In the history of the development of animation culture, many professional words have been born. Although these words are very common in daily life, few people delve into their meanings.

So today we will talk in detail about these words that were born in the development of animation culture, such as "animation", "manga" and "cartoon". What are the connections and differences between them?

First of all, let’s look at the word “comic”. Among contemporary two-dimensional groups, this word is easy to understand, that is, it refers to long-running serialized pictures with story telling.

For example, our domestic "Stealing Stars", "Fox Demon Matchmaker", "Under One Person", Japan's "Bleach", "Naruto", "One Piece", etc., these comic works are all Familiar to many people.

Using painting to create an unrestrained fantasy world is to a certain extent more intuitive than the novel.

Of course, this is just our two-dimensional group’s broad understanding of the term comics.

But this was not the case with early comics. The development of all art forms is accompanied by historical reasons. If someone searches for this term specifically, they will find that the current definition of comics is:

Use simple and exaggerated techniques to depict pictures of life or current events, generally using deformation, metaphor, symbol, suggestion, and innuendo to form humorous pictures or groups of pictures to achieve a satirical or praising effect.

This definition is still taken from the early art form of comics. In the early 20th century, due to China's unique historical background at that time, some exaggerated paintings that satirized social reality began to appear.

In 1925, Feng Zikai's painting "After the People Dispersed, a Hook and the Crescent Moon Sky Like Water" was serialized in Shanghai's "Literary Weekly". The editor-in-chief of the publication at the time recognized Feng Zikai's unique painting art. Named "comic", the term comics became popular in China.

At the same time, coupled with the turbulent social background at that time, the war of aggression against China, the Kuomintang Civil War, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, etc., the art form of satirical comics also began to play a huge role.

I believe that many people born in the 80s or 90s had such a work "Old Master" in their careers. Of course, the "Old Master" we saw at that time was a cartoonist from the 1960s (American) Created by Wong Ka-hee in Hong Kong.

It also adheres to the style of Pendi's "Old Master" in the 1930s. However, because news on both sides of the Taiwan Strait was not very smooth at that time, Wang Jiaxi unilaterally announced that "Old Master" was his own original work.

I won’t say much about the history of the two editions of "Old Master" here. Those who are interested can check it out online.

However, these two versions of Old Master, both the former and the latter, adhered to satirical and humorous artistic techniques in their early creations, so the "Old Master" series can be said to be a period in the history of the development of Chinese comics. legend.

The early definition of comics was influenced by the modern meaning of comics and began to slowly withdraw from the stage.

Of course, in some specific situations, this kind of satirical cartoon can still be used by people.

For example, due to the problem of Japan's nuclear wastewater treatment, the collision between "Kana Tritium Wave" and the Japanese cartoonist Masaaki Sato's "War Wave Diplomacy" caused a collision. The prototype of the two paintings was the Japanese painter Katsushika in the early 19th century. "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" by Hokusai.

It can be seen that satirical paintings will never lose their rhythm no matter what era they are in.

If the word "manga" is what comic fans first think of Japanese comics, then the word "cartoon" I believe many people can think of Western culture.

When it comes to "cartoon", it will feel full of childishness. For example, many post-90s favorite TV channels when they were young, such as Golden Eagle Cartoon, Dazzling Cartoon, Kaku Children, etc. At that time, these channels were very popular. Some of them are children's programs, and some exciting animation programs are often broadcast.

There are many explanations for the earliest origin of the real "cartoon". The first one is that it comes from the French "carton", and the second one is that it comes from the Italian "cartone". .

But no matter which explanation it is, it is enough to show that the word "cartoon" comes from Western culture.

At the same time, the word "cartoon" had a very similar meaning to "comic" when it was first born, both referring to satirical and humorous paintings.

From the 14th to the 16th century, the development of Western culture ushered in a new period. After people met the increasing material needs of life, they also began to pursue ideological liberation.

So after the 16th century, due to the spread of ideological emancipation elements, the most famous Renaissance movement in history was launched in the West.

After entering the 17th century, some socially satirical paintings began to appear.

After entering the 18th and 19th centuries, as this satirical cartoon art continued to mature, some famous figures were born: William Hoggs (1697-1764), James Gillray (1757-1816) and Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), Honoré Daumier (1808-1879).

It can be said that satirical cartoon art has experienced tremendous development in more than a hundred years.

But the peak period was still in the 20th century. This century was the most important period in the history of world development.

The outbreak of World War II plunged the entire world into turmoil. After the war returned to peace, Western acne cartoon art also extended a new direction of development.

That is a brand-new painting serialized in the form of a story, which is also the "cartoon comic" that many people are familiar with now.

Such as "Superman" and "Batman" were popular cartoons serialized in Western newspapers around the 1940s.

At the same time, due to the development of animation technology, many cartoons born in the 19th century were made into animations, so the word "cartoon" can also refer to cartoon animation.

From the perspective of the origin of culture, the word "cartoon" is a vocabulary exclusive to Western culture, but because of this Western animation art form, it also has a profound influence in our country.

So the public has a new understanding of this term, that is, "cartoon" refers to animation or graphic works watched by younger groups.

Finally, let’s talk about the word “animation”.

Compared with "cartoons" and "comics", the word "animation" is very easy to understand.

"Animation" is translated as "animation" in the West, which refers to "moving images formed by shooting objects one by one (also called frame-by-frame shooting) and playing them continuously." So animation is a truly visually dynamic presentation.

Note that Baidu Encyclopedia also has such a definition for animation, saying that animation is not a cartoon in the traditional sense. The author has read a lot of information, and there is no particularly clear definition of the term "cartoon". Therefore, it is difficult to distinguish between these two concepts.

The only thing that is certain is that animation is a comprehensive art, which includes film, painting, photography, music and many other forms of artistic expression.

So the author personally guesses that the so-called "cartoon" in the traditional sense should include some early human dynamic imaging art forms, such as shadow puppet cartoons and paper-cut cartoons.

Of course, after entering the new era, people do not have such a deep concept of "animation" and "cartoons". Both animation and cartoons can generally refer to the current animation art form. .