answers: The 1960s
context: the White Lion", "Gokū no Daibōken" and "Princess Knight". Mushi Production also produced the first anime to be broadcast in the United States (on NBC in 1963), although Osamu Tezuka would complain about the restrictions on US television, and the alterations necessary for broadcast. The 1960s brought anime to television and in America. The first anime film to be broadcast was "Three Tales" in 1960. The following year saw the premiere of Japan's first animated television series, "Instant History", although it did not consist entirely of animation. Osamu Tezuka's "Tetsuwan Atom" ("Astro Boy") is often miscredited as the first anime </s> animation's staff and many animators went to studios such as A Pro and Telecom animation. Mushi Production went bankrupt (though the studio was revived 4 years later), its former employees founding studios such as Madhouse and Sunrise. Many young animators were thrust into the position of director, and the injection of young talent allowed for a wide variety of experimentation. One of the earliest successful television productions in the early 1970s was "Tomorrow's Joe" (1970), a boxing anime which has become iconic in Japan. 1971 saw the first installment of the "Lupin III" anime. Contrary to the franchise's currently popularity, </s> mecha and its super robot subgenre. Typical shows from this period include "Astro Boy", "Lupin III" and "Mazinger Z". During this period several filmmakers became famous, especially Hayao Miyazaki and Mamoru Oshii. In the 1980s, anime became mainstream in Japan, experiencing a boom in production with the rise in popularity of anime like "Gundam", "Macross", "Dragon Ball", and genres such as real robot, space opera and cyberpunk. "Space Battleship Yamato" and "The Super Dimension Fortress Macross" also achieved worldwide success after being adapted respectively as "Star Blazers" and "Robotech". The film "Akira" set records in 1988 for the production costs
question: when did anime become popular in the west