90s Animation at “Into Animation 8”

90s Animation 

90年代アニメーション 

Into Animation 8 

 

I first discovered independent Japanese animation while living in Tokyo in the mid-2000s, and through my research have learnt a lot about current and early independent animation, but I haven’t yet had the opportunity to thoroughly research the animation practices of the 1980s and the 1990s in Japan.  So, I was thrilled to discover that JAA members decided to hold a special screening of works form the 1990s at Into Animation 8 earlier this month. 

The selection was presented mostly chronologically, with pauses after every few films to introduce the JAA members responsible for the animation. Each animator featured in this program has their own unique individual animation style.  Highlights for me included Katsushi BOWDA’s renowned rhythmic stop motion work Pulsar, Yūko ASANO’s brilliant stop motion The Life of Ants, IKIF’s experiment with pixilation, Stop Motion with the ZC1000, Yukio HIRUMA’s mixed media self-reflexive work Magical Product and, of course, the beautiful calligraphy style of Azuru ISSHIKI with her 1992 work Wind. It was such a thrill to meet many animators whose work I had admired for years at Into Animation 8, such as Isshiki and Hal FUKUSHIMA, whose work Manabu’s World screened.  

Something very particular to the 80s and 90s were the examples of VIBE IDs: short short animations for station identification that would appear on MTV or other channels after commercial breaks. In effect, they are animated logos for the TV stations.  The 3 examples by Keita KUROSAKA are in his signature body horror / gore horror style and must have made a memorable impact on audiences at the time.  Kōji YAMAMURA’s were also in a visual style unlike any other animators working in Japan at that time. Tatsuyoshi NOMURA’s well known short shorts from the time were also shown. 

The screening closed with the youngest of the filmmakers Saku SAKAMOTO, whose work I first encountered at Nippon Connection in 2008 as part of the Open Art Animation selection.  His film The Fisherman (2002) had made an impression on me and it was nice to see another early work by him.

After the screenings, we moved to the workshop room where Tokumine KIFUNE (IKIF), Yukio HIRUMA (Bunka Gakuen University), Tatsuyoshi NOMURA (Robot, Tama Art University), and Katsushi BOWDA (BOWDAS) held a roundtable discussion about animation in the 1990s.  This included an overview of the technology that they had at their disposal for making animation, the rapid changes in technology, etc.  There was also a discussion about how the JAA played a role in creating events for their works to be screened.  The first of the INTO ANIMATION events was held in the 1990s and began to be held every couple of years up until the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the cycle.  The event was moderated by Jun MIYAMORI (宮森潤), who had put together a terrific Excel timeline that he shared with us on screen.  

Screened works: 

Pulsar (1990) 

パルサー / Parusā / 3’10” 

dir. Katsushi BOWDA / 保田克史 

 https://www.bowdas-animation.com/ 

Wind (1992) 

 風 / Kaze / 3’40” 

dir. Azuru ISSHIKI / 一色 あづる 

https://asifa.jp/member/azuru-isshiki.html 

Stray Sheep Series (3 short shorts) 

ストレイシープシリーズ (3本 ) 

• Stray Sheep: Submarine (1994) 
• Stray Sheep: Bath (1995) 
• Stray Sheep: Merry-go-round (1995) 

Midnight Restaurant (1994) 

ミッドナイトレストラン 

2’00” 

dir. Tatsuyoshi NOMURA / 野村 辰寿 

 https://www.robot.co.jp/staff/tatsutocity/oshigoto/index.html 

Manabu’s World (1991) 

マナブ君の世界 / Manabu-kun no Seikai / 2’03” 

dir. Hal FUKUSHIMA / 福島 治 

 Hal’s Official YouTube 

Magical Product (1992) 

マジックロール・プロダクト  / 6’12” 

dir. Yukio HIRUMA / 昼間 行雄 

 https://bwu.bunka.ac.jp/professor/yukio-hiruma/ 

Kipling, Jr. (1995) 

キップリングJr. / Kippulingu Jr. / 14’00” 

dir. Kōji YAMAMURA / 山村 浩二 

 http://www.yamamura-animation.jp/archive_kiplingjr.html 

ATAMA (MTV Japan, 1994) 

Flying Daddy (MTV Japan, 1997) / パパが飛んだ朝 / Papa ga Tonda Asa 

DRAGON (Vibe pics, 1999) 

1’40” 

 dir. Keita KUROSAKA 黒坂 圭太 

https://www.keita-kurosaka.com/ 

VIBE-ID (1999) 

 2’24” 

dir. Kōji YAMAMURA / 山村 浩二 

 http://www.yamamura-animation.jp/archive_vibe.html 

浅野優子『蟻の生活』(1994)【excerpt】 from KRAUT FILM on Vimeo.

Note: you need to be logged into Vimeo to see the above excerpt.

The Life of Ants (1994) 

蟻の生活 / Ari no Seikatsu 14’09” 

dir. Yūko ASANO /  浅野優子 

https://krautfilm.jp/projections/yuko_asano_selected_works/ 

Stop Motion with the ZC1000 (short version) (1993) 

ZC1000で コマ撮りした (短縮版) / ZC1000 de komadorishita (Tanshukuban) / 10’00” 

dir. IKIF (animation duo Tokumine KIFUNE 木船徳光 and Sonoko ISHIDA 石田園子) http://www.ikifplus.co.jp/ikif/ 

Kai dōryoku REAL (1998)

快動力 REAL / 6’00” 

 dir. Katsuyoshi BOWDA  保田克史 

 https://www.bowdas-animation.com/ 

Maka fushigi (2000) 

摩訶不思議 / 10’26” 

 dir. Saku SAKAMOTO 坂本サク

©2023 Cathy Munroe Hotes

A Bite of the Bone (骨嚙み, 2021)

When a loved one passes away in Japan, their remains are ceremonially cremated.  After the cremation, the remaining remnants of bone ( 骨/hone) are picked out by relatives using long chopsticks and passed from chopsticks to chopsticks and placed into a large urn.  This practice is called kotsuage (骨揚げ).   Newcomers to Japan often learn about it when they are admonished at dinner for making the faux pas of trying to pass food to another person directly by use of chopsticks.

Homami YANO (矢野ほなみ)’s latest animated short, A Bite of the Bone (骨嚙み/ Honekami, 2021), concerns the lesser known tradition of honekami (骨嚙み), when members of the family actually consume some of the bones during the funeral ceremony in order to a keep a part of their loved one inside them.  This was famously done by the actor Shintarō KATSU (勝 新太郎, 1931-1997, star of the Akumyō, Heitai Yakuza, and Zatōichi series), with the bones of both his beloved older brother, Tomisaburō WAKAYAMA (若山 富三郎, 1929-1992, star  of the Kozure Ōkami series), and his father.

With A Bite of the Bone, Yano revisits the traumatic childhood experience of having refused to consume her father’s bones when he died.  As she explains in her director’s note, “The bone I did not eat stayed with me, as if stuck in my throat, and I found myself unable to express the experience in words nor forget it.”

 

The tale is narrated by the young female protagonist and opens with the sound and images of her father’s funeral.  The nonsense funereal sutra is performed by Yano’s mentor and producer, Kōji YAMAMURA (山村浩二) .  The scene then transforms into a loving recollection of life growing up in a small island community.  The narrator and her sister playing with an inner tube in the water, her father taking them on hikes in the hills, and the haunting memory of an abandoned WWII ammunition dump.  

Yano uses a pointillist style – the many colourful dots giving the memories a shimmering, dreamlike quality.   There is a poetic moment when the girl’s father is pruning the pine trees of the island into the shapes of clouds and waves against a pinky-red evening landscape.  The sadness of the theme of the death of her father is softened by the sweet childhood memories of her dog and the stunning nature of the island.  

　　

Yano’s short animations have always delved into profound issues about love and life, but with A Bite of the Bone, she has reached a level of maturity in her animation style. The constantly changing perspectives and transitions between scenes show the influence of her mentor, renowned award-winning animator Kōji Yamamura, who produced with film at his studio Au Praxinoscope in Setagaya.  During the pandemic, I happened upon Yano working on the film when I stopped into the studio shop to browse the DVDs.  It is wonderful to see that such a beautiful work of art could come out of such dark times.  

A Bite of the Bone has won numerous awards at festivals in Ottawa, Chitose, Raindance, to name but a few.  It has also been entered for consideration at the Oscars.  Thank you to the New Chitose Airport  International Animation Festival for making this year’s short film selection available for screening online for those of us who are still restricting their travel.  

To learn more about Homani Yano, visit her website: https://honamiyano.com/  

2021 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Strawberry Candy (いちご飴, 2020)

Strawberry Candy (いちご飴 / Ichigo Chigo, 2020) was the film that made the biggest impact on me at the Geidai Animation 11 Neo screenings in February in Yokohama.  It is a powerful short film that tells sensitively tells the story of familial child abuse from the perspective of a young girl.

The film begins innocently enough with the central protagonist, a Chinese girl of about kindergartner age, talking about her likes and dislikes.  She likes playing hide-and-seek with a cardboard box used for storing pears, she doesn’t like the new telephone because her mom makes her call people; she likes her red marble that her father gave her on Children’s Day, but she doesn’t like the boys next store who took it from her; and so on.

As she continues telling us her likes and dislikes, the director, Nianze Li, masterfully builds a sense of unease.  This innocent child is dealing with a secret that she doesn’t fully understand.  She is able to express her distress at the situation her finds herself in and Li’s beautifully rendered animation shows how a child’s animation can be a coping mechanism.  The boundaries between dreams (or nightmares) and reality can blur together until it is difficult to distinguish one from the other.

It is a powerful film, that will no doubt be distressing to viewers with personal experience of domestic abuse, but it is a very important tale to tell.  It reminds us that we really need to listen to the stories children tell us and take seriously when they express that something is wrong.  The story is beautifully illustrated with colourful pencil drawings, in an elegant evocation of the most common medium of children’s art.

According to her “Making Of” blog, the story came out not of personal experience but of research Li had done into the subject of child abuse.   She studied films and books that gave her insight into the psychology of abuse, and wanted to give an empathetic portrayal from the point of view of the victim.  

The film is playing this weekend and next at the Image Forum Festival where I will be watching it again.  I am sure it will be picked up at other international film festivals around the world in the coming year.

Nianze Li (李 念澤, b. 1995) did her undergraduate education at the Sichuan Fine Art Institute New Media Art Department (2017) and completed her master’s at Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Film and New Media earlier this year. You can follow her on twitter, Instagram, and Vimeo.

2020 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Indie Short Film Crowdfunding: Noriko Yuasa’s “Coming Back Sunny”

The talented filmmaker Noriko Yuasa has an original new film project and needs your help. She is only seeking a modest sum of money to see the project through to completion and get it out to festivals.

Coming Back Sunny (おかえり、カー子) is a love story about a colour-blind schoolgirl rediscovering the world around her. The main shooting locations are the Edo era streets of Kawagoe City or “Ko-Edo” in Saitama Prefecture and the modern streets of Ikebukuro, which were selected in order to depict the theme of destiny and how it can transcend space and time.

The pandemic has only been with us a short time, but filmmakers and cinemas around the world are already feeling the pinch. Many of us have been feeling pretty helpless at not being able to go out and support our local art house cinemas and independent filmmakers. Filmmakers need our support at this time more than ever.

Head over the Kickstarter to learn more about Coming Back Sunny & give if you can:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/norikokyuasa/short-film-coming-back-sunny-crowdfunding-first-phase

【Trailer】Coming_Back_Sunny from Noriko Yuasa on Vimeo.

Cathy Munroe Hotes

She is Alone (彼女はひとり/ Kanojo wa hitori, 2018)

Suicide is a solitary act but the ripple effects of such a death spread pain in an insidious manner through the lives of those connected to the individual who has so abruptly departed. First time filmmaker Natsuki Nakagawa (中川奈月) explores these ripple effects in her intense 60-minute drama She is Alone (彼女はひとり/ Kanojo wa hitori, 2018).

The story centres on Sumiko, played brilliantly by the up-and-coming actor Akari Fukunaga (福永朱梨), a high school student who has lost her mother to suicide. Rather than reaching out and talking to family and friends, Sumiko internalizes her grief. This leads to a cold relationship with her father and a destructive relationship with her childhood friend, Hideaki, played with great sensitivity by Kanai Hiroto (金井浩人). Sumiko is blackmailing Hideaki and as the layers get peeled back on their relationship, we begin to realize that there is a lot more going on in this twisted coming-of-age tale.

The film draws on elements of the thriller and the Japanese ghost story genres. During the Film Talk: Tokyo University of the Arts at Nippon Connection, I learned that Nakagawa is an admirer of the work of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who was her mentor at Tokyo University of the Arts. Her film does emulate the mood of his films, helped in a great part by the fact that she was able to work with Kurosawa’s cinematographer Akiko Ashizawa (芦澤明子). It is a strong debut feature and I hope that Nakagawa continues to grow as a filmmaker.

You can follow director Natsuki Nakawa and actor Akari Fukunaga on twitter.

2019 Cathy Munroe Hotes

NC2019 FILM TALK: TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS

Dawn Wind in My Poncho

FILM TALK: TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS
Nippon Connection
Saturday, June 1, 21:30 Mousonturm Studio 3
https://www.nipponconnection.com/program-detail/film-talk-tokyo-university-of-the-arts-en.html

Nippon Connection has asked me host a Film Talk with guests who have a connection to the Graduate School of Film and New Media at the Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai) in Yokohama. Yokohama’s twin city status with Frankfurt am Main has led to our having been able to invite amazing animation guests and films from Geidai since 2013. 

Participating in the talk will be this year’s animation guest Ilan Nguyen (イラン・グェン), adjuct professor to the Department of Animation.  He is presenting the Tokyo University of the Arts: Animation Shorts on Thursday, May 30th in the Naxoshalle and giving a lecture Remembering Isao Takahata: A Personal View On Post-War Japan’s Most Influential Animation Director on Friday, May 31st in Mousonturm Studio 1.

Two graduates of the Film and New Media graduate programme, Satoru Hirohara (廣原暁) and Natsuki Nakagawa (中川奈月), will also participate in order to give us the student perspective on the institution. Hirohara’s live action feature film Dawn Wind in My Poncho (ポンチョに夜明けの風はらませて / Poncho ni yoake no kaze haramasete, 2017) is having its European premiere at Nippon Connection and is competing for the Nippon Cinema Award. 

She is Alone

Nakagawa’s 60-minute feature She is Alone (彼女はひとり/ Kanojo wa hitori, 2018) is screening in the SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-CINEMA FESTIVAL SPECIAL on Thursday, May 30th as one of two award-winning films from last year’s Skip City Festival in Saitama.  It is in competition in the Nippon Visions Jury and Audience Awards.

This event is sponsored by The City of Yokohama Frankfurt Representative Office and the Referat für Internationale Angelegenheiten der Stadt Frankfurt am Main.

2019 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Transience – The Best of Recent Indie Animation

Transience – The Best of Recent Indie Animation
Nippon Connection
Saturday, June 1, 2019
14:15 in the Naxoshalle Kino
learn more

My animated shorts selection will be on Saturday at Nippon Connection this year instead of Sunday. This year’s selection features a couple of non-Japanese names. The Czech animator Vojtěch Domlátil, who works at the Jiří Barta studio in Pilsen, had a 2-month art residency at Youkobo Art Space in Tokyo in 2017. His work Fleeting Autumn, which he describes as “a collection of audio-visual haiku poems” was made during this residency. The Oscar-nominated stop motion animation Negative Space is co-directed by the Japanese-American animation team Ru Kuwahata and her husband Max Porter. Both of them studied animation in the Netherlands and the U.S. and the film is funded by a French studio.

The rest of the programme features a diverse range of animation styles from innovative Japanese artists. Some are already established in their careers, and others are just starting out. Every year brings astonishing new works from Japanese artists and it is my pleasure to be able to share some of them with you all again this year.

29 May 2019 Update: animator Ryōji Yamada, who is currently living in Germany, has informed us that he will be able to attend the screening. 

Fleeting Autumn
行く秋 / Yuku Aki
Vojtěch Domlátil /
ヴォイチェヒ・ドムラーチル
2018 / 8’

Hunter
Ryōji YAMADA / 山田遼志
2017, 8’47”

Harmonia featuring Makoto
ハルモニア feat. Makoto
Tarafu OTANI / 大谷 たらふ
2017, 3’49”

Negative Space
Ru KUWAHATA & Max PORTER
2017, 6’

Metamorphose
メタモルフォーゼ
Reiko YOKOSUKA / よこすかれいこ
2018, 3’46”

Shadow Wave
翳浪 / Kagenami
Takumi KATAOKA / 片岡拓海
2018, 5’55”

Water in the Cup
Ikuo KATO / 加藤郁夫
2018, 5’43”

Railment
Shunsaku HAYASHI
2017, 10’

Broke For Free – “Makin’ Moves”
Kohei NAKAMA
2017, 2’29”

A Snowflake into the Night
夜になった雪のはなし
Yoru ni natta Yuki no Hanashi
Yoko YUKI / 幸洋子
2018, 6’

Anywhere
何処かへ。/ Dokoka he.
Lyota TAKAHASHI / 高橋良太
2018, 6’55”

A Branch of a Pine is Tied Up
松が枝を結び / Matsuga Edawo Musubi
Tomoyasu MURATA / 村田朋泰
2017, 17’

2019 Catherine Munroe Hotes

NC18 Animated Shorts 2: Cosmic! by Hiroco Ichinose

Nippon Connection 2018 Animated Shorts 2: Cosmic! by Hiroco Ichinose 

I first encountered the work of animator Hiroco Ichinose (一瀬皓コ) at my very first Nippon Connection in 2008. Her independent works at that time like Cow’s Day (ウシニチ／Ushi-Nichi, 2007) and Ha・P (ハピー, 2008) delighted me with their minimalist animation style and quirky sense of humour. She has continued to impress me with her original works like Two Tea Two (2010) and her collaborations with her husband, animator Tomoyoshi Joko (上甲トモヨシ). 

Both graduates of the animation programme at Tokyo Polytechnic University, Joko and Ichinose were mentored by art animation pioneer Taku Furukawa (古川タク). They founded their own animation studio called Decovocal (デコボーカル). In addition to their independent works, they have been commissioned to work on a number of commercial projects for both CM and TV. My favourite of these is the 26-episode children’s series Rita and Machin (リタとナントカ, 2016), adapted from the French children’s stories by Jean-Philippe Arrou-Vignod with illustrations by Olivier Tallec. 

I chose Cosmic! (2009) for the Music of the Visual World: Japanese Indie Animated Shorts programme at Nippon Connection because I wanted to put the spotlight on two of the animators behind the Taku Team in the first selection, who I felt where following in their mentor’s footsteps. Ichinose and Joko make animation very much in the spirit of Taku Furukawa. Like the works of Furukawa, in Cosmic! Ichinose deploys a a simple line drawing animation style with vibrant colours to tell an amusing, offbeat tale of a romance between two angels who are separated from each other by a strange intergalactic bird who deposits them on separate planets. While apart, their story is told via split screen, accompanied by a minimalist acoustic guitar soundtrack by Junji Ichinose (一瀬純司). 

Check out the work of Ichinose and Joko on their official YouTube channels: 

Hiroco Ichinose 

Tomoyoshi Joko 

Decovocal 

Cathy Munroe Hotes 2018

Women Directors at Nippon Connection 2017

Women Directors at Nippon Connection 2017

http://www.nipponconnection.com

Since 2010, I have made a point to watch all of the films directed by women at Nippon Connection.  This year’s programme includes feature films, documentaries and animation by women directors…. with women also featuring prominently behind the scenes in the areas of production and screenwriting.

Guests include the Japanese producer Yukie Kito (Tokyo Sonata, Sakebi), who is presenting the documentary Mifune: The Last Samurai (Steven Okazaki, 2015), Akiyo Fujimura will be on hand to present her feature debut Eriko, Pretended at its German premiere, and Tokyo University of the Arts student Rina Tanaka will present her directorial debut Snake Beneath the Flow at its international premiere.

Women are currently dominating the student population in animation courses across Japan, which is why this year’s Tokyo University of the Arts selection is predominately female directors.  There are two women in my selection Poetic Landscapes – Recent Gems in Japanese Indie Animation.  Eri Okazaki is a graduate of the Tama Art University (Tamabi) animation programme.  Kiyoko Nakai belongs to the art unit kesyuroom2013 (ケシュ#203)  with Minami Nakai. Both women are graduates of Film Studies at Waseda. 

Here is a quick overview of what to look out for:

NIPPON ANIMATION

A Silent Voice

映画 聲の形

Eiga koe no katachi

Director: Naoko YAMADA

Japan 2016, 129 min.

German premiere

Thursday, May 25, 12:00 Mousonturm Saal

Saturday, May 27, 13:30 Mal Seh’n Kino

Poetic Landscapes – Recent Gems in Japanese Indie Animation

in the presence of the curator Dr. Catherine Munroe Hotes and director Hayato Nove

Sunday, May 28, 17:15 Naxoshalle Kino

Tokyo University of the Arts: Animation

In the presence of Taruto FUYAMA

Thursday, May 25, 15:15 Naxoshalle Kino

NIPPON CINEMA

The Long Excuse

永い言い訳

Nagai Iiwake

Director & script: Miwa NISHIKAWA

Japan 2016, 124 min.

German premiere

Competition Nippon Cinema Award

Friday, May 26, 20:00 Mousonturm Saal

Sunday, May 28, 17:45 Mal Seh’n Kino

NIPPON VISIONS

95 and 6 to go

Director, camera & world sales: Kimi TAKESUE

USA 2016, 85 min.

German premiere

Wednesday, May 24, 15:00 Naxoshalle Kino

Eriko, Pretended

見栄を張る

Mie o haru

Director & script: Akiyo FUJIMURA

Japan 2016, 93 min.

German premiere in the presence of the director

Saturday, May 27, 17:15 Naxoshalle Kino

Parks

パークス

Director & script: Natsuki SETA

Japan 2017, 118 min.

International premiere

Thursday, May 25, 19:45 Naxoshalle Kino

Start Line

Director: Ayako IMAMURA

Japan 2016, Blu-ray, 112 min, Japanese with English subtitles

European premiere

Friday, May 26, 12:15 Naxoshalle Kino

Snake Beneath the Flower Petals

湖底の蛇

Kotei no ja

Director and script: Rina TANAKA

Japan 2016, 59 min.

International premiere in the presence of the director Rina TANAKA

Cathy Munroe Hotes 2017