Fusako Yusaki (湯崎夫沙子)

I have been doing background research into the artists featured on the collaborative film Winter Days (Fuyu no hi, 2005), most of whom have rarely been written about in English (let alone in Japanese!). In my scouring of the internet for information about this diverse group of animators, I found two videos of Fusako Yusaki demonstrating how she creates figures out of clay for an Italian children's...

Briar Rose or The Sleeping Beauty (いばら姫またはねむり姫, 1990)

Briar Rose or The Sleeping Beauty (いばら姫または ねむり姫, 1990, 22 min.)Kihachiro Kawamoto’s account of the well-known fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty will come as a real shock to anyone raised on the Disney version…. or even on the traditional, and slightly disturbing, Perrault or Grimm versions.Kawamoto lulls us into a true fairy tale setting beginning with the camera moving from a ring of hazy cherry blossoms...

Papa to Rusuban (パパとるすばん)

パパとるすばん (Indigo Blue, 2007)I found this great little short animated film on Youtube yesterday. Unfortunately, it has already been taken down due to violation of copyright. The person who posted Papa to Rusuban had posted dozens of shorts from the Minna no uta (Everyone's Song) NHK series.This particular short features a song sung by the little girl about having a day at home with her father while...