These are mostly some personal views and experiences, you are welcome to read but don’t hold high expectations. In the last 2 years or so I didn’t watch as much anime as I used to, probably because I don’t find anime as entertaining as before. My interest in sakuga and Japanese animators was the first time I found value in animation itself, regardless of other aspects such as the story. The sheer expressive power of Ohira’s drawings, or Kanada’s unique timing, all brought me joy and still do.Yet even this joy I find in sakuga won’t last forever, and I can say that rarely does any scene amaze me like my first contact with works from not only legendary animators such as Ohira and Kanada, but even Ebata and Tanaka. I didn’t lose my interest in commercial sakuga that’s for sure, most what I watched lately were obscure shows I wanted to see what X animator or X director did in them. It’s just that I’m looking for something new, and I knowingly didn’t experience basically anything the wide medium of animation has to offer. I think the majority of anime fans, animation fans in general even, just watch animation because it’s “anime” or maybe “Disney”. If an anime with a somewhat good story and almost still good-drawn images was to be produced, I bet it would gain some following and popularity among non-japanese fans at least. I also bet such a thing already happened. This reminds of a funny phrase I heard from a friend: “people think that animation isn’t important in animation”.But then, everyone is free to prefer whatever they want in my opinion. I just think that people who have this view don’t see the real merit of animation and its real beauty, to a big extent at least. Works with outstanding stories and fascinating themes such as Ghost in the Shell receive praise mostly due to that aspect only, the story and themes, with maybe mentioning “good and smooth” animation as a side point. But such works exhibit what really makes animation what it is and takes of advantage of the capabilities of this medium, just look at the Hollywood adaptation to compare(regardless of the fundamentally different execution).Maybe the main approach of commercial animation takes most of the blame here. Ask any random person “what is special about animation?”, and probably the answer would be something along the lines of “unlimited imagination” or “fascinating imaginary worlds”, referring to Disney’s princesses or Ghibli’s fantasy. Yet live-action movies are capable of creating such worlds thanks to modern and even kinda old technology(if we ignore the ongoing controversy regarding the definition of these works), while other more realistic animation works such as Satoshi Kon’s show animations’ features and perks, the features that are the reason why he famously prefered to use animation in all his movies despite being more of a live-action director in nature. What I’m trying to say is this: animation isn’t just a container with the sole purpose of conveying a story or a message, nor is the importance solely in the content conveyed, but in the way it’s conveyed. That’s why a lot of people who work in animation refuse the idea of mimicking live-action, for example. After sakuga my interested shifted towards independent and experimental animation especially the japanese ones, like Koji Nanke and Youji Kuri. The story of independent japanese animators is a long one, better covered here. Watching their works made me realize more and more how diverse animation is, and the different exciting ways to transmit an idea through animation. You may say that everything I said till now was just cretesizing commercial animation and praising independent/experimental animation because I love them, yet I didn’t deny that Ghibli and Disney(2D) movies, which are commercial for sure, are some of the best animation works from a technical and artistic standpoint. What I’m criticizing is the narrow outlook on animation, even among the commercial works. Animation isn’t only hand-drawn or 3D, you have collage and stop-motion and puppets and others. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the former Association of Japanese Animations(AJA) president, the late Kihachiro Kawamoto, never drew anything, he was but an amazing puppet animator. Before Kawamoto was Tezuka, a person who plainly hates commercial mainstream animation and whose experimental works probably outnumber his commercial ones. Kawamoto’s successor, the current president Taku Furukawa, is a renowned independent animator and one of Youji Kuri’s students. Movies such as Isle of Dogs getting a wide positive reception makes me happy. A famous use of collage was in Madoka Magica’s labyrinths, which Gekidan Inu Curry duo handled. It consists of Shirashi Ayumi(former Gainax) and Anai Yosuke(former defunct studio named Tanto). Their participation in Madoka Magica and many other Shaft shows came probably due to their relation with the director Yukihiro Miyamoto. I went a bit off track, but all this was to say that I enjoy Kihachiro Kawamoto’s collage works especially such as The Trip(1973), although he is better known for his puppet works, that are great nonetheless. This isn’t because I don’t enjoy puppetry, Jiří Trnka amazes me- for example. I bet that his magnum opus, The Hand(1965), would astonish any animation fan not only in its visuals, but in the way it handles and presents its themes as well, which led to banning this movie that obviously opposes the communist occupation of Czech. from right to lefr: Madoka Magica, The Trip, Kenju Giga. Now that I mentioned Czech, it’s one of the richest countries when it comes to animation and animation history. Many other east-european countries as well. Trnka is enough on his own, but even with other animation arts it’s a region that has a rich and old history of experimentation and early works. Tezuka’s inspiration for his short Jumping(1984) came from none other than a hungarian short called The Fly(1980). The animator behind Jumping, Junji Kobayashi, reminds me always of a fun fact about Tezuka. Kobayashi himself has a deep passion for insects and wildlife in general. Alongside being a member of multiple insect societies and organisations, including The Japanese Association for Insects, he wrote a book on how to animate animals based on Mushi/Tezuka Pro’s principles. But if there’s a bigger insects nerd than him, it’s Tezuka, who deliberately added the kanji for insect(虫) in his pen name(same reading to his original name). Tezuka also has some books on insects or animals, in a fictional or realistic depiction. The last book I want to mention, the most interesting probably, is Kobayashi’s “Osamu Tezuka That No One Knows - The Mess of Mushi Pro”, an interesting title especially when you consider that Kobayashi is one of the oldest Mushi Pro members, having spent about 23 years with Tezuka till his death. Kobayashi joining Mushi Pro in the first place may have been due to Tezuka sharing him his insects passion, as “Mushi” is the same “insect 虫” in Tezuka’s pen name after all. Anyway, what I was trying to say is this: If you are looking for something more than just “brainless fun”, try watching different kinds of animation, the world of animation is vast and diverse. Some works that I like(not necessarily a good start for everyone):Aru Machikado no Monogatari(1962, Mushi Pro)The first project by Tezuka’s Mushi Pro. He tried different styles in this movie, demonstrating his intentions from the beginning. Directed by Eiichi Yamamoto, whose start was in another experimental studio named Otogi Pro, with animators such as Gisaburo Sugii, it is one of the best works the studio produced. It contained a variety of interesting and beautiful styles, even limited animation was used although there is no economical constraint here, what makes me think that it was an experiment before going all limited with Astro Boy later. A great movie overall.Jumping(1984, Tezuka Pro)There is a nice interview about this short and experimental works in general with Osamu Tezuka here. Machikado no Märchen(1984)The Hand(1965, Jiří Trnka)Tabi(1973, Kihachiro Kawamoto)Kenju Giga(1970, Kihachiro Kawamoto)The Fly(1980, Ferenc Rofusz)
Sep 19, 2018 • Subscribe
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