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

Nippon Connection 2018 Animated Shorts 1: Moving Colors by Taku Team

The theme of my selection at Nippon Connection this year was music. As most of my readership is outside of Germany, I know that many of you were disappointed not to be able to see the screening. Fortunately, most of this year’s selection can be found uploaded by the animators or the people who commissioned the animations on their official platforms. This is the first in my series highlighting this year’s selection. I will embed each video and give a little background about the artists involved.

Moving Colors from Decovocal on Vimeo.

The first work in the programme, Moving Colors, is a group project featuring the work of 12 animation creators (aka Taku Team). It is a tribute to the animator Taku Furukawa (古川タク, b. 1941) by young artists who were mentored by him at Tokyo Polytechnic University’s undergraduate animation programme. Each team member in this collaboration represents their favourite colour. The title design is by Furukawa himself. The team features: Takuma Hashitani (orange), Waboku (aka Wataru Nakajima, brown), Hakhyun Kim (purple) Yoshiyuki Kaneko (black), Shiho Morita (red), Moe Koyano (raspberry/turquoise), Yū Tamura (green), Yasuaki Honda (crimson), Yewon Kim (mint), Tomoyoshi Joko (blue) and Hiroco Ichinose (gold). The animations by the various creators were then edited together in a dynamic way by “Taku Team” with Tomoyoshi Joko of Decovocal as the creative director. The music is performed by Tomohiro Higashikinjō, Toyomi Kobayashi and Ryusaku Ikezawa.

Furukawa's Tyo Story (上京物語, 1999)

I chose this piece for Nippon Connection 2018 because it is a celebration of music and motion – something central to the aesthetic of the artist it celebrates. Taku Furukawa is an independent animation pioneer in Japan. He was first mentored by the animation iconoclast Yōji Kuri (久里洋二, b.1928) in the early 1960s but then went on to international acclaim for his own independent shorts. I have reviewed many of his works over the years including: Phenakistiscope (驚き盤, 1975), Nice to See You (ナイス・トゥ・スィ・ユー, 1975), and Tyo Story (上京物語 / Jyōkyō Monogatari, 1999).

 He is also well known in Japan for his prolific contributions to the long running Minna no Uta (みんなのうた / Everyone’s Song, 1961-present) series on the public broadcaster NHK. Since the passing of puppet animator Kihachirō Kawamoto, he has been the president of the Japanese Animation Association (JAA). He is known for collaborating with other artists such as his projects with the collective G9+1 and his prolific series of short shorts (chōtanpen / 超短編) with the composer Jun Sakurai (桜井順, b.1934) called One Phrase Theatre / ヒトコト劇場 (You Tube Playlist).

 There is no story in this piece, rather the overarching theme of “colour” (the title uses the American spelling, which is taught in Japan. This blog is written in Canadian English). Each of the animators (they call themselves “creators” in their explanatory notes) made a short inspired by the music and their selected colour. If you are familiar with the work of these artists (I believe they have all had works screened at Nippon Connection over the years), you will be able to recognise their distinctive artistic styles immediately. As a visual guide, I have taken some screencaps from the credits to act as your guide:

Cathy Munroe Hotes 2018

Who’s there? (だぁれぇ, 2016)

Who’s there?  (だぁれぇ/ Dārē, 2016) by Kōjirō Inoue (井上幸次郎) was the opening film of Hiromitsu Murakami’s selection of Tokyo University of the Arts’ (Geidai) recent works at this year’s Nippon Connection.  It was one of the best films on the programme and clocks in as the shortest with a runtime of only 1’25”.   In fact, my only criticism of the film was that it was a tad too short because I was enjoying it so much. 

The shortness of the film and its comedic nature are due to the fact that it is Inoue’s first year work for Geidai’s graduate programme in animation.  As assistant professor Murakami explained during the Q+A at the Nippon Connection screening, students have only 6 months to complete their first year film and a whole year to complete their second year film.  This results in many students experimenting with playful or comedic styles in the first year and creating more serious works for their graduate film. 

Inoue’s short short is an adaptation of a classic rakugo story, “The Parrot” (オウム/Oumu).  The story varies according to the rakugo performer’s interpretation.  For this animation, it is performed by Kintarō (金太郎, b. 1956), a master rakugo performer from Yamagata Prefecture. 

Rakugo (落語) is a comic storytelling tradition that dates back at least to the 18^th century.  A lone storyteller, or rakugoka (落語家) sits on a stage (kōza / 高座) that is empty but for a zabuton (座布団 / floor cushion) wear the performer sits.   Apart from word and gesture, the performer may use a paper fan (sensu / 扇子) or a small cloth (tenugui / 手拭) as props.  The comic tale features two or more characters which the rakugoka differentiates through his pitch, tone, and by turning his the head.

Rakugo literally translates “fallen words”, which is exactly how Inoue depicts it in his animation.  The rakugo storyteller is made up of an assortment of kana and kanji that appear in the story and as he tells the story, the words fall from his mouth into piles on his left and right sides.  By the end of Kintarō’s tale, the piles transform into the two central protagonists of his story: the elderly woman who owns the parrot and the paper delivery boy who interacts with the parrot.  They bow their acknowledgement to the audience.

The film captures the spirit of Norman McLaren in the way that it uses one animation technique to express a complete story and a complex art form (rakugo) in a very short amount of time.  The well told story and film’s visual appeal are complemented by traditional Japanese music (shamisen and percussion) arranged by Yae Yamaguchi and sound design by Tomoya Matsuda.  The title "Dārē" (Who's there?) is a repeated refrain central to the joke in the story.

Check out Kōjirō Inoue’s official website to learn more about this up and coming young artist.  For a short interview and behind the scenes images of the making of this film, click here.  I am excited to see what he does for his graduation project.

2016 Cathy Munroe Hotes