The Prince of Tennis

You know I was really surprised that this anime is still as popular as it is.

The Prince of Tennis is a popular Japanese manga and anime written and illustrated by Takeshi Konomi.
First published in Japan in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump in July 1999, the manga ended publication on March 3, 2008.
A total of 379 chapters were written, comprising 42 volumes. It has sold over 40 million copies in Japan.
The manga is published in English in North America by Viz Media.

It was adaptated into an anime series directed by Takayuki Hamana, animated by Trans Arts and co-produced by Nihon Ad Systems and TV Tokyo.
The anime aired in Japan on the anime satellite television network Animax and the terrestrial TV Tokyo network from October 10, 2001 to March 30, 2005, spanning a total of 178 episodes. There was also a feature movie.
In April 2006, an OVA continuation of the anime began to be released on DVD. The beginning of the second OVA series was released on June 22, 2007. The second OVA ended on January 25, 2008, and the third and final OVA started on April 25, 2008.

Since April 2003, over fifteen stage musicals have been produced for the series. An animated movie was released in 2005, as well as a live action movie in 2006. In addition, a 22-episode-long live-action television drama began airing in China on July 25, 2008. The franchise has also had a long running radio show, several video games, soundtracks, and other assorted merchandise and collectibles.

Cyborg 009 ,Part1

Cyborg 009 is a manga created by Shotaro Ishinomori and serialized in the manga magazine Shonen Magazine and Shōjo Comic in Japan. The manga was published in English by TOKYOPOP, as of 2006 it is out of print.

It is the tale of nine regular humans kidnapped by the evil Black Ghost organization to undergo human experiments. The result of this tampering are nine cyborgs, each one having super human powers. The nine cyborgs band together to fight for their freedom and to stop Black Ghost. The evil organization's goal is to start the next world war, by supplying any rich buyer their choice of countless weapons of war and mass destruction.

Elements of this series would later find its way into Kamen Rider (1971), another famous creation by Ishinomori. The plots are the same, except that the weekly threats are mutants, and there is just one hero (later two), as opposed to nine.

The Story of the Concierge Mukuzo Imokawa

The Story of the Concierge Mukuzo Imokawa was the first professional Japanese animation film ever made. It was made by Hekoten (Oten) Shimokawa , 1917.

In April 1914, French animation Fantasmagorie by Émile Cohl was screened under the title Dekobo's new sketch book . This seems to be the first drawn-animation film screened in Japan. (There were other animated films screened earlier.)

Japanese movie productions were inspired by this film, and started studying animation techniques. In 1915, Nikkatsu production started studying animation with Seitaro Kitayama, a painter. In the next year, Tenkatsu, or Tennen-shoku Katsudo Shashin Kabushiki Gaisha ("Natural Color Moving Picture Company"), started studying with a manga artist Hekoten/Oten Shimokawa. Kobayashi Shokai 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.

Four months later, in May, 1917, Nikkatsu's Battle of a Monkey and a Crab , directed by Kitayama, was released. In the next month, Kobayashi Shokai's Hekonai Hanawa's Great Sword , directed by Kouchi was also screened.

Because there are no films or photographs left now, the exact contents or animation techniques are unknown. Some speculate Shimokawa drew pictures with a chalk on a blackboard, and when he wanted to move a character's hand, he only redrew a hand. Another possibility is that he printed backgrounds on a white paper, and drew characters with white paints.

Mukuzo Imokawa was a manga character that Shimokawa used in his manga.

In July 2005, an old animation film was found in Kyoto. This 3 seconds film, plainly titled Moving Picture , is estimated to be made somewhere in 1900s, about 10 years older than Mukuzo Imokawa. This supposedly oldest anime is assumed to be made for private viewing. Therefore, as a professional commercial anime, Mukuzo Imokawa still seems to hold the title of "the first".