The minimum requirement of animation is the continuous display of images. However, some researchers point out that all animation works are not evaluated equally. Therefore, I wondered if there was a qualitative difference among animation works. General animation studies are described without clearly showing the differences, which can create confusion. Based on research on the expression and history of animation in the United States, I focused on three categories: the production system, the media used for presentation, and the content of expression, to demonstrate the differences. In this paper, I demonstrate that this classification is useful for explaining the relationship between animation works and their production environments. This classification is applied to Osamu Tezuka, who is credited with bringing a unique character to Japanese animation. Along with his achievements, Tezuka is accused of causing a negative economic impact on the Japanese animation industry. By analyzing Tezuka’s values and the nature of the Japanese animation industry through this classification, his merits and demerits are identified and discussed. This indicates that the classification system proposed is a useful measure to explain the nature of animation works
more clearly.