Anime is a unique style of animated movies and TV series first made popular in Japan. Along with its closely-related art form, Manga (Japanese comic books), it is known for its fantastic characters with oversized physical features and poetic dialog.
In the last few years, Anime and Manga have gained an enormous following worldwide, and the popularity of replica items such as swords has grown greatly.
The first Anime short film was created in 1917, though the medium struggled to gain a mainstream following until the 1960s and ’70s. In those decades, as Manga comics gained acceptance and popularity, Anime series were often spun off in an attempt to gain a wider audience.
Osamu Tezuka is the best-known creator from this early period of Manga’s popularity. More recently, Hayao Miyazaki has achieved worldwide recognition through internationally-successful feature-length films such as “Princess Mononoke” and “Spirited Away”.
Today, Anime is one of the most popular forms of entertainment in Japan and, to a lesser extent, worldwide. Several modern series have achieved a large mainstream audience. These include Pokemon, Dragonball Z, Naruto and Bleach.
Replicas of Anime Swords have become popular collectors items, though perhaps none as popular as those from “Bleach.”
This massively-popular epic series features numerous sword-wielding characters, including lead characters Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki.
As the series has gained in popularity, replica swords for these and other characters have been produced to meet an ever-increasing demand.
Ichigo’s sword is known as “Zangetsu.” This type of sword is a “Zanpakuto” or “soul-cutting sword” and is one of the most popular Anime collector’s items. Another popular sword is that of Toushiro Hitsugaya, a major character in one of the Bleach films.
Many other Anime series feature swords prominently and most are available as replicas. Dragonball Z’s Trunks Sword is one such example as are InuYasha’s Tetsusaiga, Naruto’s Zabuza Sword, and Rurouni Kenshin’s reverse blade Sakabato.
For a more detailed treatment of Anime and Manga, see the Wikipedia. For an active community of fans discussing “Bleach”, see the Bleach Forums.
