Kagerou Project – Media interconnected

Recently I’m totally hooked on something called KAGEROU PROJECT! And it’s an interesting example for how different media can be used centering around one story.

The kind of media mix (not transmedia in its true meaning) used in Kagerou Project is already well known from other projects. In his talk at the Cartoon Museum in Basel on September 1st, Prof. Dr. Bernd Dolle-Weinkauff called it the media alliance, which is a cascade like structure showing how a story runs through different media formats in a set order. It usually starts with a manga, since it costs the least and offers a platform to see how the story works with an audience. If it proved successful, it can be adopted as a OVA first on a small market or directly as a TV series. If those were popular enough, a feature film often follows. There are other cases where TV series get adopted as a manga, too. It seems to me that the Japanese (market?) wants to enjoy a story in all it’s formats.

Games are an other common source for TV series and at least since the great success of THE MELANCHOLY OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA, light novels are a powerful member of that league, too, to the extent that some people start groaning: “Not another of those light-novel-adaption type anime!”

What is unusual about KAGEROU PROJECT is that is started with songs by Jin (a.k.a. Shizen no Teki-P) using vocaloid voices (mostly IA) but using original characters in the PVs produced by Shidu and Wannyanpu. And most importantly, with his songs Jin created a story and a whole universe that got adapted into a manga and a light novel series and a TV series has been announced as well which is to be produced by studio Shaft and directed by Akiyuki Shinbo (my absolutely favorite combination, so I’m almost going crazy!!!).

The links to the official site below:

http://mekakushidan.com/

I was surprised when I found out that there is an other project with almost the same CV: DEMISE PROJECT also started as a song series by 150P, picking up urban legends and shaping them into songs also using vacaloid voices. And it also got adapted into a novel and a manga.

Are these projects laying out the blueprint for how stories will be developed and produced in the future?

All Aboard the Omnibus!

Did you know that on June the 20th a new omnibus film by
Katsuhiro Otomo with several short films by major Japanese
animation filmmakers premiered? I just found out a few days ago,
and it looks mighty interesting!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzs392_short-peace_shortfilms

Some may know that Otomo has past experience in making omnibus films
with MEMORIES, which featured shorts by Koji Morimoto, Tensai
Okamura and Otomo himself. The new omnibus features: COMBUSTIBLE
(HIYOUCHIN) by Otomo, TSUKUMO by Shuhei Morita, GAMBO by Hiroaki
Ando, BUKI YO SARABA by Hajime Katoki. What isn’t mentioned in many
places is that it also includes an opening by Koji Morimoto.
However I’m puzzled why only COMBUSTIBLE and TSUKUMO are listed on
the English version of the homepage.

http://shortpeace-movie.com/

 

Japanese Animation Studios – behind the scene

During my hikes through internetland (and especially Youtubia) I’ve found several clips allowing a peek behind the doors of several animation studios, giving an insight into how Japanese productions work.
So I thought I’d collect them all hear in one place. Additions are very welcome and I will surely add more links myself later.
For those of you who have always wondered what the difference to Western productions might be or just what they might be about.

Here is a series of clips following the production of KANON at Kyoto Animation. Kyoto Animation is probably most famous for K-ON and THE MELANCHOLY OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA. And their one of the studios that showed that successful animation can be produced even outside of Tokyo.

Next is a report on the studio J.C. Staff by Culture Japan. J.C. Staff have worked on UTENA, TORADORA and BAKUMAN, but also realized NEKOJIRU-SOU (which is an exceptional animation).

Studio Ghibli has produced a whole series of making-ofs and behind-the-scenes, always titled ○○ WA KOUSHITE UMARETA (○○ WAS BORN LIKE THIS). In the film focusing on PRINCESS MONONOKE I specially liked how detailed the explain the job of the camera and special effect artists, who in other making-ofs often are left out.