Nishikata Film Review

Animation to Watch: Tai Shitai (たいしたい, 2024)

2025-12-11T23:27:00.002+09:00

Title: Tai Shitai （たいしたい）

Director: Shōta （しょーた） https://www.shotaanimation.com/

For: TV Tokyo

Literally titled "I want to be a sea bream," this animation for babies and toddlers is fun for all ages with its clever word play and delightful animation.

The young director Shōta is a graduate of Tokyo Zokei University (BFA 2016, MFA 2018) where he was mentored by Mori Masaaki. He currently works for the video production company Directions, Inc.

2025 Cathy Munroe Hotes

In Memoriam: Masaaki Mori, Pioneering Japanese Clay Animator

2025-12-11T23:08:00.002+09:00

This has been a very difficult year for the tight knit Japanese independent animation community as we were rocked by the sudden passing of much-loved stop motion animator Masaaki Mori (森まさあき, 1955-2025) on Monday, March 24th, 2025. I was able to pay my respects to a warm, sociable man who had quickly become my friend since I became a JAA member at the well-attended public service that was held Sunday, March 30th at Comwell Hall Koenji in Tokyo.

A special memorial event called “My Story: Time Spent with Professor Mori Masaaki” 追悼企画「マイ・ストーリー森まさあき先生と歩んだ時間」 was held at ICAF (the Inter College Animation Festival) at the National Art Center on Saturday, October 11th. Hosted by his peers IKIF (Kifune Tokumitsu木船徳光 + Ishida Sonoko 石田[木船]園子) with participation by his former students independent animators Qrais (キューライス), Shōta (しょーた), and Madhouse Animator Chie Yamashiro (山城智恵).

At this event we had the opportunity to see rare 8mm works made in Mori’s youth as well as a number of his television commercials. It was clearly a trip down memory lane for his peers. His former students shared anecdotes from their time with their animation sensei. The overall picture matched the man that I knew: warm, funny, gregarious, generous to a fault… and unbelievably supportive of his former students in all their endeavours. It was clear that he was much more than just a mentor to them. He was like a family member.

An Overview of Mori’s Life

Born in Shizuoka in 1955, Mori initially studied accounting at Chuo University under pressure from his father to take over the family business. However, his real passion was animation and puppetry and he eventually convinced his father to allow him to switch to a career in the arts. As a child, puppet shows on the public broadcaster NHK inspired Mori to start making his own puppets. His mother encouraged his interest by buying him a book on how to make puppets using papier-mâché. A screening of the original King Kong sparked his interest in the technique of stop motion, and his uncle, a graphic designer, taught Mori and his older sister how to make stop motion using vinyl figurines and an 8mm camera. His father bought him a Single 8 Fujifilm camera, which he used to make both animation and live action with special effects with his school friends.

While at prep school in Koenji, Mori bought a copy of the entertainment magazine PIA at a bookshop and came across an advertisement for a Ray Harryhausen special screening by the animation research group Anido featuring an image of the Cyclops from Jason and the Argonauts (Don Chaffey, 1963). Mori loved the film when he had seen it on TV, but this was his first time learning the name of the man responsible for the stop motion special effects. After the screening, he saw an ad in PIA by a group called Arugo Tankentai (Copycat Expedition Team a play on the Japanese title of Jason and the Argonauts, Arugo Tankeitai no Daibouken, which literally translates as The Great Adventure of the Argo Expedition Team) evoking Harryhausen’s name.

Outside of Japan, Mori is known for his work with renowned puppet animation pioneer Kihachirō Kawamoto. He was one of 35 animators who contributed animated shorts to Kawamoto’s adaptation of Bashō’s renku poem Winter Days (Fuyu no hi, 2003). Mori adapted stanza 30 by Kakei using his signature clay animation pigs. The amusing scene of a biwa playing pig amusing three noble pigs in a garden of hibiscus flowers is typical of Mori’s use of humour in his works. He was also one of the main stop motion animators who worked on Kawamoto’s final masterpiece, Book of the Dead (Shisha no Sho, 2005).

In addition to his creative work, Mori was an active member of the animation community as vice chairperson of the Japanese Animation Association (JAA) and an animation professor at Tokyo Zokei University from 2005 until his retirement in 2021. He was a beloved mentor to many young students introducing them to stop motion from around the world

He was a regular attendee of animation festivals across Japan where he loved making new friends and having deep conversations about the art and craft of animation. He also loved documenting the attendees of animation events taking selfies with his friends and new acquaintances. His friends and family gave him his final farewell with a tribute of flowers. During his open casket service, we could see that clasped in his hands was a photograph of Mori with his hero Ray Harryhausen. We will remember him for his enthusiasm for stop motion and his welcoming smile.

The Tokyo Anime Award Festival (東京アニメアワードフェスティバル) has announced that Mori Masaaki will be posthumously celebrated at the 2026 festival in March. If you are in Tokyo March 13-16, I recommend coming to see a selection of his representative works (selected works TBA).

The information in this obituary is based on my conversations with Mori-san over the years, information presented at his retirement exhibition at Tokyo Zokei University in 2021, and the interview by Takanaka Shimotsuki published by Zokei in advance of the exhibition.

2025 Cathy Munroe Hotes

New Competition For Animated Films: Nippon Animation Shorts Award

2025-12-09T21:36:00.003+09:00

I am delighted to be able to announce the inaugural Nippon Animation Shorts Award at Nippon Connection in 2026. When festival programmer Florian Höhr, approached me about the sponsorship proposal from Wacom, I was so pleased. I had been hoping for an animation prize for Nippon Connection for many years. Please get the word out to young animators from or working in Japan, so that they may learn of this opportunity to win a generous award for their work.

Press Release Dec 08, 2025: （日本語のテキストは下にスクロールしてください）

New Competition For Animated Films: Nippon Animation Shorts Award

Wacom is sponsoring the first award for the best animated short film at the Japanese Film Festival Nippon Connection.

With the Nippon Animation Shorts Award, the Nippon Connection Film Festival will introduce its first dedicated competition for animated short films in 2026. The new award focuses on supporting emerging creative talents from Japan and is presented in cooperation with Wacom.

From June 2 to 7, 2026, the 26th Nippon Connection Film Festival will screen around 100 short and feature-length films from Japan at various venues in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. With more than 20,000 visitors, it is considered the world’s largest platform for Japanese cinema. With the new award, the festival further strengthens its long-standing commitment to emerging talent and innovative filmmaking.

“Independent and experimental animation is a key driving force behind creative innovation. Young artists deserve visibility and recognition – which is why we are very pleased to support the first Nippon Animation Shorts Award and to accompany new talents on their way.” – Nobu Ide, CEO, Wacom

Wacom, whose digital drawing tablets and pen displays are used in many animation studios worldwide, is deeply committed to promoting the next generation in the creative industries. The new partnership between Wacom and Nippon Connection underscores their shared aim of supporting independent animation art and young filmmakers from Japan.

Animated films and series play a major role in shaping international perceptions of the Japanese film industry. A vibrant independent short film scene that fosters experimental young talents exists alongside major studio productions. Nippon Connection has been showcasing this diversity for many years – among other things through a cooperation with the Department of Animation at the Tokyo University of the Arts, which is based in Yokohama, Frankfurt’s partner city.

The award is aimed at animated short films with a maximum running time of 20 minutes that were produced between 2024 and 2026 and will have at least their German premiere at the festival. Productions from Japan or films directed by Japanese filmmakers are eligible. From all submissions, Nippon Connection will curate three competition programs, from which an international jury will select the winning film. The prize is endowed with €2,000 and will be awarded during the Nippon Connection Film Festival.

Submissions are now open and can be made via the festival website NipponConnection.com/entry until February 1, 2026.

新設：アニメーション作品のためのコンペティションニッポン・アニメーション・ショート賞

ワコムが日本映画祭ニッポン・コネクションにて初の短編アニメーション賞を協賛

第26回ニッポン・コネクション映画祭（2026年6月2日〜7日、ドイツ・フランクフルト・アム・マイン）では、新たに短編アニメーション作品を対象としたコンペティション「Nippon Animation Shorts Award（ニッポン・アニメーション・ショート賞）」を創設します。本賞は、若手クリエイターの育成を目的としており、ワコムとの協力のもと設立されました。本映画祭は、会期中に日本からの短編・長編合わせて約100作品を上映し、2万人以上が来場する世界最大級の日本映画プラットフォームです。新設される同賞は、ニッポン・コネクションが長年注力してきた「新しい才能の発掘」と「革新的な映像表現」への取り組みを、さらに強化するものです。

「インディペンデントアニメーション※は、創造的なイノベーションを推し進める強力な原動力です。若いアーティストたちが、より広く認められ評価されるよう支援するために、『ニッポン・アニメーション・ショート・アワード』が新設されました。これをきっかけとして、新たな才能の成長の歩みに寄り添えることを大変うれしく思います」

— ワコム代表取締役社長兼CEO 井出信孝

世界中のアニメーションスタジオで使用されているデジタルペンタブレットや液晶ペンタブレットを展開するワコムは、クリエイティブ分野における次世代育成に積極的に取り組んでいます。今回のニッポン・コネクションとのパートナーシップは、日本発のインディペンデント・アニメーションと若手映画制作者を支援するという、双方が共有する理念を体現するものです。

アニメーション作品やシリーズは、日本の映像文化への国際的評価において重要な役割を果たしています。大手スタジオ作品だけでなく、若手アーティストが活躍するインディペンデント短編アニメーションのシーンも活況です。

ニッポン・コネクションでは、フランクフルト市の姉妹都市でもある、横浜市に拠点を置く東京藝術大学大学院映像研究科アニメーション専攻との協力をはじめ、日本の多様なアニメーション作品を長年紹介してきました。

本賞の対象となるのは、上映時間20分以内で、2024〜2026年に製作され、本映画祭において、少なくともドイツ初上映となる短編アニメーション作品です。日本で製作された作品、または日本人監督による作品が応募可能です。応募されたすべての作品から、映画祭が3つのプログラムを編成し、審査員がその中からグランプリ作品を選出します。賞金は2,000ユーロで、ニッポン・コネクション映画祭期間中に授与されます。

応募は映画祭公式サイト NipponConnection.com/entry にて2026年2月1日まで受け付けています。

Bashamichi Art Vision / 馬車道アートビジョン

2024-04-04T09:15:00.000+09:00

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Minatomirai Line in Yokohama, The Bashamichi Mirai Project (馬車道みらいプロジェクト) commissioned local artist Yuichi ITO (伊藤有壱) to do a video installation on the iconic domed ceiling of the station on weekends during the month of March. Ito is a renowned stop motion animator, known for his ongoing NHK television series KNYACKI! (ニャッキ!, 1995-present). He has also made animated shorts set in Yokohama such as Harbor Tale (2011) and Blue Eyes in Harbor Tale (2014). In addition to his team at I.TOON Ltd, Ito had technical assistance from Yuichi MATSUMOTO (松本祐一), Akimasa OISHI (大石彰誠).

Bashamichi Art Vision was designed to honour Yokohama’s deep ties to photography and film culture. The first commercial photography studio was opened in Yokohama by Renjō SHIMOOKA (下岡蓮杖, 1823 – 1914) in 1862, and Shimooka is often called the father Japanese photography. In more recent history, Tokyo University of the Arts (aka Geidai) opened its Graduate School of Film and New Media in the Bashamichi district in 2005. Ito has been teaching at Geidai’s Graduate School of Film and New Media since they opened their animation department over 10 years ago.

When I visited Bashamichi Station with my husband, Stefan Hotes, on Saturday, March 23, Ito told us that he had been thinking about doing such an installation for 18 years. Inspired by the design of space created by architect Hiroshi NAITO (内藤廣), Ito came up with the concept of making a modern version of the 19th century optical device, the Phenakistiscope (also known as Odoroki-ban in Japanese) projected onto the domed ceiling.

The installation consisted of 5 projected videos that each ran at about a minute and a half. The themes were as follows:

① Minato Mirai Line 20th Anniversary Video

みなとみらい線開業20周年アニバーサリー映像

A collection of historical images of the port city of Yokohama.

② Garden Necklace Yokohama 2024 Sequence

ガーデンネックレス横浜2024 イメージムービー

Ito is the designer of the Garden Bear character used by the city of Yokohama to promote its Garden Necklace events (events that take place at the beautiful city gardens, which have been included by foreign trends in gardening, such as the English rose garden style).

③ GREEN EXPO 2027 Sequence 2027

年国際園芸博覧会イメージムービー

Yokohama will be hosting the World Horticultural Exposition in 2027 with the theme “Scenery of the Future for Happiness” with an estimated participation of 80 countries. The Expo will run from March 19 to September 26, 2027.

④ Art Video 1: “Phenakistiscope”

アート映像1 「フェナキスティスコープ」

This projection used historic Phenakistiscope discs named horse 「馬」, flower「花」, and dance「ダンス」, which were really perfect for the location. The place name “Bashamichi” translates as “horse-drawn carriage way,” as it was the way that horse-drawn carriages would go on their way to and from the port when it opened. Professor Emeritus Machiko KUSAHARA (草原真知子) of Waseda University, a world-renowned collector and researcher, provided the discs for the creation of the installation.

⑤ Art video 2: “The Road Leading to the Harbour'”

アート映像2 「港へつづく道」

The last installation was a collaboration between Ito and leading Yokohama photographer Hideo Mori (森日出夫). The Bashamichi area has long been known as “From 'Isesaki to Bashamichi and Bankoku Bridge to the harbour” 「伊勢佐木から馬車道、そして万国橋が港に連なる」. The theme is how the landscape of the port changes with the times… which was also the theme of Ito’s animation Harbor Tale, which they also collaborated on. The 20th anniversary edition of Harbor Tale with Book can be ordered here.

2024 Cathy Munroe Hotes

MOVOP Animation Screenings & Exhibition

2024-02-15T16:52:00.001+09:00

MOVOP is a collective of young animators under 30 who want to re-evaluate contemporary animation practices. The members of the collective include Fukumi NAKAZAWA (中澤ふくみ), Lina MACHIDA (まちだりな), Nana KAWABATA (川畑那奈), Riku TAKAHASHI (高橋李空) / DOKUZEN, MARU AKARI, Hiroki KURASAWA (倉澤紘己), and Aiko OKAMURA (岡村あい子).

MOVOP is a neologism combing the English expressions ‘move up’ (上にあがる) and ‘move on’ (進む) and the Czech word ‘potok’ meaning brook or stream (小川). The letter ‘O’ between the letters M/V/P is also meant to evoke the gaps between frames that create the illusion of movement in animation.

The collective seems to be pushing back against the trend for animation to be completely online and digital. In their declaration, they talk about making things with their own hands and to create an archive of their works in physical form. They also want to create real spaces for young animators to engage in debate and discussions about animation practices with their peers.

In November, they published the inaugural edition of their e-zine on their website. I first heard about MOVOP because of physical postcards and flyers their distributed at the New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival in November. The first weekend of March, MOVOP will be holding their first screenings and exhibition at Digiti Minimi and co-hosted by Tampen.

Program A

Kukkiri to Boyata / くっきりとぼやけた

dir. Lina MACHIDA / まちだリな, 5’23”, 2024 New work!

w_lk

dir. Riku TAKAHASHI / 高橋李空 / DOKUZEN, 2’58”

The Day It was an Excursion / えんそくだったひ

dir. Hiroki KURASAWA / 倉澤紘己, 5’49”, 2023

Deforming after Transforming (変形して奇形する)

dir. Fukumi NAKAZAWA / 中澤ふくみ , 8’47”, 2021

lier

dir. MARU AKARI, 1’, 2024　New work!

The Ship of Synapse

Riku TAKAHASHI / 高橋李空 / DOKUZEN, 2’, 2023

Weather Map

dir. Nana KAWABATA / 川畑那奈 ,9’09", 2021

Program B

Mimimi and the Aliens (みみみとうちゅうじん)

dir. Hiroki KURASAWA / 倉澤紘己, 5’55”, 2024　New work!

kagra

dir. Riku TAKAHASHI /高橋李空 / DOKUZEN, 2’58”

melt

dir. MARU AKARI, 30”, 2020-2023

Carrots Don’t Wait (ニンジンは待ってくれない / Ninjin wa Matte kurenai)

dir. Lina MACHIDA / まちだリな, 7’36”, 2023

The Point of Permanence (永久点 / Towa-ten)

dir. Nana KAWABATA / 川畑那奈, 10’04”, 2024 New work!

#_ hashtag underber

dir. MARU AKARI, 6’, 2022

Exhibition

Aiko OKAMURA (岡村あい子)

Yume-utsutsu 『夢現』

Jiga『自我』　New work!

Fukumi NAKAZAWA (中澤ふくみ)

Kandokoro wo Zurasu『勘どころをずらす』　New work!

New work! Tadaka ga Yonde iru『ただかが呼んでいる』

On the Saturday at 14:00 there will be a Guest Talk Event with Yū ISEKI (井関悠), the curator of the Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, artist Hirotoshi IWASAKI (岩崎博俊), and dancer / choreographer Nobunashi KON (のばなしコン). On Sunday at 14:00 there will be a Talk Event with member of MOVOP.

Tickets are available via the Peatix app:

https://movop-event.peatix.com/view

For more information visit the MOVOP website / social media: https://movopanimation5.wordpress.com/

https://www.instagram.com/movop_

https://twitter.com/movop_

Cathy Munroe Hotes

NIAFF 2023 Archive/アーカイブ: Dwarf Studios’ Talk /「ドワーフ」トーク

2024-01-08T22:37:00.003+09:00

In addition to its feature film competition, the Niigata International Animation Film Festival (NIAFF) also shines a spotlight on the latest trends in the animation industry. One exciting development in the past two years has been the production journey of the innovative stop motion animation Hidari (2023), which has taken social media by storm. One of the stop motion studios involved in its production, Dwarf (Domo-kun, Komaneko, Pokemon Concierge), was also celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2023.

At the centre of the Hidari project is director Masashi KAWAMURA (川村真司) of Whatever Co, an ambitious entrepreneur who grew up watching the words of creators Ray Harryhausen, Kihachirō Kawamoto, and Phil Tippett. He had a dream of creating a feature length stop motion samurai epic, so he partnered with Dwarf and Tecarat (Gon, the Little Fox, Pukkulapottas and Hours in the Forest) to take his creative vision to the next level. The stop motion is done at Dwarf and Takeshi YASHIRO (八代健志) of Tecarat designs and carves the wooden puppets.

They completed a short film as a pilot for the feature film project and this screening at NIAFF helped them get the word out about their crowdfunding campaign to get the funds to make the dream of a full feature length tale a reality. Check out the official YouTube channel to set how they made it. The pilot has gone on to win awards at festivals around the world.

The story is the legend of Jingorō Hidari (左甚五郎), the Japanese equivalent of a Renaissance man who was a sculpture, carpenter, painter, architect, storyteller, and artist. As he name, “Hidari” (left) indicates, he was lefthanded and had a missing right arm. There are many tales as to how he lost his right arm, often involving jealous rivals. Yashiro’s puppet of Hidari has a giant, wonderfully intricate left hand that the animators use in many creative ways for fight scenes.

The Talk Event at NIAFF 2023 featured Kawamura, Yashiro, and the acclaimed Dwarf Studios director Tsuneo GŌDA (合田経郎) and producer Noriko MATSUMOTO (松本紀子). They also brought the puppet of Hidari for audiences to see the amazing detail that went into its design. The NIAFF archive clip starts with a slideshow of the Hidari event, then shows excerpts from the Dwarf Studios discussion about the magic of the technique of stop motion (komadori in Japanese) with two of the studios most well known original characters, Domo-kun and Komaneko on the display table. If you do not understand Japanese, please use the captions auto-translate function on YouTube 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 March’s festival every Tuesday on its YouTube Channel. Subscribe to see more.

2024 Cathy Munroe Hotes

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

2024-01-08T16:44:00.002+09:00

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

2024-01-04T14:16:00.001+09:00

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

90s Animation at “Into Animation 8”

2023-08-20T04:46:00.003+09:00

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

Katsuo Takahashi Featured Event: Exploring 3D Animated Films

2023-08-16T06:53:00.003+09:00

Katsuo Takahashi Featured Event: Exploring 3D Animated Films

高橋克雄特集/立体アニメーション映画への模索

Takahashi Official YouTube Channel

As part of this year’s Into Animation 8 event at The National Art Center in Roppongi, JAA member Kariko TAKAHASHI (高橋佳里子) put together a retrospective in honour of her late father, the stop motion animator Katsuo TAKAHASHI (高橋克雄, 1935-2015). The event was hosted by celebrated stop motion animator, Masaaki MORI (森まさあき, b. 1955).

Born in Nagasaki, Katsuo Takahashi is considered a pioneer of stop motion animation and early children’s television programming in Japan. He founded his own studio called Tokyo Central Puppet Theatre (東京中央人形劇場) which later became Tokyo Central Productions (東京中央プロダクション). His work ranges from shorts for the NHK (Japan’s public broadcaster) to films commissioned by the Japanese government to promote Japanese culture and interests abroad.

The program gave an overview of Takahashi’s career, interspersed with discussions between his daughter and Mori. Mori recalled seeing some of Takahashi’s children’s television shows broadcast when he was a child. Kariko Takahashi shared behind the scenes details about the making of the programs and Mori shared his observations of the work from the perspective of a professional stop motion animator.

Some of the highlights included a photograph of Takahashi with Norman McLaren and others at the NFB in Montreal taken during the 1967 Expo, photographs of audiences viewing his work internationally, and a cameo of Tadahito MOCHINAGA’s Pinocchio stop motion character from Rankin/Bass’ The New Adventures of Pinocchio (1961) in one of Prince Shisukon’s adventures.

Screened Works:

Fairy Tale Series (1979 – 1985) “Little Red Riding Hood” and others

メルヘンシリーズ「赤ずきん」他

Those others included “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Hanasaka Jiisan,” and “The Wizard of Oz.”

Wan Way Street (1957) , Ep. 3 “Battle of Potato Island”

わんウェイ通り第3話「ポテト島の海戦の巻」

Prince Shisukon (1963) Opening Credits

シスコン王子・オープニング映像

Land of Dreams: Zipangu (Yumi no Kuni: Zipangu) and Kaikoku zen kisaki

「夢の国・ジパング」「開国前后」

Mrs. 21st Century (Misesu 21 Seiki, 1971)

ミセス21世紀

Princess Kaguya (Kaguya Hime, 1972)

かぐやひめ

To learn more about Takahashi’s work, check out his daughter's official YouTube channel and the Tokyo Central Production 高橋克雄著作権事務所 Facebook page.

Hiroshima Animation Season 2022: Day 1

2022-08-31T13:45:00.003+09:00

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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A post shared by Cathy Munroe Hotes (@nishikataeiga)

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

Southpaw (サウスポー, 2019)

2022-08-29T23:23:00.003+09:00

I first saw this delightful music video when the director and animator Sawako KABUKI (冠木佐和子) first posted it on YouTube back in 2019. When it screened at the Hiroshima Animation Season as part of the Japan Animation Association (JAA) selection Dive into the Sea of Japanese Independent Animation!, it stood out from the other films for its exceptional use of humour and movement.

Kuricorder Quartet - SOUTHPAW | Music Video from SAWAKO KABUKI on Vimeo.

The video was commissioned by Kuricorder Quartet (栗コーダーカルテット): a quirky, multi-instrumental band featuring recorders (soprano, alto & great bass) and many other instruments. Since 2015, when Kenji KONDŌ left the band, they have actually been a trio but did not change their name. They are known in particular for doing covers of popular music and writing and performing film and TV soundtracks. Southpaw (サウスポー, 2019) is Kuricorder’s cover of the duo Pink Lady’s 1978 hit song “Southpaw” – which is said to have been inspired by the left-handed baseball pitcher Tomotsu NAGAI who played for the Crown Lighter Lions (now known as the Saitama Seibu Lions). When performing the song on television, Mie and Kei of Pink Lady wore glittery pink and white disco interpretations of baseball uniforms.

No doubt inspired by the amazing choreography of Pink Lady, Kabuki chose to use dance as the main theme of her music video. She filmed fellow animator Manabu HIMEDA (whose delightful 45R Official Site Animation also featured in the JAA program) dancing and rotoscoped him into neckless humanoid character. A master of metamorphosis, Kabuki multiplies the dancing figure and positions the multiple figures in various moving patterns on the screen – always in perfect time with the rhythm of the piece and dynamically capturing the spirit of the performance. The audience was moved to gales of laughter. In a short amount of time Sawako is able to evince precisely that irrepressible urge to dance one feels when one hears a song like that really slaps (to use the modern lingo).

2022 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Hiroshima Animation Season 2022: Introduction

2022-08-29T14:33:00.001+09:00

Hiroshima Animation Season 2022

ひろしまアニメーションシーズン2022年

https://animation.hiroshimafest.org/

This year marked the beginning of a new era for animation in Hiroshima. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the city of Hiroshima abruptly broke ties with ASIFA-JAPAN, who had run the Hiroshima International Animation Festival since its inception in 1985 until its final online edition in 2020. The new Hiroshima Festival will run for the month of August biannually and will feature two “seasons” – the Hiroshima Music Season and the Hiroshima Animation Season, with some crossover events.

Although it grieves me that ASIFA-JAPAN is no longer running the festival, I came to the new festival with an open mind and a hope for the sake of the city of Hiroshima and for the Japanese animation community that the new festival would be a success. It was strange not to see Sayoko KINOSHITA and her team at the festival, as I know how much hard work they put into the festival over the years. Kinoshita has been unwell this year, and it was decided at an extraordinary meeting of ASIFA-JAPAN, that Hiroshi ONISHI (Kyoto University of the Arts) would take over administratively while she is in rehabilitation.

The new team at Hiroshima Animation Season is led by producer Nobuaki DOI and co-artistic directors Kōji YAMAMURA and Shizuka MIYAZAKI. Doi brings with him the experience of running the New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival and years of experience as a producer and collaborator in the international animation scene. Initially it seemed that Doi would run both festivals, but it seems that he has left New Chitose and they have a new programming team led by Tomoko ONO, with the assistance of Hirotoshi IWASAKI, Daisuke TANAKA, and Manabu KATO.

The Hiroshima Animation Season was very much stamped with the artistic personality of Yamamura. Gone is the familiar Lappy character designed by the late Renzō KINOSHITA. In Lappy’s place, the new mascot of the festival is the Golden Carpstar designed by Yamamura. Lappy was a fictitious character whose name was a portmanteau of the themes of the original festival “Love and Peace” and the word “happy”. The Golden Carpstar brings together the carp fish, a local symbol associated with the city of Hiroshima, and a twinkling star (presumably in reference to the artists featured at the festival). The association between carp and Hiroshima runs deep as the city is known for its carp dishes, Hiroshima Castle’s nickname is Rijō (鯉城) or “Carp Castle”, and the local baseball team is called the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.

The new poster design was done by local artist shunshun, who has been living in Hiroshima since 2012. The egg shape represents the birth of a new festival and it is filled with the motif of water, which was the theme of this year's program. shunshun explains in the catalogue: "The gentle sea where the sun shines brightly, the beautiful rain that pours down to the earth, gentle starlight twinkling in the night sky. . . I depict these scenes that touch my heart by hand-drawing each line one by one carefully."

Not only was the new mascot designed by Yamamura, but the program also featured Yamamura and many of his former students. His debut feature film Dozens of Norths (幾多の北 / Itaku no Kita, 2021) screened and Yamamura had a talk session about it. Isshin INUDŌ, a college friend of Yamamura’s from Tokyo Zokei University, showed his Min TANAKA documentary The Unnameable Dance (名付けようのない踊り / Nazuke you no nai Odori, 2022) which features Yamamura’s animation for dream sequences and other flights of fancy. Inudō, Tanaka, and Yamamura held a talk session about the film and Tanaka was also on one of the world competition juries. Yamamura also gave a screening and lecture called “Water in Animation: Fluidity and Discontinuity” as part of the water-themed special program of screenings and lectures, and his works screened alongside those of the late experimental animator Nobuhiro AIHARA in a special screening. I presume that the heavy presence of Yamamura at this inaugural edition of the festival may have been due in large part to the difficulties of organising a new festival when there are many travel and other restrictions still in place. I presume that future festivals will put the spotlight on the work of people other than the artistic director.

Co-director Shizuka MIYAZAKI brings a much-needed female and local presence to the festival’s core team. She graduated from Yamamura’s Tokyo University the Arts (Geidai) program in 2013, but her MA work was supervised by Taruto FUYAMA. She has been teaching animation for many years at Hiyajima University Junior College in Hiroshima.

Next: Hiroshima Animation Season: Day 1

2022 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Resonance – A Selection of Japanese Animated Shorts

2022-05-08T14:19:00.002+09:00

Resonance – A Selection of Japanese Animated Shorts

Sunday, 29 May 2022, 14:45

Naxos Cinema

Frankfurt am Main

https://db.nipponconnection.com/en/event/1032/resonance

I am proud to announce my animation selection for this year’s Nippon Connection in Frankfurt am Main. Unlike my friends and colleagues overseas, my cinema-going habits have not been infringed upon by pandemic restrictions… I have only missed out on many of the usual social activities in the animation community here in Japan. Any pandemic depression has been alleviated by the beauty of the animation I have seen in the past year and my mind has been engaged by the compelling ideas that Japanese and Japan-based animators have been exploring through their work.

This selection represents the best of the films whose images and ideas resonated in my mind for weeks and months after seeing them. YANO Homami’s compelling pointillist A Bite of the Bone (my review), the first animation produced by YAMAMURA Kōji’s Au Praxinoscope, has been collecting awards at festivals around the world including OIAF and DigiCon6. Another former Geidai student of Yamamura, YUKI Yōko (幸洋子) has just released her new film produced by Au Praxinoscope: In the Big Yard inside the Teeny-Weeny Pocket (ミニミニポッケの大きな庭で, 2022) which I am hoping to see at the Hiroshima Animation Season.

We have shown films by Yano, IWASAKI Hirotoshi, TABATA Shizuki, KUDO Masa, KIM HakHyun, and HIRANO Ryō at Nippon Connection before and I am delighted that these artists are continuing to make such excellent work. Trigger warning for Hirano's Krasue - it has horror motifs and is not appropriate for children.

I discovered the work of SAKAKIBARA Sumito for the first time this year watching the New Chitose online selection. Originally from Hokkaido, Sakakibara lives and works in Nagano Precture but got his animation training in the UK. His use of colour in Iizuna Fair is quite fantastic and I love the slow tracking shot from right to left like the deliberate unfurling of a scroll – check out the trailer here.

YASHIRO Takeshi’s reputation for unique stop motion animation with a handmade feel has grown and grown since he started specializing the aesthetic in 2012. His talents were recognized by his peers this year when he was awarded the Noburō Ōfuji Award at the Mainichi Film Awards for Pukkulapottas and Hours in the Forest. The film experiments with stop motion using location timelapse photography (ロケコマ撮り/ Roke-komadori).

My thanks to the animators and to Florian Höhr for his hard work at Nippon Connection.

A Bite of the Bone / 骨嚙み / Honekami

YANO Homami / 矢野ほなみ / 2021

https://honamiyano.com/

10 min.

On Time Off Time

IWASAKI Hirotoshi / 岩崎宏俊 / 2020

https://hirotoshiiwasaki.com/

9 min. 8 sec.

Iizuna Fair / 飯縄縁日 / Iizuna Ennichi

SAKAKIBARA Sumito / 榊原澄人 / 2021

http://sumitosakakibara.com/

11 min. 32 sec.

Monorail

TABATA Shizuko / 田端志津子 / 2020

https://vimeo.com/tabatashizuko

7 min 15 sec.

Still Life

KUDO Masa / 工藤雅 / 2021

https://kudomasa.jimdofree.com/

3 min 30 sec.

RED TABLE

KIM HakHyun / キムハケン / 2021

https://twitter.com/hakennn

7 min 22 sec.

Pukkulapottas and Hours in the Forest

プックラポッタと森の時間

Takeshi YASHIRO / 八代健志 / 2021

https://tecarat.jp/

15 min 27 sec

Krasue

HIRANO Ryō / ひらのりょう/ 2021

http://ryohirano.com/

http://foghorn.jp/

11 min 50 sec.

2022 Catherine Munroe Hotes

A Bite of the Bone (骨嚙み, 2021)

2021-11-18T22:25:00.002+09:00

When a loved one passes away in Japan, their remains are ceremonially cremated. After the cremation, the remaining remnants of bone ( 骨/hone) are picked out by relatives using long chopsticks and passed from chopsticks to chopsticks and placed into a large urn. This practice is called kotsuage (骨揚げ). Newcomers to Japan often learn about it when they are admonished at dinner for making the faux pas of trying to pass food to another person directly by use of chopsticks.

Homami YANO (矢野ほなみ)’s latest animated short, A Bite of the Bone (骨嚙み/ Honekami, 2021), concerns the lesser known tradition of honekami (骨嚙み), when members of the family actually consume some of the bones during the funeral ceremony in order to a keep a part of their loved one inside them. This was famously done by the actor Shintarō KATSU (勝新太郎, 1931-1997, star of the Akumyō, Heitai Yakuza, and Zatōichi series), with the bones of both his beloved older brother, Tomisaburō WAKAYAMA (若山富三郎, 1929-1992, star of the Kozure Ōkami series), and his father.

With A Bite of the Bone, Yano revisits the traumatic childhood experience of having refused to consume her father’s bones when he died. As she explains in her director’s note, “The bone I did not eat stayed with me, as if stuck in my throat, and I found myself unable to express the experience in words nor forget it.”

The tale is narrated by the young female protagonist and opens with the sound and images of her father’s funeral. The nonsense funereal sutra is performed by Yano’s mentor and producer, Kōji YAMAMURA (山村浩二) . The scene then transforms into a loving recollection of life growing up in a small island community. The narrator and her sister playing with an inner tube in the water, her father taking them on hikes in the hills, and the haunting memory of an abandoned WWII ammunition dump.

Yano uses a pointillist style – the many colourful dots giving the memories a shimmering, dreamlike quality. There is a poetic moment when the girl’s father is pruning the pine trees of the island into the shapes of clouds and waves against a pinky-red evening landscape. The sadness of the theme of the death of her father is softened by the sweet childhood memories of her dog and the stunning nature of the island.

Yano’s short animations have always delved into profound issues about love and life, but with A Bite of the Bone, she has reached a level of maturity in her animation style. The constantly changing perspectives and transitions between scenes show the influence of her mentor, renowned award-winning animator Kōji Yamamura, who produced with film at his studio Au Praxinoscope in Setagaya. During the pandemic, I happened upon Yano working on the film when I stopped into the studio shop to browse the DVDs. It is wonderful to see that such a beautiful work of art could come out of such dark times.

A Bite of the Bone has won numerous awards at festivals in Ottawa, Chitose, Raindance, to name but a few. It has also been entered for consideration at the Oscars. Thank you to the New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival for making this year’s short film selection available for screening online for those of us who are still restricting their travel.

To learn more about Homani Yano, visit her website: https://honamiyano.com/

2021 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Crowdfunding: 10th Anniversary Edition of Harbor Tale DVD + Book

2021-10-07T20:22:00.003+09:00

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the release of the charming animated short Harbor Tale (ハーバーテイル, 2011). To celebrate the occasion, the animator Yūichi ITŌ (伊藤有壱) and his team at I.TOON are crowdfunding for a special edition DVD and book on CAMPFIRE.

I have been a fan of Itō’s stop motion animation since I first discovered the delightful series Knyacki! (ニャッキ!, 1995-) on the NHK when my children were small. He has a real knack for expressive character design and diverting visual storytelling.

Harbor Tale brings to life the idiom “if these walls could talk” quite literally. The central character is Mr. Brick – one of the famous red bricks from the historical buildings of Yokohama. Through Mr. Brick’s perspective, we are taken on a colourful journey through the history of this port town from the days when the clack of geta could be heard on the city streets to the modern era.

It is a culturally significant work for the way that it engages audiences of all ages with the history the city of Yokohama. Since moving to Yokohama in 2019, I have been delighted to see Mr. Brick in souvenir shops all over town. Don’t miss out on your chance to support this artist.

Support Harbor Tale at CAMPFIRE

Alteration Finds: A Selection of Japanese Animated Shorts

2021-05-24T20:58:00.001+09:00

The pandemic has forced long periods of sameness upon us. These recent indie animated sorts challenge us to break free from lockdown apathy and look at the world from a new perspective.

Die Covid-19-Pandemie hat uns lange Perioden der Eintönigkeit aufgezwungen. Zeit für einen Ausbruch: Diese animierten Kurzfilme fordern uns auf, die Lockdown-Apathie hinter uns zu lassen und die Welt aus neuen Perspektiven zu betrachten.

https://db.nipponconnection.com/de/event/1029/alteration-finds

I am pleased to announce that I have curated another independent animation short film programme for Nippon Connection together with festival director Florian Höhr. Despite the challenges of the ongoing pandemic, I have been able to go to some festivals such as Image Forum Festival (IFF) and the Japan Media Arts Festival (JMAF), but they haven't had their usual vibe with the 3 Cs rules in effect ... particularly without the ability to go out to drink and chat with artists afterwards.

In particular, I really miss gallery opening parties and film debut screening events, which are a great place to find out what people are working on at the moment. In March, the graphic designer, musician and animator Hayoto NOVE invited me to the opening of his latest work Parallax (2021) in a gallery in Ginza. We were limited to a maximum of 6 people per screening, but it was such a pleasure to at least be able to talk to the artist and his "team" (his wife & collaborator, the equally talented Tomoko NOBE). Nove-san was concerned that with a run time of about half an hour, that the film might be a bit on the long side for an animated short, but I could tell him truthfully that I had not even noticed the length! Nove's films tend to envelope me in their visual and soundscape so thoroughly that I am hardly aware of my surroundings. These independent works are a real labour of love for Nove, and it is wonderful to follow him on his artistic journey. Florian & I are so honoured that Nove-san has allowed us to have the world festival premiere of this most impressive work.

I saw the indie animation legend Keita KUROSAKA's most recent animation The Living Wall (生きる壁, 2020) at IFF2020. His masterpiece Midori-ko (2010) was a big success at NC2011 and this latest work does not disappoint.

Another gem from IFF2020 is Masa KUDO's Difference and Repetition and Coffee (差異と反復とコーヒー, 2020). Kudo is new to the animation scene but has an amazing future ahead of her. She grew up in Hokkaido where she graduated from Hokkaido Kyoiku University. She also studied at the Image Forum film school which specialises in experimental film and animation. The influence of IFF film school is very apparent in this film!

Geidai 2017 grad Ryotaro MIYAJIMA's first post-grad school independent film has found much success at animation festivals both at home and abroad. I first saw it at IFF2019, and have delighted whenever I have seen it on a screening programme. Every time I watch this visual journey into the Sengoku Period, I catch another small detail I missed the first time. It is a study of how to use movement and transitions masterfully in animation.

Shunsaku HAYASHI brings his painterly magic to his animation films and I am so thrilled that we can include his latest work Leaking Life in our programme this year. The film won Best Short Animation at the 24th Riga International Short Film Festival. Hayashi-san first featured in one of my animation selections at NC2019 with Railment (2019).

The TamaGra (Tama University of Arts Graphic Design Department) animation programme has been producing really wonderful animators for the past couple of decades. Isaku KANEKO's Locomotor (2019) and The Balloon Catcher demonstrate that he is someone to keep an eye on in the future. I was also quite taken by Tomoe OBAYASHI's Mubi (2019) and was compelled to include it in the programme.

Due to the ongoing covid-19 restrictions, Nippon Connection (June 1-6, 2021) will be hosted online again this year. I am crestfallen for the festival, because part of its allure is all the in-person events, activities, and culinary delights. On the other hand, the online forum means that the films can attract a larger audience than is possible with the limited seats of a cinema. For rights reasons, this screening selection is region-restricted to Germany only.

Booking information can be found here:

https://db.nipponconnection.com/en/event/1029/alteration-finds

Keita Kurosaka 黒坂圭太

http://profile.musabi.ac.jp/page/KUROSAKA_Keita.html

The Living Wall

生きる壁

2020, 6 min.

Ryotaro Miyajima 宮嶋龍太郎

https://miyajimaryotaro.com/

Castle

2019, 5 min.

Shunsaku Hayashi 林俊作

https://shunsakuhayashi.com/

Leaking Life

2019, 14 min. 32 sec.

Masa Kudo 工藤雅

https://vimeo.com/masakudo

Difference and Repetition and Coffee

差異と反復とコーヒー

2020, 4min. 33 sec.

Isaku Kaneko 金子勲矩

The Balloon Catcher

2020, 6min

Isaku Kaneko 金子勲矩

Locomotor

2019, 3 min.

Tomoe Obayashi 大林知恵

Mubi

夢寐

2019, 6 min.

Hayato Nove 野辺ハヤト

http://www.breathpiece.com/

parallax

2021, 30 min.

2021 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Parallax Exhibition

2021-03-03T11:34:00.000+09:00

To mark the release of his latest independent work Parallax (2021), the animator Hayato NOVE (野辺ハヤト) is having a solo exhibition next week (8-13 March 2022) at Gallery Kobo (巷房) in Ginza. Nove’s independent animation are auteurist works in the truest sense for not only does he direct and design he visuals for his animated shorts, but he also composes and performs the soundtracks. His films are usually in a sombre palette, but the preview images for Parallax show a surprising use of a vibrant red. It will be a nice break from the monotony of pandemic life to get out and see Nove’s latest work.

Parallax / trailer from Hayato Nove on Vimeo.

To learn more about this artist, check out his website:

http://www.breathpiece.com/

or follow him on instagram

Gallery KOBO

https://gallerykobo.web.fc2.com/kobo2.html

Okuno Building, 1-9-8 Ginza Chuo-ku Tokyo, 104-0061 Japan

March 8 - 13, 2021

Noon – 19:00 ( on the final day the gallery closes at 17:00 )

Strawberry Candy (いちご飴, 2020)

2020-09-23T23:30:00.001+09:00

Strawberry Candy (いちご飴 / Ichigo Chigo, 2020) was the film that made the biggest impact on me at the Geidai Animation 11 Neo screenings in February in Yokohama. It is a powerful short film that tells sensitively tells the story of familial child abuse from the perspective of a young girl.

The film begins innocently enough with the central protagonist, a Chinese girl of about kindergartner age, talking about her likes and dislikes. She likes playing hide-and-seek with a cardboard box used for storing pears, she doesn’t like the new telephone because her mom makes her call people; she likes her red marble that her father gave her on Children’s Day, but she doesn’t like the boys next store who took it from her; and so on.

As she continues telling us her likes and dislikes, the director, Nianze Li, masterfully builds a sense of unease. This innocent child is dealing with a secret that she doesn’t fully understand. She is able to express her distress at the situation her finds herself in and Li’s beautifully rendered animation shows how a child’s animation can be a coping mechanism. The boundaries between dreams (or nightmares) and reality can blur together until it is difficult to distinguish one from the other.

It is a powerful film, that will no doubt be distressing to viewers with personal experience of domestic abuse, but it is a very important tale to tell. It reminds us that we really need to listen to the stories children tell us and take seriously when they express that something is wrong. The story is beautifully illustrated with colourful pencil drawings, in an elegant evocation of the most common medium of children’s art.

According to her “Making Of” blog, the story came out not of personal experience but of research Li had done into the subject of child abuse. She studied films and books that gave her insight into the psychology of abuse, and wanted to give an empathetic portrayal from the point of view of the victim.

The film is playing this weekend and next at the Image Forum Festival where I will be watching it again. I am sure it will be picked up at other international film festivals around the world in the coming year.

Nianze Li (李念澤, b. 1995) did her undergraduate education at the Sichuan Fine Art Institute New Media Art Department (2017) and completed her master’s at Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Film and New Media earlier this year. You can follow her on twitter, Instagram, and Vimeo.

2020 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Watch: White Road (白の路, 2003)

2020-06-02T09:12:00.002+09:00

Tomoyasu Murata (村田朋泰) has made his early independent film White Road (白の路 / Shiro no michi, 2003) available on YouTube for the first time. It is one of a series of short puppet animations with a pianist as the main protagonist. White Road brought Murata’s work to a wider audience in East Asia because it was re-edited and used as a music video for popular J-Pop band Mr. Children’s 2004 song Hero. Images from other animated films by Murata were projected onto screens during Mr. Children’s 2004 Shufuku no Oto tour.

Memories of a boy and a girl. Even now, as an adult, I can't forget the memories and wistful pain. Like running through a white landscape forever.

男の子と女の子が短い秋に過ごした思い出。大人になったいまでも、忘れない記憶と切ない痛み。男は少年だったころの路を辿る。どこまでも真っ白な景色を駆けていくように。

The film has an elegiac tone. Instead of dialogue or narration, the story is told through character expression, puppet movement, sentimental music, foley effects (wind, the crunching of snow), silence and expressive use of colour. The predominant colour of the film is indeed the white of the title, but it is complemented by the use of blue light, which adds to the melancholy atmosphere.

White Road shows the nameless pianist returning to his rural childhood home in the winter. He is haunted by the memories of a young girl who had been his playmate and the puppy that they loved but died, possibly due to their unwitting neglect. The pianist’s memories are evoked through flashbacks that sometimes involve him sharing the screen with his younger self. Particularly poignant is the scene in which he mourns the puppy and an adult ghost of the dog looks on as if forgiving him for his childhood mistake. We are also invited to share in the pianist’s grief for his lost childhood friend, who moved away with her family.

For more information about the director see: https://www.tomoyasu.net/

Follow Murata's production company on twitter: @TMC_STAFF

2020 Catherine Munroe Hotes

The World of Ryōji Yamada / 山田遼志の世界

2020-04-24T15:40:00.000+09:00

The World of Ryōji Yamada / 山田遼志の世界

http://ryojiyamada.com/
https://vimeo.com/ryojiyamada

In the “before times”, when we were still able to meet in small groups in Japan, I was able to attend one of the The World of Ryōji Yamada ( 山田遼志の世界) special screening events hosted by tampen.jp. The screening selection featured a mix of Yamada’s acclaimed animated shorts and his commissioned works (music videos).

Waiter (2014)

Popping, Mixing (2012)

LaLaLa Brothers (2011)

Keita SANO’s ‘Mad Love’ (music video, 2017)

King Gnu’s ‘Prayer X’ (music video, 2018)

Doodle Project II (2019)

Kicell’s ‘Hitotsu dake Kaeta’ / キセル「ひとつだけ変えた」(music video, 2018)

Natsu to Suisei’s ‘27th’ / 夏と彗星「２７ｔｈ」　(music video, 2020)

WONK’s ‘Cyberspace Love’ (music video, 2017)

Hunter (2017)

handshake (2018)

Firehead (2019)

Yamada has an MFA in Animation from Tama Art University, and in 2018-2019 he had the opportunity to live in Germany as a Trainee Japanese Council Affair of Culture. During this time was a guest student of Andreas Hykade at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, and he was able to join us at Nippon Connection for a screening of his film Hunter.

I went to the event to see the film Yamada made in Germany, Firehead. I am glad that I did because I had never sat down and watched a selection of Yamada’s films altogether before and it was interesting to see how his style has developed over the years. I was also impressed by Yamada’s ability to adjust his style to suit the needs of his clients in the commissioned music videos.

Music is an integral part of Yamada’s films and the music for his independent works are composed by his long time collaborator Makoto Takahashi. I purchased a CD of the music Takahashi composed for the films at the event and it came with a fold-out poster featuring Yamada’s art.

Apart from Firehead, all the other films from the screening can be found online and I have assembled them for you below (plus the trailer for Firehead). The discussions with the director from the screenings can be found on tanpen’s YouTube Channel (JP only)

Waiter from Ryoji Yamada on Vimeo.

Doodle Project II (2019) from Dante Zaballa on Vimeo.

HUNTER from Ryoji Yamada on Vimeo.

handshake from Ryoji Yamada on Vimeo.

FIREHEAD Trailer from Ryoji Yamada on Vimeo.

Cathy Munroe Hotes 2020

Affordance (アフォーダンス, 2016)

2020-04-23T10:15:00.001+09:00

Hayato Nove (野辺ハヤト, b. 1971) is a graphic designer and illustrator by profession. Along with his web designer wife Tomoko Nobe (野辺智子), he has his own company breath piece which specialises in illustration, album cover design, web design, logos and other art projects. In addition to these commercial endeavours, Nove is also an artist and musician. In recent years, he has experimented with the medium of animation. Affordance (アフォーダンス, 2016) is his second film after his 2013 work Caterpillar (watch here). It was a part of the animation selection that I curated for Nippon Connection in 2017, and we were lucky enough to have Nove join us at the screening and answer questions about the film.

View this post on Instagram

@novehayato and I are ready for our screening tomorrow @nipponconnection #nc17 #indieanime

A post shared by Cathy Munroe Hotes (@nishikataeiga) on May 27, 2017 at 6:28am PDT

The term “affordance” is relatively new to the English language. It was coined by the late American psychologist James J. Gibson in a 1977 article entitled “The Theory of Affordances” and explored more deeply in his 1979 book The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Gibson is considered one of the key 20th century researchers in the field of visual perception, with his work exploring how we see the world we do. Affordance pertains to how our perception of an object defines the possibilities of how it can or should be used. Thus, the concept of affordance is a key one in design (See: Don Norman, “Affordances and Design”, and Nove encountered the term during his studies at Musashino Art University.

Using Nove’s characteristically minimalist monochrome palette, Affordance is a mesmeric film, weaving in and out between simple line drawings to elaborate patterns of movement and metamorphosis. The varying pace of the animation is matched by the soundtrack, which was composed and performed by the artist himself .

You can immerse yourself in Nove’s unique poetic vision on Vimeo now:

affordance from Hayato Nove on Vimeo.

Nove is currently working on his latest work Parallax, due out sometime this year. Watch the trailer:

Cathy Munroe Hotes 2020

Kōji Yamamura’s Archives / 山村浩二作品アーカイブ

2020-04-22T10:57:00.000+09:00

Kōji Yamamura’s Archives / 山村浩二作品アーカイブ

http://www.yamamura-animation.jp/archive_index.html

https://vimeo.com/yamamuraanimation

The renowned independent animator Kōji Yamamura’s bilingual studio website, Yamamura Animation, has long been an invaluable source of information about his creative works. Although he may be best known overseas for his award-winning animation shorts, in the Japanese publishing world he is also known for his prolific illustrations for books, posters, and other media.

With the support of the Government of Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁 / Bunkachō), Yamamura Animation has expanded to include an archive of stills, videos, storyboards, photographs, documentations of exhibitions, sketchbooks, and much, much more.

Some rare delights in the archive include stills and information about his earliest animations, such as his very first animation at age 13. Yamamura made the 8mm Short Short Show Theater (しょーとしょーとしょうげきじょう / Short Short Show Gekijō) using the techniques of cutouts and cel animation.

Many of Yamamura’s early works are now available to screen on Yamamura Animation’s YouTube and Vimeo channels. Four works, "Parade" de Satie (サティの「パラード」, 2016), Notes on Monstropedia (怪物学抄, 2016), A Child's Metaphysics (こどもの形而上学, 2007), and Yamamura’s Oscar-nominated Mt. Head (頭山, 2002), are available to rent or purchase on Vimeo On Demand (embedded below). "Parade" de Satie, Notes on Monstropedia, A Child's Metaphysics, and Yamamura’s recent work Dreams into Drawing (ゆめみのえ / Yumemi no e, 2019) are also due to be available via Amazon Disc on Demand sometime this spring. Please support this remarkable artist by acquiring his work via these outlets.

Satie's "Parade" from Koji Yamamura on Vimeo.

Notes on Monstropedia / 怪物学抄 from Koji Yamamura on Vimeo.

A Child's Metaphysics／こどもの形而上学 from Koji Yamamura on Vimeo.

Mt. Head from Koji Yamamura on Vimeo.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2020

Indie Short Film Crowdfunding: Noriko Yuasa’s “Coming Back Sunny”

2020-04-09T16:59:00.002+09:00

The talented filmmaker Noriko Yuasa has an original new film project and needs your help. She is only seeking a modest sum of money to see the project through to completion and get it out to festivals.

Coming Back Sunny (おかえり、カー子) is a love story about a colour-blind schoolgirl rediscovering the world around her. The main shooting locations are the Edo era streets of Kawagoe City or “Ko-Edo” in Saitama Prefecture and the modern streets of Ikebukuro, which were selected in order to depict the theme of destiny and how it can transcend space and time.

The pandemic has only been with us a short time, but filmmakers and cinemas around the world are already feeling the pinch. Many of us have been feeling pretty helpless at not being able to go out and support our local art house cinemas and independent filmmakers. Filmmakers need our support at this time more than ever.

Head over the Kickstarter to learn more about Coming Back Sunny & give if you can:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/norikokyuasa/short-film-coming-back-sunny-crowdfunding-first-phase

【Trailer】Coming_Back_Sunny from Noriko Yuasa on Vimeo.

Cathy Munroe Hotes

Eri Sasaki's FUNSUS CM

2020-04-03T18:10:00.001+09:00

The brilliant young animator Eri Sasaki (ささきえり, b. 1995) has made a delightful short animation for the clothing brand Studio Clip to promote their FUNSUS (ファンサス) campaign. Their motto is that their brand is both fun and sustainable.

Sasaki first came to my attention in 2017, with her TamaGra work Essay in the Desert (さばくのエッセイ/ Sabaku no Essei, 2017). She went on to do her MA at Geidai. Her graduate work, Pickle Plum Parade (うめぼしパトロール/Umeboshi Patōru, 2019), was one of the highlights of last year’s Geidai selection at Nippon Connection. Check out more of her work on her website: https://sasakieri.com/

🏠おしごと🏠

studio CLIP(@studio_clip)さんの
サステナビリティの考え方をやさしく伝えるアニメーションをつくりました🧒👩　

FUNSUS(ファンサス)
「明日も、たのしいといいな」https://t.co/sDHC3l07CV

たのしくかわいくつくりました！
ぜひご覧ください。

------ pic.twitter.com/f45t5CP04q
— ささきえり🏡Eri Sasaki (@mss_753) April 2, 2020

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Resonance – A Selection of Japanese Animated Shorts

A Bite of the Bone (骨嚙み, 2021)

Crowdfunding: 10th Anniversary Edition of Harbor Tale DVD + Book

Alteration Finds: A Selection of Japanese Animated Shorts

Parallax Exhibition

Strawberry Candy (いちご飴, 2020)

Watch: White Road (白の路, 2003)

The World of Ryōji Yamada / 山田遼志の世界

Affordance (アフォーダンス, 2016)

Kōji Yamamura’s Archives / 山村浩二作品アーカイブ

Indie Short Film Crowdfunding: Noriko Yuasa’s “Coming Back Sunny”

Eri Sasaki's FUNSUS CM

Animation to Watch: Tai Shitai (たいしたい, 2024)