Each three-minute short features characters learning about important historical events that occurred that day. Shown on Fuji Television, it often featured photographs and film footage taken from the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, where Ryuuichi Yokoyama's comic strip was running at the time. (Source: Cartoon Research)

Instant History was broadcast by Fuji Television and is considered to be the first anime series to air on television in Japan. The series was broadcast seven days a week when it first began airing, but it did not air on Saturdays beginning in October 1961.