Nishikata Film Review: animation

Showing posts with label animation. Show all posts

31 August 2022

Hiroshima Animation Season 2022: Day 1

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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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

29 August 2022

Southpaw (サウスポー, 2019)

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

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

07 October 2021

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

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

03 April 2020

Eri Sasaki's FUNSUS CM

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

02 April 2020

Nippon Connection Film Festival Goes Online!

Virtual Edition of the 20th Nippon Connection Japanese Film Festival
June 9-14, 2020

https://www.nipponconnection.com/

Nippon Connection has just announced that due to the spread of the novel coronavirus Covid-19, they have decided that it is necessary for the safety of visitors, guests, and volunteers to move the festival online.

The festival director, Marion Klomfass states that cancelling “the festival was not an option for us. Thus, after intense exchanges with our sponsors and cooperation partners, we have decided to hold Nippon Connection’s 20th anniversary in an online edition from June 9 – 14, 2020. We hope to make the best of a difficult situation and are looking forward to new challenges.”

The Nippon Connection team is currently hard at work on a new concept. Under the title Nippon Connection Online, a diverse selection of current Japanese short and feature length films will be presented alongside interactive offerings such as live streams and panel discussions with filmmakers.

The film programme director, Florian Höhr says that in spite of “the current crisis, giving Japanese cinema and its creators a public platform here in Germany is a great concern to Nippon Connection. Taking the festival online will continue to allow us to give our audience a varied view into the contemporary landscape of Japanese cinema.”

Florian has been in contact with me about plans for the short animation programme. With so many filmmakers suffering from the cancellation of events promoting their works we hope that this will be an opportunity for both audiences and film lovers to find hope in these dark times.

Cathy Munroe Hotes

April 2, 2020

24 March 2020

Playlist: Music of the Visual World

With so many people in the world being housebound at the moment due to the covid-19 epidemic, I thought I would put together some playlists for people who love animation as much as I do.

I am starting with the selection that I put together for Nippon Connection in 2018, as most of the films can be found on line. The theme that year was music, so I have included links to the artists whose music features in the animations, so you can also support these musicians by streaming / buying their music during this difficult time of cancelled live events.

The first work in the programme, Moving Colors, is a group project featuring the work of 12 animation creators (aka Taku Team) with each team member representing their favourite colour. The title design is by Taku Furukawa (the Taku of the Team name), experimental animation pioneer and mentor to the professional animators in the team. The team consists of: Takuma Hashitani (orange), Waboku (aka Wataru Nakajima, brown), Hakhyun Kim (purple) Yoshiyuki Kaneko (black), Shiho Morita (red), Moe Koyano (raspberry/turquoise), Yū Tamura (green), Yasuaki Honda (crimson), Yewon Kim (mint), Tomoyoshi Joko (blue) and Hiroco Ichinose (gold).

Moving Colors by TAKU TEAM, 2016

Cosmic by Hiroco ICHINOSE of Decovocal, 2009

How Low Sympathy
by Decovocal / Music by scenarioart, 2014

Slowly Rising
by Hideki INABA / Music by BEATSOFREEN (aka Stan Forebee), 2015

Slowly Rising from kanahebi on Vimeo.

On + On
by Akihiko TANIGUCHI / Music by Cumhur Jay, 2016

Cumhur Jay - On & On - "Dyschronometria" from Akihiko Taniguchi on Vimeo.

The State of Things
by Ryo ORIKASA / Music by Tamaki Roy, 2017

Polly
by Sarina NIHEI / Music by Whitney, 2016

Whitney - Polly (Official Music Video) from Sarina Nihei on Vimeo.

Mad Love
by Ryōji YAMADA / Music by Keita SANO, 2017

La Madrague “Country of Westering Sun” マドラグ（西陽の国）
by Yuki HAYASHI / Music by youcan ゆーきゃん, 2017
- the music video is not available online at the moment, but the song can be streamed

What is available online is an earlier work by Hayashi: his music video for moskitoo's Fragments of a Journey (2014), which screened in my 2015 Nippon Connection selection.

The Synesthesia Ghost
共感覚おばけ
by Atsushi MAKINO / Music by Sasanomaly, 2015

I’ve Got to Take the Laundry In
洗濯物をとりこまなくちゃ
by Naoya SANUKI / Music by Siamese Cats, 2016

Enjoy Music Club
by Whoppers (Naoya SANUKI and Zuck), 2017

Spring Time - Old Man 青春おじいさん
by Hōji TSUCHIYA / Music by Uri NAKAYAMA, 2017

A Long Dream
by Hōji TSUCHIYA, 2016

Oldman Youngman 加賀遼也
by Ryoya KAGA, 2016

lilac (bombs Jun Togawa)
by ONIONSKIN / Music by Vampillia, 2015

Nandaka Mou なんだかもう
by ONIONSKIN / Music by Kidori Kidori, 2016

TO & KYO とうときょう
by Tsuneo GODA, 2017

2020 Cathy Munroe Hotes

04 March 2020

Geidai Animation 11 Neo / 藝大アニメーション11ネオ

This year’s graduating animation class at the Tokyo University of Arts (Geidai) Graduate School of Film and New Media chose “neo” as their theme in a nod to the dawning of Reiwa era. They also liked that in addition to meaning “new”, “neo” indicates “a new rendition of something familiar.” In their introduction to their works, the students speak of both desiring to continue in the path of art traditions that have come before them while moving into the future with something new.

This year only 6 students were able to complete their films in time to graduate in 2020. All but one of the graduates are women and half of them are Chinese. Although I am is disappointed that the 7 other students from this cohort have not yet completed their graduate films, I am hopeful that there is much to look forward to next year because their first year works showed much promise. The 6 graduates each have their own individual styles.

Nianzi Li is my favourite animator of this cohort. Her first year film, When One Talks with a Lemon, is a delightful exploration of the metamorphic possibilities of the medium, but her true strength as an animator comes out in her graduate work Strawberry Candy. Using a pencil crayon drawings, she tells the first person perspective of a pre-school child who is being sexually abused by a family member. The story is told subtlety, slowly giving us the clues to what is really going on beneath the surface. It expertly conveys the confusion of a child who knows that something as wrong but is too young to have the vocabulary or knowledge to call out the behaviour directly. I look forward to more work by this artist.

I also like the work of Caori Murata, whose visual style has been greatly influenced by her studies in France. The use of a white background with a small square of colourful illustration is reminiscent of a paper edition of poésie published by Gallimard. Her works are a kind of animated bricolage.

11th Graduate Works / 第11期生修了作品集

Yoshiro Kawakami (川上喜朗, b. 1993)

A native of Tokyo, Kawakami graduated with a major in Painting from Tokyo Zokei University in 2018 before continuing his studies at Geidai. He explores “the motif of illustrated boys and girls” in his animation, paintings, and illustrations.

Website　k-yoshiro.tumblr.com

Twitter　@KawakamiYoshiro

Instagram　@kawakami_yoshiro

First year work:

Summer Sky Reverie (雲梯/Untei, 2019)

“It’s summer vacation and all the kids in the neighborhood have left to visit relatives. But there in the relentless glare of the sun, is a boy looking up at the sky.” (5 min.)

Graduation work:

Boy with Child (螢火の身ごもり/Hotarubi no Mugomori, 2020)

“A young boy gets pregnant. He suffers through morning sickness and cold stares while facing the new life inside him.” (10 min.)

Nianze Li (李念澤, b. 1995)

Nianze Li was born in China and studied at the Sichuan Fine Art Institute New Media Art Department (2017).

Twitter　@kurikopupu

Instagram　@kuriko_sawa

Vimeo　https://vimeo.com/user69129396

First year film:

When One Talks with a Lemon (レモンと話したら /Remon to Hanashitara, 2019)

“What I say is never what you hear. It's like the printer misaligning the images little by little. This animation work portrays those communication gaps using various techniques including print, digital treatment and collage.” (4 min.)

Graduate film:

Strawberry Candy (いちご飴 / Ichigo ame, 2020)

“She has an unspeakable secret but the memory is gradually fading.

The little girl is no longer sure if it was a dream or reality.” (7 min.)

Yinan Liu (劉軼男, b. 1993)

Yinan Liu is from Tianjin, China. She graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 2015.

Website　https://animaliu031.wixsite.com/yinanliu

Twitter　@LiuynAnima

Instagram　@anima_Liuyn

Vimeo　https://vimeo.com/yinanliu

First year film:

What's that Smell? (においがする / Nioi ga suru, 2019)

“The world is filled with smells -- good smells, nasty smells, nasty but good smells, addictive smells, captivating smells, reminiscent smells, and so many more. What's that smell?” (3 min.)

Graduate film:

The Big Tree in Front of the House (家の前に大きな木がある / Ie no mae ni ōkina ki ga aru, 2020)

“It should have been an ordinary day but it was anything but usual. There was a large crowd in front of my grandma’s house. Where did the people come from and where were they going? I was peering out at them from the window, but the big tree obstructed my view.” (6 min.)

Caori Murata (村田香織, b. 1994)

Murata did her undergraduate study at Musashino Art University, Department of Visual Communication Design (2017). During her MA she studied as an exchange student at ENSAD (École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs) in France.

Website　http://caorimurata.com/

Twitter　@m_caori

Instagram　@caori__mu

Vimeo　https://vimeo.com/caori

Graduate Film:

Our house / Notre maison　(わたしたちの家 / Watashitachi no Ie, 2020)

“Alice goes out and opens doors as she pleases. The houses show her fragments of love that we all long for day to day throughout our lives.” (3 min.)

Sijia Luo (羅絲佳 b. 1993)

website: https://www.sijia-luo.com/

twitter:@roxxxroxxx

Sijia Luo is from Guangdong, China and is a graduate of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (2015). She is inspired by a variety of art forms and describes her film development as experimental with the aim of seeking “liberation from visual language”.

Graduate Film:

I Am a Motif (私はモチーフ/ Watashi wa Mochifu, 2020)

“Realizing how different they are from one another, the three motifs - musical, visual and narrative - start to doubt themselves. But once the melody begins, the musical motif could not resist the impulse to dance and the others follow. Perhaps I, too, am a motif.” (8 min.)

Emari Okayama (丘山絵毬, b. 1992)

Born in Okazaki, Aichi, Okayama graduated with a degree in Aesthetics and Art History from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2015.

Vimeo　https://vimeo.com/emariokay

Graduate Film:

Empty Hands (おうさま・ひめ・ぶた・こじき/ Ousama hime buta kojiki, 2020)

“A mix of life tales in modern Japan where fate is predicted by your name and a fingerplay song. Are the members of this society playing into the hands of some higher being or are they living the life of impermanence?” (7 min.)

If you missed out seeing these works and the works of the first year students in Yokohama last month, you have another chance in Tokyo on from March 20 to 22nd at the Geidai Ueno Campus.

24 May 2019

NC2019 FILM TALK: TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS

Dawn Wind in My Poncho

FILM TALK: TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS
Nippon Connection
Saturday, June 1, 21:30 Mousonturm Studio 3
https://www.nipponconnection.com/program-detail/film-talk-tokyo-university-of-the-arts-en.html

Nippon Connection has asked me host a Film Talk with guests who have a connection to the Graduate School of Film and New Media at the Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai) in Yokohama. Yokohama’s twin city status with Frankfurt am Main has led to our having been able to invite amazing animation guests and films from Geidai since 2013.

Participating in the talk will be this year’s animation guest Ilan Nguyen (イラン・グェン), adjuct professor to the Department of Animation. He is presenting the Tokyo University of the Arts: Animation Shorts on Thursday, May 30th in the Naxoshalle and giving a lecture Remembering Isao Takahata: A Personal View On Post-War Japan’s Most Influential Animation Director on Friday, May 31st in Mousonturm Studio 1.

Two graduates of the Film and New Media graduate programme, Satoru Hirohara (廣原暁) and Natsuki Nakagawa (中川奈月), will also participate in order to give us the student perspective on the institution. Hirohara’s live action feature film Dawn Wind in My Poncho (ポンチョに夜明けの風はらませて / Poncho ni yoake no kaze haramasete, 2017) is having its European premiere at Nippon Connection and is competing for the Nippon Cinema Award.

She is Alone

Nakagawa’s 60-minute feature She is Alone (彼女はひとり/ Kanojo wa hitori, 2018) is screening in the SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-CINEMA FESTIVAL SPECIAL on Thursday, May 30th as one of two award-winning films from last year’s Skip City Festival in Saitama. It is in competition in the Nippon Visions Jury and Audience Awards.

This event is sponsored by The City of Yokohama Frankfurt Representative Office and the Referat für Internationale Angelegenheiten der Stadt Frankfurt am Main.

2019 Cathy Munroe Hotes

23 May 2019

Hiroyasu Ishida at Nippon Connection 2019

Studio Colorido
https://colorido.co.jp/

One of the animation highlights at Nippon Connection this year is presence of the rising star of the anime world, Hiroyasu “tete” Ishida (石田祐康, b. 1988). The festival will be the German premiere of Ishida’s debut feature anime Penguin Highway (ペンギン・ハイウェイ, 2018). They will also be showing a selection of his animated short films. After the screening of his shorts, Ishida will be participating in a film talk.

Originally from Aichi Prefecture, Ishida studied animation at Kyoto Seika University where he was mentored by the legendary anime director Gisaburo Sugii (Night on the Galactic Railroad, The Life of Guskou Budori). While a student at Kyoto Seika, Ishida’s amusing short film Fumiko’s Confession (2009) became an online sensation. It went on to win many awards around the world including the Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival. This was followed by his more introspective graduate film rain town (2011) which was also met with acclaim and won Ishida the New Face Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival.

In 2011, together with producer Hideo Uda, Ishida co-founded Studio Colorido in Tokyo, where he made more short works before taking on the challenge of his first feature film. Penguin Highway (2018) won the Axis: Satoshi Kon Award for Excellence in Animation at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montréal. It also earned Ishida a nomination for Best Animated Feature Film at the Japanese Academy Awards.

PENGUIN HIGHWAY
ペンギン・ハイウェイ
Friday, May 31, 19:30 Mal Seh’n Kino → Buy tickets
Saturday, June 1, 11:30 Mousonturm Saal
Japan 2018, 118’, Japanese with German subtitles
https://www.nipponconnection.com/program-detail/penguin-highway-en.html

HIROYASU ISHIDA: ANIMATION SHORTS
Sunday, June 2, 15:00 Naxoshalle Kino
Japanese with English subtitles
https://www.nipponconnection.com/program-detail/hiroyasu-ishida-animation-shorts-en.html

Fumiko’s Confession
フミコの告白
Fumiko no Kokuhaku
by Hiroyasu ISHIDA, 2009, 2:22

rain town
by Hiroyasu ISHIDA, 2011, 9’55”

Sonny Boy & Dewdrop Girl
陽なたのアオシグレ
Hinata no Aoshigure
by Hiroyasu ISHIDA, 2013, 17’58”

Fastening Days
by Hiroyasu ISHIDA, 2014, 11’12”

Paulette’s Chair
ポレットのイス
Poulette no Isu
by Hiroyasu ISHIDA, 2014, 4’01”

2019 Cathy Munroe Hotes

22 May 2019

NC2019: Tokyo University of the Arts Animation

Nippon Connection
Tokyo University of the Arts: Animation Shorts
Thursday, May 30, 12:00
Naxoshalle Kino → Learn More

Once again, Nippon Connection will be screening a selection of recent films by students of the Graduate Programme in Animation at Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai). Since opening the department in 2008, Geidai has produced top quality animated shorts and launched or boosted the careers of many artists. These year’s selection will be presented by Ilan Nguyen who is an adjunct instructor to the Department of Animation at Tokyo University of the Arts. Nguyen is well known in the international animation community, particularly in his native France and his adopted home of Japan, as an animation expert and historian. He also works as an interpreter for many prominent Japanese animation figures when they visit France and as a cultural programme coordinator for festivals and exhibitions. On Friday, June 31st at 13:30 in Mousonturm Studio 1, Nguyen will also be giving a memorial talk Remembering Isao Takahata: A Personal View on Post-War Japan’s Most Influential Animation Director.