NIAFF 2023 Archive/アーカイブ: Director Rintaro's Talk / りんたろう監督トーク

 

Renowned animator Rintarō (りんたろう, b. 1942) premiered his latest animation at the debut Niigata Animation Film Festival (NIAFF) in March 2023. It seems fitting that he should have been a guest at the first NIAFF, because he started off his career as an in-betweener on the first colour anime feature length film The White Snake Enchantress (白蛇伝/Hakujaden, 1958), also known in English as Legend of the White Serpent.

One of the reasons that Niigata was chosen as a location to host an animation festival for feature length films is that Niigata is the birthplace of two animation pioneers who worked on Hakujaden: Hiroshi ŌKAWA (大川博, 1896-1971) and Kōji FUKIYA (蕗谷虹児, 1898-1979). Ōkawa (sometimes transliterated as OHKAWA), who has been called “The Man Who Aimed to Become Disney” by historian Nobuyuki TSUGATA, was the producer of Hakujaden and Fukiya contributed to the early technology used at Tōei Animation during the making of Hakujaden. In honour of their achievements, NIAFF awards the OHKAWA/FUKIYA PRIZE for technical contributions to animation.

Rintarō calls his work a manga eiga – an earlier term for animation – literally “cartoon film” and it takes its inspiration from early Japanese cinema and animation history.  Manga Cinema dedicated to Sadao Yamanaka: Nezumikozo Jirokichi (山中貞雄に捧げる漫画映画『鼠小僧次郎吉』, 2023)  is an adaption of the story of the legendary Edo period thief and folk hero, sometimes called Jirokichi the Rat in English. It is based on the script of  Nezumikozō Jirokichi Zenpen: Edo no maki (鼠小僧次郎吉 前篇 江戸の巻, 1933), the first of a trilogy of films written and directed by Sadao YAMANAKA (山中 貞雄, 1909-1938). Yamanaka was a pioneering film director whose brilliant career was cut short when he was drafted into the army and died in Manchuria. All but 3 of his early films, including this trilogy were lost, and with this work Rintarō and his team, including character designer Katsuhiro ŌTOMO (大友克洋) and composer Toshiyuki HONDA (本多俊之), sought to pay homage both to Yamanaka and to the art of silent cinema. In this clip from the NIAFF 2023 Video Archives, Rintarō talks to animation expert Ryūsuke HIKAWA (氷川竜介) about why he decided to do this project. Some of the highlights of the discussion are how much animation has changed so much since Rintarō first started in the industry, how young people today don’t know a lot about silent cinema – a medium that Alfred Hitchcock called the purest form of cinema, and his collaboration with Toshiyuki HONDA on the music for the film. Please use the captions auto-translate function for the language of your preference.

In the run up to the second instalment of NIAFF in March 2024, the festival is sharing highlights of last year’s festival every Tuesday on its YouTube Channel. Subscribe to see more. Nezumikozo Jirokichi is distributed internationally by MIYU.

2024 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Niigata International Animation Film Festival 2024

After a successful inaugural year, the Niigata International Animation Film Festival (NIAFF) is returning in 2024 with an even more ambitious program of events. The festival will be held March 15 – 20, 2024. 

What makes this animation festival special is its focus on feature length animation films instead of short films. There will also be Special Presentations such as invitational screenings with invited guests; a program featuring World Trends such as new production methods, female animators and a focus on Asia; a Retrospective and an All-Night Movie Marathon. 

Shortly before the New Year, the Niigata Anime and Manga Festival (がたふぇす/ GataFes) announced that their festival would be held concurrently with NIAFF on March 16 and 17. 

On the 28 November 2023, NIAFF announced that the 2024 Jury would be headed by Nora TWOMEY (Ireland). An Oscar-nominated director, Twomey in the co-founder and creative director of Cartoon Saloon. Her most renowned works include The Secret of the Kells (Tomm Moore/Nora Twomey, 2009) and The Breadwinner (Twomey, 2017). 

Michael FUKUSHIMA (Canada) joins Twomey on the jury. He is acclaimed for his work as a producer at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) from 1997 – 2021. His is currently serving as OCADU’s Experimental Animation Executive Producer-in-Residence. You can learn about his 1992 animated documentary about his father’s traumatic life experiences on my website here: Minoru: Memory of Exile. 

Rounding out the jury is Yūichirō SAITŌ (Japan), producer at STUDIO CHIZU, which he co-founded with acclaimed anime director Mamoru HOSODA. The works Saitō has collaborated with Hosoda on include The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006), Summer Wars (2009) Wolf Children (2012 and the Oscar nominated Mirai (2018). 

 I have joined the NIAFF team as their international press liaison, so keep an eye on my social media (@nishikataeiga on most platforms) for upcoming announcements. In the run-up to the festival, NIAFF’s official YouTube Channel is posting the highlights from 2023 which I will also post here. 

 2024 Catherine Munroe Hotes

Hiroshima Animation Season 2022: Day 1

The first day of Hiroshima Animation Season 2022 was the easiest for me to negotiate because there were fewer scheduling conflicts than on other days. While on one hand it is wonderful for an animation festival to be jam-packed with excellent films and events, on the other hand it forces hardcore animation devotees like myself to make difficult screening choices. 

As with the original Hiroshima International Animation Festival, the central venue was JMS Aster Plaza with its two large concert halls and community spaces. The new festival opened up screening venues to include local businesses and institutions such as the Hiroshima City Cinematographic and Audio-Visual Library, Yokogawa Cinema, and Salon Cinema. I had hoped to be able to squeeze in seeing some of the anime classics on the big screen such as The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon (わんぱく王子の大蛇退治, 1963) and The White Snake Enchantress (白蛇伝, 1958), but it was simply impossible. Even though I was unable to partake in these offsite screenings, I feel that it was a good idea to include local businesses. These screenings were more likely than the central venue to draw in local crowds and engaging with the local community is an important part of any festival. From what I understand, many of these events were well-attended, which bodes well for future collaborations with local establishments. 

The first thing I noticed on Day 1 was that instead of stalls run by animators and artists from elsewhere in Japan, all of the vendors were local businesses selling their crafts and other wares. One really big problem for the festival is that the JMS Aster is not close to many restaurants and the one in-house restaurant takes its Obon summer holiday during the festival. It was great to see stalls selling coffee, baked goods, and even fresh hamburgers, so that we could grab a quick bite between screenings. 

I began the festival with one of the Hiroshima Animation Season Classics screenings: Karel ZEMAN’s Inspirace (水玉の幻想, 1949) and Invention for Destruction (CZ: Vynález zkázy / JP: 悪魔の発明, 1958). Inspirace had no dialogue and needed no subtitles and Invention for Destruction was shown with Japanese subtitles only. There were several screenings without English subtitles that offered a “whispering” where one could sit in a section of the theatre where an interpreter would live “whisper” the proceedings in English to those who could not understand the Japanese. As someone with sensitive hearing, I found this really obnoxious. Even though I sat far from the whispering section, I could still hear the whispering and it felt like someone was rudely talking during the screenings and events where it was happening. I don’t understand Czech and I can’t read Japanese quickly enough for the subs, but as I was familiar with the film, and I just focussed on enjoying the animation on the big screen. Zeman’s films may be more than 60 years old now but they have not lost their ability to inspire wonder at their technical brilliance. 

After briefly considering hopping on a streetcar to the Cinematography Library to see The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon, I decided to listen to my stomach instead and headed to the legendary local restaurant Otis! with its delicious Tex-Mex and vegetarian dishes. The walls are filled with the signatures and drawings of animation guests past as the venue opened in 1987 and is an easy walk from the JMS Aster. I was delighted to find the interior and the hosts unchanged from my last visit in 2014, and I found fellow animation researchers Jason Cody Douglass (Yale) and Chris Taylor (John Hopkins) at a table inside. We discussed our viewing plans for the festival and just as I was about to pay my tab, I heard my name spoken behind me by the stop motion animator Masaaki MORI (森まさあき). 

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I first discovered Mori’s work when he participated in the Kihachirō KAWAMOTO omnibus work Winter Days (冬の日, 2003) with his delightful clay pig figures. Mori retired from Tokyo Zokei University last year and I went to see his retirement exhibition on the Zokei campus (see the above instagram post). Since joining JAA late last year, I have encountered Mori often and we seem well on our way to becoming fast friends. In Otis!, Mori introduced me to Yoshimi KAKURAI (加倉井芳美) and Masaaki OIKAWA (及川雅昭) , the PR rep and producer for TECARAT studios. Unfortunately, director and stop motion animator Takeshi YASHIRO (八代健志) could not come to Hiroshima due to the production of Hidari – you can follow the exciting progression of this new stop motion animation on Tecarat’s Instagram. 

I had not yet met Yashiro, but my Nippon Connection selection for this year featured his Noburō Ōfuji Award-winning short animation Pukkulapottas and Hours in the Forest (プックラポッタと森の時間, 2021) and I had been fascinated by his adaptation of Nakashi NIIMI’s Gon, the Little Fox, which I saw at a stop-motion animation in Kichijoji shortly after I moved back to Japan in 2019. 

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Even though Yashiro was not at the festival – I was able to meet Gon the fox! Such a beautifully crafted puppet: 

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 After getting to know more about Tecarat Studios, we headed to the Opening Ceremony and Golden Carpstar Award Ceremony, which I will discuss in my next post. 

Coming Soon: Hiroshima Animation Season: Day 1 Opening Ceremony

2022 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Hiroyasu Ishida at Nippon Connection 2019

Studio Colorido
https://colorido.co.jp/

One of the animation highlights at Nippon Connection this year is presence of the rising star of the anime world, Hiroyasu “tete” Ishida (石田 祐康, b. 1988). The festival will be the German premiere of Ishida’s debut feature anime Penguin Highway (ペンギン・ハイウェイ, 2018).  They will also be showing a selection of his animated short films. After the screening of his shorts, Ishida will be participating in a film talk.

Originally from Aichi Prefecture, Ishida studied animation at Kyoto Seika University where he was mentored by the legendary anime director Gisaburo Sugii (Night on the Galactic Railroad, The Life of Guskou Budori). While a student at Kyoto Seika, Ishida’s amusing short film Fumiko’s Confession (2009) became an online sensation. It went on to win many awards around the world including the Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival. This was followed by his more introspective graduate film rain town (2011) which was also met with acclaim and won Ishida the New Face Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival.

In 2011, together with producer Hideo Uda, Ishida co-founded Studio Colorido in Tokyo, where he made more short works before taking on the challenge of his first feature film. Penguin Highway (2018) won the Axis: Satoshi Kon Award for Excellence in Animation at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montréal. It also earned Ishida a nomination for Best Animated Feature Film at the Japanese Academy Awards.

PENGUIN HIGHWAY
ペンギン・ハイウェイ
Friday, May 31, 19:30 Mal Seh’n Kino → Buy tickets
Saturday, June 1, 11:30 Mousonturm Saal
Japan 2018, 118’, Japanese with German subtitles
https://www.nipponconnection.com/program-detail/penguin-highway-en.html





HIROYASU ISHIDA: ANIMATION SHORTS
Sunday, June 2, 15:00 Naxoshalle Kino
Japanese with English subtitles
https://www.nipponconnection.com/program-detail/hiroyasu-ishida-animation-shorts-en.html

Fumiko’s Confession
フミコの告白
Fumiko no Kokuhaku
by Hiroyasu ISHIDA, 2009, 2:22

rain town
by Hiroyasu ISHIDA, 2011, 9’55”

Sonny Boy & Dewdrop Girl
陽なたのアオシグレ
Hinata no Aoshigure
by Hiroyasu ISHIDA, 2013, 17’58”

Fastening Days
by Hiroyasu ISHIDA, 2014, 11’12”

Paulette’s Chair
ポレットのイス
Poulette no Isu
by Hiroyasu ISHIDA, 2014, 4’01”

2019 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Ghibli Museum Special Exhibition: Painting the Colours of Our Films / 三鷹の森ジブリ美術館「映画を塗る仕事」展

The current exhibition at the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka examines the “integral role” of colour as a form of expression in the films of its founders, Isao Takahata (高畑勲, 1935-2018) and Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎駿, b. 1941). The exhibition highlights the techniques used to ensure that even a limited range of colours “can give characters a real sense of vitality and even convey their emotions.” This is something that the exhibitors contrast with the current mainstream digital colouring and computer animation, emphasizing “the wisdom and ingenuity of Studio Ghibli staff who spared no effort to respond to the ever-increasing demands of the directors while working within the limitations of animation paint.” 

 Takahata and Miyazaki, were steadfastly committed to their philosophy of “carefully depicting characters and their everyday life and giving them a reality that is different from live action films.” For them, this was the crucial to winning over the hearts of their film audiences. During the process of film production, this meant the careful selection of particular scenery to represent reality, the use of lighting to depict time and weather, and the precise selection of colour to express minute details such as texture. 

This exhibition aims to demonstrate the commitment to expression using colour by Takahata and Miyazaki. It showcases original cel drawings painted by the late colour designer Michiyo Yasuda (保田 道世, 1939-2016). Yasuda began working with Takahata and Miyazaki when they were at Toei Animation on projects such as Hols: Prince of the Sun (太陽の王子 ホルスの大冒険, 1968) and The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots (長靴をはいた猫, 1969) and followed them to Topcraft for the making of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (風の谷のナウシカ, 1984). She then stayed on during the formation of Studio Ghibli and where she worked dedicatedly until her official retirement after the release of Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, 2008). Despite her retirement, she was coaxed into working on Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises (風立ちぬ, 2013). 

In 2011, Yasuda’s achievements were recognized with the Animation Lifetime Achievement Award at the Japanese Movie Critics Awards (日本映画批評家大賞) and with the posthumous Meritorious Service Award at the Tokyo Anime Awards in 2017. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2009, Yasuda said “What I like best is when I am building up the colours in my head, thinking of how to get the tone worked out. Colour has a meaning, and it makes the film more easily understood. Colours and pictures can enhance what the situation is on screen.” 

 Ghibli Museum Special Exhibition: Painting the Colours of Our Films 

三鷹の森ジブリ美術館「映画を塗る仕事」展 

How to reserve tickets

Where: Museo d’Arte Ghibli at the the Ghibli Museum, 1-1-83 Shimorenjaku, Mitaka, Tokyo, 〒181-0013 (take the bus from Mitaka Station on the JR Chuo Line) 

When: 17 Nov 2018 – Nov 2019 Organiser: Tokuma Memorial Cultural Foundation for Animation 

Sponsors: Nisshin Seifun Group, Marubeni Electricity Inc. 

This text has been adapted from the official press release of the Museo d’Arte Ghibli.

NC2018 Animated Shorts 4: Slowly Rising by Hideki Inaba

Nippon Connection 2018 Animated Shorts 4: Slowly Rising by Hideki Inaba 

Hideki Inaba (稲葉 秀樹, b. 1988)’s Slowly Rising came to my attention because the film was part of the Jury Selection at the Japanese Media Arts Festival 2017. Inaba is originally from Ibaraki Prefecture but is now based in Tokyo where he works as a freelance video artist. He has had a lot of success in the past couple of years, participating as part of the filmmaking team that did the animated special effects for the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Getaway Tour and having his work featured at many international festivals and online media platforms.

Slowly Rising from kanahebi on Vimeo.

Slowly Rising is a music video for the Dutch artist formerly known as BEATSOFREEN, now using the moniker Stan Forebee (Beatsofreen is an anagram of this name). Forebee is based in Melbourne, Australia. He describes himself as a beatmaker and multi-instrumentalist who grew up immersed in jazz and classical music in a musical family in the Netherlands. In March, he released his debut jazz album Jazz Sessions and he promises another album in the near future. 

On the Japanese Media Arts Festival Website, Inaba describes the music video thusly: “Under the sun that is the source of life, a single seed is born. Seeking light, the seed forms a group that gradually increases in numbers, then dies off. Another seed then grows in its place. The creator brings a cel animation touch to a story that overlays human relations in the corporate world with the rise and fall of living organisms.” (source). 

The film begins as simply as the music, with plant-like fronds waving against a starlit, other-worldly galaxy. As the music becomes more layered, the variety of imaginary organic creatures multiplies – some resemble plants, others pulsing sea creatures, and still others flying insects. They fill the screen like a colourful, ever-changing kaleidoscope. The result is a hypnotic video as entrancing as the music itself. 

Learn more about Inaba (username: kanahebi): 

http://hide.tokyo/ 

https://vimeo.com/kanahebi 

Daibutsu Animation Club: 

https://vimeo.com/channels/daibutsu 

Learn more about Stan Forebee: 

https://www.facebook.com/stanforebeemusic/ 

https://stanforebee.bandcamp.com/album/jazz-sessions 

2018 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Geidai First Year Works 2015 (YouTube Playlist)

Geidai First Year Works 2015 (YouTube Playlist)
一年次作品2015  (YouTube Playlist)

The 2015 first year works of Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai)  graduate students are almost all now available on YouTube.  These are the students of the graduating class of 2016, which went by the moniker 07YELL.  Tomoko Takaya graduated with the class of 2017 (08ZOOM).  Yuriko Noda has not yet graduated from Geidai's MA programme, but took time out to improve her stop motion animation skills in Ghent.  She just graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) this year and returned to Japan.

Only the trailer of Takoto Katayama's work Melting Down is currently on YouTube, but you can watch it in full on Vimeo - click here.  I have included the students' descriptions of their films below with short bios and links to their social media profiles.  Enjoy the animation!

Animator Profiles:

Bugburger 
バグバーグ
 “In a dimly lit kitchen as a chunk of meat is sliced, bugs creep out from the cut. Ordinary action like cooking transforms [it in]to the weird and the creepy.”



Hitomi OHTAKARA (大寳ひとみ, b. 1988) did her undergraduate degree in Design Informatics at Musashino. You can follow her on tumblr, vimeo, and twitter.

I Wanna Be Your Friend

“For friendship it is the most important to be cooperative.”





Iku OGAWA (小川育) was born in Tokyo. He has a degree in Graphic Design from Tamabi (2012). You can follow him on twitter, blogspot and tumblr.

Melting Down 
すごやかな歪み
Sugoyaka-na Yugami

“The fear to be ruined calmly without any conscience. Everybody is getting distorted soundly and gently.”


Takuto KATAYAMA (片山拓人, b. 1989) was born and raised in Fukushima, where is experienced the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and its ensuing disasters. He studied design at Nihon University (2012). He does illustration and design in addition to animation. Check out his profile on vimeo or YouTube, or follow him on twitter.

Will Hatching Day Come? 

“This is a story of a little girl who believes she can hatch an egg one day if she keeps warm.”





K. Chayanit (K・チャヤーニット/ Kiatchokechaikul Chayanit / b. 1990) is from Bangkok, Thailand where she graduated from Sipakorn University with a degree in Decorative Arts (2012)

Fair Winds 
 はるのかぜ
Haru no Kaze 

 “One day when I came home, I found my mother [had] become a cat. Unfamiliar appearance of the parents confuses the child. Yet, the time of the parents and the child passes quietly like a spring breeze.”

Eri KINOSHITA (木下絵李, b. 1991) is from Fukuoka. She has a degree in Design from Kyushu University (2014).

Templex

“One morning in the rainy season. A woman with curly hair wakes up. Phantasmagorical images of self-hatred come to her one after another.”




Tomomi KOMAZAKI (駒﨑友海, b. 1991) was born in Tokyo and studied Visual Design at Joshibi (2014). You can follow her on tumblr and vimeo.

Crossing Sight

“Various visions of life and death, as seen from an operation table. Did the operation succeed? Is the patient still alive?”




Xueqing SHAO (邵雪晴 / ショウ・セツセイ, b. 1991) is from Beijing where she studied animation at the Beijing Film Academy (2013). Check out her work on YouTube.

 
Color Blots 
 シミアソビ
Shimi Asobi
 
“A game to find image in a chance. In this Aleatoricism there are much more potentials than what I have moved.”


Saori SUZUKI (鈴木沙織, b. 1988) is a painter and sculptor in addition to making animation. Follow her on tumblr.

A Black Cat 
 黒い猫
Kuroi Neko 

 “It consists of only [a] woman who keeps caressing a resisting cat.” yourself.”



Mika SEIKE ( 清家美佳, b. 1974) is from Kansai. She started making independent animation films in 2001. After working for many years in the field of education, Seike rejuvenated her animation career at Geidai in 2014. Learn more about her through my reviews of Thinking and Drawing: Japanese Art Animation of the New Millennium and Face to Face (お向さん2007). You can follow her on twitter to learn more.

Rain Shower 
通り雨
Tōriame 

“Rain showers briefly bring back flashes of color to a shopping [trip].”



Tomoko TAKAYA (高谷智子, b. 1992) was born in Tokyo, A graduate of Musashino Art University's Department of Imaging Arts and Sciences, Takaya graduated with the Geidai class of 2017.

Misfit Lil’ Sparrow 
 チュン子のなんで？
Chunko no Nande? 

 “A little sparrow, Hanko, cannot make her head still like other sparrows. She wonders why.”



Yuriko NODA (野田ゆり子, b. 1992) is from Chiba. She has a majored in oil painting during her undergraduate studies at Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai). Upon graduation she began her MA studies in animation at Geidai in 2014. She has recently graduated from the animation programme at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK Conservatorium) in Ghent which was founded by Raoul Servais. Follow her on twitter or instagram.

and, end 
 えんえん
En en 
 “‘Someday, this will end. I hate it. I wanna live forever,’ murmurs a girl over and over again. Does she repeat the same moments, or does she move forward? It looks and sounds either way. A wordplay animation.”

Mio YAMANAKA (山中澪, b. 1990) was born in Ehime and graduated from the Department of Human Expression at Kobe University (2013).

The Yellow Ball 
“A mysterious yellow ball falls down into the present city across time and space. It involves many people and unfolds various dramas.”






Xinxin LIU (刘新新 / リュウ・シンシン , b. 1989) was born in Dalian, China. She studied animation at the China Academy of Art (2012). Check out her work on vimeo.

mind scape
“The things are formed in the mind from the casual scenes of daily life. These [imaginings] accumulate and make an assembly of fantasy.”





Kaori RYŌ (梁佳緒里, b. 1991) was born in Tottori. She graduated from Musashino in 2014.

Animation at Nippon Connection 2018

Animation at Nippon Connection 2018 

Details, Screening Times, and Locations 

Nippon Connection has put together another wonderful programme of animation this year. One of the must-see feature films is Masaaki Yuasa’s Lu Over the Wall (夜明け告げるルーのうた, 2017), which won the coveted Cristal for Best Feature Film at Annecy last spring and went on to win the Noburō Ōfuji Award for innovation in animation at the Mainichi Film Awards earlier this year. 

Equally worth watching is Yuasa’s adaptation of Tomihiko Morimi’s novel The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl (夜は短し歩けよ乙女, 2017). Morimi’s works are usually set in his native Kyoto, and this particular story shares not only the Kyoto setting but also many of its the characters with The Tatami Galaxy, another Morimi novel that Yuasa famously adapted into an acclaimed TV anime series. The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl is a critically acclaimed feature film that won Animation of the Year at the Japanese Academy Awards and Best Animated Feature at OIAF 2017. 

Although we lost the wonderful Isao Takahata this year, the Studio Ghibli spirit lives on in Studio Ponoc, formed by former Ghibli producer Yoshiaki Nishimura in 2015. Its debut feature film, Mary and the Witch’s Flower (メアリと魔女の花) is directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who also made his name at Ghibli. The visually stunning film was one of the top grossing Japanese films at the Japanese box office for 2017. 

Mutafukaz (2017) is a French-Japanese co-production combining the forces of Ankama Animations (an offshoot of the publisher Ankama) with popular anime house Studio 4C. It is a wild, frenetic ride in the vein of Tekkon Kinkreet, which co-director Shōjirō Nishimi worked on as character designer. The film is the vision of the French co-director Guillaume “Run” Renard, who created the original graphic novel series. The film will be shown in French with German subtitles. 

Popular anime director Mamoru Hosoda’s 2015 film The Boy and the Beast (バケモノの子) will play at the annual Film Breakfast – this event always sells out so book your seat early. 

If your taste runs to more alternative fare, Ujicha is back at the festival with his cutout film Violence Voyager (2017). A graduate of Kyoto Saga Art University, Ujicha coined his primitive yet effective technique “gekimation” (劇メーション). He has made a number of shorts in this style and his debut feature film The Burning Buddha Man (2013) won an excellence award at the Japanese Media Arts Festival and was shown at Nippon Connection 2013. Watch the trailer for Violence Voyager to see if it’s up your alley. 

Tokyo University of the Arts is back with a selection of its recent graduate works – read my full article on it here – and I have once again curated a selection of independent animated shorts. Learn more about it here.  I am pleased to be able to announce that animation artist Yuki Hayashi will be able to attend the screening this year.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 

LU OVER THE WALL 

夜明け告げるルーのうた 

Yoake tsugeru ru no uta 

Director: Masaaki YUASA Japan 2017, DCP, 107 min., 

Japanese with English subtitles German premiere 

Thursday, May 31, 12:00 Mousonturm Saal 

Friday, June 1, 15:30 Mal Seh’n Kino 

MARY AND THE WITCH’S FLOWER 

メアリと魔女の花 

Meari to majo no hana 

Director: Hiromasa YONEBAYASHI Japan 2017, DCP, 102 min., Japanese with German subtitles

Thursday, May 31, 15:30 Mal Seh’n Kino (with German live voice over) 

Friday, June 1, 12:00 Mousonturm Saal 

MUSIC OF THE VISUAL WORLD: 

JAPANESE INDIE ANIMATED SHORTS 

In the presence of the curator Dr. Catherine Munroe Hotes and director Yuki Hayashi

Sunday, June 3, 18:15 Naxoshalle Kino 

MUTAFUKAZ 

Director: Shojiro NISHIMI, Guillaume Renard Japan / France 2017, DCP, 90 min, French with German subtitles 

Sunday, June 3, 12:00 Mousonturm Saal 

THE NIGHT IS SHORT, WALK ON GIRL 

夜は短し歩けよ乙女 

Yoru wa mijikashi arukeyo otome 

Director: Masaaki YUASA Japan 2017, DCP, 93 min, Japanese with English subtitles German premiere

Saturday, June 2, 12:00 Mousonturm Saal 

Sunday, June 3, 22:30 Mal Seh’n Kino 

THE BOY AND THE BEAST 

バケモノの子 

Bakemono no ko 

Director: Mamoru HOSODA Japan 2015, 120 min, Blu-ray, Japanese with German subtitles

Thursday, May 31, 10:30 Naxos Atelier 

TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS: ANIMATION 

In presence of Yuichi MATSUMOTO 

Saturday, June 2, 17:30 Naxoshalle Kino 

VIOLENCE VOYAGER 

バイオレンス・ボイジャー 

Director: Ujicha Japan 2017, Blu-ray, 83 min, Japanese with English subtitles European premiere 

Thursday, May 31, 22:15 Naxoshalle Kino 

PAINT YOUR OWN MUSIC: 

COMPOSITION WORKSHOP FOR KIDS 

Thursday, May 31, 15:00 Naxos Atelier 

Workshop in Japanese with German translation 

"Even if you can’t read notes and don’t play any instrument, you can be a composer - just by painting pictures! Yuichi MATSUMOTO of the Tokyo University of the Arts has invented a fantastic instrument, which conveys images into music. He, a composer himself, will show you how you can use your own drawings to make a short 'music-film'."

TamaGra Animation 2017 (タマグラアニメーション2017)

TamaGra is an abbreviation of the Department of Graphic Design at Tama Art University (Tamabi).  Under the late Prof. Masahiro Katayama (1955-2011), TamaGra inspired a new generation of innovative animators including Oscar-winner Kato Kunio, renowned New York-based artist Akino Kondoh, and independent animators Mirai Mizue, Shin Hashimoto, Ryo Okawara, and Masaki Okuda.

Since 2012, Prof. Tatsutoshi Nomura (b. 1964), himself a Tamabi graduate, has led the TamaGra animation programme.  Under Nomura’s leadership, TamaGra graduates have won international animation prizes.  Notable examples include Yoko Kuno, who won the New Face Award at the 2013 Japanese Media Arts Festival and Sawako Kabuki, who won the Jury Award for Summer’s Puke is Winter’s Delight at Annecy 2017.  Some graduates are working as independent or freelance animators, while others have gone on to work for animation studios or in the gaming industry. 

Above is a selection of the best works by students at TamaGra this year.  You can also click on links to individual films below.  So far, I have only been able to find social media profiles for Eri Sasaki, but I will update this post when these young, up-and-coming artists establish a web presence.

Essay in the Desert 
さばくのエッセイ
dir. Eri SASAKI / 佐々木恵理
twitter / tumblr

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White Home Town 
白の故郷
dir. Yuki OHGITA / 扇田優紀

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Jigoku Metamoru 
地獄めたもる
dir. Sawako KAGEYAMA / 影山紗和子

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A Little Bird Told 
風のことつて
dir. Akiko HOSHINO / 星野章子

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The Sale 
今日はきょろきょろバーゲンセール
dir. Maki MORIMOTO / 森本眞生

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Slug 
なめくじ
dir.  Risa KURODA / 黒田理沙

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Swing-by
dir. Ayano YAMAZAWA / 山澤彩乃

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Wormy 
燭
dir. Yuka INADA / 稲田有華

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Shintou Messatu 
心頭滅殺
dir. Akane NIIMI / 新美茜音

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The Wife of the Goliath Fish 
大魚の嫁
dir. Eri SASAKI / 赤津佳織

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Mine
dir. Kanako SAKAGUCHI / 坂口歌菜子

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Moon
dir. Luna HARANO / 原野瑠奈

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Magical Kiss
dir. Ayaka KOGURE / 木暮文香

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A Snail 
かたつむり
dir. Mari SUZUKI / 鈴木真理

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Karma DON Galaxy 
かるまどんぎゃらくしー
dir. Chiharu MINOWA / 箕輪千春

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Lights, Camera, Action 
ライツ・カメラ・アクション
dir. Yunosuke YAMADA / 山田裕之介

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Goodbye to OKUBA 
オクバにさよなら
dir. Shinya HASHIZUME / 橋爪伸弥

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JYOU
dir. Jixin ZHOU / シュウ ジキン

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Moment of Truth 
人面桃花
dir. Xi CHEN / チン キ

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I Want.  .  .  
羽がほしい
dir. Xi CHEN / チン キ
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Yummy Hunny Bunny 
たべたいマイハニー
dir. Minori YAMADA / やまだみのり

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2017 Cathy Munroe Hotes