A SHORT STORY ABOUT THE FIRST ANIME EVER MADE

Not many complete animations made during the beginnings of Japanese animation have survived until now..

Imokawa Mukuzō Genkanban no Maki is the first professional Japanese animation film ever made. It was made by Ōten Shimokawa in 1917.

Inspired by French animation Fantasmagorie by Émile Cohl, Japanese movie productions started studying animation techniques. In 1915, Nikkatsu production started studying animation with Seitaro Kitayama, a painter. In the next year, Tenkatsu started studying with a manga artist Hekoten/Oten Shimokawa. Kobayashi Shōkai started their production with a manga artist Junichi Kouchi. Among these three productions, Tenkatsu film The Story of the Concierge Mukuzo Imokawa, directed by Shimokawa, came out first, completed in January 1917. It was screened a few times on movie theaters by the production. However, it is said the animation quality of the film was so poor that even Shimokawa himself was disappointed.  In 1917, Nikkatsu's Battle of a Monkey and a Crab, directed by Kitayama, was released. In the next month, Kobayashi Shōkai's Hekonai Hanawa's Great Sword, directed by Kōuchi was also screened.

"The oldest anime" title challenged
In July 2005, an old animation film was found in Kyoto. This undated 3 seconds film, plainly titled Moving Picture, has been speculated to be as much as 10 years older than Mukuzo Imokawa. This supposedly older anime is assumed to have been made for private viewing. Therefore, as a professional commercial anime, Mukuzo Imokawa still seems to hold the title of "the first".
Astro Boy is the first Japanese television series that embodied the aesthetic that later became familiar worldwide as anime. It originated as a manga in 1952 by Osamu Tezuka, revered in Japan as the "God of Manga". After enjoying success abroad, Astro Boy was remade in the 1980s as Shin Tetsuwan Atomu, known as Astroboy in other countries