A Look Back at 2013 in Japanese Animation

2013 was a wonderful year for feature-length animation in Japan.  Studio Ghibli released new films from their great masters Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.  The Wind Rises (風立ちぬ, 2013) gave Miyazaki a chance to indulge in his love of aviation and Shōwa nostalgia, while Takahata has adapted the much-loved folktale “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter” in his first feature film in over a decade, The Tale of Princess Kaguya (かぐや姫の物語, 2013). 

The usual franchise suspects did well at the Japanese box office this year with Detective Conan: Private Eye in the Distant Sea (2013) becoming the Conan franchise’s highest grossing film ever.  Crayon Shin-chan starred in his 21^st feature film: Crayon Shin-chan: Very Tasty! B-class Gourmet Survival (2013) and did well at the box office, as did Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum (2013).  Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods (2013) shot to number one at the box office showing at all 16 of Japan’s IMAX Digital Theaters.  Variety also reported that the film ranked number 5 overseas, making it the top-ranking non-Hollywood film on the chart.  Yasuhiro Yoshiura’s Patema Inverted (サカサマのパテマ, 2013) and Hideaki Anno’s Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo (ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版：Q) received the Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival 2013, while Ghost in the Shell Arise - Border 1: Ghost Pain (2013), Blue Exorcist (青の祓魔師2012), and Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day (2013) all got special mentions.

As I do not live in Japan, J-films usually come to a screen near me via festivals the following year. This year, I was particularly lucky that Nippon Connection 2013  had a strong programme of animation.   I was delighted to finally see legendary animator Gisaburo Sugii’s Kenji Miyazawa-inspired The Life of Budori Gusuko (グスコーブドリの伝記, 2012) on the big screen featuring the same Hiroshi Masumura anthropomorphic cat characters that he used in his earlier classic Night on the Galactic Railroad (銀河鉄道の夜, 1985).  One of the most under-rated animated feature films of 2012, The Life of Budori Gusuko has a timely environmental message, likely inspired by Kenji Miyazawa’s love for the countryside of his native Iwate Prefecture.

Also at Nippon Connection, Mamoru Hosoda’s bittersweet tale Wolf Children (おおかみこどもの雨と雪, 2012).  After successful stints at Toei (Digimon Adventure, One Piece) and Madhouse (Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars), Hosoda has entered a new stage in his career by establishing his own studio: Studio Chizu.  Thematically, the film has much in common with Isao Takahata’s Pom Poko (平成狸合戦ぽんぽこ, 1994) except instead of a species under threat of human development, the central characters are a species who are extinct in Japan – the Honshū wolf – and have only managed to survive into the modern era by becoming half human. 

Nippon Connection also presented a collection of Toho animated shorts under the title Kami Usagi Ropé: The Last Day of Summer Vacation (映画「紙兎ロぺ」 つか、夏休みラスイチってマジっすか!?, 2012), a retrospective of Sci-Fi Anime (1966-2011) and Hiroyuki Okiura’s well-received 2011 film A Letter to Momo (ももへの手紙 / Momo e no tegami).  However, the most innovative films on the programme were Keiichi Sato’s disturbing tale of the feral child Asura (アシュラ, 2012), which you can read about here, and Uchija’s grotesque The Burning Buddha Man (燃える仏像人間, 2012) – which actually is not really an animation but an elaborate puppet film using highly detailed cut-outs.  There was also an excellent selection of shorts from Geidai university – a couple of which made my Best JapaneseIndie Animation Shorts of 2013.

I had been concerned from early on in his career that Makoto Shinkai might buckle under the unnecessary pressure of people calling him the “new Miyazaki” – unnecessary because I think his style of animation is very different from the man he admires.  The Garden of Words (言の葉の庭, 2013), which I picked up the day it was released on DVD/Blu-ray in Canada in August, is a lovely 45-minute film that explores a May-December romance between a young man from a broken home and an older woman he meets at the park.  The highlight of the film for me is the scenery which is based on photographs of Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden – natsukashii!

A heavy teaching schedule meant that I did not get into any anime series this year, but there are enough anime bloggers out there to cover this genre.  Check out the lists by haruhichan, kotaku, lostinanime, not to mention a terrific overview of the whole cultural year in Japan by Néojaponism.

The highlights of 2013 were, of course, the indie shorts that came my way.  Check out my top 15 in the following post:  Best Japanese Indie Animation Shorts 2013.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

Kitty's Graffiti (こねこのらくがき, 1957)

This delightful early anime is the first animated short by Toei Dōga (now known as Toei Animation)  Most of the animators who worked on the film – Taiji Yabushita, Yasuji Mori, Akira Daikubara, et al. – had previously worked at the animation studio Nichidō (Nihon Dōga-sha/日本動画株式会社, 1948-56) which was acquired by Toei in 1956.  Although Yabushita, the co-founder of Nichidō, is the director of Kitty's Graffiti (こねこのらくがき/Koneko no Rakugaki, 1957), the character design and general look of the 13-minute animation often gets attributed to Yasuji Mori. 

Shot on black-and-white film stock, and the film has no dialogue – much in the style of a Tom and Jerry cartoon – and like Tom and Jerry, there is a cat chasing mouse gag, but it is executed in an entirely different manner.  A kitten is busy scribbling pictures on a bare external wall of a house.  His line drawings are images typically drawn by a child: a horse in the sun, fish and a crab blowing bubbles, a cat mother and kitten, a streetcar, traffic, a horse and carriage, and a train on a long railway track with a tunnel at the end.  At the sound of a whistle blowing, the drawing of a train comes to life and starts to rumble down the track.  The kitty stops the train then notices a terrible traffic jam of cars pushing and shoving each other on the portion of wall where he had randomly drawn an assortment of vehicles.  He quickly draws in a traffic police bear to direct the cars more safely.

Pleased with his results, the cat smiles as he observes the scene then turns upon hearing a smattering of applause behind him.  There he discovers a pair of mice who are equally pleased with the kitty’s drawings.  One of the mice is tall and slender and dressed slacks, the other is small and round dressed only in a long-sleeved shirt.  The shorter of the two mice stands on a tin of fish to get a better view.  For his audience, Kitty draws a parade of mouse figures on the wall.   The mice celebrate by jumping up and down causing the little one to lose his balance and clatter into hiding with the tin attached to his tale.  A large bear, presumably the owner of the house, peers around the corner and admonishes kitty for defacing the wall.  He is given a bucket and cloth to clean up the mess, but he gets distracted by the laughing mice who take Kitty’s pencil and board the train and take off with it.  Kitty chases after them and jumps aboard and they enter the tunnel and are transported into a wonderfully imaginative cat chasing mice sequence through a land of child-like drawings.  The chase continues with many delightful slapstick moments until the mice turn the tables around and start chasing the cat instead.  It is all just a bit of fun and ends with the cat doing what is right and cleaning up after himself.  .  .  leaving only the drawing of the police bear as a reminder of the day’s events.

This type of cartoon that enters the imaginative world of children, and actively encourages children to think creatively beyond the realms of the “real” is my favourite.  It transported me back the one of the cartoons of my childhood such as Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings (Ivor Wood, ITV, 1976), which aired on TVO when I was as kid.  I much prefer these kinds of absurdist jaunts through the realms of the imaginary to didactic / moralistic tales for children.  They seek not only to entertain children, but encourage them to pick up their pencils and entertain themselves after the film has concluded. The enjoyment of the film is elevated by Senji Itō’s playful score.  Itō is best known in film studies for his dramatic scores for the films of Yasujirō Ozu (The Only Son, The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family, Late Spring, A Hen in the Wind, Early Summer) and Hiroshi Shimizu (The Masseurs and a Woman, Four Seasons of Children, Children of the Beehive, Notes of an Itinerant Performer, A Star Athlete, etc.).  Here his music drives the tempo of the animation (lilting, marching) with interruptions timed to heighten the comedic moments.  The score is so expressive that one hardly notices the lack of actual dialogue.

The central characters in Kitty's Graffiti (the cat, the bear homeowner, the mice duo) are beautifully realized, with round, expressive faces – much like the animal characters of Disney’s Bambi.  The kitty has some design similarities to the kittens of Kenzō Masaoka’s Tora-chan films – on which Mori also worked.  However, that being said, these are only minor similarities and the kitty is certainly recognizable as a distinct character with its own cheeky personality.   This film gives us a glimpse of what wonderful cartoon shorts Taiji Yabushita, Yasuji Mori, Akira Daikuhara and co. could have made if they had had a Disney budget.  Kitty's Graffiti is a film treasure that serves as a testament to the great skill in particular of Yasuji Mori, who is remembered as a mentor to many animators who learned their craft in the 60s and 70s, from Hayao Miyazaki to Gisaburo Sugii.   Mori is revered by those he mentored not only for his skills as an animator but for his incomparable character design.  Books of his art can be ordered from Anido.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

Director:

Taiji Yabushita 藪下泰司

Producers:

Kōichi Akagawa  赤川孝一, Zenjirō Yamashita  山本善次郎

Writer:

Akio Kinoshita  木下秋夫

Original Music:

Senji Itō  伊藤宣二

Cinematography:

Mitsuaki Ishikawa  石川光明

Animation:

Yasuji Mori  森やすじ

Akira Daikuhara  大工原章

Shōji Ichino  市野正二

Sumiko Naganuma  長沼寿美子

Takashi Uchiyama  内山孝

Chikao Katsui  寺千賀雄

Makoto Nakashima  田島実

Kiyoshi Nakajima 中島清

Mitsuko Shindō  進藤みつ子

Junji Yamada山田順治

and others

Production Company:

Toei Kyōiku Eiga-bu  東映教育映画部

Why is the Sea Water Salty? (海の水はなぜからい, 1935)

Most pre-war Japanese animation is derived from Japanese fairy tales and mythologies. However, the origins of the story behind Yasuji Murata’s animated folktale adaptation Why is the Sea Water Salty? (海の水はなぜからい / Umi no Mizu wa Naze Karai, 1935) are very complicated.  Long before science could explain why oceans are salty, myths and legends were developed to fill the knowledge gap.  Murata’s film seems to have been influenced by a tangled web of European and Japanese folktales.

This retelling by one of the great pioneers of anime appears on Disc 3 of Digital Meme’s Japanese Anime Classic Collection 4 DVD Box Set.  The film has not been digitally remastered and shows the wear and tear of time: flecks, scratches, and even small tears.  It begins in the typical manner of a Japanese folk tale with “Mukashi mukashi.  .  .” (Once upon a time. . .). As Why is the Sea Water Salty? is a silent film, the text appears on title cards and the Digital Meme features the added bonus of narration by benshi Midori Sawato and soft background music. 

Plot Summary

Two brothers, one rich and one poor, are introduced on title cards.  New Year’s is approaching and the younger brother is lacking supplies.  He goes to ask his older brother for help.  He finds him pounding mochi (glutinous rice). The older brother looks down on the younger one and dismisses his request saying that his younger brother is undeserving of his rice cakes.  Disappointed, the younger brother heads home with his head hanging low.   Along the way, he encounters an elderly man who almost falls off a footbridge.  He rescues the man and to thank him for his kindness, the elderly man gives him some manjū (sweet bean cakes).  He tells him that he should take the manjū to the dwarves in the forest to exchange for their quern (stone mill/ 臼 /usu).

Led by a dwarf waving a hinomaru flag enthusiastically, the dwarves are hard at work in the forest building a house.  However, they run into troubles dragging the heavy wood uphill.  The younger brother laughs are their dilemma and offers to help them.  They offer him a meal in thanks but the younger brother shows them his manjū.  The dwarves begin salivating at the sight of the sweet manjū and beg him to share them.  They even offer him money for the manjū and he refuses, asking instead for their quern.  After some discussion, they agree to this deal and they explain the secret of how to use the magic quern.  When he turns it right and makes a wish, what he wishes for appears.  To reverse the magic he must turn it to the left.

The younger brother wishes himself a house, a warehouse, and rice fields, and before long his wealth exceeds all the others in his village including his older brother.  The older brother is overwhelmed by jealousy and asks his younger brother if he can borrow the quern.  The younger brother says it would be useless to the older brother because he is already a wealthy man.  So the older brother steals the quern and leaves the village by sea.  As he double-checks that he has brought everything he needs, the older brother notices that he forgot to bring salt with him.  He then uses the quern for the first time and wishes for salt.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t know how to tell the quern to stop and the growing pile of salt causes the boat to sink.  The older brother is eaten by a shark and the quern falls to the bottom of the sea where it continues to dispense salt into the ocean for eternity. 

Discussion

Chūzō Aoji (青地忠三, 1885-1970) wrote the screenplay for Why is the Sea Water Salty?  Aoji worked with Murata (村田安司, 1896-1966) at Yokohama Cinema Shokai where they collaborated on many animated shorts in the 20s and 30s such as Taro’s Toy Train (太郎さんの汽車, 1929) and Momotaro of the Sea (海の桃太郎, 1932).  Although versions of this folktale have been recorded in many counties (see: D.L. Ashliman’s Folktexts for some examples), the origins of the tale adapted by Aoji and Murata appears to have roots in both Norway and Japan.

The Norwegian folktale “The Mill That Grinds at the Bottom of the Sea” (Kvernen som maler på havsens bunn) is one of the most well-known salt folktales. It was first published by 19^th century folklorists Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe in Norwegian Folktales (Norske Folkeeventyr) which appeared in various formats starting with a slim pamphlet in 1852.  The tale was translated into English by Sir George Webbe Dasent and can be found in his 1888 publication Popular Tales from the Norse (Project Gutenberg) under the title: “Why the Sea is Salt” (sic).  It is believed that this tale likely found its way to Japan in the late Meiji or early Taishō period, sometime after its publication in English.  There has also been some evidence that in Taishō 12 (1923), a similar story to the Norwegian one was brought to Japan by people who arrived by boat from Russia (Source).  The Norwegian tale is set on Christmas Eve, but the Japanese version changes this to Oshōgatsu (Japanese New Year), as this was (and remains) the most important holiday in Japan.

Another major difference between the Norwegian tale and the Japanese is the addition of dwarves.  In the Norwegian tale, the old man gives the brother the quern and there is no bartering with dwarves.  The dwarf element is likely derived from a similar story may have already existed in Japan before the arrival of the Norwegian tale.  According to the Japanese folklorist Misako Kobayashi (小林美佐子), most Japanese tales about dwarves like “Why the Sea is Salty” (臼を交換し海の水の塩辛いわけ) originate in the Tohoku region.  Other such dwarf tales include “The Year’s End” (年の暮れ) “Tabemono no Mushin shi” (食べ物を無心し), “Ōzei no Kodomo ” (大勢の小人) and “Manjū-nado” (饅頭等). (Source)

Animation Style

Stylistically, Murata has gone with cut-out animation. This was common practice in pre-war Japanese anime because it saved money for both in materials (celluloid was expensive) and labour (moving cut-outs is faster than drawing successive images).  The cut-out technique used is fairly straight-forward.  The animator has used as few set-ups as possible, with mostly establishing shots and medium-long shots being used.  Interestingly, Murata chooses to shoot dialogues in two separate spaces linked by a pan rather than having the characters occupy the same frame.  I don’t really see any aesthetic benefit from this so can only presume that this was done in order to simplify the animation process.  In the sequence that narrates about the wealth the younger brother acquired with the magic quern, I had the impression that the quern might have been done using stop motion of a real quern.  The other interesting stylistic note is the edit that introduces the dwarf forest.  It is a fan-shaped wipe opening from the top the screen – and matches to the use of a fan by one of the dwarves in the scene that follows.

On the whole, the film itself is a straight-forward retelling of a story that has a complicated oral history.  In terms of originality, for me the best scenes are the one where the dwarves are trying to get the wood up the hill, and the final scene when the sea creatures are startled by the arrival of the quern at the sea bottom. 

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013