The real indie

In the last article I discussed the indie status of LITTLE WITCH ACADEMIA. If you want to find some real Japanese indie animation shorts, try searching for “自主制作” on youtube, meaning exactly “independant production”. You will also find several playlists. Problem might be that their usually only in Japanese without subtitles. The shorts range from very well done films to amateur works, from brilliant ideas to clichés. “フミコの告白” (fumiko no kokuhaku, fumiko’s confession) is one that’s animated really well and has earned some recognition.
Have a look and if you find one you specially like, why not post a comment? I’d be very interested to know!

What’s the deal with Little Witch Academia?

A friend of mine asked me recently whether I knew anything about the anime LITTLE WITCH ACADEMIA. As it happened, I had stumbled upon an article on this title, but hadn’t read further than the headlines since I had never heard of it before. Now I went back to look for the article – and here it is is!
The story my friend told me was that this short film had been very popular and successful even though it was “some sort of indie production”. Now, as a auteur film maker ourselves, anything indie AND successful of course draws our attention. After a bit of research i found out what that “sort of indie production” exactly was. The first confusing thing was that it was produced by a studio with some rather well known titles (Black Rock Shooter). And with 25 minutes it conforms with the regular TV episode length – which means the mainstream format. And then the keyword “Young Animator Training Project” turned up, of which I had heard before in connection with some other titles. And finally Wikipedia (as so often) come up with the answer: Young Animator Training Project started in 2010 and became annual in 2012 under the name of Anime Mirai. It’s funded by the government’s Agency of Cultural Affairs and supports 4 selected projects of all applications. It’s goal is to encourage projects executed in Japan that give young animators the opportunity to get on the job training by experienced animators. This became necessary because more and more work was getting outsourced to other countries e.g. Korea. Summing it up, these films are somewhat independently financed projects meaning not financed through the industry and with not entirely commercial intentions, but produced by mostly well established or upcoming studios (Production I.G., Madhouse, P.A. Works, A-1 Pictures, Studio 4°C).
I am somewhat surprised that from all, LITTLE WITCH ACADEMIA has received so much attention and popularity. I admit that the animation is beautiful and the visual look is beautiful – in American terms. Because the movements are fluid and exaggerated, but differs from the philosophy which you can find not only in many other animes but also in other Japanese arts/sports such as kendo. I was lucky enough to be at a conference where Hiroshi Nagahama (director of MUSHISHI and just recently AKU NO HANA) talked about how in anime as in kendo you focus your energy to where it’s crucial and effective, to one spot, in order to achieve the optimal result. (I hope I can post the video of it as soon as possible). When everything is moving almost hysterically, as generally the case in classic American animation, you don’t know where to put your focus, which movement to follow, and lots of energy gets wasted on maybe beautiful but ineffective work (that’s exactly the feeling i got when I rewatched PRINCE OF EGYPT).
And concerning it’s visual look, it differs from the typical anime look. The lines are more curved, the basic shapes are closer to the circle as is so typical of Disney, and you could say it somewhat looks more “cartoony”. It goes as far as that I wouldn’t have been surprised if somebody had shown it to me saying it was an American production. It also reminded me of PANTY AND STOCKING, which is more graphic, though, but also very different from typical anime. Their connection is that the director of LITTLE WITCH ACADEMIA was responsible for the concept art in PANTY AND STOCKING. All in all, I wonder whether the popularity of LITTLE WITCH ACADEMIA does not actually just mean a greater popularity amongst American audiences which in turn is due to it being more familiar to them.

Tsukejiru and kakejiru soup for ramen, soba etc.

In a Japanese cooking book I’ve found the basic recipe for the soup e.g. used for noodle soups (ramen).

Ingredients:

6 cups dashi or chicken stock
1/2 cup light soy sauce
1/2 cup mirin
1/2 teaspoon salt
Monosodium glutamate

Preperation:
Heat the dashi or chicken stock and taste for seasoning. Add the mirin, soy sauce, salt and a dash of monosodium glutamate. Bring to the boil and taste again for seasoning, correcting if necessary. Simmer for ten minutes.

Dashi is bonito based fish stock often used in Japanese cooking. If you make your own miso soup with miso paste, it’s recommended to add some dashi.
Monosodium glutamate is better known as aji-no-moto in Japan. It’s got a very interesting story behind it that you can check on Wikipedia. You will also find out more about umami, the so called 5th taste that some people believe to be lots of nonesense.
Instead of dashi or chicken stock you can use any kind of soup stock, like beef. After I cooked bigger amounts of meat e.g. in the steam cooker, I often use the fresh stock/juice left over as the soup base in the next ramen.
There are three basic tastes of ramen: shouyu (soy sauce), shiyo (salt) and miso. I find this recipe to be close to shouyu ramen, even I don’t know if that’s true by definition. This was the only recipe I could find in that book. If you want to cook miso ramen, use dashinand miso paste, but no (or little) soy sauce or mirin. Also for shiyo ramen, use less dashi and soy sauce (a bit is nice for seasing) but you can add lots of salt so that it gets a really nice salty taste. Of course if you leave out soy sauce or dashi, add the same amount of water instead.
If you put it all together you get 7 cups of soup. This results in about 2 servings. I usually use about 3 1/2 or 4 cups of soup per serving, which results in a bit less than 500 ml.

This type of soup for ramen is called kakejiru. For some other noodles like soumen you use a more concentrated version called tsukejiru, in which you only dipp the noodles. The ingredients are as follows:

2 cups fashi or chicken stock
1/2 cup mirin
1/2 cup dark soy sauce
Monosodium glutamate

Mix all ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Taste for seasoning, correct if necessary and cool before using.
For soumen, each person gets about 1/2 to 1 cup of tsukejiru.

 

 

Why does Ukiyo-e float?

Continuing on the previous article since I mentioned Ukiyo-e, something that’s been bothering me for a long time:
“e” in Ukiyo-e simply means “picture, image”. Ukiyo is generally translated as “floating world”, which is is correct literal translation. But I find it very misleading because it suggests to me something beyond this world, something hovering above this material world, something somehow missing a link to reality. But it actually refers to the “real” material, mundane world, the fleeting world (mistranslation/-transcription of early authors?). So Ukiyo-e seems to me rather connected to the idea of vanitas and closer to Barock, which is always conscious of death as an end to anything existing in this world.

Mucha Takato Psychedelic

Yesterday I went to see the Mucha exhibition at the Bellerive Museum with Cesare and Manu. It’s officially titled MUCHA MANGA MYSTERY, but after having walked through the exhibition some I wonder how fitting the last two keywords really are.
There are some works that I’ve missed in the exhibition. The Mucha part was beautiful and complete with some film and sound documents. But besides the manga part having been researched very superficially (as Jane has noted correctly, who had already been to the exhibition before and has warned me about certain deficiencies), with some very questionable examples in this context (GHOST IN THE SHELL?!?), the third part of the title is even more puzzling. As Cesare commented fittingly, “psychedelic” would describe it much better than “mystery” regarding all the 60s and 70s record covers and posters that were exhibited. But you’re right, “Mucha Manga Mystery” just sounds better.
Two texts that I’ve missed from a Japanese perspective are first of all the opening of the anime series GOSICK with very obvious Art-Nouveau references (specially in comparison to GHOST IN THE SHELL).
And UTENA, that was also exhibited, is rather victorian in my opinion. Am I wrong?
And on the other hand not only, but especially Takato Yamamoto as a representative of Ero-Guro is clearly related to Mucha. Although in this case maybe indirectly, I admit, since his artwork has mainly been influenced by Japanese woodcuts which have also been a strong influence on Art-Nouveau. But some floral elements clearly are closer to Art-Nouveau than to Ukiyo-e.
While writing this article I started wondering why I couldn’t think of any more contemporary western examples in connection with Mucha. Surely you occasionally can find single graphics that follow in his tradition. But is it really possible that the East has been influenced more lastingly? Or can it really be drawn back to that the origins are in the Japanese print graphics in the first place? There were some examples of American comics displayed at the exhibition, sure. What comes to my mind additionally are the flowing drapings in SPAWN. But there surely must also exist some other examples from Europe?
If anyone has an idea, please let me know.