*Note: This post was originally created for my Art History class. I wrote the entire thing before I realized I was supposed to talk about the relation to older artwork, so if it seems like that was shoe-horned in, that's why! I was hoping to get some discussion in class but no one wanted to talk about arty anime with me.
While Japanese 2D animation is sometimes described as meticulously produced or groundbreaking, such as in the case of many of Studio Ghibli’s films or the films of the late Satoshi Kon, it’s not often that the animation from the larger companies and well-known producers can be described as experimental. An animated series or movie may still reflect a single creator’s drawing style, but most companies and producers with a budget aim for a glossy perfect look. Examples include the wacky cartoonish looks of long-running One Piece or the softer look that can be described as more typically anime-style of the film and series AnoHana. Budgets often hold animated films and especially longer animated series back from the look they strive for. Even so, it’s generally easy to distinguish what can be considered "anime", the popular term used to describe Japanese animation and what doesn't. This isn’t always the case, though, as some series intentionally go for a more stylized look that falls outside of typical anime, such as Production I.G.’s Windy Tales, while still maintaining a look that can be associated with anime. This look, with its bright, flat colors with lack of shading and it's simplified and highly stylized shapes bares a resemblance to images from Japanese printmaking, such as the woodblock prints of Hokusai. While modern, western conventions such as linear perspective are used, taken frame by frame the influence can be seen in some of these less traditional animated films. An example of this can be seen below in a frame of Windy Tales when compared to Hokusai's Landscape.
From Windy Tales Ep. 1: Kaze Neko (Wind Cat), 2004, Directed by Junji Nishimura. Animated Film, produced by Production I.G., Tokyo, Japan
Landscape, c. 1835, Katsuhita Hokusai. Woodblock Print, ink on paper. Musée Guimet, Paris, France
One artist that has gained some popularity outside of Japan for his similar recognizable art style in animation is Masaaki Yuasa. Yuasa has directed many animated series, and even got his start on the highly stylized Crayon Shin-chan (Clingerman). Although his work doesn’t stick entirely to one style or another, his vibrant use of color, wild, flatly-colored simplified characters and backgrounds, and a variety of techniques that result in melting scenery, exaggerated motions, and visuals that emphasize emotion over accurate depiction, are all hallmarks of Masaaki Yuasa’s work. Though he undoubtably gets some inspiration from Japanese printmaking, his sources are far and wide, from American to European animation, such as René Laloux's Fantastic Planet (Clingerman).
From Chibi Maruko-chan: My Favorite Songs, 1992, Key Animation by Masaaki Yuasa. Animated Film, produced by Nippon Animation, Tokyo, Japan.
One of Yuasa’s greatest works is Kaiba, a tale about a mysterious boy who adventures across planets. It’s somewhat of a reversal of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince and the classic anime series, Galaxy Express 999 (GE999). Instead of traveling farther and farther from home, as in The Little Prince and GE999, the titular Kaiba wakes up not knowing where or who he is, and instead is trying to seek out both his identity and his origin. Along the way, Kaiba meets many strange characters, discovers who he is, and like in The Little Prince and GE999 learns many lessons along the way. The abstract representation of the characters pushes both the messages and emotion. Kaiba deals with loss, betrayal and redemption of what seem to be the most despicable humans, the importance of every life form, and topics as far spread as the questioning one’s own sexuality and even deeper into what makes the self. Kaiba's art style also takes inspiration from an earlier Japanese source, most resembling the art from manga and animation produced by Osamu Tezuka, often considered one of the founders of modern Japanese manga and animation.
From Kaiba Episode 3: Chroniko's Boots, 2008, Directed by Masaaki Yuasa. Animated Film, produced by Madhouse, Tokyo, Japan.
From Kaiba Episode 1: Chroniko's Boots, 2008, Directed by Masaaki Yuasa. Animated Film, produced by Madhouse, Tokyo, Japan.
Tatami Galaxy involves a character, only known as Watashi, literally “I”, joining his college’s clubs with the goal of finding a girlfriend. Despite the mundane premise, the story takes an interesting turn when time turns back and the character repeats a short period of life in each of the 11 episodes, each time joining a different club. While it isn’t uncommon for anime or entertainment in general to involve a faceless, average character so that the audience can relate, Tatami Galaxy’s main character is more interesting in his lack of identity because he gains his personality from each of the clubs he attends and with the help of a devilish character named “Ozu”. Over the course of the series, the unnamed main character joins a cycling club, joins a cult, and joins what appears to be a normal reading club, but actually turns into a scavenger hunt for an 8th year student. All of these clubs serve to define the identity of this unnamed character. All throughout, Ozu’s relationship with the main character is both a motivator and an antagonist, pushing the character forward as well as playing tricks on the character whenever possible. While Ozu usually gets the character into trouble, Ozu is just as likely to get him out of trouble. Perhaps due to its unquestionably Japanese setting, Tatami Galaxy is the work by Yuasa that most closely resembles Japanese artwork outside of anime and manga.
From Tatami Galaxy, 2010, Directed by Masaaki Yuasa. Animated Film, produced by Madhouse, Tokyo, Japan.
From Tatami Galaxy, 2010, Directed by Masaaki Yuasa. Animated Film, produced by Madhouse, Tokyo, Japan.
The appropriately named Kick-Heart was the product of a successful crowd-funding project fulfilled through the site Kickstarter. Though only 13 minutes in length and crudely animated, it manages to still tell an endearing tale with captivating characters. Kick-Heart is a love story between the down and out wrestler Masked Man M and the upcoming superstar Lady S. While Masked Man M, the stage name of Romeo Maki, struggles to keep an orphanage afloat, he wins a match he’s supposed to throw and finds himself without the funds he needs to repair and rebuild. While the story is almost cliché in its structure, the rough animation is a large part of why it’s so interesting and surprising. It takes the viewer off guard and makes one want to see how these events play out, even if they know what the end result will be. Perhaps due to its low budget, Kick-Heart takes on a rough and messy look, but instead of looking cheap, it becomes more personal, resembling Yuasa's own storyboard drawings.
From Kick-Heart, 2013, Directed by Masaaki Yuasa. Animated Film, produced by Production I.G., Tokyo, Japan.
From Kick-Heart, 2013, Directed by Masaaki Yuasa. Animated Film, produced by Production I.G., Tokyo, Japan.
One of the most interesting themes that runs through Yuasa’s work is that of the loss of identity. In Kaiba, the memories of every character are contained within small chips that are easily and frequently lost or destroyed. The upside is if their memory is saved, the owner can still live after their body is destroyed. The chips may also be transferred to different bodies, as happens to the character Kaiba. He occupies the body of a boy, then a stuffed animal, and later a girl. The girl's body once belonged to Chroniko, who Kaiba shares a brief encounter with. While developing a friendship, Chroniko's existence is cut short when her memory is extracted and destroyed. Kaiba shares a friendship and romantic relationship with Popo, a girl who similarly inhabits different bodies. While her main body is female, she inhabits the body of a male while unknowingly traveling with Kaiba in the body of Chroniko. To complicate things, both characters have distorted memories so that they don’t understand their true relationship.
The lack of identity in the example of Tatami Galaxy’s main character is that he never has one. He’s just entering college and has no goals except to get a girlfriend. The only definition to his character comes from the clubs he attends and the characters around him. At one point his sexual drive is represented as an overly rambunctious cowboy, and it’s clear that the cowboy has more personality than the main character who’s trying to repress him.
The identity of Romeo Maki is obscured as well throughout Kick-Heart, both as Masked Man M and as his unmasked identity. While Romeo Maki, he has a line drawn through his eyes in every scene, so that the viewer never sees his entire face. In addition, he’s presented as somewhat of a nameless loser in the wrestling world. While he has talent, he’s forced to throw his matches so that he never rises up through the ranks and becomes famous until the end, where he gains fame because of his spectacular performance in a losing match. Even then his unmasked visage is so bruised and swollen that it’s impossible for anyone to know who he is.
Masaaki Yuasa’s work has become more popular in the west recently, but some of his older work is more obscure. Kaiba still hasn’t had an official release in the United States, although it’s not impossible to find the Australian region 4 dvd if you have a region-free player. Luckily, Tatami Galaxy is available for free, streaming on Hulu, but it’s a little more difficult to find Kick-Heart. It was airing on Cartoon Network periodically, but I can’t find any streaming sources. A few places are selling the blu-ray disk, but for 13 minutes at $15, I hesitate to recommend it unless you’re already a fan of Yuasa’s work. More recently, he directed and storyboarded the episode of the Cartoon Network series Adventure Time titled “Food Chain” and his most recent series, Ping Pong is available for free streaming on Hulu, under the search name "Ping Pong: The Animation". If you’re into animation, even if you’re not into typical anime, I recommend taking a look. His work ventures into PG-13 territory, so watch first if you’re watching with kids. You can get a small taste of what his animation is like from the opening of Kick-Heart, here.
Works Cited
Clingerman, Neil. "Sakuga pt.13 - Masaaki Yuasa's Super-Cray Anime". Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 31 Oct. 2013. Web. 4 July. 2014.
While Japanese 2D animation is sometimes described as meticulously produced or groundbreaking, such as in the case of many of Studio Ghibli’s films or the films of the late Satoshi Kon, it’s not often that the animation from the larger companies and well-known producers can be described as experimental. An animated series or movie may still reflect a single creator’s drawing style, but most companies and producers with a budget aim for a glossy perfect look. Examples include the wacky cartoonish looks of long-running One Piece or the softer look that can be described as more typically anime-style of the film and series AnoHana. Budgets often hold animated films and especially longer animated series back from the look they strive for. Even so, it’s generally easy to distinguish what can be considered "anime", the popular term used to describe Japanese animation and what doesn't. This isn’t always the case, though, as some series intentionally go for a more stylized look that falls outside of typical anime, such as Production I.G.’s Windy Tales, while still maintaining a look that can be associated with anime. This look, with its bright, flat colors with lack of shading and it's simplified and highly stylized shapes bares a resemblance to images from Japanese printmaking, such as the woodblock prints of Hokusai. While modern, western conventions such as linear perspective are used, taken frame by frame the influence can be seen in some of these less traditional animated films. An example of this can be seen below in a frame of Windy Tales when compared to Hokusai's Landscape.
From Windy Tales Ep. 1: Kaze Neko (Wind Cat), 2004, Directed by Junji Nishimura. Animated Film, produced by Production I.G., Tokyo, Japan
Landscape, c. 1835, Katsuhita Hokusai. Woodblock Print, ink on paper. Musée Guimet, Paris, France
One artist that has gained some popularity outside of Japan for his similar recognizable art style in animation is Masaaki Yuasa. Yuasa has directed many animated series, and even got his start on the highly stylized Crayon Shin-chan (Clingerman). Although his work doesn’t stick entirely to one style or another, his vibrant use of color, wild, flatly-colored simplified characters and backgrounds, and a variety of techniques that result in melting scenery, exaggerated motions, and visuals that emphasize emotion over accurate depiction, are all hallmarks of Masaaki Yuasa’s work. Though he undoubtably gets some inspiration from Japanese printmaking, his sources are far and wide, from American to European animation, such as René Laloux's Fantastic Planet (Clingerman).
From Chibi Maruko-chan: My Favorite Songs, 1992, Key Animation by Masaaki Yuasa. Animated Film, produced by Nippon Animation, Tokyo, Japan.
One of Yuasa’s greatest works is Kaiba, a tale about a mysterious boy who adventures across planets. It’s somewhat of a reversal of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince and the classic anime series, Galaxy Express 999 (GE999). Instead of traveling farther and farther from home, as in The Little Prince and GE999, the titular Kaiba wakes up not knowing where or who he is, and instead is trying to seek out both his identity and his origin. Along the way, Kaiba meets many strange characters, discovers who he is, and like in The Little Prince and GE999 learns many lessons along the way. The abstract representation of the characters pushes both the messages and emotion. Kaiba deals with loss, betrayal and redemption of what seem to be the most despicable humans, the importance of every life form, and topics as far spread as the questioning one’s own sexuality and even deeper into what makes the self. Kaiba's art style also takes inspiration from an earlier Japanese source, most resembling the art from manga and animation produced by Osamu Tezuka, often considered one of the founders of modern Japanese manga and animation.
From Kaiba Episode 3: Chroniko's Boots, 2008, Directed by Masaaki Yuasa. Animated Film, produced by Madhouse, Tokyo, Japan.
From Kaiba Episode 1: Chroniko's Boots, 2008, Directed by Masaaki Yuasa. Animated Film, produced by Madhouse, Tokyo, Japan.
Tatami Galaxy involves a character, only known as Watashi, literally “I”, joining his college’s clubs with the goal of finding a girlfriend. Despite the mundane premise, the story takes an interesting turn when time turns back and the character repeats a short period of life in each of the 11 episodes, each time joining a different club. While it isn’t uncommon for anime or entertainment in general to involve a faceless, average character so that the audience can relate, Tatami Galaxy’s main character is more interesting in his lack of identity because he gains his personality from each of the clubs he attends and with the help of a devilish character named “Ozu”. Over the course of the series, the unnamed main character joins a cycling club, joins a cult, and joins what appears to be a normal reading club, but actually turns into a scavenger hunt for an 8th year student. All of these clubs serve to define the identity of this unnamed character. All throughout, Ozu’s relationship with the main character is both a motivator and an antagonist, pushing the character forward as well as playing tricks on the character whenever possible. While Ozu usually gets the character into trouble, Ozu is just as likely to get him out of trouble. Perhaps due to its unquestionably Japanese setting, Tatami Galaxy is the work by Yuasa that most closely resembles Japanese artwork outside of anime and manga.
From Tatami Galaxy, 2010, Directed by Masaaki Yuasa. Animated Film, produced by Madhouse, Tokyo, Japan.
From Tatami Galaxy, 2010, Directed by Masaaki Yuasa. Animated Film, produced by Madhouse, Tokyo, Japan.
The appropriately named Kick-Heart was the product of a successful crowd-funding project fulfilled through the site Kickstarter. Though only 13 minutes in length and crudely animated, it manages to still tell an endearing tale with captivating characters. Kick-Heart is a love story between the down and out wrestler Masked Man M and the upcoming superstar Lady S. While Masked Man M, the stage name of Romeo Maki, struggles to keep an orphanage afloat, he wins a match he’s supposed to throw and finds himself without the funds he needs to repair and rebuild. While the story is almost cliché in its structure, the rough animation is a large part of why it’s so interesting and surprising. It takes the viewer off guard and makes one want to see how these events play out, even if they know what the end result will be. Perhaps due to its low budget, Kick-Heart takes on a rough and messy look, but instead of looking cheap, it becomes more personal, resembling Yuasa's own storyboard drawings.
From Kick-Heart, 2013, Directed by Masaaki Yuasa. Animated Film, produced by Production I.G., Tokyo, Japan.
From Kick-Heart, 2013, Directed by Masaaki Yuasa. Animated Film, produced by Production I.G., Tokyo, Japan.
One of the most interesting themes that runs through Yuasa’s work is that of the loss of identity. In Kaiba, the memories of every character are contained within small chips that are easily and frequently lost or destroyed. The upside is if their memory is saved, the owner can still live after their body is destroyed. The chips may also be transferred to different bodies, as happens to the character Kaiba. He occupies the body of a boy, then a stuffed animal, and later a girl. The girl's body once belonged to Chroniko, who Kaiba shares a brief encounter with. While developing a friendship, Chroniko's existence is cut short when her memory is extracted and destroyed. Kaiba shares a friendship and romantic relationship with Popo, a girl who similarly inhabits different bodies. While her main body is female, she inhabits the body of a male while unknowingly traveling with Kaiba in the body of Chroniko. To complicate things, both characters have distorted memories so that they don’t understand their true relationship.
The lack of identity in the example of Tatami Galaxy’s main character is that he never has one. He’s just entering college and has no goals except to get a girlfriend. The only definition to his character comes from the clubs he attends and the characters around him. At one point his sexual drive is represented as an overly rambunctious cowboy, and it’s clear that the cowboy has more personality than the main character who’s trying to repress him.
The identity of Romeo Maki is obscured as well throughout Kick-Heart, both as Masked Man M and as his unmasked identity. While Romeo Maki, he has a line drawn through his eyes in every scene, so that the viewer never sees his entire face. In addition, he’s presented as somewhat of a nameless loser in the wrestling world. While he has talent, he’s forced to throw his matches so that he never rises up through the ranks and becomes famous until the end, where he gains fame because of his spectacular performance in a losing match. Even then his unmasked visage is so bruised and swollen that it’s impossible for anyone to know who he is.
Masaaki Yuasa’s work has become more popular in the west recently, but some of his older work is more obscure. Kaiba still hasn’t had an official release in the United States, although it’s not impossible to find the Australian region 4 dvd if you have a region-free player. Luckily, Tatami Galaxy is available for free, streaming on Hulu, but it’s a little more difficult to find Kick-Heart. It was airing on Cartoon Network periodically, but I can’t find any streaming sources. A few places are selling the blu-ray disk, but for 13 minutes at $15, I hesitate to recommend it unless you’re already a fan of Yuasa’s work. More recently, he directed and storyboarded the episode of the Cartoon Network series Adventure Time titled “Food Chain” and his most recent series, Ping Pong is available for free streaming on Hulu, under the search name "Ping Pong: The Animation". If you’re into animation, even if you’re not into typical anime, I recommend taking a look. His work ventures into PG-13 territory, so watch first if you’re watching with kids. You can get a small taste of what his animation is like from the opening of Kick-Heart, here.
Works Cited
Clingerman, Neil. "Sakuga pt.13 - Masaaki Yuasa's Super-Cray Anime". Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 31 Oct. 2013. Web. 4 July. 2014.
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