Experts' choice
Various experts introduce their own selection of the works on JAFC.
- List of Works
- Various Rankings
- Characters selection
- Experts' choice
- FAQ about the films
Miyamoto Hirohito（Associate Professor at Meiji University School of Global Japanese Studies）
Associate Professor at Meiji University School of Global Japanese Studies. Miyamoto specializes in the history of manga and studies of representational culture. He edited Hisashi Eguchi, KING OF POP Side B (Seidosha, 2016).
Miyamoto Hirohito's choice
- Choice reason of the work
- Shigeji Ogino created a large variety of experimental films. Here at Japanese Animated Film Classics, the audience can enjoy several films created by Ogino, ranging from Detective Felix in Trouble, an improbable puppet animation movie, to abstract films like this, which was made in Oskar Fischinger's style. Contrary to Fischinger's works, which are visualizations of music, this silent movie provides musical properties to visual art. This film, created using sequences of non-symmetric, geometric curves, gives me the most pleasure. It might be interesting if contemporary musicians competed to compose music for this film.
- Choice reason of the work
- Sanae Yamamoto learned film techniques from Seitaro Kitayama, one of the three persons who created animated films in 1917. After World War II, Yamamoto taught young animated film artists at Toei Animation Co., Ltd. He is one of the key persons in the history of Japanese animated films. Comparison between this work and Momotaro, Japan's No. 1, which was created in 1928 and is available on this website, reveals how image technology developed within a decade or so. The story in this movie itself is a simple moralistic one. However, the movements, which are quite vivid and contain hidden eroticism, provide a unique charm. The action scene at the end of the film is full of ideas designed to make the actions exciting, including extraordinary metamorphosis as well as the use of depth and changes in angle.
- Choice reason of the work
- This film was released as a movie produced by the Ministry of Education in the same year as The Lazy Fox by Sanae Yamamoto, which was also produced by the Ministry of Education. The Lazy Fox is a simple moralistic story in which a lazy and cowardly fox is punished by a hard working raccoon dog. In this film, which begins with a scene that reminds us of Aesop's fable The Ant and the Grasshopper, the music-loving grasshopper is not portrayed as a villain. Rather, attracted to the musical instrument and music, the ant realizes his fault. The film is unique in this respect. The movements are of the highest standard at the time. The scene in which the ant skips under dandelion fluff, filmed by Tadahito Mochinaga using a multiplane camera to emphasize the depth, is marvelous even by today's standards.
selection of the works 1Ogino Shigeji『Rhythm』(1935)
selection of the works 2Yamamoto Sanae『The Lazy Fox』(1941)
selection of the works 3Seo Mitsuyo『Arichan the Ant』(1941)
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