Anime columnist Andrew Osmond shares a pictorial overview of a new installation in Tokyo – soon heading to Paris – honoring the feted helmer of ‘The Tale of Princess Kaguya’ and ‘Grave of the Fireflies.’
I’m staying in Tokyo over what is, even by the city’s standards, a sweltering summer.So it’s an excellent time to escape to the air-conditioned indoors and see an exhibition, such as the one I’m covering this week, .For anyone coming to Tokyo soon, the exhibition is currently running at the Azubadai Hills Gallery, which is easily accessible from Kamichayo subway station on the Hibiya line.
(It’s not far from Tokyo’s Roppongi district.) The exhibition is open daily from 10 a.m.to 8 p.m.until September 15, with the final entrance at 7.30 p.m.
However, some readers may be better placed to see the exhibition after it ends in Tokyo.From October 15, it will transfer to Paris, where it will be at the Japanese Culture House of Paris (MCJP) until January 24 of next year.Details are available here.
In America and Britain, Isao Takahata is most famous for his Studio Ghibli films, especially his 1988 war tragedy and his Oscar-nominated 2013 , which was his last film before he died five years later.However, these films represent only a small part of Takahata’s body of work spanning his 50-year career.Many of his most important works are frustratingly unavailable in English editions.
The first feature film he directed was the 1968 fantasy, , made by the Toei Animation studio.A few years later, he was directing beloved children’s TV serials.The first was the year-long in 1974, one of the most important Japanese animated series ever, in terms of its artistry and its impact on the industry.
Takahata followed it in 1976 with the serial (also called ), and then in 1979 with , based on the Canadian novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery.Among Takahata’s other works are two 1980s features he made before Studio Ghibli, the raucous Skid Row comedy (1981), by TMS, and the delightful fairy tale (1982), by Oh! Production.I reviewed both films for here.
Of course, the exhibition also devotes a huge amount of space to Takahata’s films at Ghibli, including and , as well as (1989), (1994) and (1999).The exhibition consists of a huge range of images and documents: video clips, notes and memos, original animation drawings, posters and cels.The documents are in Japanese, though there’s enough explanatory text in English to make the exhibit accessible to Anglophone visitors.
As the photos which follow demonstrate, it’s a tremendously experience.Some of the exhibition overlaps with a previous Takahata exhibition in 2019 at Tokyo’s National Museum of Modern Art.For readers who want more historical detail, I wrote an extended report on the earlier event here.
I should stress, though, that not all the documents and images described in that report appear in the new exhibition, which has its own exclusives.In particular, the new exhibition includes cel art by the future director Hideaki Anno, who drew a warship which appears in a flashback in .In the actual film, the ship is shown in shadow, so that much of Anno’s meticulous detail was lost.
In the exhibition, though, you can see the mechanical detail in all its glory.The exhibition also acknowledges Takahata’s debts to world animators such as Paul Grimault ().Takahata’s later films such as were heavily inspired by the more impressionist work of Canada’s Frédéric Back.
Indeed, the new exhibition’s title, , refers to Back’s Oscar-winning 1987 film, which Takahata loved.For the following images, my grateful thanks go to the kind staff of the Azubadai Hills Gallery, and to my good friend Carlos Nakajima for his wonderful photography.The first part of the exhibition, above, covers Takahata’s 1960s work at Toei Animation, especially on the first feature film he directed.
The 1968 film’s original name was , though it’s often called in Anglophone territories.The film is available on online platforms under the latter title, but it was also released as an American Blu-ray by Discotek as .The film is also sometimes called , though its story has no connection to the epic American comic strip “Prince Valiant” (or its 1990s American cartoon version, ).
Takahata’s 1974 is still not available in English in America, though a Spanish dub (apparently not subtitled) can be found on the Filmbox Live Subscription service via Prime Video.However, many Anglophone readers are likely to “know” the series indirectly.Takahata’s series was the direct basis for the 2015 CG series made in Europe by Studio 100 Animation and Flying Bark Animation.
However, as far as I know, Takahata had no input into that version.(From what I’ve seen of the CG show, it’s perfectly decent but it lacks the artistry and delicacy of Takahata’s original.) As mentioned earlier, Takahata followed with two more serials, (first picture) and (second picture), animated at Nippon Animation.A new version of , called , is currently streaming on Crunchyroll, although its pacing is different from Takahata’s.
Animated by The Answer Studio, the new show races through the multiple novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery, reaching the end of her second book () by Episode 15.In contrast, Takahata’s series spent a full episodes adapting just the first book! The above photo shows the poster for , known in English as , Takahata’s comedy about a tough girl and her useless father in downtown Osaka, from a manga by Etsumi Haruki.Takahata directed the cinema feature in 1982.
Soon afterwards, a TV series began, and many of its early episodes included scenes from the film, mixed with new footage.It’s important to say, though, that the film came first – it certainly wasn’t a “TV edit,” like many other Japanese animated films.A second TV series followed in 1991.
Both TV series have been released on American Blu-rays by Discotek Media, but not the feature film.One point that I haven’t been able to clarify is whether, and to what extent, Takahata was involved with the TV version - specifically the first TV series in 1981.(The 1990s series was clearly by another director.) Some sources, including Discotek, suggest Takahata directed the 1981 series, but other sources are more ambiguous.
Of course, it’s complicated by the fact that the series incorporates scenes from the film, which certainly by Takahata.The displays below relate to Takahata’s Studio Ghibli films; for more information on them, see my report on the earlier Takahata exhibition in 2019.Andrew Osmond is a British author and journalist, specialising in animation and fantasy media.
His email is [email protected].
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