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Around 1910, I believe Japan started to experiment with animations and over a
span of several decades anime became as we know it now. With hundreds of anime
that became quite popular even outside of Japan, including off course the big
shots such as One Piece and Naruto.

But which anime/ Japanese animation was the first to actually be successfully
received outside of Japan?


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anime-history
What Japanese animation was the first to be an international success?


![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/SRQAz.jpg)

A good guess is probably Katsuhiro Otomo's
[Akira](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_%28film%29). It was released in
1988 and had a worldwide theatrical release in more than 10 countries and at
least 9 languages.

The Akira wiki page notes:

> The title has been regarded as one of the greatest animated movies of all
> time and prompted an increase in popularity of anime movies in the US and,
> generally, outside of Japan. It is still admired for its exceptional
> visuals. In Channel 4's 2005 poll of the 100 greatest cartoons of all time
> featuring both cartoon shows and cartoon movies,

and

> The film led the way for the growth of popularity of anime outside of Japan.
> Akira is considered a forerunner of the second wave of anime fandom that
> began in the early 1990s and has gained a massive cult following since then.
> Akira has also been cited as a major influence on live-action films ranging
> from The Matrix to Chronicle.

The [History of Anime](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anime) wiki
page also notes:

> Despite the failure of Akira in Japan, it brought with it a much larger
> international fan base for anime. When shown overseas, the film became a
> cult hit and, eventually, a symbol of the medium for the West.

More info:

  * [The Guardian - Akira: the future-Tokyo story that brought anime west](http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jul/10/akira-anime-japanese-cartoon-manga)
  * [Anime News Network](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=375).

* * *

There was some mention of Dragonball, but the first of those movies were
released in 1986 and none of the first ones had international releases.


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The oldest anime I remember is Calimero. It originated from Italy and started
airing **in Italy on July 14, 1963**. It later became an official anime in
1974.

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/4RdK4.jpg)

> Calimero (カリメロ Karimero) is an Italian/Japanese cartoon about a charming,
> but hapless anthropomorphized cartoon chicken; the only black one in a
> family of yellow chickens. He wears half of his egg shell still on his head.
> _Source:[Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calimero)_
>
> Calimero is a small black bird who has a shell on his head; his dream is to
> fly like the other birds. When he tries to fly and screws up he is teased by
> the other birds, but his girlfriend Pricilla is there to cheer him up.
> Despite his appearance, he is quite smart and thinks up an idea to fly.
> _Source:[MyAnimeList](http://myanimelist.net/anime/2827/Calimero)_

Calimero originally appeared on the Italian television show Carosello on July
14, 1963, and soon became a popular icon in Italy. Therefore **it was
originally an Italian animation, but the characters were later licensed in
Japan as an anime series** , twice. The first was made by Toei Animation and
ran from October 15, 1974 to September 30, 1975, and the second, with new
settings and characters, was made in 1992. Altogether, 99 Japanese episodes
were made (47 in the 1974 Toei series, and 52 in the 1992 Toei series).

Calimero officially became an anime in 1974 and it had _international_
(outside of Japan) success in Italy in the 60's and in the Netherlands,
Belgium, Germany and Spain in the 80's, so I would consider this to be the
oldest anime I know of which was an international success.

> The first series was also broadcast on European networks such as TROS
> (Netherlands and Belgium), ZDF and RTL II (Germany) or TVE (Spain).


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The oldest anime I found after some research is Astro Boy. It originated from
Japan and started airing **in the US on September 7, 1963**. This is two
months after Calimero, but Astro Boy is of Japanese origin, which Calimero is
not.

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/TGID1.jpg)

I first looked through the wikipedia page on [History of
anime](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anime#1960s) and the first
title, "[Astro Boy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_Boy)" looked familiar.
Therefore I started reading through the page and there it said

> The manga was adapted into **the first popular animated Japanese television
> series** that embodied the aesthetic that later became familiar worldwide as
> anime.

This was again repeated on the wiki page on the [1963 TV
series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_Boy_\(1963_TV_series\))

> After enjoying success both in Japan and abroad as **the first anime to be
> broadcast overseas** , Astro Boy was remade in the 1980s under the same
> name(s), and in 2003 as Astro Boy: Mighty Atom

First I clicked the [1959 TV
series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mighty_Atom_\(1959_TV_series\)), which at
that time was still called "Mighty Atom", but later changed to "Astro Boy".
The 1959 series didn't seem to have been broadcasted abroad though. It was
only from the [1963 TV
series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_Boy_\(1963_TV_series\)), that the
name was changed to Astro Boy, after discussions between producer Fred Ladd
and representatives from NBC. The first United States broadcast was on
**September 7, 1963** , which was only 9 months after the first release on New
Year's day in Japan. More on the episode list with respective release dates
for both Japan and the US can be found
[here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mighty_Atom_episodes)


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