for a single day.
Cows are fed unnatural, high-protein diets-which include dead chickens, pigs, and other animals.
Overall, factory-farmed animals, including those on dairy farms, produce 1.65 billion tons of manure each year.
Kid goats are boiled alive to make gloves.
The skins of unborn calves and lambs - some aborted, others from slaughtered pregnant cows - are considered "luxurious."
About 285 million hens are raised for eggs in the US. In tiny spaces so small they cannot move a wing.
The wire mesh of the cages rubs off hens feathers, chafes their skin, and causes their feet to become crippled.
Before 1986, only four states had felony animal cruelty laws.
Glue traps cause terror and agony to any animals who touch them, leaving them to suffer for days.
In one study, 70% of animal abusers also had records for other crimes.
Sealers often hook baby seals in the eye, cheek, or mouth to avoid damaging their fur, then drag them across the ice to skin them.
Arsenic-laced additives are mixed into the feed of about 70 percent of the chickens raised for food.
Every year, nearly a million seals worldwide are subjected to painful and often lingering deaths, largely for the sake of fashion.
Scientists estimate that 100 species go extinct every day! That's about one species every 15 minutes.
Every year in the US, 50 million male piglets are castrated (usually without being given any painkillers).
More than 15 million warm-blooded animals are used in research every year.
The methods used in fur factory farms are designed to maximize profits, almost always at the expense of the animals.
To test cosmetics, cleaners, and other products, hundreds of thousands of animals are poisoned, blinded, and killed every year.
In extremely crowded conditions, piglets are prone to stress-related behavior such as cannibalism and tail-biting.
Farmers often chop off piglets' tails and use pliers to break off the ends of their teeth- without giving them any painkillers.
For identification purposes, farmers cut out chunks of young pigs ears.
Animals on fur farms spend their entire lives confined to cramped, filthy wire cages.
For fur, small animals may be crammed into boxes and poisoned with hot, unfiltered engine exhaust from a truck.
Engine exhaust is not always lethal, and some animals wake up while they are being skinned.
Larger animals have clamps attached to or rods forced into their mouth or anus so they can be painfully electrocuted.
Bird poisons attack birds' nervous systems, causing them to suffer seizures, erratic flight, and tremors for hours before dying.
If you drink milk, you're subsidizing the veal industry.
Male calves are often taken away from their mothers at 1 day old, chained in tiny stalls for 3-18 weeks, and raised for veal.
After they are taken from their mothers, piglets are confined to pens until they are separated to be raised for breeding or meat.
Although chickens can live for more than a decade, hens raised for their eggs are exhausted and killed by age 2.
More than 100 million "spent" hens are killed in slaughterhouses every year.
Forty-five states currently have felony provisions for animal cruelty. (Those without are AK, ID, MS, ND and SD.)
Dogs used for fighting are chained, taunted, and starved to trigger extreme survival instincts and encourage aggressiveness.
Dogs that lose fights (or refuse) are often abandoned, tortured, set on fire, electrocuted, shot, drowned, or beaten to death.
Cows on average product 16 lbs of milk per day. With hormones, antibiotics, and genetic manipulation? 54 lbs a day.
Humane treatment is not a priority for those who poach and hunt animals to obtain their skin.
Alligators on farms may be beaten with hammers and axes, sometimes remaining conscious and in pain for 2 hours after skinning.
Investigation of animal abuse is often the first point of social services intervention for a family in trouble.
A Canadian Police study found that 70 percent of people arrested for animal cruelty had past records of other violent crimes.
Dog fighting and cock-fighting are illegal in all 50 states.
Hoarding of animals exists in virtually every community. Well-intentioned people overwhelmed by animal overpopulation crisis.
The consequences for hoarders, their human dependents, animals, and the community are extremely serious- and often fatal for animals.
Declawing is a painful mutilation that involves 10 amputations - not just the nails - but the ends of toes (bone and all).
The long-term effects of declawing include skin and bladder problems and the gradual weakening of cats' legs, shoulders, and back.
Declawing is both painful and traumatic, and it has been outlawed in Germany and other parts of Europe as a form of cruelty.
Kangaroos are slaughtered by the millions every year; their skins are considered prime material for soccer shoes.
Across the US, 6 to 8 million stray and abandoned animals enter animal shelters every year, and about half must be euthanized.
In California, America's top milk-producing state, manure from dairy farms has poisoned hundreds of square miles of groundwater.
Each of the more than 1 million cows on the state's dairy farms excrete 18 gallons of manure daily.
Every year, the global leather industry slaughters more than a billion animals and tans their skins and hides.
Elephants who perform in circuses are often kept in chains for as long as 23 hours a day from the time they are babies.
Every year, millions of animals are killed for the clothing industry.
An immeasurable amount of suffering goes into every fur-trimmed jacket, leather belt, and wool sweater.
Neglect and abandonment are the most common forms of companion animal abuse in the United States.
On any given day in the U.S., there are more than 65 million pigs on factory farms, and 112 million are killed for food each year.
Every year, dogs suffer and die when left in a parked car- even for "just a minute" - parked cars are deathtraps for dogs.
Dog owners: On a 78 degree F day, the temperature in a shaded car is 90°F, in the sun it can climb to 160°F in minutes.
98% of Americans consider pets to be companions or members of the family.
For medical experimentation animals can be burned, shocked, poisoned, isolated, starved, addicted to drugs, and brain-damaged.
Regardless of how trivial or painful animal experiments may be, none are prohibited by law.
When valid non-animal research methods are available, no law requires experimenters to use such methods instead of animals.
On average it takes 1,000 dogs to maintain a mid-sized racetrack operation. There are over 30 tracks in the United States.
Female cows are artificially inseminated shortly after their first birthdays. Happy birthday!
Birds don't belong in cages. Bored, lonely, denied the opportunity to fly, deprived of companionship...
Many birds become neurotic in cages - pulling out feathers, bobbing their heads incessantly, and repeatedly pecking.
According to industry reports, more than 1 million pigs die en route to slaughter each year.
More than 100 million animals every year suffer and die in cruel chemical, drug, food and cosmetic tests, biology lessons, etc.
Approximately 9 billion chickens are raised and killed for meat each year in the U.S.
The industry refers to chickens as "broilers" and raises them in huge, ammonia-filled, windowless sheds with artificial lighting.
Some chickens spend their entire lives standing on concrete floors.
Some chickens are confined to massive, crowded lots, where they are forced to live amid their own waste.
Neglect/Abandonment is the most prevalent form of animal abuse (approximately 36% of all animal abuse cases.)
Cows are treated like milk-producing machines and are genetically manipulated and pumped full of antibiotics and hormones.
Foie gras is made from the grotesquely enlarged livers of ducks and geese who have been cruelly force-fed.
The best way to save cows from the misery of factory farms is to stop buying milk and other dairy products. Discover soy!
A typical slaughterhouse kills about 1,000 hogs per hour.
The sheer number of animals killed makes it impossible for pigs' deaths to be humane and painless.
Because of improper stunning, many hogs are alive when they reach the scalding hot water baths.
13% of intentional animal abuse cases involve domestic violence.
Animal cruelty problems are people problems. When animals are abused, people are at risk.
Instead of improving conditions for animals, the dairy industry is exploring the use of genetically manipulated cattle.
More than half the fur in the US comes from China, where millions of dogs and cats are bludgeoned, hanged, and bled to death.
Millions of pounds of antibiotics are fed to chickens, who metabolize only about 20 percent of the drugs fed to them.
The 3 trillion pounds of waste produced by factory-farmed animals every year is usually used to fertilize crops.
Chaining dogs, while unfortunately legal in most areas, is one of the cruelest punishments imaginable for social animals.
Tens of thousands of horses from the United States are slaughtered every year to be used for horsemeat in Europe and Asia.
Since the last horse slaughter plants in the US were closed in 2007, thousands of horses have been shipped to Canada/Mexico.
Abusers kill, harm, or threaten children's pets to coerce them into sexual abuse or to force them to remain silent about abuse.
There are no federal laws to regulate the voltage or use of electric prods on pigs.
Forty-one of the 45 state felony animal cruelty laws were enacted in the last two decades.
In the United States, 1.13 million animals were used in experiments in 2009, plus an estimated 100 million mice and rats.
As a result of disease, pesticides, and climate changes, the honeybee population has been nearly decimated.
Many studies have found a link between cruelty to animals and other forms of interpersonal violence.
Cows have a natural lifespan of about 20 years and can produce milk for eight or nine years.
A fur coat is pretty cool- for an animal to wear.
Eighteen red foxes are killed to make one fox-fur coat, 55 minks to make a mink coat.
Fur farmers use the cheapest and cruelest killing methods available: suffocation, electrocution, gassing, and poisoning.
In addition to diarrhea, pneumonia, and lameness, calves raised for veal are terrified and desperate for their mothers.
During Canada's annual commercial seal slaughter, as many as 300,000 seals are shot or bludgeoned.

The Animal and the Human

                  Recent DNA analyses have revealed that humans share a majority of our genetic makeup with other animals. Physically speaking, our similarities with our fellow beings far outweigh our differences. In the Western mindset, however, a sharp line is drawn between human beings and other animals. Because they do not communicate in our language, it is thought, we do not have much in common beyond physical structure. For Westerners, only humans have a soul, a wide range of emotions, and the unique capacities of reason, imagination, and the changing of our environment on a grand scale to meet our needs. Despite the division in our thinking, we still have intimate relationships with the animals closest to us and cannot seem to resist anthropomorphizing them. There are several societies whose conception of humans' place in the animal world is far different from ours.

Although these kinds of belief systems are widely varied, many see us as more
closely related to other creatures, both physically and spiritually. Here, I will
examine a few of these non-Western ideologies and compare their conceptions of
the human-animal relationship to each other and to Western ideas.

Several cultures which hold traditionally animistic religious beliefs share the concept
of a time long ago during which humans were animals and vice versa. In this
"Distant Time," "Dreamtime" or "Mythtime," as it is variously referred to, animals
were able to take human form. Most animals, it is believed, once possessed human
souls, and some cultures think that they still do, although the average person is now
unable to perceive them. Folklorist Charles L. Edwards hints that this idea may have
evolved out of a memory of a much earlier period in the evolution of the human
species, when the common ancestor of both humans and apes roamed the earth.
This apelike being lived no differently from the other predatory mammals who
shared his environment. Some of his offspring later began the process of change
and adaptation that would produce our species. "In outwitting his foes, instead of
throttling them the diverging elementary man began to make plans of strategy." As
their thought process grew more complex, Edwards argues, early humans expanded
their thinking beyond their immediate surroundings and contemplated the unseen
forces that governed their world. "[T]hese forces took form in the gods who dwelt
beyond the clouds, and the myths of cosmogony and transformation arose." Now,
when people belonging to animistic traditions look for ways of explaining the
phenomena around them and of connecting their rituals to the greater processes of
continuing cyclical transformation, they recall the time when myths were formed,
when humans were much closer to other animals than we are today.

Edwards connects the deep sense of spiritual communion with other beings out of
which myth and belief in the supernatural arise to the formative period in the
development of each human being known as childhood. He relates a story of his
own childhood and the time he spent watching ants in his backyard, inventing
stories to match the escapades of "the ant-people." He envisions them as soldiers
engaged in various industries at peacetime, but in wartime displaying "remarkable
valor and extraordinary strategy." This depth of imagination, which is now the
exclusive domain of children, is the fertile ground from which spring "the miracles
of transformation" and the deeper sense of connection through the
anthropomorphism of playful storymaking. "So we see in the child, as in primitive
people [sic], the projection of his own fancies born of fear, or love, or desire, into
the things about him which then become personified."

For many non-Westerners, the rituals associated with storytelling and traditional
practice comprise an extension and evolution of childhood, where the wonder and
intimacy in the natural world they experienced as children develops into a greater
understanding of ourselves and other forms of life. Most Western adults are, on the
surface, all too eager to put childhood behind them. Our deep longing to connect
to the wider life community manifests itself in other ways, though, such as our
feelings towards our companion animals.

The Distant Time stories of the Koyukon people, who inhabit the boreal forests of
central Alaska, show another instance of the interrelatedness of humans and other
animals in a non-Western culture. Once again, the time when human-animal
transformations occurred is seen as a dreamlike phase in the formation of the earth
and cosmos:

During this age [Distant Time] 'the animals were human'--that is,
they had human form, they lived in a human society, and they spoke human
(Koyukon) language. At some point in the Distant Time certain humans died and
were transformed into animal or plant beings [...] These dreamlike metamorphoses
left a residue of human qualities and personality traits in the north-woods
creatures.

Distant Time stories account for natural features and occurrences, as well as for the
physical forms and personalities of the animals. The myths also dictate how they
must be treated. Since the animals were once human, the Koyukon believe, they can
understand and are aware of human actions, words and thoughts. Although the
spirits of some animals are more potent than others, it is important to treat all
animals with respect because they can cause grief and bad luck for those who do
otherwise. Because Koyukon people were no different from other animals in Distant
Time and because of the awareness and power of animal spirits, it may appear that
they do not conceive of a separation between human and animal realms. However,
the Koyukon believe that only humans possess a soul which is different from the
animals' spirits. But because they accept that humans were created by a human-
animal (the Raven), the distinction is less sharp than in Western cultures. The
similarities between us and other animals derive not as much from the animal
nature of humans as from the human nature of animals, having been human in
Distant Time.

The relative absence of a boundary between the human and animal realms figures
widely in the mythology of the Inuit and Eskimo. Their stories of a similar time long
ago explain the way they see their world and also guide their traditional
observances, rituals and overall lifestyle, much as the Distant Time stories do for
the Koyukon. Just as the myths account for such things as the shape of the land,
the cycles of sun, moon and seasons and the generation of all life forms, they also
dictate how each person is to play his or her role in society. Tom Lowenstein
investigates this phenomenon amongst the Inuit of Tikigaq Peninsula in
northwestern Alaska in a poetic book entitled Ancient Land, Sacred Whale.
For these people, the annual whale hunt and the elaborate preparations for it
reenact a mythic cycle. The rituals surrounding the whale hunt represent a complex
interplay between them and the spirit of the whale, whose power is seen as greater
than that of humans. Their belief system comprehends the union of many
opposites, including the human and animal. "Just as Raven Man had the double
character of bird and human, and the uliuaqtaq [unmarried woman who marries
Raven Man in the story] was a double creative/destructive presence , so the whale
was perceived in terms of two main elements: animal and land." By reenacting the
ages-old epic every spring, the Tikigaq Inuit play an essential role in keeping the
forces of nature in balance, thereby ensuring their survival and livelihood.

A central aspect of the religious traditions of several Eskimo tribes of northeastern
Canada and Greenland is the existence of the Sea Mother, who is both as a real
creature living on the ocean floor and a spirit residing within sea creatures (as well
as land creatures, according to some tribes). The ancient story of her coming to be
the spiritual ruler of the submarine world is similar across these cultures and it
serves to bind the animal and human worlds together. According to one version of
the story, the Sea Mother (who goes by different names, Sedna being one of the
most recognized) was once a young woman living with her father. She had refused
to marry, but a sea bird disguised as a man succeeds in winning her hand and
whisks her across the sea. Her life with him is miserable, and eventually her father
comes and takes her with him in his boat. The bird-man is furious, so he causes a
windstorm which capsizes the boat. The woman is left hanging on by her fingertips.
In anger and desperation, her father decides to amputate her fingers, each of which
becomes a sea creature as it drops into the water. Once the last finger is cut, the
woman sinks to the sea floor, where she becomes the Sea Mother, having dominion
over the souls of the creatures made from her fingers.

Since the Eskimo depend on sea creatures for most of their food supply, keeping the
Sea Mother happy is an important aspect of their endeavors. She is seen as having
control of the souls of many creatures, which are able to take either animal or
human form, and as a union of opposites. Her power is respected as greater than
the human because people are utterly dependent on other creatures for survival.
However, she is also scorned because of her refusal to join human society (which is
indicated by her refusal to marry) and her insistence on living in a dream world. The
human/animal boundary is central to the Sea Mother's status both as an abject
outcast and as a great power to be feared and obeyed. The people's lukewarm
relationship with her is indicative of their respect for and struggle with the animals
and the natural world, with which they must maintain the proper balance in order to
ensure survival and sustainability.

In "Witches' Transformations into Animals," M. A. Murray investigates an example of
human-animal transformation in a Western setting which took place among witches
in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England and France, as well as in colonial
New England. These witches carried on pre-Christian traditions. Each witch's
transformation ability was limited to one or two animals, usually a cat or a hare, but
occasionally a dog, mouse, crow, rock or bee. Transformation was accomplished
"by being invested with the skin of the creature, by the utterance of magical words,
the making of magical gestures, the wearing of a magical object [amulet], or the
performance of magical ceremonies." These methods appear as motifs in many
cultures. "Distant Time" stories tell of humans becoming animals by doing any of
these things, and shamans continue this practice in several places. Another
common belief which Murray argues is a corollary to zoomorphism is that wounds a
person receives while in the shape of an animal remain on the body after a return to
the human form. Witches saw taking on the form of their particular species as a
way of becoming one with that animal's spirit, as shamans use ritual objects made
of animal parts to communicate with the spirit world.

Jean Buxton examines animal and human identities in the traditional culture of the
Mandari people of southern Sudan in "Animal Identity and Human Peril." For these
people, the physical location where an animal lives relative to the human homestead
and village determines its cultural and spiritual status. Like many Westerners, the
Mandari draw a sharp line between the animals of the home (dogs and other
domesticated animals), the animals of the village (cattle and other farmed animals),
and animals of the three tiers of the wild, separated according to distance from the
village.

Dogs are by far the most important animals, and are the closest to people physically
and emotionally. Mandari mythology contains stories of ancient people who had
dogs with horns that were featured in rain rituals. Owners of "horned" dogs had
higher stature than those with "hornless" dogs. The Mandari also believe that
primal dogs could speak and warn people of impending danger, and that it was the
dog who taught humans the use of fire, enabling them to become more social
beings. In short, the dog "is represented as needed and liked, and as reciprocating
these attitudes." Cattle also have an important role considering their appearance in
myth, their long-standing ties with people, and their economic and social
importance. They do not, however, enjoy the same emotional attachment to the
Mandari that dogs have. Although chickens are also considered animals of the
homestead, their dual classification as "birds of the above" causes them to lack
innate dignity. Therefore, it is permissible to slaughter them with impunity.

Contrarily, wild animals who inhabit homesteads, though categorized as "wild
nature," are often given immunity from human-induced harm because of their
location in the homestead. Just outside the village lies the realm of semi-domestic
and scavenger animals, and further beyond lies the habitat of game and predator
animals. It is here where the line between human and animal solidifies. While dogs
and cattle are given the "dignity and integrity of 'psyche'," game animals and those
capable of killing people are not seen as deserving of any respect. One notable
exception is the leopard, which is seen as more "like a person" and is given
elaborate death rites. "Mandari are quite clear about the basic separation between
man and animal, and of the fact that while man is a part of the animal world, an
animal is never a man."

Although the concept of the boundary between humans and animals varies between
cultures, there are few examples of people for whom humans are absolutely no
different from the other creatures with whom we share our world. In the cultures
examined here, the existence of well-defined roles for each species, which are
generally learned through myths that describe how each animal got its place in the
living community, defines the way animals are regarded and what spiritual
significance they are given. The grand variability of ideas about the human/animal
division is indicative of our species' multifaceted relationship with other species.
The fact that humans are almost universally seen as unique may, in some respects,
serve to qualify the uniqueness of nonhuman animal species. Certainly, for non-
Western cultures especially, our exceptionality does not always make us the most
powerful or important species. It only serves to define our place in the natural
world and, in many cases, to deepen our connection to other species.

Ranthambhore National Park

                      Nestling in the Aravali hills, in the midst of the arid plains and denuded tracts of Rajasthan in North India, lies Ranthambhore. Ranthambhore National Park is hailed as one of India's finest wildlife sanctuaries. A hunting reserve for the Maharajas of Jaipur, the park was once open to only the select few.

But gone are the days of it being the destination of royal hunting parties, Ranthambhore is now strictly a home to India's wildlife. Nearly 400 sq kms, the Park is set between the Aravalli and Vindhya range, its forests once a part of the magnificent jungles of central India. Today, Ranthambhore is famous for its tigers and is often referred to as the best place to see these majestic predators of the wild.

Ranthambhore's unique climatic and vegetation features have given rise to forests that are dry and open with little and shunted ground cover. This makes wildlife viewing relatively easier on the safari. And three major lakes Rajbaugh, Milak talao and Padam talao serve as watering holes for the herbivorous and carnivorous creatures that inhabit this National Park.

Geographical Details:

Longitude: from 76-23-00 E to 76-39-00-E

Latitude: From 25-54-00 N to 26-12-00 N

Average rainfall: 800mm

Temperature: Min 4, Max 47 (deg.cel.)

Area Details:

Total area: 392.5 sq.km

Core area: 274.50 sq.km

Buffer area: 118.00 sq.km

Seasons and Climate:

Cold: October to march (good animal sightings, best time for bird watching)

Warm: April to June (excellent animal sighting)

Wet: July to September (national park is closed)

Ranthambhore National Park is the only place where all God's creatures struck about the stage in all their majesty. There are around 320 species of birds, both resident and migratory, over 40 species of mammals and over 35 species of reptiles. The major Mammals that are found in Ranthambhore National Park are Tiger, Leopard, Jungle Cat, Caracal, Spotted Deer/Chital, Nilgai, Sambar Deer, Wild Boar and Jackal.

And the major Birds that are found are Graylag Goose, Woodpeckers, Indian Gray Hornbills, Common Kingfishers, Bee Eaters, Cuckoos, Parakeets, Asian Palm Swift, Owl and Nightjars

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1706148

The History of Japanese Anime

                                  In 1854, with the opening of Japan to foreign trade, the technologies developed in the West were introduced to and quickly adopted by many in Japan. That ushers in the era of Japanese animation in 1914 with the earliest anime being first screened in 1917 with a two minute clip of a folk tale and comedy about a samurai warrior.

By the 1930s, the anime industry has gained a significant amount of interest in Japan. Unfortunately, the local Japanese animators had to deal with a lot of competition, both from foreign and local animators. As a result, Japanese animators were forced to work cheaply and therefore, they opted for the animation technique called cutout animation, instead of the more expensive cel animation. However, with cutout animation, Japanese animators such as Yasuji Murata were still able to create wonders. Later on, animators such as Masaoka and Mitsuyo Seo improved the Japanese animation industry, among others, by using cel animation and by introducing sound.

In 1933, Masaoka has produced the first talkie anime called "Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka". This was succeeded in 1945 by Seo's direction of "Momotaro's Devine Sea Warriors", which was the first anime film with feature length. The achievement of these Japanese animators was even more commendable because it was difficult to survive commercially. They also had to rely heavily on the support of government, which entails an obligation to include educational and militaristic propaganda. Besides, Japanese animation was greatly influenced by the success of the 1937 feature film by the Walt Disney Company, called "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". For instance, Osamu Tezuka started to mimic American style cartoons to reduce costs and limit the number of frames in production and with that created the popular graphic novel known as "Shintakarajima" in 1947.

In the 1970s, the Japanese film market shrunk due to the increased competition from television which eventually led to the bankruptcy of Mushi Productions. However, the work of Osamu Tezuka was able to survive this competition. In fact, his work was so impressive that he was often credited as the "god of manga". His distinctive "large eyes" style in animation still remains as one of the fundamental elements of anime today. During this difficult era, a genre known as Mecha has also been introduced whose animation films include "Mazinger Z" (1972-74), "Science Ninja Team Gatchaman" (1972-74), "Space Battleship Yamato" (1974-75) and "Mobile Suit Gundam" (1979-80).

Other notable milestones for the Japanese animation industry include the release of "Akira" in the 1980s that has found huge success in both the Japanese and foreign market, and the boom in production in the 1990s due to the release of "Ghost in the Shell". Furthermore, in 2008, Doraemon has been officially appointed as the first Anime Ambassador by Japanese government in order to promote anime worldwide. All these led to the success of the animation industry of Japan that we know today.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5015677