Takashi Iitsuka’s Super Organic Battle Action Adventure

The young filmmaker Takashi Iitsuka (飯塚貴士, b. 1985) wowed Nippon Connection 2012 with the international premiere of his short film Encounters (エンカウンターズ, 2011).  The half hour action adventure action figure drama has previously screened at festivals in Japan such as the Sendai Short Film Festival and the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival.

Encounters uses neither stop motion animation nor any CG effects.  It is purely old school live action puppet action – a technique which Iizuka has christened “Super Organic Battle Action.”  Using handmade action figures and monster puppets, Iizuka carefully manipulates the characters either by hand or fishing wire.  The result is a loving send up of the great monster movies of Ishirō Honda (Godzilla, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Mothra vs. Godzilla).  The campiness of the film and the use of marionette effects recalls the “supermarionation” techniques employed in the UK cult classic Thunderbirds (Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, 1965-6).

The story centers on two buddies, Max and John, who have taken a trip to the countryside to help Max get his mind off his girlfriend troubles. Just as the countryside and a chance encounter with a friendly stray dog named Kifune seem to be lifting Max’s spirits, a furry super-monster crashes into the scene and has a confrontation with some armed forces.  The story then spirals into a pastiche plot line that throws in all the elements typical in a Japanese scifi action adventure: a mad scientist, fear of robots, love and friendship conquering all, and so on.

Talking to Iitsuka at Nippon Connection, I discovered that he did indeed play alone with action figures a lot as a kid.  He was an only child and did not have the means to buy too many toys.  He had a hero figure in Ultraman but lacked monsters – a problem he remedied by creating his own monsters using PET bottles.  His aim with Encounters was to transfer the fun and spontaneity of such child’s play into the film. 

His eyes lit up with delight when I mentioned the Thunderbirds and he added that he was also a big fan of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967-8), a dark scifi “supermarionation” also by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson.  In terms of action films, in addition to being inspired by the Ultraman franchise, Iitsuka is also a big fan of The Delta Force movies starring Chuck Norrisand Lee Marvin.  This would explain his choice of Waffen Film Studio for the name of his one man production company.  “Waffen” is German for “weapons”. 

All levels of production were done by Iizuka himself: cinematography, editing, sound, music, set building, costumes and special effects.  He made about 5 or 6 sets and manipulated the figures either marionette-style using fishing wire (which you can cheesily still see in some frames) or by hand (but without the hands being seen).  For one sequence, for example, he built the set on top of the bathtub so that he could manipulate the figures from underneath.  Some of the figures and sets were made using materials that he already had but others were built with supplies from the hobby shop.  Some of the most interesting designs were done using papercraft and based on photographs Iitsuka took himself. 

Iitsuka even does all the voices including a falsetto for Max’s girlfriend in a flashback sequence.  The subtitles are kind of odd – at times very inspired – as when a wordy curse in Japanese is translated to English simply as “Jesus!”  At other times the English subs are awkward and badly spelled  –  but that just adds to the fun. The subtitles, which were done by Naoki Suzuki of the Sendai Short Film Festival, complement the kitschiness of the film and the quirkiness of the Japanese dialogue.   Iitsuka designed the dialogue as a spoof of the unusual Japanese dub s done on Hanna-Barbera cartoons like Shazzan (1967-9) and The Fantastic Four (1967-9) when they were first imported to Japan.

See opening to Japanese dub of Shazzan here, and The Fantastic Four here:

The film was shot on a Sony Video Z5J and edited using Abobe Software, Premiere, Aftereffects, etc.  Iitsuka told me that he hopes that people will get a message of hope from the film.  He is working on his next Super Organic Battle Action Adventure and was planning to explore German hobby shops for materials after the festival.  An art school grad, Iitsuka has a natural eye for framing - doubtless honed by years of TV watching.  The concept could easily have turned out completely schlocky, but I found the result brilliant.  I hope that Iitsuka’s Encounters obtains the cult following that it deserves, and I look forward to seeing where his imagination takes him to next.  

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012

You can follow Iitsuka on Twitter (JP only)
A 20 minute cut of the film is available on imdb (JP/EN)

Norio Hikone’s Animation Top 20 (2003)

The characters created by illustrator and animator Norio Hikone (ひこねのりお, b. 1936) are instantly recognizable to young and old alike in Japan.  A graduate of Tokyo University of the Arts, Hikone got his start working as an animator/inbetweener for Toei Animation (Alakazam the Great, The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon) and Mushi Pro (Kimba the White Lion, Jungle Emperor Leo). 

In 1966, he founded Hikone Studios and made a name for himself doing animated shorts for TV as well as a variety of commercial work.  He has done a great deal of animation for the NHK including the long-running popular programmes Minna no Uta (Everybody’s Song) and Manga Nippon Mukashi-banashi (Manga Nippon Folk Tales).  His client list runs quite long, but he is perhaps best known for his delightful Karl Ojisan (Uncle Karl) TV spots for the Meiji Seika snack food “Curls”.  These ran from 1986-90 and are a source of much nostalgia for folks who grew up in Japan in the 1980s.  Norio Hikone also contributed to Kihachirō Kawamoto’s renku animation Winter Days (2003).  Check out his official website to see more of his endearing characters in action (JP only).

Here is the list Hikone contributed to Laputa’s Top 150 Poll in 2003..  Hikone himself featured on many lists, including that of the late Masahiro Katayama.

Le roi et l’oiseau 

(王と鳥 やぶにらみの暴君, Paul Grimault, France, 1948)

Mr. Bug Goes to Town (aka Hoppity Goes to Town)

( バッタ君町に行く, Dave Fleischer, USA, 1941)

Legend of the White Serpent

(白蛇伝, Taiji Yabushita/Kazuhiko Okabe, Japan, 1958)

Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom

(プカドン交響楽, Ward Kimball/Charles A. Nichols, USA, 1953)

Betty Boop in Snow White

(ベティの白雪姫, Dave Fleischer, USA, 1933)

Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor

(ポパイと船乗りシンドバッド, Dave Fleischer, USA, 1936)

The Snow Queen

(雪の女王, Lev Atamov et al., Russia, 1957)

Around the World with Willy Fog

(80日間世界一周, Luis Ballester, Spain/Japan, 1987)

The Old Mill (Silly Symphonies)

(丘の風車, Wilfred Jackson, USA, 1937)

The Spider and the Tulip

(くもとちゅうりっぷ, Kenzō Masaoka, Japan, 1943)

Blinkity Blank

(線と色の即興詩, Norman McLaren, Canada, 1955)

Hedgehog in the Fog

(霧につつまれたハリネズミ, Yuri Norstein, Russia, 1975)

The Man Who Planted Trees/L'homme qui plantait des arbres

(木を植えた男, Frédéric Back, Canada,1987)

Kitty’s Graffiti

(こねこのらくがき, Taiji Yabushita/Yasuji Mori, Japan, 1957)

The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon

(わんばく王子の大蛇退治, Yugo Serikawa, Japan, 1963)

Animal Treasure Island

(どうぶつ宝島, Hiroshi Ikeda, Japan, 1971)

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

(風の谷のナウシカ, Hayao Miyazaki, Japan, 1984)

Yellow Submarine

(イエロー・サプマリン, George Dunning, 1968)

The Demon

(鬼, Kihachirō Kawamoto, Japan, 1972)

Yuri Norstein’s Animation Top 20 (2003)

The great Russian animator Yuri Norstein (aka Yuriy Norshteyn, b. 1941) is widely admired in Japan by both mainstream and independent animators alike.  His works The Hedgehog in the Fog (1975) and The Tale of Tales (1978) topped the Laputa Top 150 Japanese and World Animation poll done in 2003.  His work is so beloved that even his unfinished adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s short story The Overcoat entered the list at #92.  Norstein himself participated in the 2003 poll and his picks are listed below. 

But first, a bit of background information:

Yuri Norstein has close ties to the Laputa International Animation Festival.  The festival began in 2000 and semi-annually presents the Yuri Norstein Award (ユーリ・ノルシュテイン大賞) – with, I believe, Norstein himself acting as the head of the jury. The prize was jointly awarded in its inaugural year to Hiroyuki Tsutita for his film Mutate and to Hiroshi Okuda for Prisoner.  Oscar-winner animator Kunio Katō won the Yuri Norstein Award twice:  first in 2001 for The Apple Incident and again in 2004 for The Diary of Tortov Roddle.  Hosokawa Susumu won the award in 2005 for Demonsand Yusuke Sakamoto won in 2006 for The Telegraph Pole Mother.  In 2008, the award was given to a non-Japanese for the first time.  Latvian animator Vladimir Leschiov took the prize for Lost In Snow.  It was my understanding that the award would be given out again in 2010, but I have been unable to find any evidence of this happening – though they did show a retrospective of Norstein’s works at the festival that year.  The next festival will have an activist theme as they put out a call for “Fukushima Animation” last autumn.  It is unclear when the 11^thfestival will take place.

2007 saw the establishment of the Laputa Art Animation School – a “small school” where they teach the art of making animation by hand (puppet, cutout, drawn, etc.).  The school creation is credited to Norstein’s insistence that Japan needed its own school of animation in the vein of the great Eastern European centres for  training animators.  The school even uses Norstein’s iconic hedgehog as their logo.  At Laputa, indisputed masters of the art of animation including Fumiko Magari and Sumiko Hosaka – puppet masters who worked for Tadanari Okamoto and Kihachirō Kawamoto – and the avant-garde legend Yōji Kuriteach students the tricks of the trade. 

There are no surprises in Yuri Norstein’s top 20.  He lists a cross-section of some of the very best in world animation with nods to both early animation pioneers (Ladislaw Starewicz, Alexandre Alexeieff, Claire Parker, Mikhail Tsekhanovsky, Norman McLaren, David Hand, Jiří Trnka) and terrific contemporary work (Nick Park, Aleksandr Petrov, Michael Dudok de Wit).  He even gives a nod to his Japanese hosts in recognizing the work of Osamu Tezuka and Kihachirō Kawamoto.  If you were teaching a course on world animation of the 20^th century and could only show 20 films – this list would suit nicely.  Though you would be hard-pressed to find a copy of Frantisek Vystrcil’s The Place in the Sun.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012

1.

Night on Bald Mountain / Une nuit sur le Mont Chauve

(禿山の一夜, Alexandre Alexeieff/Claire Parker, 1933)

2. 

The Street / La rue

(ストリート, Caroline Leaf, 1976)

3.

Crac!

(クラック！, Frédéric Back, 1981)

4.

Bambi

(バンビ, David Hand/Disney, 1942)

5.

Hand / Ruca

(手, Jiří Trnka, 1965)

6.

Blinkity Blank

(線と色の即興詩, Norman McLaren, 1955)

7.

Father and Daughter

(ファーザー・アンド・ドーター, Michaël  Dudok de Wit, 2000)

8.

Ali Baba

(アリババ, Giulio Gianini / Emanuele Luzzati, 1970)

9. 

The Substitute / Surogat

(代用品, Dušan Vukotić, 1961)

10.

The Cow / Корова

(雌牛, Aleksandr Petrov, 1989)

11.

De Facto/ De fakto

(デファクト, Donyo Donev, 1973)

12.

The Lady and the Cellist / La demoiselle et le violoncelliste

(お嬢さんとチェロ弾き, Jean-François Laguionie, 1965)

13.

 Post / Почта

(郵便, Mikhail Tsekhanovsky, 1929)

14.

The Island / Остров

(島, Fyodor Khitruk, 1973)

15.

The Place in the Sun / O misto na slunci

(太陽の下の場所, Frantisek Vystrcil, 1959)    

16.

Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers

(ウォレスとグルミット〜 ペンギンに気をつけろ!, Nick Park, 1993)

17.

Tango

(タンゴ, Zbigniew Rybczyński, 1980)

18.

Jumping

(ジャンピング, Osamu Tezuka, 1984)

19.

Dōjōji Temple

(道成寺, Kihachirō Kawamoto, 1976)

20.

The Cameraman’s Revenge

(カメラマンの復讐, Ladislaw Starewicz, 1912)

Source: Laputa Top 150 World and Japanese Animation

Norstein's complete works is available to order from Japan:

Yuri Norstein Sakuhin shu (collection)

Russian with Japanese subs

Tsutomu Shibayama’s Animation Top 20 (2003)

Tsutomu Shibayama (芝山努, b. 1941) admits that he is patting himself on the back by listing his own films in the Animation Top 20 questionnaire that he filled out at the Laputa Animaton Festival in 2003.  He uses the expression “temae miso” (手前味噌) – which literally means “home-made miso” but is colloquially used to express that one is singing one’s own’s praises.  Shibayama’s entire list but two are all movies from the popular Doraemon franchise which Shibayama has been involved with since the 1970s.  

Despite his long history as an animator and director in the anime industry, Shibayama writes that he does not feel that he is particularly discerning when it comes to the quality of animation and doesn’t really feel that he is suited to the task of ranking animation.

Paul Grimault’s The Shepherdess and the Chimneysweep (1953) – which later became the basis of his Grimault’s feature film masterpiece The King and the Mockingbird (1980)  – was the film that inspired Shibayama to become an animator himself.  Before this film, Shibayama had only seen Disney animation for children and the contrast between Grimault’s work and that of Disney made a great impression on him.

Frédéric Back’s The Man Who Planted Trees was so highly recommended to Shibayama by a friends that he finally “lifted his heavy bottom” and went to see it and it did impress him very much.

The rest of Shibayama’s list ranks what he feels are the best Doraemon feature films.  I did not have the impression that Shibayama was listing his own series out of mere egotism, but more out of a place of being proud of the work that he has done.  Some animators who work for big franchises grow weary of the limitations they set upon creativity.  It is nice to see someone who seems to truly enjoy what he does, even after all these years.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012

1.

The Shepherdess and the Chimneysweep / La Bergère et le ramoneur

(やぶにらみの暴君, Paul Grimault, 1953)

2.

The Man Who Planted Trees / L'Homme qui plantait des arbres

(木を植えた男, Frédéric Back, 1987)

3.

Doraemon: Nobita and the Birth of Japan

(ドラえもん のび太の日本誕生, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1989)

4.

Doraemon: Nobita and the Wind Wizard

(ドラえもん のび太とふしぎ風使い, Tsutomu Shibayama, 2003)

5.

Doraemon: Nobita and the Robot Kingdom

(ドラえもん のび太とロボット王国, Tsutomu Shibayama, 2002)

6.

Doraemon: Nobita and the Winged Braves

(ドラえもん のび太と翼の勇者たち, Tsutomu Shibayama,2001)

7.

Doraemon: Nobita and the Legend of the Sun King

(ドラえもん のび太の太陽王伝説, Tsutomu Shibayama, 2000)

8.

Doraemon: Nobita Gets Lost in Space

(ドラえもん のび太の宇宙漂流記, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1999)

9.

Doraemon: Nobita's South Sea Adventure

(ドラえもん のび太の南海大冒険, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1998)

10.

Doraemon: Nobita's Adventure in Clockwork City                             

(ドラえもん のび太のねじ巻き都市冒険記, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1997)

11.

Doraemon: Nobita and the Galaxy Super-Express

(ドラえもん のび太と銀河超特急, Hiroshi Fukutomi, 1996)

12.

Doraemon: Nobita's Genesis Diary

 (ドラえもん のび太の創世日記, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1995)

13.

Doraemon: Nobita and the Fantastic Three Musketeers

(ドラえもん のび太と夢幻三剣士, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1994)

14.

Doraemon: Nobita and Tin-Plate Labyrinth

(ドラえもん のび太とブリキの迷宮, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1993)

15.

Doraemon: Nobita and the Kingdom of Clouds

 (ドラえもん のび太と雲の王国, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1992)

16.

Doraemon: Nobita in Dorabian Nights

(ドラえもん のび太のドラビアンナイト, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1991)

17.

Doraemon: Nobita and the Animal Planet

(ドラえもん のび太とアニマル惑星, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1990)

18.

Doraemon: Nobita's Parallel "Journey to the West"

(ドラえもん のび太のパラレル西遊記, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1988)

19.

Doraemon: Nobita and the Knights of Dinosaurs

(ドラえもん のび太と竜の騎士, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1987)

20.

Doraemon: Nobita and the Steel Troops

(ドラえもん のび太と鉄人兵団, Tsutomu Shibayama,1986)


Source: Laputa Top 150 World and Japanese Animation

The Doraemon films are available via cdjapan:

Doraemon Shin, Nobita to Tetsujin Heidan - Habatake Tenshi Tachi  Blu-ray [Regular Edition]

Eiichi Yamamoto’s Animation Top 20 (2003)

Back by popular demand, individual questionnaire responses from Laputa Animation Festival’s publication of the Top 150 Japanese and World Animation (2003). 

Biographical information about the great animator Eiichi Yamamoto (山本暎一, b. 1940) in English is unusually sparse on the internet considering that he is one of the top anime directors of his generation.  It is somehow fitting that he was born the same year that Fantasiawas completed by Disney, for his contributions to animation have been equally bold and groundbreaking as the work done by James Algar, Wilfred Jackson, et al.

Born in Kyoto during the Pacific War, Yamamoto’s father was called up for service and as an infant Yamamoto’s mother and her family moved to Shōdoshima where they stayed for the duration of the war.  The island is famous for its olives, soy sauce, and wild monkeys.  .  .   as well as being the setting of Keisuke Kinoshita’s classic film Twenty-Four Eyes (二十四の瞳, 1954).  As a school boy, Yamamoto already dreamed of becoming an animator and upon graduation from high school he got work at Otogi Pro under the anime pioneer Ryūichi Yokoyama (横山 隆一, 1909-2001).  He worked on the productions of Fukusuke (ふくすけ, 1957) and Otogi's World Tour (おとぎの世界旅行, 1960) before meeting Osamu Tezuka (手塚 治虫, 1928-89) in 1960.

In 1961, Yamamoto became one of the founding members of Tezuka’s Mushi Productions and he took on the task of animating Story of a Certain Street Corner (ある街角の物語, 1962) which won much acclaim including the first ever Noburo Ofuji Award at the Mainichi Film Concours.  He worked with Tezuka on the original Astro Boy Series and directed the Kimba the White Lion series (1965-7) and feature film (1966).

Yamamoto is perhaps best known for his work on the Animerama (アニメラマ) trilogy of films: A Thousand and One Nights (千夜一夜物語, 1969), Cleopatra (クレオパトラ, 1970), and Belladonna (哀しみのベラドンナ, 1973).  Although these adult themed films may have been conceived and co-directed by Tezuka, Yamamoto is generally credited as the main creative force behind these unique films.  Yamamoto was also the supervising director of Leiji Matsumoto’s influential anime series Space Battleship Yamato (1974-5).

The 20 films that Yamamoto selected for the 2003 Laputa survey reflect his love of both popular and avant-garde forms of animation. .  .  not to mention a taste for the eclectic and unusual.  Yamamoto’s generation were hugely influenced by the extraordinary cell animation produced by Walt Disney in the 1930s and 1940s.  Although they emulated Disney to a certain extent, with the Animerama films Mushi Productions also sought to move animation in a completely new and different direction than Disney.  The avant-garde spirit of these films was influenced by Yōji Kuri and the Animation Sannin no Kai, which is doubtless why Two Grilled Fish made Yamamoto’s list.

On the surface it may seem egoistic for two of Yamamoto’s own works to appear on this list, but it is not uncommon among the Laputa lists.  Puppet animation pioneer Katsuo Takahashimentions his own work Nobara (野ばら, 1967) and Tsutomu Shibayama lists 18 Doraemon movies in his Top 20 List.  I enlisted my husband to help me translate Yamamoto’s comments about his selection which I have included below.  They reveal his quirky sense of humour. Although the list is numbered, Yamamoto claims the order is random. I am fascinated by the inclusion of The City of Lost Children which is not animation at all, but he suggests the aesthetics have an “anime taste” to them. 

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012

1.

Fantasia

(ファンタジア, 9 Disney directors, 1940)

The film that inspired Yamamoto to become an animator.

2.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

(白雪姫, David Hand et al., Disney, USA, 1937)

“The dark beauty in Snow White reminds me of kabuki” - EY

3.

Two Grilled Fish

(二匹のサンマ, Yōji Kuri, 1960)

“Scary, terrible and disturbing to envision the progress of humanity in this way.” - EY

4.

One Thousand and One Nights

(千夜一夜物語, Eiichi Yamamoto, Japan, 1969)

Yamamoto claims that it was the first animation to be have an “Eirin cut”

(Eirin is the Japanese film classification – some would say “censorship” board)

5.

Belladonna

(哀しみのベラドンナ, Eiichi Yamamoto, Japan, 1973)

“Because I made it!” - EY

6.

Night on the Galactic Railroad

(銀河鉄道の夜  Gisaburo Sugii, 1985)

“Because a friend of mine made it!” - EY

7.

Laputa: Castle in the Sky 

(天空の城ラピュタ, Hayao Miyazaki, 1986)

“It has such a great chase scene!” - EY

8.

My Neighbor Totoro

(となりのトトロ, Hayao Miyazaki, 1988)

“It succeeded wonderfully in turning Japanese folklore into entertainment.” - EY

9.

Renown “Ye-Ye” Girls Commericals

(レナウンのイエイエ娘CM, 1960s)

http://www31.ocn.ne.jp/~goodold60net/yeye.htm

“Oh those were fun, weren’t they!” - EY

10.

Ugo Ugo Lhuga series

(ウゴウゴルーガ, Toshio Iwai, 1992-1994)

http://we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2005/08/ugo-ugo-lhuga-j.php

“This series was great because it turned poo into a character.  

Iwai took animation to a new level.  I watched it every day when it was on TV.” - EY

11.

Minna no Uta series

(みんなのうた, various, NHK, 1961-present)

“I congratulate the NHK on this series.  Please continue it forever!” - EY

12.

Hedgehog in the Fog

(霧につつまれたハリネズミ, Yuri Norstein, 1975)

“Well, I listed it because everybody says it’s great.”  - EY

13.

The Mighty River / Le fleuve aux grandes eaux

(大いなる河の流れ, Frédéric Back, 1993)

“I like it better than The Man Who Planted Trees” - EY

14.

American Pop

(アメリカン・ポップ, Ralph Bakshi, 1981)

Yamamoto enjoyed the combination of rotoscoping with human drama.

15.

Heavy Metal

(ヘヴィメタル, Gerald Potterton, 1981)

“Hmmmm… this one is ugly and beautiful at the same time (醜悪美).” - EY

16.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

(ナイトメアー・ビフォア・クリスマス, Henry Selick, 1993)

“A grotesque doll with an exceedingly beautiful heart.” - EY

17.

Beavis and Butt-head Do America

(ビーバス・アンド・バットヘッドDo America, Mike Judge/ Yvette Kaplan, 1996)

“Very queer characters, very strange story, knee-slappingly hilarious.

On the one hand there’s Disney, and on the other hand there’s this odd, queer stuff.

America produces such diverse [animation].” - EY

18.

Death Becomes Her

(水遠に美しく, Robert Zemeckis, 1992)

puppets and special effects Guy Himber, Alec Gillis, Don Elliot, et al.

“Fantastic animation techniques used with ‘humans’” - EY

19.

Run Lola Run / Lola rennt animation sequences

(ラン・ローラ・ラン, Tom Tykwer, 1998)

Animation designed by Gil Alkabetz

“The animation is good, as is the beauty of the camera work.  

The construction is also great.  

Lola with the tattoo on her belly is really kawaii” - EY

20.

The City of Lost Children / La Cité des enfants perdus

(ロスト・チルドレン, Jean-Pierre Jeunet/Marc Caro, 1995)

“There’s no “anime” in it at all, but it has an anime flavour to it. 

(he uses the katakana term アニメテイスト literally “anime taste”)  

Their debut film Delicatessen was also good.” - EY


Source: Laputa Top 150 World and Japanese Animation