The Oldest Anime ever

While not the very first Anime made in Japan, it's certainly one of the oldest to ever be preserved.

This is NAMAKURA GATANA, which translates to THE DULL SWORD, a 1917 silent anime created by JUN'ICHI KOUCHI.

It tells the story of a foolish self-appointed samurai, really a ronin, who foolishly purchases a Dull Katana from an old Merchant.

The film then follows said Ronin trying to test out his new Katana. 

but has issues trying to attack random townspeople with it.

Due to the way the Katana is animated, one can assume that it doesn't look dull but rather it's just messing around with Ronin-San himself.

This is a fascinating look at one of the earliest pieces of anime to be preserved for the masses.

It was thought to be lost to time but eventually, it was rediscovered by an Osakan antique shop Employee back in March 2008.

At first glance, the short anime doesn't even have the aesthetics of today's presentation of anime.

That's because the film predates the distinct Visual Art tropes associated with today's anime but hey, just like with Western Animation, Anime had to start somewhere. 

You can't expect everything to be fully formed overnight. It doesn't work that way.

At first glance, the cels move around as if they were a puppet-rigged or cutouts but considering this was 1917, everything is done on acetate cels.

After THE DULL SWORD, anime would evolve over the better part of the 20th century.

Evolving into the Tezuka Produced works like 

ASTRO BOY,

KIMBA THE WHITE LION,

DORORO(The original version that is),

later into the more well known works such as 

DRAGON BALL Z,

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION,

MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM,

YAMATO,

POKEMON, 

etc.

And here we are with the likes of newer works such as Demon Slayer.

Forgive how yellow the print has become but that's the reality of trying to preserve nitrate film.

Filmstock deteriorates over time so there's not much we can do. That also is the reason we saw dust and scratches on the screenshots of THE DULL SWORD.

Did I mention that the film was rediscovered in 2008?

Maybe storage is what caused the nitrate film to deteriorate.

Fortunately, it's been scanned with a scanner years ago so we the viewers can marvel with awe at how far we've come with anime since the 1910s.

Speaking of which, Did you know Demon Slayer may be set in the late 1910s?

After all, Demon Slayer is set during the TAISHO Period which is between 1912 to 1926 so I'm open to opinions what year the manga/anime is set in.

You decide if it's 1910s or 1920s when Demon Slayer is set.