A rare glimpse of early Japanese sound anime and prewar Japanese culture, The Roots of Japanese Anime features the masterworks of such pioneers of Japanese animation as Noburo Ofuji, Yasuji Murata, and Kenzo Masaoka, in addition to Mitsuyo Seo’s Momotaro’s Sea Eagle, the notorious war cartoon billed as Japan’s first feature anime. These movies represent the brilliance and variety of anime, ranging from beautiful Japanese paper animation to powerful multiplane cel cartoons. They also evoke the fascinating complexity of Japan, a nation that is then both marching towards war, enlisting kids in militarist nationalism, yet also delighting in a mixture of modern popular culture, ancient folk tales, irreverent comedy, and the everyday life of prewar Japanese children.
The experimental animated short is a collaborative work between Keiichi Tanaami and Nobuhiro Aihara.
Satou Ichirou once called himself 'Maryuuin Kouga' and behaved as if he were a hero in a fantasy wor...
A series of 16 "short stories" created by the creator's group Images Forum.
Japan, 1943, during World War II. Young Suzu leaves her village near Hiroshima to marry and live wit...
When a machine that allows therapists to enter their patient's dreams is stolen, all hell breaks loo...
A boy is frustrated by the lack of bright stars in the sky. To reconcile the problem, he pays a visi...
One night, Reine, a young loner, sees among the urban chaos a moving oneness that seems alive, like ...
A member of an elite paramilitary counter-terrorism unit becomes traumatized after witnessing the su...
Part of the "Flight Safety" series of animated shorts commissioned by the U.S. Air Force at the end ...
The experimental animated short is a collaborative work between Keiichi Tanaami and Nobuhiro Aihara.
The experimental animated short is a collaborative work between Keiichi Tanaami and Nobuhiro Aihara.
This film explores the distant relationship between an elderly amateur musician, the woman who lives...
An elite superhuman agent must stop a foreign military unit from seizing control of an ancient artif...
The unlikely friendship of a boy, a mole, a fox and a horse traveling together in the boy's search f...
Summer, 2006. A 5th grader Ryuhei discovers a notebook entitled "Tokyo Exploring Records." It was a ...
Chibi Maruko chan is the nickname of a sweetly obnoxious 9-year-old girl. She tricks her grandfather...
Momoko's teacher asks the third grade to draw a picture based on their favorite song, to enter in a ...
It is Christmas Eve. Max is excited. Because he has wished for something very special – but only qui...
In the future, an outbreak of canine flu leads the mayor of a Japanese city to banish all dogs to an...
Kaleidoscopic one minute animation windfall from Jake Fried, like penetrating the third eye. Hand-d...