The Old Man and the Sea (老人と海/Rōjin to Umi, 1999) was the first of two times that the Noburō Ōfuji Award for innovation in animation has been won by a non-Japanese director.  This Russian-Canadian-Japanese co-production qualified for the award because it was co-produced by Japanese companies.  One key figure among the Japanese producers is the animator Tatsuo Shimamura, president of his own studio Shirogumi, and professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design.  Shimamura had won the Noburō Ōfuji Award one year previously for the Shirogumi animated shorts Water Spirit (水の精/Mizu no sei, 1998) and Kappa Hyakuzu (河童百図, 1998).  Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, most independent animators in Russia have had to look to international co-productions in order to finance their work.  In addition to support from Japan, the creative team at Montréal’s  Pascal Blais Studio (Pascal Blais and Bernard Lajoie) were at the heart of this production, and went on to collaborate with Petrov on many commercial projects. 

At the time of the production of this film, the Russian director Aleksandr Petrov (アレクサンドル・ペトロフ, b.1957), had long been admired by fellow animators and animation fans around the world for his superior paint-on-glass animation films.  This involves the painting of a picture and photographing it, then erasing/altering the picture to make the next frame.  This under the camera animation technique requires a great level of skill and planning, because once a scene is started it cannot be corrected.  There have been few practitioners of paint-on-glass, with Petrov being top of the list alongside Vladimir Samsonov (Russia), Caroline Leaf (USA), Georges Schwizgebel (Switzerland) and Witold Giersz (Poland).

Petrov’s Adaptation

Petrov began his adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s popular novel The Old Man and the Sea with a detailed storyboard.  According to a short documentary Petrov made about his techniques as an animator, he had his father (Nikolai Sergeievich) dress up in the role of the “Old Man”, Santiago, and re-enact the movements Santiago would make in the boat.  His son Dima filmed the re-enactment and this footage was used as a reference in the studio.   

Awards and Honours

In addition to the Noburō Ōfuji Award, The Old Man and the Sea won the Oscar for Best Animated Short for 1999, the Grand Prix and Audience Award at Annecy, the Jutra Award for Best Animated Film (top film prize in Québec), and a Special Prize at Hiroshima (2000).  The film additionally won top prizes at the Montréal World Festival, the San Diego International Film Fesitival, Krok, Zagreb, to name but a selection of honours.

Geidai Animation: 1^st Animation Works 2010

東京藝術大学大学院映像研究科アニメーション専攻

第一期生修了作品集2010

The Graduate School of Film and New Media at Tokyo University of the Arts (aka Geidai) began its 2-Year Animation MA Programme in 2008.  Their first graduating class of eleven students was in 2010 and in this year they inaugurated what has now become a tradition of holding a screening event at the end of the school year (March) and releasing a DVD showcasing their student works.  The students share the copyright of their films with the university.  In return, the university promotes their student works at festivals around the world.  

The class of 2010 was taught by Professors Yuichi Ito (Model Animation), Mitsuko Okamoto (Production), Takehito Deguchi (Screenwriting), and Koji Yamamura (2D animation).  Assistant Professors were animators Hiromitsu Murakami, Sayaka Omodaka and Arisa Wakami and lecturers Ilan Nguyen, Yuichi Kishino, and Eiji Otsuka. 

With this first graduating class, Geidai set the bar high for itself accepting only the cream of the crop of applicants to their programme.  Following in the footsteps of their mentors, many of the graduating animators of 2010 have gone on to win top prizes at both domestic and international festivals.   The biggest success story so far has been Atsushi Wada whose graduate film In a Pig's Eye (2010) was nominated at Zagreb, Annecy, Hiroshima, and Ottawa, and won the Best Film at Fantoche, and the Grand Prix at the London International Animation Film Festival.   He then went on to win the prestigious Silver Bear at the Berlinale with The Great Rabbit (2012).  Other top animators to win the Silver Bear include Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart in 1956 for Rhythmetic, Paul Driessen in 1981 for On Land, at Sea and in the Air, and Ishu Patel in 1985 for Paradise.

The female animators of this inaugural graduating year are also outstanding.  In the tradition of Caroline Leaf and Aleksandr Petrov, Saori Shiroki has been making a name for herself with her monochrome paint-on-glass animation.  Aico Kitamura's Getting Dressed is an excellent film and I am impatient to see more work from this budding artist.

The cover art for the DVD is illustrated by Yoshiko Misumi and Aico Kitamura.  The opening trailer is directed by   Hiromitsu Murakami.  The DVD comes with a booklet of film descriptions and animator bios.  The DVD itself includes the 11 graduating works in Japanese and English.  Unless otherwise noted, the film descriptions below are from the booklet.  I have included links to the full reviews that I have written for some of the films.  The bios have been updated with the most current information I could find.  Links to official websites and social media have also been included.    

Yotsuya Alpha Beta

四ッ谷いろは / Yotsuya Iroha / 2010年 / 6'32"

“The Yotsuya Alphabet story tells of a girl caught in a surreal world with the use of Japanese characters.  The story is about the girl who lives in the town called Yotsuya and wanders around the surreal world.  Eventually she melts down and becomes a part of the Yotsuya town.  Is the town real or only her imagination?”

Nana Anzai (安西奈々, b. 1985) is from Hiroshima.  She did her BA at Tama Art University (2008) and graduated from Geidai in 2010.  Follow her on Twitter @nananna7 or YouTube.

The Gift of the Magi

賢者の贈り物/ Kenja no Okurimono / 2010年/ 12'48"

“This is a story about Jim, an apprentice magician, and Della, his wife, on Christmas Day.  Della has her beautiful and long hair cut off and sells it in order to buy him a present that is a chain made for his gold watch.  In the evening, Jim reaches home, but is stunned to see her look so different.”

Toshikazu Ishii (石井寿和, b. 1984) is from Chiba.  He did his BA at Waseda University and graduated from Geidai in 2010.  Ishii teaches how to make stop motion figures using armature at Otomeru alongside Keita Funamoto and Masahide Kobayashi.  See him teaching armature on Otomoru’s website.  Learn more about Keita Funamoto in Stop Motion Magazine (February 2011, Issue #10). 

Gathering

収集家の散歩/ Shūshūka no Sambo  / 2010年 /  6'13"

“A day and a collector’s stroll.  He goes out from his apartment for a stroll in the park.  He walks and sees things in the park unintentionally and these are gathered in his mind one after another.  How do we memorize things in an ordinary life?  Our mind is like a scrapbook, gathered and stuffed with mess.”

Akiko Omi (大見明子, b. 1977) is from Nara.  She has a BA (Hons) in Theatre, Set Design for Stage and Screen from Wimbledon College of Art (UAL, 2004).  After working as a modeller at an animation studio, Omi pursued her MA at Geidai (2010).  She won the Yōji Kuri Award at the ASK? Film Festival in 2010 and has shown her work at international festivals and galleries.  Check out her official website for samples of her work or follow her on Twitter @AkikoOmi.

Getting Dressed

服を着るまで/ Fuku wo kirumade / 2010年 / 9'17"

“This woman has detached herself from the outside world.  For her, it is daily work to feed her bird and to look at the town from her window.  Because she doesn’t go out, she does not even put on clothes.  However, this daily life has ended.  She has run out of the cornflakes that she eats every day. As we get up in the morning and put on clothes, we are alive in a social system.  Nobody understands whether it is the correct world.  However, even if you escape from the system, the day you have to return will come.”

Read my full review of Getting Dressed

Aico Kitamura (北村愛子, b. 1985) was born in Kyoto.  While a student at Kyoto Seika University she discovered the world of independent animation and graduated with a degree in Graphic Arts.  She completed her MA at Geidai in 2010.   Check out her official website and follow her on Twitter. @Aico_kitamura.

Woman who stole fingers

指を盗んだ女 / Yubi wo nusunda onna / 2010年 / 4'15"

“One day, a boy who separated from his mother’s hand is deprived of his fingers.  His fingers become a larva and part from his hand.  The house. .  .  conceal[s] a relationship between the two from anyone.  How does the boy who is deprived of his finger[s] grow up?”

Read my full review of Woman who stole fingers

Saori Shiroki (銀木沙織, b. 1984) was born in Saitama.  She did her BA in Oil Painting at Tama Art University (2007) followed by an MA in Animation at Geidai (2010).  She is a member of CALF Studio and has made a name for herself at international festivals as a paint-on-glass animator.  Follow her on vimeo.

Bring Me Up

つままれるコマ / Tsumamareru Koma / 2010年 / 6'40"

“Almost everyone in a contemporary society is picked up and moved by someone or something like a ‘Sugoroku’.  The first one which picks up is ‘Parents’.  A hero grows up along a ‘Sugoroku’.  This work describes.  .  .  the process of his growth [as] he depends on his parents.  .  .  One day he decides to cut off his relationship with his family.” 

Bring Me Up received a special mention at Animafest Zagreb 2010.

Miki Tanaka (田中美妃, b. 1982) is from Tokyo.  She has a BA in Design from Geidai (2004) in addition to her MA in Animation (2010).  Tanaka is a partner of CALF Studio and works as an independent animator.  Check out her official website to see samples of her recent work.

anti-chaos

強迫的な秩序についてのカエル / Kyōhakuteki na Chitsujo ni Tsuite no Kaeru / 2010年 / 4'05"

“It’s a story about a frog who is eager to make his companions stand [in] a line.  He is the only one who wears an armlet, and has a [slightly] different skin colour from the other frogs.  This work focuses on the relationship between the ‘rulers’ and ‘ruled ones’, and describes the consequences of some unexpected events.”

Shino Nagasako (永迫志乃, b.1983) was born in Hiroshima.  He has a BA in Graphic Design from Tama Art University (2007) and an MA in Animation from Geidai (2010).  His graduate film from Tamabi, The Kitty and the Pony (ネコの人とウマの人, 2007) won an Excellence Prize at the 2^nd Annual Charanime-kobo Movie Contest (2007).   Learn more about him on his official website and check out his work on vimeo.

CLIMBER

2010年 / 5'49"

“Climbers are try to conquer an endless stone pillar.  Each one of them keeps on climbing They are the symbols of accumulation.” Source: Anima Mundi catalogue

Akifumi Nonaka (野中晶史, b. 1985) is from Shizuoka.  He has a BA in Design and Architecture from Nagoya City University and an MA in Animation from Geidai (2010).  He freelances as an independent animator.  Check out his official website and follow him on twitter @noakitw and Youtube.  His most recent indie short is called The Rush Hour Commuters (通勤ラッシャーズ, 2013).

PapA

2010年 / 3'45"

“When there are light sources and objects, shadows can sure there.  .  .  There is an object blocking the light.  .  .  The shadow is proof [that the object is there].  If the shadow [disappears], you should think that the object ha[s] disappeared.  It is the only reality.”

Kumi Matsui (松井久美, b. 1985) was born in Tokyo.  She has a BA in Animation from Tokyo Polytechnic University (2008) and an MA in Animation from Geidai (2010).  Her film Wild Pear (やまなし, 2009) won the Grand Prize at the Media Contents Awards (2009).  Follow her on twitter @kumimaru.

Googuri Googuri

2010年 / 8'22"

“Story of a girl’s imagination.  ‘Googuri Googuri’ is a made up word, a secret word shared by a girl and her grandfather.  For the granddaughter, her grandfather is at times like a mountain, at times like a tree, at other times like an ocean, and her thoughts take wing into her imagination endlessly.”  

Yoshiko Misumi (三角芳子, b. 1978) was born in Fukuoka.  She has a degree in Textiles from Geidai in addition to her MA in Animation (2010).  Her animated short for the NHK A Tale of a Carefree King (王さまものがたり, 2007) made the Jury Selection at the Japan Media Arts Festival (2007).  Googuri Googuri competed in international festivals and won the top prize at the ASK? Film Festival 2010.  Check out her official website.

In a Pig's Eye

わからないブタ / Wakaranai Buta / 2010年 / 10'00"

“[A] surreal snapshot of the life of a family, and the giant pig blocking their front door.” – MIFF catalogue

Read my full review of In a Pig’s Eye

Atsushi Wada (和田淳, b. 1980) is from Hyogo Prefecture.  He started off as a self-taught animator in 2002 and did the Animation Workshop at Image Forum before doing his MA at Geidai (2010).  Wada is the most successful graduate of the first graduating class winning awards at many festivals including the top awards at Fantoche and the London International Animation Festival.  The Mechanism of Spring (2010) premiered at the Venice Film Festival and The Great Rabbit (2012) won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale.  Wada is a founding member of CALF.  Check out his official website and follow him on twitter @Atsushi_Wada.  In addition to working as an independent animator he currently teaches at Otemae University in Hyogo. 

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2014

The year of the dragon got off to a blazing start with the experimental filmmaker Isamu Hirabayashi winning the Noburo Ofuji Award for innovation in animation in January for his contemplative film 663114 (2011) which was inspired by the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster of March 2011.  Then in February, Atsushi Wada’s French-Japanese co-production The Great Rabbit (2012) won a Silver Bear at the Berlinale.  Wada’s Mechanism of Spring (2010) also won for best short film at Anifest 2012 .  It was a great pleasure for me to have Wada as a guest at Nippon Connection in Frankfurt in the spring.  Other notable successes in 2012 (too many to list in full here!) included Mirai Mizue’s Modern No. 2 (2011) winning the Sacem award for original music at Annecy and Yoriko Mizushiri’s Futon (2012) winning the Renzō Kinoshita Prize at Hiroshima.

There were also a number of notable international animation events involving Japanese animators this year.  I had the privilege of attending the tribute to Kihachirō Kawamoto and Yuri Norstein at the Forum des Images in Paris in March.  A number of  top Japanese animators took part in Animafest Zagreb’s celebration of its 40^th anniversary this year which included a retrospective of the career of experimental animation pioneer Yōji Kuri who was honoured with the Animafest Lifetime Achievement Award.  Kōji Yamamura designed the poster for the Ottawa International Animation Festival and gave master classes in the UK and France in November (see Zewebanim’s interview with him – FR/JP only).

Things have been quieter than usual on Nishikata Film Review the past few months due to my teaching commitments and some upheavals in my personal life (I don’t recommend moving house a month before Christmas!), but the weird and wonderful world of independent animation in Japan has been stronger than ever.  Here is my list of the best independently made animation shorts that I have seen this year:

The Great Rabbit (グレートラビット, Atsushi Wada, 2012)

In addition to the Silver Bear, this film has brought Wada recognition at festivals around the world from Fantoche to Hiroshima.  Read review.

Muybridge’s Strings (マイブリッジの糸, Kōji Yamamura, 2011)

Yamamura’s Deleuzian exploration of movement and time hit the festival scene in 2011 and I finally got an opportunity to see it when it came to Nippon Connection.  Now available on DVD and bluray in Canada as part of the NFB’s Animation Express 2 and on a bluray of its own in Japan.  Read review.  Additionally in 2011, Yamamura made a watercolour animation Anthology with Cranes (鶴下絵和歌巻) which aired on NHK BSPremium.  Take a look at this beautiful image from it.

Wonder 365 Animation Project (Mirai Mizue, 2012-13)

The ever prolific Mizue has set himself a big challenge this year: a new short animated film every day for 365 days.  Check it out on Vimeo.  His film Modern No. 2 (Mirai Mizue, 2011) is also one of my favourites seen this year.  Read the review.  If that weren't enough, he also did a fascinating series called Kubrick in February where he explores geometric animation further.  See the playlist.

663114 (Isamu Hirabayashi, 2011)

A profound response to the nuclear disaster of March 2011 from the perspective of a cicada. .  .  read more.

PiKA PiKA Sunlight Doodling Project (TOCHKA, 2011-present)

In the wake of the March 2011 earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster, TOCHKA started to rethink their methods of animation in terms of renewable energy.  As a result, they adapted their PiKA PiKA lightening animation (see my review of their DVD) from using battery-powered flashlights to harnessing the power of the sun.  See the trailer for their project above. 

WWF 100% Renewable Energy (Amica Kubo, 2012)

This adorable animation was sponsored by WWF Japan as part of their campaign to move Japan away from nuclear energy and towards the use of renewable energy.  Kubo first made a name for herself with her 2006 animated short with Seita Inoue called Bloomed Words.

Kiya Kiya (きやきや, Akino Kondoh, 2010-11)

Another rare animation by New York City-based painter and mangka Akino Kondoh featuring her mysterious alter ego Eiko.  Read more.

Two Tea Two (Hiroco Ichinose, 2010)

One half of the husband and wife animation team Decovocal, Ichinose's films are a wonderful blend of surrealism and humour in the tradition of her mentor Taku Furukawa --- read more about this film.

Holiday (ホリディ, Ryō Hirano, 2011)

One of my great discoveries this year was the work of young animator Hirano who has been making films for several years now.  Learn about him in my piece The Curious Animated World of Ryo Hirano and my review of Holiday.

Shiroki brings her melancholic aesthetic to a recently released music video for the band Matsyoshka featuring trak maker Sen and female vocalist Calu. To learn more about Shiroki see my series on her films.

Beluga (ベルーガ, Shin Hashimoto, 2011)

A nightmarish tale of a young woman's suffering and abuse brought to life.  A modern interpretation of Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Match Girl".  A bloody world filled with senseless violence - not for the faint of heart.

Sound of Life (生活の音, Shiho Hirayama, 2010)

Hirayama experiments with three dimensionality and claymation in this colourful short.  (A cheerful antidote to a screening of Hashimoto's Beluga.)   Read more.  

---------------

I am very excited about promising animation that I expect to see released in 2013.  Kei Oyama’s After School got crowd-sourced through CampFire in January and I know of a few other exciting projects underway at the moment.  In the world of indie anime, I was delighted that Masaaki Yuasa and Production I.P.’s Kick-Heart exceeded its funding goals.  Anime director Keiichi Hara, who has also turned to more independent work in recent years (Summer Days with Coo, Colorful), is trying out a new path altogether by directing his first live action feature film for Shochiku.  It is a biopic called Hajimari no Michi (はじまりのみち) about the life of filmmaking legend Keisuke Kinoshita (1912-98) with Ryō Kase (Letters from Iwo Jima, Like Someone in Love, Outrage) in the lead role.  Kon Ichikawa began as an animator (see: Shinsetsu Kachi Kachi Yama) and turned into one of the greatest feature film directors of the 20^th century, so it will interesting to see what kind of a film Hara produces.

Where: Skip City, Saitama

When: June 2 – July 22, 2012

Last weekend saw the opening of a Koji Yamamura exhibition at Skip City in Saitama Prefecture.  The centerpiece of the event is Yamamura’s co-production with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) Muybridge’s Strings (2011).  Muybridge’s Strings is playing with a selection of Yamamura’s top films from his early work for children Karo and Piyobupt: Imagination (1993), to his most recent short short Anthology with Cranes (2011) which is inspired by a 17^th century scroll painting by Tawaraya Sōtatsu.  Click on film titles for individual reviews.

Selected Works by Koji Yamamura

Karo and Piyobupt: Imagination (カロとピヨブプト-あめのひ, 1993)

Kid’s Castle (キッズキャッスル, 1995)

Mt. Head (頭山, 2002)

The Old Crocodile (年をとった鰐, 2005)

Fig（無花果, 2006) from Tokyo Loop

A Child’s Metaphysics (こどもの形而上学,2007)

Muybridge’s Strings (マイブリッジの糸, 2011)

Anthology with Cranes (鶴下絵和歌巻, 2011)

In addition, Yamamura has curated a selection of some of top NFB animated shorts past and present. 

Selected NFB Works

Canon (カノン, 1964)

by Norman McLaren and Grant Munro (ノーマン・マクラレン、グラント・マンロー)

Mindscape / Le paysagiste (心象風景, 1976)

by Jacques Drouin (ジャック・ドゥルーアン)

               

The Bead Game (ビーズゲーム, 1977)

by Ishu Patel (イシュ・パテル)

               

Jeu (技, 2006)  

by Georges Schwitzgebel (ジョルジュ・シュヴィッツゲベル)

Wild Life (ワイルド ライフ, 2011)      

by Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby (アマンダ・フォービス、ウェンディ・ティルビー)

The exhibition also features original illustrations and storyboards.  The event runs until July 22^nd.

Muybridge's Strings is being released on Blu-ray in Japan in August.

Order the Flip Books today:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Timbre A-Z (Mirai Mizue, 2011)

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

Shunga (Keiichi Tanaami + Nobuhiro Aihara, 2009)

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

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

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

Tatamp (Mirai Mizue, 2010)

A Gum Boy (くちゃお, Masaki Okuda, 2010)

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

Steps (Tochka, 2010)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Midori-ko (Keita Kurosaka, 2010)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wishing you all Joy and Prosperity in 2012,  Cathy