This guide to anime offers an overview of the art form, looking at its development in Japan and its export to other cultures. It includes a history of Japanese animation from early examples to the relaunch of animation as a viable commercial entity and its enormous rise in popularity after World War II. The difference between manga and anime is explained, and a brief history of manga is offered, including its development from traditional art form (woodblock prints) to massive commercial success with millions of readers in Japan and worldwide. Odell and Le Blanc also consider anime style and genres, its market and importance in Japanese culture, and its perception in the West, including controversy, such as criticisms of sex and violence in anime that affect other national markets, including the UK (notably Urotsukidoji) and the U.S.
This guide to anime offers an overview of the art form, looking at its development in Japan and its export to other cultures. It includes a history of Japanese animation from early examples to the relaunch of animation as a viable commercial entity and its enormous rise in popularity after World War II. The difference between manga and anime is explained, and a brief history of manga is offered, including its development from traditional art form (woodblock prints) to massive commercial success with millions of readers in Japan and worldwide. Odell and Le Blanc also consider anime style and genres, its market and importance in Japanese culture, and its perception in the West, including controversy, such as criticisms of sex and violence in anime that affect other national markets, including the UK (notably Urotsukidoji) and the U.S.
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Overview
This guide to anime offers an overview of the art form, looking at its development in Japan and its export to other cultures. It includes a history of Japanese animation from early examples to the relaunch of animation as a viable commercial entity and its enormous rise in popularity after World War II. The difference between manga and anime is explained, and a brief history of manga is offered, including its development from traditional art form (woodblock prints) to massive commercial success with millions of readers in Japan and worldwide. Odell and Le Blanc also consider anime style and genres, its market and importance in Japanese culture, and its perception in the West, including controversy, such as criticisms of sex and violence in anime that affect other national markets, including the UK (notably Urotsukidoji) and the U.S.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781842435861 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Oldcastle Books |
| Publication date: | 04/01/2014 |
| Pages: | 160 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.60(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Anime
By Colin Odell, Michelle Le Blanc
Oldcastle Books
Copyright © 2013 Colin Odell & Michelle Le BlancAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84243-586-1
CHAPTER 1
KEY ANIME CREATORS
This section aims to provide brief biographies and overviews of the works of ten key anime directors. With reluctance, some great talents such as Matsumoto Leiji, Tomino Yoshiyuki, Sugii Gisaburo, Dezaki Osamu and Kawajiri Yoshiaki, amongst others, have not been included, due to a lack of space. However, we have tried to include some of their important works within the review section of the book.
TEZUKA OSAMU (1928–89)
'The best part is being able to make things up ...'
If there is one single person who has influenced the enormous success of both anime and manga it has to be Tezuka Osamu. His distinctive style, storytelling ability and innovative approach to characterisation resulted in him becoming known throughout Japan as the God of Manga.
Born in Osaka prefecture in 1928, Tezuka grew up in Takarazuka City, which was famous for the Takarazuka Revue, an all-female theatre troupe renowned for its romantic musicals (the male roles are taken by actresses, the otokoyaku), and Tezuka visited the revue on many occasions. Their performances would be hugely influential on his work. He grew up in a happy environment for, although he was bullied at school for having unusually curly hair, he received support from his family, which helped develop his confidence. Naturally creative, he loved telling stories and started drawing comics whilst still at elementary school. During the Second World War he developed ringworm and became seriously ill. Inspired to become a doctor, he started training at medical college but couldn't escape his love of drawing. So he joined the Kansai Comic Artists' Club where he was asked by fellow member, Sakai Shichima, to create a comic based on one of his stories. This was New Treasure Island and was published as an akahon. It led – eventually – to Kato Kenichi, Tokyo-based editor of Manga Shonen magazine, giving the young artist his first professional break as a mangaka, producing a serial featuring a lion cub called Leo. Jungle Emperor (Jungle Taitei) ran from 1950 to 1954. Tezuka's next creation, Astro Boy, his most famous character, started its manga run in 1952. Its success led to Tezuka, who had recently graduated from medical school and was commuting regularly between Osaka and Tokyo, having to decide where his future lay – manga or medicine? A fully qualified doctor, he was advised by his mother to choose what he really wanted to do, and decided upon manga. He didn't neglect medicine entirely, though; he created the character Black Jack (1973–83), a mysterious and highly skilled surgeon.
'This is the way my ideas work. An interesting idea emerges through crazy combinations.'
Tezuka was an innovator with both his character design and storytelling. A visual feature that many newcomers to manga and anime first notice is that the characters often have unusually large eyes – they are often kawaii (cute). Tezuka pioneered this approach to character design because he recognised the extent to which large eyes can more easily convey emotion. And, actually, he was inspired by Western characters such as Betty Boop and Mickey Mouse. Early on in his career he developed a star system, whereby he would rate his protagonists, noting their characteristics and allowing them to make cameo appearances in other stories. He also adopted the visual language of the movies, borrowing from composition and editing techniques, to tell his stories in a dynamic and exciting style. He was heavily influenced by the European films he watched in his youth and used cinematic techniques, including close-ups and unusual angles, to capture the expressions and emotions of the characters.
But, importantly, Tezuka was also a pioneer of anime. He started out working for Toei studios, but set up his own animation company, Mushi Productions in 1961 (the name derived from the kanji character for 'insect' from which he derived his pen-name, reflecting his life-long fascination with the creatures). Many of his manga creations made the transition to the small screen, including Astro Boy, Jungle Emperor and Princess Knight (1967–68), the story of a princess who has to pretend to be male in order to ascend the throne. Mushi Productions also produced anime from other authors' source material. Quick to recognise that the format was not only suitable for children, the company produced a number of anime targeted at older audiences. Ashita no Joe told the story of a delinquent who made it big in boxing. Adult anime, which didn't balk on the depiction of sex, could be found in Arabian Nights and Cleopatra.
One of Tezuka's long-running works was Buddha (1972–83), an interpretation of the life and spiritual journey of Indian prince Siddhartha, who becomes 'the Enlightened One', Gautama Buddha. A lengthy manga of over 14 volumes, it was an occasionally unsentimental portrayal of a historic character, and made the transition to anime only recently, in 2011. Tezuka's magnum opus was Phoenix (Hi no Tori [1956–89]), a manga more than 30 years in the making which remains uncompleted. The primary theme of this series of interconnected standalone stories was that of reincarnation, the blood of the titular bird thought to contain the secret to immortality. Phoenix was adapted into two anime films and an OVA in the 1980s, and a TV series in 2004.
Just after the war Tezuka was beaten up by a bunch of GIs from the American forces occupying Japan. He never really understood why this happened, other than to recognise that understanding people came from being able to communicate with them. Perhaps this experience explains why his stories are so human. As well as his ability to create comic characters and comedy stories, he was also strongly aware of manga and anime's power to convey all human emotion – anger, fear, hatred, joy – and he wasn't afraid to conclude his stories on a downbeat note. Combining a remarkable imagination and unique storytelling ability, as well as a profound understanding of genre, it is easy to see how he became so influential and so revered. Tezuka died in 1989, aged 60.
TAKAHATA ISAO (B 1935)
Although not as revered outside Japan as his Studio Ghibli co-founder Miyazaki Hayao, Takahata Isao is a director whose stories are often set in the real world with occasional forays into the fantastical. His body of work encompasses all human emotions but he combines this with a strong need to experiment with the animated form. He decided to become an animator when he saw the French animation Le Roi et l'oiseau (started 1948, completed 1980) and was impressed by the artistic possibilities that animation afforded. He started his career at Toei studios, where the animation department was run rather like a factory and the artists working there formed a strong union. It was through union activities that Takahata met fellow animator Miyazaki Hayao. Initially working on TV anime, Takahata's debut feature was the groundbreaking Horus: Prince of the Sun (Taiyo no Oji: Horusu no Daiboken [1968]), a mythological tale with a strong socialist subtext, about a boy on a quest to re-forge a magical sword that will save his village from an evil sorcerer. Unfortunately, it failed to ignite the box office, he was demoted and eventually left Toei. He worked on TV anime for several years (sometimes collaborating with Miyazaki) on anime such as Heidi, Girl of the Alps (1971), Anne of Green Gables (1979) and the delightfully brash Chie the Brat (Jarinko Chie [1981]). Takahata's directorial skills really came to the fore in the charming Goshu the Cellist (1982), a feature film based on the novel by Miyazawa Kenji, one of Japan's most beloved novelists. It tells the story of Goshu, the worst musician in his orchestra, who improves his technique with the help of local animals. Despite the anthropomorphism of the animals, which has the potential to appear tacky, Goshu is actually a delightful little film that is beautifully animated.
After Takahata was invited to co-found Studio Ghibli, his first feature for that company was the haunting World War Two story, Grave of the Fireflies (1988), one of cinema's most heart-rending experiences. It tells the tale of a brother and sister trying to survive the last few months of the war, following the bombing of Kobe. It was released as a double bill with Miyazaki's delightful My Neighbour Totoro and won international critical acclaim. Only Yesterday (1991), derived from Okamoto Hotaru and Tone Yuko's nostalgic josei manga, sees an office lady, Taeko, taking a holiday with her relatives in the countryside and looking back on her life as a schoolgirl in the 1960s, comparing her present lifestyle with the Japan of her childhood. As a drama about growing up it contrasts modern cosmopolitan city life with rural living. It could have worked just as well as a live-action piece, but this is one of anime's strengths – it is unrestricted in scope and filmmakers can ensure that they have total control over their art; in this case recreating the everyday rather than the fantastical. But fantastical sources can serve as metaphors for the most human of stories, as is the case with Takahata's next film Pom-Poko (1994), which features tanuki (raccoon dogs) that metamorphose into human form in order to save their forest home from destruction. Takahata's last film to date was My Neighbours the Yamadas (1999), a series of sketches based upon Ishii Hisaichi's yonkoma manga (a four-panel comic strip similar to, say, Peanuts or Dilbert) – a difficult format to convert to feature film, although not without precedent. Following the exploits of a somewhat dysfunctional family, this is a comedy which revels in its depiction of Japanese life. With cultural references aplenty, including traditional stories re-imagined for the Yamadas and scenes interspersed with haiku from famous poets, it also uses innovative animation techniques to mimic the feel of being drawn directly on paper.
Takahata received his degree in French Literature from the University of Tokyo in 1959 and has, in recent years, combined his love of animation with his linguistic skills to translate a number of French animations into Japanese, including, of course, Le Roi et l'oiseau.
MIYAZAKI HAYAO (B 1941)
Perhaps the best known of all anime directors, Miyazaki Hayao's films are admired all over the world for their breathtaking artistry and engaging storylines. Not only are they huge box-office hits (they are amongst the most financially successful non-English-language films of all time), they are also critically acclaimed. Miyazaki is absolutely uncompromising when it comes to realising his artistic vision. His films are childlike in their quest for wonder and discovery – wonderful flights of imagination that are suitable for everyone.
Miyazaki's career in anime began in 1963, when he started working for Toei after graduating in political science and economics from Gakushuin University. He met Takahata Isao at Toei and they worked on a number of productions together, including Horusu: Prince of the Sun, before moving to other studios. Miyazaki worked on some of the World Masterpiece Theater productions as well as the TV series Future Boy Conan (1978).
Miyazaki's big break came when he was asked to direct a feature film spin-off of Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), a rip-roaring adventure, full of fast-paced action and slapstick comedy. It featured roguish hero Arsène Lupin, accompanied by an assortment of sidekicks, who attempts to break into a virtually impregnable castle to source the origin of forged banknotes. Although The Castle of Cagliostro was a hit, Miyazaki returned to working for television, filling the time between projects by developing a science-fiction manga, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, on an ad hoc basis for Animage magazine. The comic proved immensely popular and eventually Animage's parent company agreed to finance a feature film based on the still incomplete work.
Nausicaä was a huge success and it paved the way for Miyazaki to establish his own animation studio – Studio Ghibli – with Takahata and producer Suzuki Toshio. The aim was to free them of the artistic constraints imposed by the big studios. Ghibli's first film was Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986), a tale loosely inspired by Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Featuring islands in the sky, giant robots, plundering pirates, evil villains and a sweet burgeoning relationship between the young protagonists, it is a marvellous adventure story. Miyazaki followed this with his masterpiece My Neighbour Totoro, a delightful fantasy about two little girls who befriend a woodland spirit. Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) told the tale of a young witch, one in a long line of Miyazaki's plucky and cheerful heroines, who, according to witch tradition, has to leave home with her talking cat Jiji, to begin her training. She starts a business delivering parcels on her broomstick, using her prodigious flying skills, in the town where she decides to settle. A coming-of-age film, it's about a young girl finding the confidence to make a life for herself. Porco Rosso (1992), a film about a flying pig who used to be a man, celebrates Miyazaki's lifelong love of aviation. Set in the Mediterranean in the 1930s it is reminiscent of Hemingway combined with Hollywood war movies of the 1930s and 1940s. But with a primarily porcine protagonist.
Princess Mononoke (1998) was a much more mature film and had a darker tone. An eco-fable set during a time when the gods roamed amongst the people, it follows the quest of a young man to discover the cause of a sickness that is afflicting his lands. The spirits range from the hordes of tiny ghostly kodama to the mighty and majestic Shingami, the deer god. Miyazaki constructs a complex political picture of the times, highlighting the conflicts between human industrial development and the need to respect the environment (and its spirits). Powerful and sophisticated viewing, it was the biggest box-office hit in Japan until it was surpassed by Miyazaki's next film – Spirited Away (2001).
Miyazaki had vowed to retire from directing on a number of occasions, as a result of the long hours and painstaking work involved with realising his visions, but he returned to make Howl's Moving Castle (2004), adapted from the book by Diana Wynne Jones. It follows the story of cheerful milliner Sophie, who is turned into an old woman by the wicked Witch of the Waste following a brief encounter with narcissistic wizard Howl, in a world on the brink of war. Like Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle is a very human film about identity and acceptance; how lives can be turned upside down in a matter of moments and how best to deal with circumstances that we cannot control.
Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008) marked a return to the more child-friendly pictures of My Neighbour Totoro or Kiki's Delivery Service. It's the charming tale of a fish who befriends a young boy and decides that she wants to transform permanently into a little girl.
Miyazaki's films are delightful fantasies that explore the conflicts between humankind, nature and technology. Using strong characterisation, even with his minor characters, his heroes and, notably, heroines, are always brave and have a deep understanding and respect for the communities in which they live. A love for the natural environment and a passion for flying machines are themes that pervade his work. With fastidious attention to detail, his use of traditional, predominantly cel, animation techniques gives his films a timeless quality. They are guaranteed to be hits at the box office, but his vision as a director is never compromised.
RINTARO (B 1941)
Rintaro is the nom de plume of Hayashi Shigeyuki, an anime director who has been working in the industry for over 50 years. He started his career with Toei as an in-betweener (the assistant to the lead animator who draws the frames between the key drawings) on Hakujaden. He moved across to Tezuka's Mushi Production studio and got his directorial break on the TV series Astro Boy. It was hard work churning out episode after episode and they regularly worked long hours, sometimes even 24-hour days. He continued to work for the studio for some years, on series such as Jungle Emperor, before leaving to become a freelancer. He co-founded the studio Madhouse in 1972 along with Dezaki Osamu, Kawajiri Yoshiaki and producer Maruyama Masao, although he was never tied to the company and continued to work for other animation studios as well.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Anime by Colin Odell, Michelle Le Blanc. Copyright © 2013 Colin Odell & Michelle Le Blanc. Excerpted by permission of Oldcastle Books.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Title Page,Dedication,
Acknowledgements,
Anime,
Introduction,
1. Key Anime Creators,
2. A Selection of Anime,
Further Reading,
References,
Other Books by Colin Odell & Michelle Le Blanc,
Plates,
Copyright,