Early Japanese Animation

Someone asked me some questions about early anime over on my Wikipedia user page, so I spent a few hours today digging around and was happy to find a few clips on YouTube. And since my gallery is still down, making it awkward to post images, I thought I’d introduce some of the antique anime I found.

First, some background. While there’s some indication that someone in Japan may have been making animation somewhere between 1907 and 1912…

…there’s no doubt that the form got its real start in 1917, when at least five short animated pieces (the first three by Rakuten Kitazawa‘s apprentice Hekoten Shimokawa, the fourth by Seitarô Kitayama, and the fifth by Jun’ichi Kôuchi) were created and screened. All five were long believed to have been lost, but in 2007, Kôuchi’s “A Dull-Edged Sword” (Namakura Katana) was discovered at an Osaka antique flea market. I couldn’t find a video of the entire two-minute piece, but this clip from a Japanese television show offers us a glimpse. Only the first 1 minute and 5 seconds are worth watching. After that it’s just talking heads.

Due in large part to the devastation caused by the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, virtually every other Japanese animation made prior to 1924 has been lost. And while there were some noteworthy pieces made over the next ten years, unfortunately YouTube apparently didn’t get the memo, so we leap forward to 1933 to watch the vastly more sophisticated “Feud of the Foxes and Raccoon Dogs in Moving Pictures” (Ugoki E Kori Tatehiki), directed by Ikuo Ôishi (11 minutes 24 seconds).

The influence of American cartoons is obvious, but Ôishi does a great job of incorporating traditional Japanese motifs into this fun bit of nonsense. This is one of the best prewar short animations I’ve ever seen.
“The Forest Baseball Team” (Mori no Yakûdan), directed by Sei’ichi Harada in 1934, might be a bit of a let-down after that one, but keep in mind that this is just one minute out of an eight-minute short. (Why the uploader didn’t upload the whole thing is a bit of a mystery.)

Here’s another one from 1934, “Corporal Norakuro” (Norakuro Gochô), directed by Yasushi Murata. Norakuro (literally “stray black”), an accident-prone member of the “Dog Army”, was the most popular manga character of the day. This was the second of five Norakuro shorts made between 1933 and 1938.

And here’s another one from 1934, which has the somewhat puzzling title, “Toybox Series No. 3: Picturebook 1936″ (Omachabako Shirîzu Dai San Wa – Ehon Senkyûhyakusanjûroku Nen). You’ll notice the unabashed rip-offs of Felix and Mickey, but just about every character in this animation is a toy that would have been available in Japan at the time (thus the “toybox” in the title). Why the story is set two years in the future, I have no idea. No director is named. (8 minutes.)

We have another ten-year YouTube gap, and end with a couple of clips from the feature-length (74 minute) war propaganda film, “Momotarô, Divine Warrior of the Sea” (Momotarô Umi no Shinpei). This was directed by the brilliant Mitsuyo Ose in 1945, and was a sequel to his 1943 “Momotarô’s Sea Eagle” (Momotarô no Umiwashi), which, at 37 minutes, was Japan’s first ever feature length animation. The first clip is the first 2 minutes of the film. The second video is an 8-minute montage of the songs from the movie. (Yes, a musical war propaganda animation.)


And that’s it for today. I’m trying to get hold of a four-disk DVD box set of prewar and wartime anime. If I do, I’ll be sure to upload some more goodies here.