Hiroshima 2016 Focus on Japanese Animation:
Day 3
Saturday, August 20
8月20 日（土）
Japanese Animation Special 10: Japanese
Animation Today ①
The Japan
Animation Today segment of the 16th Hiroshima International
Animation Festival Hiroshima 2016 features contemporary established young
animators as well as up-and-coming animators such as students. Q-rais is the nom de plume of a Tokyo-based illustrator and animator. Jérôme Boulbés is a French 3D CG animator
based in Kyoto (see: Kobutori). Musashino graduate Hiroyuki Mizumoto is a mixed media experimental animator whose
works mix live action with a variety of experimental techniques. Shunsaku Hayashi studied at Goldsmiths,
University of London on a research fellowship from the Japan Cultural
Ministry. Atsushi Makino first studied animation at UMPRUM in Prague and then
went on to hone his skills at Geidai (learn
more) where he graduated in 2011.
His innovative work can be found on Vimeo.
Akie Ishii studied animation at Kyoto
Seika University. Tomoki Misato is a Musashino
graduate and is currently a student in Geidai’s graduate animation program. Director / screenwriter Makoto Nakamura made waves in 2010 when he revived the popular Soviet
animation character Cheburashka for a series of stop motion films. The character first appeared in a 1966
children’s storybook by Eduard Uspensky,
followed by a series of stop motion animations by Roman Kachanov of Soyuzmultfilm (1969-1983). The armatures for Cheburashka were designed
and built by Korean armature specialist Wuchan
Kim of Thinking Hand. Haruna
Asahi is a young animator from Okinawa who studied at Okinawa Prefectural
University of Arts in Naha. Yoshihisa Nakanishi is
a Musashino grad who makes amazing stop motion animations using complex paper
cutouts.
1. The Lost Breakfast (2015), Q-rais
2. Ghost Tracks (2015), Jérôme Boulbés
3. A Memory, Record and Present (2015), Hiroyuki
Mizumoto
4. Remember (2015), Shunsaku Hayashi
5. The Synesthesia Ghost (2015), Atsushi Makino
6. Daijōbu (2015), Akie Ishii
7. Look at Me Only (2016), Tomoki Misato
8. Cheburashka Goes to the Zoo (2015), Makoto
Nakamura
9. The Adventure of Flip, Haruna Asahi
10. gymnasiumany (2015), Yoshihisa Nakanishi
11. geometricube (2014), Yoshihisa Nakanishi
日本アニメーション大特集１０：現代日本のアニメーション ①
1. 失われた朝食 キューライス
2. ゴーストトラックス ブルべス ジェローム
3. きおく きろく いま 水本 博之
4. Remember 林 俊作
5. 共感覚おばけ 牧野 惇
6. だいじょうぶ。 石井 章詠
7. あたしだけをみて 見里 朝希
8. チェブラーシカ 動物園へ行く 中村 誠
9. フリップの冒険 朝日 はるな
10.
gymnasiumany 中西 義久
11.
geometricube 中西 義久
Japanese Animation Special 11:
Shin’ichi Suzuki, Keiichi Tanaami, Tatsuo
Shimamura, Seiichi Hayashi, Nobuhiro Aihara
The
animators in this screening belong to what I call the Sōgetsu Generation. Those are animators who began making a name
for themselves as indie animators at the Sōgetsu Art Center Animation Festivals of the 1960s and
1970s. Shin’ichi Suzuki began his career in animation working at Otogi Pro for Ryūichi Yokoyama. He then
went on to co-found Studio Zero in
1963.
Learn more about him in my reviews of Dot
(点 /Ten,
1971) and The
Gourd Bottle (ひょうたん/Hyōtan,
1976). Suzuki is director of the Suginami Animation Museum. Keiichi Tanaami is a renowned pop
artist who has been making experimental films and animations since the early 1970s. His films use symbolism and sensual movement to
create meaning. Tatsuo Shimamura is the founder and president of Shirogumi. His film Four
Seasons of Japan (1985) won a prize at the first
Hiroshima festival in 1985.
Seiichi Hayashi is an avant-garde mangaka
most famous for his 1970 manga Red
Colored Elegy (赤色エレジー, 1970-71) which was serialized in Garo magazine and he also made it into
an animated short in 1970. Hayashi
designed this year’s festival poster.
The late Nobuhiro Aihara was one of Japan’s top
experimental animators. In addition to
his independent work, he often worked as an inbetweener and animator for major
anime studios such as Oh! Pro. Read his obituary
here, and a review of Karma (カルマ, 1977).
1. Dot (Ten,
1971), Shin’ichi Suzuki
2. The Gourd
Bottle (Hyōtan, 1976), Shin’ichi Suzuki
3. The
Laughing Spider (2016) Keiichi Tanaami
4. Four
Seasons of Japan (1985) Tatsuo Shimamura
5.
Apocalypse of Megalopolis (2009) Tatsuo Shimamura
6. Shadow (1968)
Seiichi Hayashi
7. Demon
Love Song (1971), Seiichi Hayashi
8. Red
Colored Elegy (1970), Seiichi Hayashi
9.
Yamakagashi (1971), Nobuhiro Aihara
10. Karma (1977),
Nobuhiro Aihara
11. Twilight
(1985), Nobuhiro Aihara
12. Wind (2000),
Nobuhiro Aihara
13. Memory
of Red (2004), Nobuhiro Aihara
日本アニメーション大特集11：
鈴木 伸一、田名網 敬一、島村 達雄、林 静一、相原 信洋
1. 点 鈴木 伸一
2. ひょうたん 鈴木 伸一
3. 笑う蜘蛛 田名網 敬一
4. 花鳥風月 島村 達雄
5. メガロポリスの黙示録 島村 達雄
6. かげ 林 静一
7. 鬼恋歌 林 静一
8. 赤色エレジー 林 静一
9. 山かがし 相原 信洋
10. カルマ 相原 信洋
11. 逢魔が時 相原 信洋
12. ウィンド 相原 信洋
13. メモリー・オブ・レッド 相原 信洋
Japanese Animation Special 12:
Katsuo Takahashi, Toshio Kinoshita, Takashi
Itō
Katsuo Takahashi was a stop motion
animator famous in Japan for his 1977 film The
Wild Rose (野ばら1977). Not widely
known outside of Japan, his daughter Kariko
Takahashi carries on his legacy. Toshio Kinoshita
started out as a mangaka in the 1950s for children’s magazines and also worked
as a journalist before trying his hand at animation. He produced the opening sequence of Astro Boy and in 1965 founded Kino Pro, where he continues to act as
president.
Takashi Itō is a rather strange addition to this screening – his work
would have been more at home in Japanese
Animation Special 11 with Aihara and Tanaami, or Japanese Animation Special 16：Contemporary Directors Collection ①. He is one of
Japan’s top experimental filmmakers, with Oberhausen
2014 doing a complete retrospective of his works. Learn more about him on the Image Forum website. Read my review of his Image Forum DVD at Midnight Eye.
1. Kaguya Hime: The Princess of the Moon (1972),
Katsuo Takahashi
2. The Wild Rose (1977), Katsuo Takahashi
3. The Cock Who Turned Red (1993), Toshio
Kinoshita
4. Spacy (1981), Takashi Itō
日本アニメーション大特集１２：
髙橋 克雄、木下 敏治、伊藤 高志
1. かぐやひめ 髙橋 克雄
2. 野ばら 髙橋 克雄
3. まっ赤になったにわとり 木下 敏治
4. SPACY 伊藤 高志
Japanese Animation Special 13:
Toshifumi Kawahara, Tadanari Okamoto,
Yoichiro Kawaguchi, IKIF, Kōji Yamamura, Keita Kurosaka
Toshifumi Kawahara is an award-winning CG
animation pioneer with an MA in Art and Design from UCLA. He is currently president of Polygon
Pictures. The late Tadahito Okamoto is one of Japan’s great puppet animation masters. He is famous for using different materials
and techniques in each of his films. The
Magic Ballad (おこんじょうるり, 1982) is considered one of
his greatest films. Yoichirō
Kawaguchi is a pioneering computer graphics artist and professor at the
University of Tokyo. He is an expert on “the
GROWTH model, a self-organizing
method to give form to one's rich imagination or to develop one's formative
algorithm of a complex life form. As the art or a time progression, a program generates
a form and this form is allowed to grow systematically according to a set
formula” (source). IKIF (Ishida Kifune
Image Factor) are a husband and wife animation team (Sonoko Ishida and Tokumitsu Kifune) who have been working
together since 1979. They began making
films in 8mm, then in 16mm and by the 1980s were experimenting with CG
animation. Kifune teaches at Tokyo Zokei
while Ishida teaches at Tokyo Polytechnic.
Kōji Yamamura is one of Japan’s most internationally
acclaimed independent animators, having won the top awards at festivals around
the world from Annecy to Ottawa. His
film Mt. Head
(頭山, 2002) was nominated for an Oscar
and this year he became a member of the Academy. Franz Kafkaʼs
A Country Doctor (カフカ
田舎医者, 2007) is one of his most
profound films to date. Yamamura is a
professor at Geidai (Tokyo University of the Arts). Keita Kurosaka is an experimental
artist whose hand drawn animated works demonstrate a wide range of influences
from classical art to the modern grotesque. The
two films in this selection are music videos for the Japanese metal band Dir En
Grey. Kurosaka is a professor at Musashino.
1. In Search of Muscular Axis (1990), Toshifumi
Kawahara
2. Bolero (1992), Toshifumi Kawahara
3. Michael
the Dinosaur (1993), Toshifumi Kawahara
4. The Magic
Ballad (1982), Tadanari Okamoto
5. Growth: Tendril
/ Yoichirō Kawaguchi
6. Growth
Land-Growth: Mysterious Galaxy / Yoichirō Kawaguchi
7.
animandara2 (1986), IKIF
8. Troreminica
(2011), IKIF
9. Mt. Head (Atama
Yama, 2002), Kōji Yamamura
10. Franz
Kafkaʼs A Country Doctor (2007), Kōji Yamamura
11. Atama
(1994), Keita Kurosaka
12. Agitated
Screams of Maggots (2007), Keita Kurosaka
13. Rinkaku
(2012), Keita Kurosaka
日本アニメーション大特集１３：
河原 敏文、岡本 忠成、河口 洋一郎、IKIF、山村 浩二、黒坂 圭太
1. 筋肉座標軸を求めて 河原 敏文
2. ボレロ 河原 敏文
3. 恐竜マイケル 河原 敏文
4. おこんじょうるり 岡本 忠成
5. グロース：テンドリル 河口 洋一郎
6. グロース・ランド―グロース：ミステリアス・ギャラクシー―
7. 阿耳曼荼羅（二） IKIF
8. Troreminica IKIF
9. 頭山 山村 浩二
10. カフカ 田舎医者 山村 浩二
11. ATAMA 黒坂 圭太
12. Agitated Screams of Maggots 黒坂 圭太
13. 輪郭 黒坂 圭太
Japanese Animation Special 14：TV Programs
This selection
highlights episodes from early ground-breaking television animation.
1. Moleʼs
Adventure (1958), Hiroshi Washizumi
2. Astro Boy
(1963), Osamu Tezuka
3. Kimba the
White Lion (1965), Eiichi Yamamoto
4. The Star
of the Giants, Ep.83 "A Homer" (1968), Tadao Nagahama
日本アニメーション大特集１４：TV 番組
1. もぐらのアバンチュール わしずみ ひろし
2. 鉄腕アトム 手塚 治虫
3. ジャングル大帝 山本 暎一
4. 巨人の星 第83 話『傷だらけのホームイン』 長浜 忠夫
**Note: films for which no image are available are represented by Lappy, the Hiroshima Animation Festival Mascot.
