A Portrait of Keiichi Tanaami (田名網敬一の肖像): 14 Films 1975-2009

If an artwork is not filled with the artist’s spontaneous emotions 
how can it provoke any sense of wonder or feeling in others?
- Keiichi Tanaami, 2 August 2009

Many trends have come and gone in the art world during the course of Keiichi Tanaami’s career, but throughout it all he has remained true to his own unique artistic vision. Looking back at the dozens of films that he has made since the late 1960s, there is a sense of continuity to his repeated use of a psychedelic colour scheme, characters with oversized features, sexual imagery, those beguiling goldfish, and his flickering aesthetic. Tanaami (田名網 敬一, b. 1936) is constantly revisiting familiar themes and motifs, yet his films seem just as fresh and invigorating today as they must have to audiences forty years ago.

Last year, the Parisian DVD publisher Chalet Pointu in collaboration with CaRTe bLaNChe and ARTE (the French/German TV network) published the first French edition of Keiichi Tanaami’s work. Un portrait de Keiichi Tanaami / A Portrait of Keiichi Tanaami /田名網敬一の肖像 : 14 Films 1975-2009 is a trilingual book (French/English/Japanese) with the DVD tucked into the back page of the book’s hardcover. (German readers can check out a profile of the book and the artist at ARTE)

The book itself is a small coffee table book. The introduction is a text written by the legendary avant-garde writer/artist Shūji Terayama (寺山 修司, 1935-1983) that was originally published in an Image Forum catalogue from 1975. This is followed by 79 pages of full colour art from Tanaami’s animated films, synopses of the films on the DVD, a short biography and a filmography.

The DVD is a sampling of some of Tanaami’s animated films from between 1975 and 2009: Sweet Friday (1975), Why (1975), Memories Hidden in Darkness (2000), Scrap Diary (2002), A Gaze in Summer 1942 (2002), Chirico (2008), Goldfish Fetish (2002), Fetish Doll (2993), A Portrait of Keiichi Tanaami (2003), 10 Nights’ Dreams (2004), The Harmonic Gleam Vibration (2005), Madonna (2005), Puzzle of Autumn (2003) and Shunga (2009) [Note: there is a minor error on the menu: to watch Puzzle of Autumn click on Shunga and vice versa].

Apart from Sweet Friday, Why, Goldfish Fetish, A Portrait of Keiichi Tanaami, The Harmonic Gleam Vibration, and Madonna, the other nine works are all collaborations that Tanaami has done with Nobuhiro Aihara (相原信洋, 1944). Scrap Diary, Fetish Doll, 10 Nights’ Dreams, and Puzzle of Autumn also appear on the out of print DVD Box Set Tanaami Keiichi + Aihara Nobuhiro: Animation Scrap Diary + Live Painting Animactions!! (2004). Sweet Friday, Scrap Diary, Memories Hidden in Darkness, and Gaze in Summer 1942 also appear on the DVD Tanaamism, 1975-2002. Why and Goldfish Fetish also appear on Tanaamism 2, 1971-2002 (also available as a box set).

As far as I am aware, this is the first time that A Portrait of Keiichi Tanaami (2003), The Harmonic Gleam Vibration (2005), Madonna (2005), Chirico (2008) and Shunga (2009) have appeared on DVD, making this set a valuable addition to any collector’s DVD library. The DVD also includes an insightful interview with Keiichi Tanaami from the summer of 2009 as well as an interview with German filmmaker and experimental film expert Helmut Herbst from an ARTE broadcast.

On the whole, it is a very satisfying release – a rare example of Japanese experimental animation being presented in a multi-lingual format. The only thing that would have made it even better for me would have been a concentration on recent work. While the Shuji Terayama essay is interesting, it is out-of-date and refers to films not available on the DVD. It would have been nice if they had asked Aihara to write the introduction in order to shed more light onto his collaborative work with Tanaami. In the Tanaami interview, we learn many fascinating details about how their collaboration functions and it would have been wonderful to hear about this fruitful artistic collaboration from both points of view. As Tanaami and Aihara’s films play so rarely overseas, it would have also have been nice if the set had also included other recent works like Madonna’s Temptation (2005), Noise (2006) and Inch-High Samurai (2007). 

These critiques are; however, mere trifles. It’s a beautiful, affordable, collectable set that whets the appetite for more. I hope that Chalet Pointu will consider publishing a sequel. To order this book from Chalet Films (FR/EN) click here.  Also available in Japan.

Experimental animation fans in Canada should be sure to check out the upcoming Tanaami screening events in Toronto, Winnipeg and Montréal. 

TANAAMISM DVD-BOX

ANSWER [Regular Edition]

SUPERCAR

© Catherine Munroe Hotes 2011

Animation Scrap Diary + Live Painting Animactions!! (2004)

Although this fabulous box set only came out in 2004, it is already out of print and only available via second hand dealers. For just over a decade now the renowned psychedelic artist and experimental filmmaker Keiichi Tanaami (田名網 敬一, b. 1936) and graphic designer and animator Nobuhiro Aihara (相原信洋, b. 1944) have been collaborating together on animation projects. They both teach at Kyoto University of Arts and Design　(here's a photo of Aihara teaching a course last year), and have close ties with Image Forum in Tokyo.

Disc One: Animation Scrap Diary

This disc features Tanaami and Aihara’s “animation battles”, which Benjamin Ettinger of Anipages describes as a “rather original shiritori-type collaborative process wherein each takes turns at the canvas, drawing over or erasing what the other has just drawn -- a tense artistic confrontation made possible by the trust they've built up over their long friendship.” Tanaami and Aihara both make animation the old-fashioned way: hand-painting or sketching each individual frame and photographing them onto 16mm film. It is clear that Tanaami and Aihara share a passion for the surreal and the subversive, and they have bonded over their meticulous attention to the minute details of their craft. Each still frame of a Tanaami or Aihara film could easily hang on its own on the wall of a modern museum of art. 

While Tanaami and Aihara have complementary styles, spectators familiar with their work will have no problems distinguishing who did which section of the films. The motifs of Tanaami’s paintings (goldfish, figures with enlarged heads,noses, ears, eyes, sexual organs, etc.) are also present in his animations. Aihara, who began in commercial animation, prefers intricate patterns of lines and shapes. The films feature original soundtracks by experimental composers.

Films featured include:

Scrap Diary (スラップ・ダイアリー, 2002)

I would hazard an educated guess that this frame is by Aihara

and there is no mistaking Tanaami's drawing style

sound design: Takashi Inagaki (稲垣貴士)

Fetish Doll (2003)

 sound design: Agata Morio (あがた森魚)

Landscape (2004)

 sound design: Kuknacke

10 Nights‘ Dreams (夢10夜, 2004)

sound design: Kuknacke

Puzzle of Autumn (秋のパズル, 2003)

sound design: Kuknacke

The disc also features a solo work by Aihara, Memory of Red (2004), which has a dragonfly theme. The film stands out for its use of crayon/pastel  rubbing to add texture to the images.

 sound design: Aki Nagane

Disc Two: Live Painting Animations!!

This is a documentary of a live animation battle between Aihara and Tanaami that took place on the 10th of March 2004 at EX’REALM in Tokyo. The room is in darkness and each artist wears a white boiler suit and baseball cap and uses fluorescent paint on the black canvas. Shot from five different camera angles, and using dissolves and superimposition to speed up the passage of time, each of the five documentary clips lasts about half an hour. A fascinating glimpse into the artistic process of the artists.

Music: Moodman

Director: Naohiro Ukawa (宇川直弘)

The boxset includes a booklet with biographical information and details about the inspiration and making of the films. Also included are a poster designed by Aihara and a poster designed by Tanaami.

Filmography of Tanaami/Aihara Collaborations 

2000 Yami no Kokyū ・Yume no Inei

2001 Fū no Kokyū

2002 Scrap Diary

2002 Running Man

2003 Fetish Doll

2004 Landscape

2004 Yume 10-ya

2005 Trip

2005 Madonna no Yūwaku

2006 Noise

2007 Issun Bōshi (Inch-High Samurai)

2008 Chirico

2008 Paradise for Eye

Please support these artists by purchasing their work:

Tokyo Loop

Animation

TANAAMISM DVD-BOX

Special Interest (Keiichi Tanaami)

© Catherine Munroe Hotes 2010

Keiichi Tanaami’s Favourite Animation

Since I was a child, I’ve always loved Disney movies and cartoons in general. Each time I draw a picture regardless of what it’s for I always think about how it would look if animated. That’s why animating my drawings comes quite naturally to me. – Keiichi Tanaami (Tokyo, 3 August 2009)

The words that most often are used to describe Keiichi Tanaami's artistic style include “pop art,” “surreal,” “psychedelic,” and “experimental.” Watching his animated films, it is easy to make comparisons with Tanaami’s mentor Andy Warhol, other experimental filmmakers of the 60s like Stan Brakhage, and masters of abstract animation like Len Lye, Oskar Fischinger, and Norman McLaren.

In fact, Tanaami has been influenced in equal measures by both mainstream animation and experimental fare. During his interview for the DVD/book Set A Portrait of Keiichi Tanaami, the artist speaks of his childhood passion for Disney movies and shorts. On the 2003 Laputa survey, Tanaami listed a wide range of animation styles as his top animations of all time. Not only do American animated classics like Steamboat Willie, Superman, and Mr. Bug Goes to Town make his list, but also some of the best of world animation including works by McLaren, Suzan Pitt, Raoul Servais, and Paul Grimault. Tanaami also lists early experimental animation by  Fischinger,  Hans Richter, Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Porter.

In his commentary about his selections, Tanaami writes that the films of Oskar Fischinger have made a significant impact on him as an artist, influencing many aspects of his own animation. Of Raoul Servais’s Nocturnal Butterflies, he says that the film has a certain “je ne sais quoi” – a special quality or depth that one cannot achieve in digital formats. Tanaami does use computer technology in the editing process of his films today, but he and his frequent collaborator Nobuhiro Aihara still prefer to draw their films by hand.

Here are Tanaami's best of animation picks:

Superman

(スーパーマン, Dave Fleischer, 1941) 

Asparagus

(アスパラガス, Suzan Pitt, 1979)

Night on Bald Mountain / Une nuit sur le mont chauve

(禿山の一夜, Alexandre Alexeieff / Claire Parker, France, 1933)

Mr. Bug Goes to Town

(aka Hoppity Goes to Town / バッタ君町に行く, Dave Fleischer, USA, 1941)

Blinkity Blank

(線と色の即興詩, Norman McLaren, Canada, 1955)

Le petit soldat 

(小さな兵士, Paul Grimault, France, 1947)

Le roi et l’oiseau 

(王と鳥 やぶにらみの暴君, Paul Grimault, France, 1948)

Studie Nr. 1-13

(スタディ , Oskar Fischinger, experimental series, 1929-33)

Nocturnal Butterflies/Papillons de nuit

(夜の蝶, Raoul Servais, 1998)

Rhythm 21

(リズム２１, Hans Richter, Germany, 1921)

Steamboat Willie

(蒸気船ウィリー, Ub Iwerks/Walt Disney, USA, 1928)

Source: Laputa Top 150 World and Japanese Animation (2003)

A Retrospective of Keiichi Tanaami's animated films will be screened in Toronto on April 23rd with the proceeds going to earthquake/tsunami charity.  The retrospective will then travel to Winnipeg and Montreal.  Click here to learn more.

© Catherine Munroe Hotes 2011

Keiichi Tanaami Retrospective Screenings in Toronto, Winnipeg & Montreal

 

Great news from ANGURA!  Screenings of Keiichi Tanaami's films will be held in three Canadian cities this spring in celebration of the publication of his latest book/DVD set A Portrait of Keiichi Tanaami: 14 Films 1975-2009.  I got it for Christmas and it is terrific.  I will try to write up a review of it before the event.  The book and DVD are trilingual French/English/Japanese.

 

All proceeds from the Toronto screening will go to the Red Cross Japan Earthquake fund.

TORONTO SCREENING

Saturday April 23^rd – 8pm

CineCycle (behind 129 Spadina Ave)

$8 / $5 students

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Keiichi Tanaami, born in 1936, is one of the preeminent pop artists of postwar Japan, producing a broad range of works since the 60s including experimental film and animation, woodblock printing, illustration, and editorial design. Tanaami’s imagery is provocative and playful, rooted in the realm of avant garde 60s pop psychedelia. In 1967 Tanaami took his first trip to New York where he discovered the works of Andy Warhol. These experiences opened him up to new artistic directions and in 1975 he became the first Art Director of Playboy Monthly (Japanese Edition). He has worked as a professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design since 1991, and his work continues to be exhibited around the world.

Screening in Toronto for the first time, these 10 animated works offer an introduction to Tanaami’s various styles and a trip through the eye-popping world of free form Japanese psychedelia. This event will also celebrate his newest release, A Portrait of Keiichi Tanaami: 14 Films 1975-2009, a beautiful edition containing a hard cover book with never-before published drawings for animated films, 14 films from 1975-2009, and two documentaries about the man himself, available for purchase at the screening.  

This event is a fundraiser to aid the victims of the earthquake in Japan and has been made possible by the generosity of: Keiichi Tanaami, CaRTe bLaNChe, Toronto Animated Image Society, and CineCycle.

 

Presented by:

ANGURA! / Toronto Animated Image Society / CaRTe bLaNChe

WINNIPEG SCREENING

 Friday May 6th

 Plastic Paper: Winnipeg’s Festival of Animated, Illustrated + Puppet Film

MONTREAL SCREENING 

Saturday May 21st

Blue Sunshine Psychotronic Film Centre

I also recommend heading over to ANGURA! to check out their new webshop featuring limited edition screen prints by Daisuke Ichiba.

Dreams: A Memorial Tribute for Nobuhiro Aihara

DREAMS 追悼 相原信洋

Image Forum Cinematheque, Shibuya

December 10 - 15

Image Forum in Tokyo is holding a memorial tribute for the artist and experimental animator Nobuhiro Aihara (相原信洋, 1944-2011) who passed away suddenly this spring.  As I reported at the time, Aihara began his career in television animation in the 1960s and started producing his own independent animation in 1965.  His aesthetic is distinctive for his use of flowing lines, highly complex drawings, and his love of psychedelic colours.  He was a prolific artist who often produced several animated shorts a year either on his own or in collaboration with his friend and fellow artist the Keiichi Tanaami (田名網 敬一, b. 1936).  At the time of his death, he left behind 85 animated works.  In addition to his work as an artist, Aihara taught animation at the Kyoto University of Art and Design.   

The Image Forum screenings will feature Aihara’s representative works including his groundbreaking experimental work Stone (1975), his animated correspondence films with Keiichi Tanaami, and many films that were discovered posthumously.  In addition to the film screenings, many of the leading figures of Japanese experimental film and animation will be giving film talks.  Special guests include Takashi Ishida, Yasunori Ikunishi, Mirai Mizue, Takashi Nakajima, Nobuaki Doi, and Keiichi Tanaami. 

See below for times and dates, or consult the Image Forum website (JP only).

Program A:  1970s-1980s

December 10 and 13

1971   Poisonous Snake 『やまかがし』

1972   The Last Bee Season『みつばちの季節は去って』

1972   White Snake『おしろい羽根』

1973   Aisanka Hana『逢仙花』

1973   Shoshun Kitsune-iro『初春狐色』

1974   Bōdō『妄動』

1975 『STONE』

1977   Karma『カルマ』

1980   Shelter『シェルター』

1985   Twilight『逢魔が時』

1986 『PRIVATE』

1987   Image (Shadow)『映像（かげ）』

Program B: 1980s-2000s

December 12 and 15

1988   Dragonfly『とんぼ』

1989 『GAVORA』

1990 『LINE』

1991 『MASK』

1994   Air Power『気動』

1996 『RAIN』

1997 『MEMORY OF CLOUD』

1999 『THE THIRD EYE』

2000 『WIND』

2004 『MEMORY OF RED』

2006 『BLACK FISH』

2006 『YELLOW SNAKE』

2007 『LOTUS』

2008 『ZAP CAT』

Program C:  Nobuhiro Aihara + Keiichi Tanaami

December 11 and 14

2001    Breath of Wind『風の呼吸』

2002  『SCRAP DIARY』

2002  『WALKING MAN』

2003  『FETISH DOLL』

2004  『LANDSCAPE』

2004    Ten Nights of Dreams『夢10夜』

2005  『Trip』

2005    Madonna no Yūwaku『マドンナの誘惑』

2006    Noise『ノイズ』

2007    Inch High Samurai『一寸法師』

2008  『CHIRICO』

2008  『眼の楽園・PARADISE FOR EYES』

2009  『SHUNGA』

2010    The Heart Sutra『般若心経』

2011  『DREAMS』

Program D:  Early Works + Recent Works + Long Film Talk

December 10 and 11

1969 『STOP！』

1970   Sakura『サクラ』

1973   Short Track Runner『短距離ランナー』

1978   Hikari『光』

2009 『BLUE MOON』

2009 『FLOWER』

2009 『TEA TIME』

2009 『IF』

2009 『AMMONTIE』

2009 『8PM』

2010 『TOMATO』

2010 『DOT』

2010 『SEED』

2010 『CCBB』

2011 『30℃』

2011 『GIGI-GAGA』

1981   My Shelter - Director's commentary on his work『マイ・シェルター（作者解説映像付）』

2006   Making of Black Fish『BLACK FISH（メイキング映像付）』

Film Talks

December 10 – following Program D

 2011年12月10日（土）プログラムD上映後

Guests:

Takashi Ishida 石田尚志（画家、映像作家 / painter, experimental filmmaker）

Yasunori Ikunishi 生西康典（演出家、美術家 / experimental filmmaker, artist）

December 10 – preceding Program A

2011年12月10日（土）プログラムA上映前

Guest:

Mirai Mizue  水江未来（アニメーション作家 / independent animator）

December 11 – following Program D

2011年12月11日（日）プログラムD上映後

Guests:

Takashi Nakajima 中島崇（映像作家/experimental filmmaker）

Nobuaki Doi 土居伸彰（アニメーション研究・評論 / animation scholar, film critic）

December 11 – preceding Program C

2011年12月11日（日）プログラムC上映前

Guest:

Keiichi Tanaami 田名網敬一（映像作家、アーティスト/ experimental filmmaker, artist）

Available from cdjapan:

TANAAMISM DVD-BOX

Nishikata’s Best Japanese Animated Shorts 2011

2011 has been an exciting year in the world of Japanese independent animation.  Kōji Yamamura released his much anticipated NFB co-production Muybridge’s Strings (マイブリッジの糸, 2011) to great acclaim in Canada and Japan.  It has already won several awards including the Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival.  Mirai Mizue was invited to the Biennale to show his latest "cell animation" Modern No. 2 (2011) in which he experiments with increasing the speed of movement and uses washi paper as a background.

There was also much sadness in 2011 as the animation community mourned the loss of Masahiro Katayama and Nobuhiro Aihara.  Both belonged to the first wave of “art animators” of the 1960s and 70s and both had been very influential teachers at art colleges in Japan.  Katayama will be best remembered for the amazing series of DVDs of world animation he put together for Geneon.  His legacy lives on in the amazing work of the students he inspired at Tamabi to give animation a try such as Oscar-winner Kunio Katō, Mirai Mizue, and Akino Kondoh.  Kondoh released her latest animated short Kiya Kiya (2006-11) this autumn – a film that took the artist five years of painstaking work to complete.

Aihara passed away during Nippon Connection 2011. One of his former students, Takeshi Nagata of TOCHKA, was a guest at the festival and I learned a great deal about this influential experimental animator’s life and career from him.  His final collaboration with Keiichi Tanaami, DREAMS (2011) was released at the Image Forum Festival, and I look forward to seeing it in the New Year.

As it takes some time for animated shorts to make their way from Japan to Germany, my criteria in selecting Nishikata’s Best Animated Shorts 2011 are as follows:  I need to have seen the films either at festivals, through artist releases online, or by artists sending me their work for consideration.  The works must have been completed at some point during the last two years and be either handmade (direct, drawn, puppet, paint-on-glass, cutouts, etc.), experimental, or avant-garde in nature.  I do consider CG animation if I feel that it is innovative in some way.  Although many amazing animators screened their works at events like Image Forum 2011 and the CALF Short Film Festival in Summer, I cannot take films into consideration that I have not viewed in their entirety with my own eyes.  That means that I am looking forward to seeing  not only the aforementioned films, but also Hiroco Ichinose’s TWO TEA TWO (2010), Takashi Ishida’s Three Rooms (三つの部屋, 2011), and Naoyuki Tsuji’s Wind Spirit (風の精, 2011) sometime in 2012. 

Here are the top films that I saw this year, in the order in which I saw them:

Getting Dressed (服を着るまで, Aico Kitamura, 2010)

Last year, Kitamura’s graduation film just barely missed my official list because I had already submitted it to Midnight Eye for their year-end round-up.  It is a highly sophisticated film for a student and makes me very excited about Kitamura’s future as an artist.  The last I heard, she was working on a new animated short which should be released sometime this year.  Read Full Review .

Timbre A-Z (Mirai Mizue, 2011)

In January, Mirai Mizue shared a series of daily shorts on Vimeo and Youtube in which he explored the relationship between music , colour, shape, and movement.  It was fascinating to see him experiment with minimalism when his  “cell” animations like Jam (2009) had been moving towards greater and greater complexity.  Read about it here.

Shunga (Keiichi Tanaami + Nobuhiro Aihara, 2009)

Eroticism has long been a theme in the animation, paintings, and illustrations of Tanaami and Aihara.   For this collaborative work they draw specifically on the tradition of Shunga (春画) – Japanese erotic  art usually executed in the ukiyo-e woodblock print style.  As in Shunga, the film uses exaggerated genitalia and poses.  In translating Shunga to animation Tanaami and Aihara add the element of sensual movement.  They also literally translate the concept of genitalia being a “second face” by surrealistically depicting a couple with faces shaped like male and female genitalia making love.  This film appears on the DVD/Book set Portrait of Keiichi Tanaami.

Mechanism of Spring (春のしくみ, Atsushi Wada, 2010)

Mechanism of Spring is Wada’s most light-hearted film to date, capturing the delight that young children and animals take in the season. The chubby youths examine the wildlife, take off their shirts and run about gaily, and observe a plant sprouting out of the earth, among other delights. The frogs behaving like humans recall the famous picture scrolls Chōjū-giga (鳥獣戯画, c.12th-13th centuries) which depict frolicking animals.  This film is available on the CALF DVD Atsushi Wada works 2002-2010.  Wada is also expected to release a new film in 2012.

Tatamp (Mirai Mizue, 2010)

Like Timbre A-Z, Tatamp continues Mizue's exploration of the relationship between image and movement through his distinctive “cell animation” technique.  As the onomatopoeic title suggests, this animated short employs percussive sounds from keyboards to snare drums.  As with Fantastic Cells and Jam, the film begins minimalistically then builds to a fantastic crescendo of colour and movement.  The call of loons combined with the bright colours against heavy blacks reminded me of Haida and Inuit art.  Learn more about Mirai Mizue and find out how to order a DVD of his works.

A Gum Boy (くちゃお, Masaki Okuda, 2010)

This dynamic film was one of my favourites in the CALF Animation Special at Nippon Connection 2011.  Masaki Okuda has an inspired talent for using animation to poetically interpret music through moving images.  Read Review.

Steps (Tochka, 2010)

A stop motion film inspired by Norman McLaren and Claude Jutra’s A Chairy Tale (1957).  The animation team of Tochka (Takeshi Nagata and Kazue Monno) incorporate elements of their famous PiKA PiKA animation technique into the film. Read Review.

The Woman Who Stole Fingers (指を盗んだ女, Saori Shiroki, 2010)

Saori Shiroki’s graduate film from the Tokyo University of the Arts.  She creates a haunting and melancholic atmosphere using paint-on-glass to explore the psychological impact of abuse.    Read Review. 

Hana no Hanashi (はなのはなし, Taku Furukawa, 2010)

A clever little short by one of Japan’s top animators about men with giant noses from Pinocchio to Cyrano de Bergerac.  Furukawa seamlessly adapts 5 short stories by renowned international authors into a mere 6 minutes. Stories referenced in the film include “The Dragon” and “The Nose” by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, “The Nose” by Nikolai Gogol, “The Adventures of Pinocchio” by Carlo Collodi, “Cyrano de Bergerac” by Edward Rostand.  Catchy soundtrack composed by Toshiyuki Honda.

TAKU BODA (タクボーダ, Taku Furukawa/Noriyuki Boda, 2009)

Computer animation meets 16mm animation in this modern re-mix of Taku Furukawa's 1977 film Nice to See You (ナイス・トゥ・スィ・ユー).  Read Review. 

Coffee Tadaiku (コーヒータダイク, Tomoyoshi Joko + Hiroco Ichinose, 2011)

2011 was a truly memorable one for the young animators Tomoyoshi Joko and Hiroco Ichinose as they got married and started their own production company together called Decovocal.  This name was suggested to them by their mentor Taku Furukawa.  For Furukawa’s 70^th birthday they made this inspired homage to his 1977 animated short Coffee Break (コーヒー・ブレイク).  Read Review.

SPECIAL MENTIONS (Longer than 20 minutes but not feature length) 

Elemi (電信柱エレミの恋い/Denshinbashira Eremi no Koi, 2009)

Hideto Nakata was the winner of the 2009 Noburo Ofuji Award for innovation in animation for this sentimental stop motion animation.   It also won an Excellence Prize from the Japan Media Arts Festival.  The film wasreleased on DVD by Pony Canyon in late 2010 and made its way to my post box in January.    It tells the story of an anthropomorphized utility pole who falls in love with a human being.  Read Review.  Order DVD.

Midori-ko (Keita Kurosaka, 2010)

One of the highlights of Nippon Connection this year was the screening of Keita Kurosaka’s masterpiece of the grotesque Midori-ko.  It is a complex work that is difficult to sum up in the space of a paragraph, so I refer you instead to my review of the film.  No word yet on a DVD release, but fans are hopeful that someone will pick up Kurosaka’s catalogue of films for a Takashi Ito-like boxset.

THANK YOU

I wish to extend my thanks this year to the generosity of so many who helped make my reviews possible this year.  A big thanks to all the artists and directors who sent me samples of their work or were kind enough to answer my questions about their work: Aico Kitamura, Saori Shiroki, Mirai Mizue, Atsushi Wada, Kei Oyama, Takashi Nagata of Tochka, Taku Furukawa, and Takashi Sawa.  Marion Komflass, Petra Palmer, and Dennis Vetter of Nippon Connection very generously took my advice and invited CALF animators to the 2011 festival and I am delighted to announce that I have been asked to curate the animation programme for 2012. 

In the realm of feature film animation, I remember fondly my conversation with Keiichi Hara (Colorful, Summer Days with Coo) in Frankfurt am Main in March.  Hara-san warmly shared his views about the current state of independent anime production in Japan and was a real delight to chat with.  I very much enjoyed chatting with Yuki Iwamoto, Marie Miyayama, Julia Leser, Clarissa Seidel, and Ryō Yoshikawa at Japan Week in November.

I am very grateful to my fellow bloggers and film critics who have offered their support throughout the year.  Some people who have gone the extra mile include: Nobuaki Doi of CALF and Animations: Creators and Critics, Ben Ettinger of Anipages, Chris MaGee of Shinsedai Fest / Jfilmpowwow for allowing me to sneak an animated short by Tomoyasu Murata into World Film Locations: Tokyo, John Berra for asking me to write about Kihachiro Kawamoto for the forthcoming book Directory of World Cinema: Japan 2 (2012), Jon Jung of Vcinema, Sayoko Ono at Zakka Films, Isamu Matsue, Franco Picolo of Sonatine, Joel Neville Anderson, Negativ: Magazin für Film und Mediankultur (Ciprian David / Dennis Vetter / Elisabeth Maurer / Christian Alt), Wildgrounds, Klaus Wiesmüller of Japan Kino, and the guys at Schöner Denken.

This blog would not be possible without the inspiring work of / information provided by Anido, Animations: Creators and Critics, CALF, Image Forum, Tokyo Art Beat, Tokyo University of the Arts, and Tomoyasu Murata and Co.

The greatest thank you of all goes to my loyal readers, friends, and family whose support made this year the best ever for Nishikata Film Review.

Wishing you all Joy and Prosperity in 2012,  Cathy