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

Track (2015)

I saw Tochka’s latest PiKA PiKA animation Track (2015) at Oberhausen 2015 as part of the MuVi Award international competition which celebrates music videos that are “trend-setting and visually exceptional.”  This year’s selection featured an eclectic mix of styles including the music videos for prominent artists such as Pussy Riot (I Can’t Breathe), Arcade Fire (We Exist) and Sia (Chandelier) and more off beat works such as Xiu Xiu’s Cinthya’s Unisex, Wang Rong’s Chick Chick, and a YouTube SmashUp of Wrecking Ball by Parag K. Mital.  Fellow Japanese animator Yoriko Mizushiri was also on the programme with her latest work Maku which features the music of Shuta Hasunuma.

Track made it into the MuVi selection because it features the music of Atsushi Yamaji (山路敦司), but I wouldn’t really call it a music video per se.  It is a collaborative stop motion animation made as a part of Smart Illumination Yokohama 2013 and was later reedited into a short film format for distribution.  At the core of Tochka are the co-directors Takeshi Nagata (ナガタタケシ) and Kazue Monno (モンノカヅエ) from Kyoto (Read about my visit to their new studio last summer).  They were assisted by a team of 28 animators (credited below) who draw in the air using penlights and are filmed at a slow framerate in order to pixilate the animators and their movements with light.  The animators in a nighttime PiKA PiKA animation film are visible onscreen usually as black shadows and remind me of the kuroko (黒子) stagehands in kabuki or bunraku.

The film was shot under the promenade connecting Zō-no-hana Park (象の鼻パーク,literally: “Elephant Trunk Park”) to the YokohamaRed Brick Warehouse.  The park gets its name from the Zō-no-hana breakwater which people say is shaped like the trunk of an elephant.  Renovated into a public space for cultural activity in recent years, Zō-no-hana is celebrated as the birthplace of the port of Yokohama.  Commodore Matthew Perry’s Black Ships (Kurofune) landed here on their second visit in 1859.  Yokohama quickly became the gateway of foreign goods into Japan, with freight trains departing from the port for Tokyo.

This is an inspired location for a nighttime shoot because the illuminated row of plinths running parallel to the promenade and the iconic Yokohama skyline with the illuminated giant Ferris wheel Cosmo Clock 21 make a perfect backdrop to the film.  In a nod to the history of trains departing the port of Yokohama, the animation takes place on a track built under the promenade. 

With every film that they make, Tochka seem to be widening the possibilities of animating with light.  This is one of their most complex uses of light with scenes depicting fish in the ocean, dinosaurs next to an erupting volcano, circus performances and a mural like those drawn by prehistoric man on the walls of caves.    

The synopsis of the film in the Oberhausen catalogue reads: “Humans invented tools, discovered fire, and drew pictures in dark caves.  Then murals were born with a mission to hand down everything to posterity.  In these murals, you can find dreams and the joy connected with the discovery of fire.  When I trace the history of the ancient peoples and imagine their lifestyle, I always feel grateful for modern civilization.” 

Indeed, as with all of Tochka’s PiKA PiKA collaborative works, Track is an uplifting film that celebrates life and the human imagination. 

Credits:

Photography by LittleGrayT

展示風景（LittleGrayTさんが撮影）：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agE7-lqJA5I

Animators  /  アニメーター

Ivan Lee  /  アイバン　リイ

https://vimeo.com/ivs

http://le-iv.tumblr.com/

Chihori Muro  /  室ちほり

https://www.youtube.com/user/laugh2and2flat

Miyu Nakao  /  中尾 美愉 

Natsumi Fukunaga  /  福永奈都美         

Minayo Yamanaka  /  山中美奈代 

Ryota Iwasaki  /  岩崎亮太 

Yuka Mizutani  /  水谷友香

Masaaki Nakasone  /  仲宗根まさあき

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/masaaki-nakasone/29/427/7a2

Toshiyuki Tsurumi  /  鶴見利之 

Airi Komiyama  /  込山愛里

Yuki Masuya  /  桝矢由貴

Souta Tamura /  田村聡大

http://sota-ta.jp/

Kaito Otsu /  大津かいと

Akari Kawabata  /  川端明里    

Atsuko Miyake  /  三宅敦子     

http://q.cyworld.com/55403503

Kim Yewon  /  キム　イエウォン        

https://vimeo.com/yewonkim

https://vimeo.com/onionskin

http://weareonionskin.tumblr.com/

Nobuyuki Hanabusa /  ハナブサ ノブユキ

http://hana-busa.jp/

Kota Tsujimura  /  辻村洪太

https://picasaweb.google.com/112103137516146447401

Asami Sekiguchi  /  関口亜紗美              

Yasunori Kishimoto  /  岸本泰之             

Yoichi Inada /  稲田陽一             

http://www.puppet-labo.com/

Isao Shoganji /  正願地勲          

Ayaka Kibata  /  Ayaka Kibata                                     

Kumi Kono  /  kumi kono

Kanoko Yamaguchi  /  山口華乃子

http://www.studiobingo.co.jp/animation2010.html

Midoriko Hayashi  /  林みどり子

http://www.k5.dion.ne.jp/~mimicry/

https://www.facebook.com/nagoya.theatercafe

Music / 音楽

Atsushi Yamaji /山路敦司

 

Percussion /  パーカッション            

Satoko Ono  /  小野聡子                                            

Nozomi Nishizono  /  西園望    

Recording  /   録音

Koji Morita  /  森田浩司

Support  /  協力

Epson Sales Japan Corp.  /  エプソン販売株式会社

SMART ILLUMINATION YOKOHAMA 2013, 2014  /  スマートイルミネーション横浜2012, 2013

ZOU-NO-HANA TERRACE  /  象の鼻テラス       

The City of Yokohama /  横浜市                                              

  JIAMS (Joint Institute for Advanced Multimedia Studies)  /  JIAMS（先端マルチメディア合同研究所）

                                 

Directors /  監督

Takeshi Nagata / ナガタタケシ                                            

Kazue Monno  /  モンノカヅエ

Copyright  /  著作制作              

TOCHKA  /トーチカ

http://tochka.jp/

http://tochka.jp/video/track/

2015 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Stone (1975)

Oh peace in our day, peace in our day

Our day in the sun

You got lost in a time gone by

A day in the sun

- the last lines of “Prayer”, by Spooky Tooth and Pierre Henry, 1969

Nobuhiro Aihara (相原信洋, 1944-2011) is a unique individual in Japanese animation history.  In the early part of his career he worked as an animator on many renowned anime series and films from Obake no Q-tarō (Masaaki Ōsumi, 1965-67) and Kaibutsu-kun (Masaaki Ōsumi, 1968-69) to Gauche the Cellist (Isao Takahata, 1982), Night on the Galactic Railroad (Gisaburo Sugii, 1985), and Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988).

At the same time; however, he was active in the avant-garde art and experimental film scene, frequently travelling overseas to meet like-minded artists.  Stone (1975) is an early experimental work by Aihara that he made during a six-month visit to Sweden.  It opens with a montage of Rorschach-style inkblot paintings.  As the camera distance widens between the camera and the paintings, we see that the paintings are not being shot in a studio, but are taped to a large stone with a forest in the background.  The camera distance continues to change with great regularity, as does the lighting as the series was clearly shot over an extended period of time.  Clouds pass through the sky, winds increase, and the camera continues to widen the expanse of landscape, eventually tipping up to a pixilation view of the sky altering sky shot through a fisheye lens.   The sky darkens and opens on another day.  We can see hints of a person, perhaps the artist, slightly off camera.  The camera eventually moves back into a close-up of the series of inkblot paintings and the soundtrack alters from other-worldly sounds to the lyrical strum of a guitar.

The haunting soundtrack is uncredited, but it is the song “Prayer” by UK progressive rock band Spooky Tooth in collaboration with the French electronic and objet trouvé (found-object) composer Pierre Henry.  It is the final track on their join album Ceremony (1969), which was designed to be listened to as if it were a church service.  The lyrics to “Prayer” are derived from “The Lord’s Prayer” with the additional refrain: “Deliver us, we pray, from every evil / that's here, and to come, through the Virgin Mary / peace in our day, our day in the sun”. 

The camera changes locations to a square structure made of large stones.  Figures come and go, appearing to paint colourful abstract art on the stones using a ladder.  The third setup uses the side of a red barn for the pixilated drawings.  This time the camera goes in close enough for us to see that the artists are actually using chalk rather than paint.  As the camera moves back from a close-up on the chalk to a fourth setup.  This time it is a tall brick house with the date 1926 on its façade.  Over the course several days, the chalk drawing continues with the artists coming and going.  A young blond girl dressed in typical 70s fashion with a poncho and headscarf, dances occasionally in and out of the house.  She helps with the chalk drawing, dances in the street, and runs up to put her face into the camera.  It is in this sequence that it becomes obvious that Aihara did not take each frame at a constant rate.  Sometimes the girl appears to move at a regular 24 fps, while at other times the frames are temporally much further apart. 

The film is an expression of art and temporality.  The ephemeral nature of chalk art is contrasted with the more enduring qualities of natural stones, brick houses, and the heavens above.  Yet, as the use of pixilation demonstrates, these things that seem permanent are also changing over time.  The film reminded me very much of Lejf Marcussen’s similarly named Stones (Sten, 1982), which also screened at RICA Wissembourg 2014 as part of an hommage to the late Danish animator.  Instead of drawing directly on the stones, Marcussen superimposed images on stones – finding animal and human shapes and faces among the natural faces of rock.  As Henry David Thoreau is oft quoted as saying: “This world is but a canvas to our imagination” (A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, 1849). 

I have not been able to find any information about the choice of music for the soundtrack. I think it was chosen more for its style than for the Christian text of the poem.  Aihara regularly used psychedelic and progressive rock for his soundtracks.  That being said, the feeling of spirituality that the music evokes likely appealed to Aihara.  The refrain “You got lost in a time gone by / A day in the sun” also poetically expresses the interplay of time in this unique experimental work.

Stone was shot on 16mm and appears on the DVD Japanese Art Animation Film Collection 11: The Animation Group of Three and Experimental Anime (日本アートアニメーション映画選集11　アニメーション三人の会と実験アニメ, 2004), which can be found in the video archives of university libraries such as Musabi and Tamagawa.  The entire 12 DVD collection 日本アートアニメーション映画選集　全１２巻 can be ordered from Kinokuniya, but it is unfortunately well out of the price range of the average individual. 

Cathy Munroe Hotes 2014

Japanese Auteur Animation at RICA Wissembourg, Part 2: The Invention of the Animation Auteur

Japanese Auteur Animation at RICA Wissembourg, Part 2: The Invention of the Animation Auteur

« L'animation japonaise d'auteur » presented by Ilan Nguyen

Continued from Part 1: The Beginnings of Auteurism

Screening One / Programme 1ère partie                  22 Nov. 2014, La Nef, Wissembourg

The Invention of the Animation Auteur

L'invention de "l'animation d'auteur"

Clap Vocalism / Human Zoo /人間動物園 (Yōji Kuri, 1962)

Love / 愛  (Yōji Kuri, 1963)

Mermaid / 人魚 (Osamu Tezuka, 1964)

The Flower /花 (Yōji Kuri, 1967)

The idea of a Japanese animation auteur was arguably invented by experimental artist Yōji Kuri (久里洋二, 1928) in the 1960s.  A member of the Animation Group of Three (アニメーション三人の会), who inaugurated a series of animation festivals at the Sōgetsu Art Center in Tokyo, Kuri was also the first indie animator to actively promote his work at international festivals.  Kuri was a part of the counter-culture movement of the 1960s and his avant-garde, racy animated shorts shocked and delighted festival audiences in equal measures.  Nguyen screened Kuri’s 1962 film Clap Vocalism, which won the Special Jury Prize at the third Annecy (1963) and the bronze medal for animation at the 24^th Biennale in Venice (1963).  Click here to read my full review of the film.  The programme also included the Kuri classics Love (read review) and Flower (review forthcoming).  Nguyen described Kuri’s style as anti-commercial and minimalist, with musique concrète.  His style and themes need to be understood in the context of the 1960s era of counter-culture that were formative for him. 

Whereas Kuri sought to shock and surprise with his art, his fellow animation auteur Osamu Tezuka (塚 治虫, 1928-89) sought to impress.  When the Animation Group of Three expanded into the 1^st Animation Festival, Tezuka was one of a handful of animators to present their cutting edge works.  Nguyen showed Mermaid, one of two films that Tezuka presented at that festival.  Inspired by Claude Debussy’s symphonic poem Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (arranged by Isao Tomita), Mermaid is an Orwellian tale of a young man’s unwavering desire for freedom in the overwhelming face of modernism.  The character design in minimalist, with Shigeru Yamamoto doing the original art and Kiyomi Numamoto assisting with the animation.

Independent production of the 1970s 

La production indépendante dans les années 1970

Made In Japan (Renzō Kinoshita, 1972)

Stone (Nobuhiro Aihara, 1975)

Karma / カルマ (Nobuhiro Aihara, 1977)

Coffee Break  / コーヒー・ブレイク(Taku Furukawa, 1977)

Pica-Don   / ピカドン (Renzō Kinoshita, 1978) 

Bubble   / バブル (Shin’ichi Suzuki, 1980)

Another artist acutely aware of the changing face of Japan was Renzō Kinoshita (木下蓮三, b. 1936-97) who founded the Hiroshima InternationalAnimation Festival in 1985 together with his wife and artistic collaborator Sayoko Kinoshita (木下小夜子, b. 1945) (learn more about him).  Kinoshita’s films are concerned with social issues and Nguyen chose to open and close this section of his talk with key works by this innovative cutout animator.   Made in Japan (1972) is Kinoshita’s critique of the rapid modernisation of Japanese culture.  With tongue firmly in cheek, this film mocks the commercialism of 1970s Japan and explores controversial themes such as the Americanisation of Japanese culture, the destruction of traditional values in the pursuit of money. 

Made in Japan was followed by two films by Nobuhiro Aihara (相原信洋, 1944-2011), an experimental animator who hit his stride in the 1970s.  Although Aihara loved to travel overseas and meet fellow artists abroad, his works are rarely shown outside of Japan. The only works that are readily available are the collaborations he did with pop artist and colleague at Kyoto University of the Arts Keiichi Tanaami, which appear on DVDs released in Japan and France.  Stone (1975) is an experimental animation shot using pixilation and other avant-garde techniques during a six-month stay in Sweden.  Key images include Rorschach paintings on paper shot on natural stones and a time-lapse sequence of a brick house being painted shot with a fisheye lens.   Karma (1977) has a more psychedelic feel to it, thanks in part to the soundtrack – “Aegean Sea” by Greek psychedelic / progressive rock band Aphrodite’s Child.  The swirling, mandala-like imagery is a characteristic motif of Aihara’s work, appearing in many of his animations, paintings, and illustrations (see: Hiroshima 2010 poster).  Learn more about Aihara in the obituary that I wrote in 2011.

Taku Furukawa (古川タク, b. 1941) is one of the best known independent animators in Japan.  He began his career being mentored by Kuri, but then went on to found his own studios.  His pared-down caricature style was heavily influenced by the style of the New Yorker cartoonist and illustrator Saul Steinberg.  Furukawa won the Special Jury Prize at Annecy in 1975 for his innovative film Phenakistoscope and the Bungeishunjū Manga Award for his publication The Takun Humour in 1978.  A few years ago he succeeded Kihachirō Kawamoto as the president of JAA (the Japanese Animation Association).  Nguyen presented one of Furukawa’s classic work Coffee Break.  Read my review of it here.

Shin’ichi Suzuki, who featured in the first part of Nguyen’s presentation for his work at Otogi Pro, went on to found his own production company Studio Zero in 1963.  Nguyen was unable to get his animated short Bubble as originally planned, so he showed The Gourd Bottle (ひょうたん, 1976) instead.  It’s a very funny, caricature style short about a drunk with a magic gourd bottle (aka calabash – a squash-like fruit that can be dried and used as a bottle).  Suzuki has been the director of the Suginami Animation Museum since 2005.

Nguyen chose to close the 1st of his 2 programmes with Kinoshita’s 1978 film Pica-don.  I thought that this was a good idea because the experience of watching Pica-don, an animated depiction of the bombing of Hiroshima based upon witness testimonies and drawings, is very intense.  One really needs some quiet time afterwards to process the horror that the film evokes.  Read more in my full review of the film and accompanying picture book. 

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2014

Next:

JapaneseAuteur Animation at RICA Wissembourg, Part 3: Tadanari Okamoto

A Visit to Tochka’s Studio in Kyoto

After Hiroshima 2014, I jumped on the Shinkansen to Kyoto to meet up with my family and some of the researchers headed to the Satoyama Concept gathering with us in Fukui Prefecture.  Of course, I could not stop in Kyoto without paying a visit to one of my favourite animation teams: TOCHKA.  I have been following their projects for many years (see: Tochka Works 2001-2010) and had the chance of participating in one of their PiKA PiKA Workshops at Nippon Connection 2011.

Tochka (トーチカ) is a collaborative art team led by Takeshi Nagata (ナガタタケシ, b. 1978) and Kazue Monno (モンノカヅエ, b. 1978).  The couple met as art students at Kyoto College of Art where they were mentored by the late experimental animator Nobuhiro Aihara (相原信洋, 1944-2011).  Tochka are renowned stop motion animators who have won acclaim at international festivals including Ottawa (Honorable Mention, 2006), the Japan Media Arts Festival (Excellence Award, 2006), and Clermont-Ferrand (Grand Prix, 2008).  Nagata also works in the Moving Image Lab at the Osaka Electro-Communication University.  They are best known for their innovative PiKA PiKA (Lightning Doodle) animation technique. 

Tochka has recently moved to new studios in a former elementary school which the local government has converted into studio spaces for artists.  With its high ceilings, oversized windows and beautiful hardwood floors, it is the perfect location for artists to work.  There are a number of other artists working in the building including sculptors and painters. 

Takeshi Nagata showed me some of their recent work including a stop motion using objects they had around their studio for a collaborative work for the Korean Indie-Anifest and the trailer for the Nara Arts Festival (奈良県大芸術祭, Sept 1 – November 30), which has been playing on video screens throughout Nara Prefecture’s transportation system since August.  The trailer features three dimensional PiKA PiKA animation dancing around some of Nara’s most famous historical and cultural sites starting with a beautiful pixillation sequence of the sun setting on the legendary Ishibutai Tomb (石舞台古墳), one of the ancient stone monuments in Asuka.    The sun appears to light a flame inside the tomb, which gives birth to a PiKA PiKA animation of the Chinese character 大 (big), which features in the title of the festival (the literal translation of the festival name is Nara Prefecture Big Arts Festival).  This character has a lot of significance in Nara because it is home to the oldest Daibutsu (大仏/ “Big Buddha”) statue at Asuka-dera and the most famous Daibutsu at Tōdai-ji.

There a glorious pixilation sequence of the Daibutsu at Tōdai-ji in which PiKA PiKA Lightning Doodles appear to dance around the Buddha as the camera sweeps in a 180° rotation around the pedestal and wood beams housing the statue.  Colourful PiKA PiKA大 characters also swirl around the spiral in Muro Sanjo Park Art Forest.  No advertisement for a festival in Nara would be complete without an appearance of the mascot Sento-kun (せんとくん ), designed by Nara City Office to commemorate the 1300th anniversary of the completion of Nara Heijō-kyō (the ancient capital of Japan) in 2010.  The character looks like an infant Buddha with antler representing the deer for which Nara is famous. 

Tochka were a great choice for this trailer, because the collaborative nature of PiKA PiKA animation – as demonstrated in the sequences showing participants of all ages – really captures the kind of inclusive atmosphere one expects at a festival.  It certainly made me wish I was in Nara to enjoy the sights and festival events.

At Tochka’s studios we also saw footage from a recent installation project they did near their Kyoto Studios which allowed children to experience a Mission Impossible style space.  Using movement sensitive lights, they rigged up a room with “laser beams” that the children had to try to navigate without toughing the beams of light.  It looked like a lot of fun for the participants.

Order: Okappa-chan Tabi ni Deru

Nagata-san gave me a copy of his feature film Okappa-chan Travels Abroad (おかっぱちゃん旅に出る/ Okappa-chan Tabi ni Deru, 2011).  This a feature film adaptation of the autobiographical illustrated book of the same name by the writer/artist Boojil (ブージル, b. 1984).  Boojil stars as her quirky self as she recreates her journey of self-discovery in Thailand and Laos.  The film is in Thai, Japanese, and English and the Japanese DVD release comes with subtitles in all three languages plus Korean and Chinese.   The DVD includes a postcard featuring art by Boojil, Boojil stickers, and a detailed booklet.  You can order a copy through cdjapan.

After our studio tour, Tochka took us to the Kyoto International Manga Museum where we could browse their extensive collection of manga, learn about the history of manga, and explore the fascinating exhibit of 43 Years, 18,000 Pages – The Complete Works of Tsuchida Seiki (土田世紀全原画展――43年、18,000枚).  Seiki (土田世紀, 1969-2012) was a highly respected manga-ka who won the Excellent Prize at the Media Arts Festival in 1999 for Under the Same Moon (同じ月を見ている) which was adapted into a film of the same name by Kenta Fukusaku in 2005.  Seiki was due to contribute to Shueisha’s new Grand Jump Premium magazine in 2012 when he died of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of only 43 (Source: ANN).  The Manga Museum’s exhibit demonstrated the astounding output of this artist who was cut short at the height of his powers.  The most moving sections for me were the room with a glass floor where you could walk over scattered pages of his work, and Seiki’s plain, empty desk covered in scratch marks and ink spills. 

By this time, our tummies were growling, so Tochka took us out to Kyoto’s unofficial "Ramen Street" – the approximately 30+ ramen restaurants on and around Hagishi Oji Dori.  The reason for the congregation of reasonably priced Chinese noodles is the proximity to Kyoto’s university campuses.  As the more popular spots had giant line ups, we went for a simple family run place that really hit the spot.  

After lunch, we popped around the corner to Keibunsha Ichijoji (恵文社一乗寺店) Bookstore, Gift Shop, and Art Gallery.  We could have easily dropped a fortune on lovely things at this amazing shop.  They even had unusual works like Kōji Yamamura’s Muybridge’s Strings Flip Books (a tie in to his NFB co-production) and pins of Uncle Torys  (トリスおじさん) – the animated character designed by indie animation pioneer Ryōhei Yanagihara to advertise Suntory’s Torys Whisky.  I got a pin, while the kids bought books about Kaiju. 

We concluded our day with Tochka with Nagata-san taking us to the Sagano Romantic Train (嵯峨野観光鉄道).  Particularly popular in autumn, the train took us along the Hozu River with views of the gorge and a glimpse of Satoyama at the end before we headed back.  It was a wonderful day and Tochka’s hospitality is hard to beat.  I hope we can return the favour by having them as our guests in Germany in the near future.  

Cathy Munroe Hotes 2014