I was born in Japan in 1960 and was raised watching many of the anime you show chips of and it was a great walk thru memory lane. I remember the White Lion Cub, as well as Wolf Boy Ken (Ookami Shonen Ken). My mom even bought me a eating utensil set consisting of a compartmentalized plate, a square bowl, and a fork and spoon all featuring images of Wolf Boy Ken. I wonder what ever happened to them. I used to always watch Atom (Astro Boy), and Tetsujin (Gigantor) which were both black & white when they first appeared on Japanese TV in the early '60s. Great memories, thanks again!
Oh, time to learn something about old anime. I have been prejudiced against old anime for a very long time until I started watching some really good stuff. I'm glad you're one of the youtubers who cover old anime as well because my interest in it is growing, and I get to hear many new names in videos like this, thank you for making this kind of content :)
Three reasons: First, anime used to air over multiple seasons and 50+ episodes back in the day, would often drag on forever and do nothing, and sometimes I am just not up for that. I haven't even watched any of the long running shounen except for hxh and gintama, both of which are god tier, but also 2000+ Second, the art seems dated, and a lot of older anime has 80s music and just bad sound design (compared to the modern day) as well which I am not really a fan of. Third, I got into anime at 22 years of age, and I am now 24, I have watched 66 days of anime (as MAL says) in less than two years. I never had any sort of nostalgia that'd make me "forgive" old anime for sounding or looking bad or not to my "modern" sensibilities. Oh, and also 4:3. Being both a "visualphile" and "audiophile", those were some deadly sins. But the more I've explored more old anime, like Ninja Scroll (which digi pointed out to me) and Vampire Hunter D (which I found somewhere in suggestions), and also I kind of learned that there's something very peculiar that's lost in modern anime, and it's hard to put your finger on all it represents. As Digi said in this video, there are some art styles that have simply died out since the late 80s, and it's hard to find that kind of asethetic in modern anime. And there's also anime that looks stylistically dated, but still amazing, with great 2D animation (well pretty much all of old well drawn gundam falls into this category I guess), which is another thing that's dying out today. I still don't like shows spanning more than 50+ episodes that go nowhere for a good reason, but I don't think old anime is worse than the new stuff now, despite not being as "HD" most of the time.
As someone who watches and collects almost exclusively vintage anime, I always bite my lip when the younger crowd dismisses an entire era. Always glad to see more younger people who are starting to "get it." Just like retro video games offer a kind of experience that modern games cannot, retro anime offers an animation and storytelling style that has been lost.
I have a prejudice against newer anime, so I understand. My primary issue is that they look too sleek, almost overproduced. Too shiny and plastic. I am starting to give them a chance, though.
Lol. How do i explain 1 anime director? >Runs through entire history of anime and all directors and companies and theories relating to. I loved it, i actually learned a lot.
The western hemisphere is a fascinating place to me. At 11:25, we have to censor what I imagine is just a nipple so that the video doesn't get demonetized, or worse, removed for inappropriate content. But then a mere 4 seconds later, we get to see some guy's jaw erupt from his mouth as it transforms into a monstrosity. Despite the latter being a far more traumatizing image, showing it on youtube will have no negative repercussions.
I feel you, bro. Western logic regarding sex and violence’s presence in media has never made sense to me after I thought about it for more than 2 seconds either, even as a westerner myself.
This was a fascinating and very well-crafted ride, filled to the brim with all the kind of information that I find the most interesting and weaving an engaging narrative throughout. Really solid stuff. I enjoyed this a lot and it even inspired me to go on my own little research adventures about some of the creators that were only breezed over in this video.
From a Japanese perspective, it is pretty awesome to see a foreign enthusiast paying so much attention to such an obscure piece of Japanese culture. The way I see it though, Mori Masaki was called on to direct Haguregumo, Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen), and Tokino Tabibito (Time Stranger), and coordinate Bobii ni Kubittake (Bobby's Girl) pretty much says that he was the go-to guy for films that were considered near impossible to animate or film. (Same can be said for Natsuheno Tobira - Door into Summer - whose story was sexually explicit for the 1980s and very reliant on suggestion to make it work. But this was also a "non-theater" release, meaning that it played in auditoriums and music halls, but not movie theaters, for a day or two before it was released on video. At the time, such works of animation faced little moral oversight.) Mori really seems to be sort of genie character that people call on in times of trouble when circumstances force the studio to take on an impossible task. Barefoot Gen seems like a case in point. The original manga had a weird history. It was serialized in Shonen Jump and continued in spite of its poor popularity with the readership at a time when Shonen Jump had a strict policy of cancelling any series that performed poor in the polls. When the paper shortage following the 1973 oil crises and the removal of the editor finally put a stop to the unpopular series, the publisher deemed it too unpopular to publish in book form. Then the editor of the leftist Asahi newspaper pushed for its release and it was published in book form from an obscure publisher, while the cancelled series was revived, first in leftist Shimin magazine, then in Bunka Hyoron which was the pipe organ of the Communist Party, then it was transferred to Kyoiku Hyoron which was the journal of the liberal teacher's union. School teachers were encouraged to "recommend" the comic books to students, which they duly did (when I was in junior high school) and was duly ignored by the students. Although the depiction of such a serious subject matter brought some respectability to a medium that was still largely considered "for kids", the series was never popular. The style of the artwork was already outdated by the time of its publication and by the time animated movie was planned three live action adaptations had already been released and flopped at the box office. As the comic series became increasingly political near the end of its run, there were protests against it in several parts of Japan. I do not know what kind of pressure compelled Mad House to undertake such a project, but it was a sure fire commercial failure obvious from a mile away. It was also destined to raise a political shit storm. Haguregumo was another mission impossible for a very different reason. It was a beloved manga that ran from 1973 to 2017 which was not concerned with telling any story, but in describing the Taoist aesthetic of the main character. And since the Taoist ideal is a life in which nothing ever happens, much of the manga depicts the main character just gazing at the rain, or looking at the clouds go by, or listening to the wind, or just basically watching the grass grow. Things do happen to the main character, but not because he proactively seeks adventure or makes decisive choices. Things happen like the rain falls on him. Each episode is an anecdote that teaches the reader the virtues of living a Taoist life. I don't know who's bright idea it was to turn this into an animated movie, but most likely it was an accountant who never actually read the Haguregumo series or knew what it was about, and had very poor understanding of what makes a movie. On top of that, a live action television adaptation had already flopped before (and after) the animated movie was released. It made no sense to make this into an animated movie, but once the project was picked up somebody had to direct it. Bobby's Girl may be the most obvious made-to-fail effort of the lot, however. It was based on a "novel" by Yoshio Kataoka, who was a very popular writer at the time. Between 1980 and 1989 alone, he published 61 volumes of fiction and 6 books of essays (and he kept writing at that pace thereafter). His books were mostly stream-of-consciousness style meanderings of lonely young people on motorcycles cruising through windy seaside landscapes. His paragraphs where often less than a line long, and his books were less like stories and more like extended haikus. It was pretty much Japanized Jack Kerouac with two less wheels. Three of his books had already been made into live action movies with only one moderate success before the animated movie was made. Because Kataoka's books were on the best seller lists, financiers must have thought movie adaptations were logical extensions. It is hard to imagine that any of them ever read the books. (On top of all this, the character design was done by Akimi Yoshida, who did some of Kataoka's book covers, but whose own manga narrative is mostly creepy or sensual or both.) So in this context, why was this trouble shooter hired to direct Time Stranger? Given that studio Mad House was not yet a financially solid entity, the studio may not have had full control of what projects to take on. They may have made any full length movie that they could find sponsors for. Time Stranger is based on a novel by Taku Mayumura, who wrote 38 novels during the 1980s, and was even more prominent on the best seller lists than Kataoka. Many of his novels are a mix of sci-fi and "gakuen" (school romance) stories. The rapid pace of his writing showed in the quality of his novels. It is hard to say why this particular novel was chosen for adaptation, but the movie was bankrolled by Kadokawa Productions whose parent company Kadokawa Publishing had made a fortune selling Mayumura's novels. On the face of it, this movie was much less a mission impossible than the other works Masaki took on. The only apparent problem is that the source material is mediocre. But this film was planned from the outset to be double featured with Rintaro's Phoenix: Karma Chapter, the most ambitious animated project Kadokawa Production had taken on to date, not to mention that it was a de facto follow up to Toho's 1980 Phoenix 2772 directed and written by Osamu Tezuka himself. For those familiar with the mind bending Phoenix manga series, this should start sounding like a mission impossible along the lines of making a sequel to Citizen Kane. So maybe, it was Rintaro who was slated to direct Time Stranger and Mori Masaki who was hired to direct Phoenix. But when you consider that the opportunity to direct a legendary epic like Phoenix was a once in a lifetime honor and that the third installment to Phoenix was planned but never filmed, Rintaro would have preferred to direct Phoenix however disaster prone the endeavor may be. This is just a wild guess with no real documentation to back it up, but maybe Mori Masaki, who was only ever called upon to direct when the project seemed doomed to failure, was the original director of choice for Phoenix: Karma Chapter.
One the best things about your channel is to know about the historical aspects of anime that time or people forget as they are too busy looking forward. I'm not a hardcore anime watcher, but stuff like this is extremely illuminating. Thank you. Being a big video game enthusiast, your video reminds me of the many game studios and people who were involved with either classics or cult games with few very good aspects. Stuff like importance of Wizardry(and Ultima) and Robert Woodhead, rogue and rogue-likes(and lites), that weird Japanese action RPG era which lead to inspiration of Legend of Zelda, cult studios like Quintet and Human, SEGA's indirect contributions to gaming, Sony hiring people from Sony Music to make games for the first PlayStation, THE WHOLE CRPG GENRE.... Things which not gamers today even think or care about. Like there are people who think that Diablo created the ARPG genre, because David Brevik said so. Anyways, great video, really enjoyed it. EDIT : Please do watch the anime adaptation of the Indian epic Ramayana. There are inaccuracies with the actual written source, but its a miracle that it even happened. Not many anime/TV/games go into the Hindu Mythological/Indian Historical side of things. (Try watching it in Hindi with English subtitles for the authentic experience. One of the very few great-tier Hindi voice acting)
Speaking of games it reminds me of the director of Castlevania, the original NES version. Cause like Masaki, that guy basically disappeared off the face of the earth, and one journalist who tried tracking him down had no luck in doing so
Back in the day, there was little attention paid to who created the games. So many times they would skip out on that. And the ones that had credits would be either poorly translated or used nicknames instead of real ones. There is also the case of people falling out of game dev to more favorable jobs, or sometimes killed of by Yakuza (they have deep ties with game industry, believe it or not) As for the journalist, I think you are referring to this : www.kickstarter.com/projects/1748556728/the-untold-history-of-japanese-game-developers/posts/494229
Actually the same journalist, John Szczepaniak, covered probably the most extensive Yakuza piece that I've seen (not that I've seen many). www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JohnSzczepaniak/20160921/281799/Dark_Side_of_the_Sun.php (That's why I'm really interested in buying his books whenever I get the money for it) But I rather suggest you watch this video by Dark Pixel Gaming first : ua-cam.com/video/uQT0Cw1A448/v-deo.html
The author of the barefoot gen manga also went through ww2/hiroshima, the visions of seeing melting people and burning horses were things the creator actually saw. I would HIGHLY recommend reading the manga, it is insanely good and detailed. I think you'd really like it digi. There are a lot of great details missing from the anime that are in the manga and the manga also explored the post war too.
As a father of a 4 year old boy, watching this kind of images just hurt's too much, the idea of so many civilians and innocent kids die and suffer in such horrible way and that he was right there makes me wonder how did this man felt while working on barefoot gen.
Holy shit, Digi's fully back in the swing of it with writing that's not only tight but has a clear direction and narrative, albeit its still short of a thesis, and this showcases some of Davoo's best editing: Skilled, detailed, funny, but not distracting. 2018 is already looking up
I imagine Mori Masaki logging on to the internet once a week after he checks his news and does his trivia, he googles himself. Just to see if anyone finally appreciates his work after all this time, after all some of his former co-workers who he is still friends with tell him all the time that this happens now with projects thanks to places like UA-cam. So one of these days he'll come across this video and watch it til the end, lean back in his chair, and just the slightest smile will slip past. His life will be fulfilled. Maybe put his name in parentheses or something in the title.
I gotta say, Digi, your videos focusing on just a single person on the industry, from the Shinbo ones, the Shinkai video, and even I guess the tangentially related Lupin III video. The research, dissection, and analysis of them has become some of my favourite works of yours. If this is a vein you plan to continue down in the long term, I am super excited!
Not having barely any idea about the details of the anime industry, I found this video very educational, easy to understand and overall enjoyable. Thanks for the video, I'll sure take a look into Barefoot Gen, probably Time Stranger too.
the amount of sheer knowledge and research in this video..the brilliant editing .. the concentrated yet simple to follow narrative.. this video itself apart from the content is a masterpiece . i salute you DIGIBRO. you've earned an avid fan from now on. please try to dabble in cinema and tv professionally . in directing and editing.
I know Time Strangers is Khoda's favourite anime who runs the 80s anime tumblr. She did a podcast on it not so long ago, if anyone hasn't checked out her blog and want to know about the old anime you should.
Stevem That's actually a DIFFERENT 80's anime film with the same name if you can believe it. That one was released as Time Étranger in Japan and is a sequel to the tv series Goshogun.
I can surely say that this is already one of my favorite videos made by you, as it's not only interesting from the historical standpoint but also accidentally came out right during my 80s anime movies kick. On the side note, it reminds me of your Akiyuki Shinbou videos because of the subject matter, relatively extensive research and (obviously) Davoo's editing style. This man keeps getting better and better.
Something for whoever dives deeper into this. NONE of Masaki's films were screened at Anime Con 1. Given that over 100 shows WERE shown and a couple of these (mostly Shojo) are still not noted on the web, this suggests something happened concerning distribution. Maybe these weren't available for sale for some time, or maybe there was no laserdisc release (the major gateway to the US in the early days of fandom). But that's the key point, NONE of these were in fan consciousness at ALL in the late 80s early 90s, I don't think they made Animag either. And plenty nastier stuff did so it wasn't squeamishness (Barefoot Gen was known, but through the Manga). One missing could be luck, two coincidence, ALL (and not any other Madhouse stuff), suggests distribution issues. These films got MADE, they were in theaters but WHEN did they hit home video in Japan?
Amazing stuff dude. Incredibly well researched and put-together, you'll be an even bigger winner in the UA-cam anime space if you keep up this type of historical content.
Uniko is actually really fucking good. Like, much better than what you'd expect from a show so obviously aimed at a very young demographic. It's actually sorta dark when the magician turns everyone into stone dolls, and the children in the show watch what they would understand to be their parents dying. I'll def have to check out some of these works :) Especially Natsu e no Tobira
The Unico movies were my very first animes back in either 1989 or 1990. I'll never forget the handsome villain from Fantastic Adventures of Unico being impaled on the roof.
Danielle Spargo Well, it is from from Osamu Tezuka. His other kids work such as Astro Boy has some messed up moments as well. Also, if you want something more like A Door Into Summer from the same author you can also check out the manga of Kaze to Ki no Uta, which has one of its main characters use sexual relationships as a coping mechanism as well. Keep in mind that it is shonen-ai, said character's backstory gets pretty dark, and it isn't fully translated yet. It also has an OVA, but it just doesn't do the story justice.
I'm definitely interested in shounen-ai, though I'm not sure just how dark you mean. It doesn't matter that it's not translated, because I'm relatively fluent, but I'm not fond of vivid graphic depictions of sexual violence. If it's too intense, I'll prob have to give it a miss tbh :/ What do you think?
I searched up Mori Masaki and surprisingly I had seen his work on Natsu e no Tobira (5:08) because I enjoy the work of Keiko Takemiya. She's a shoujo veteran mangaka known for being one of, if not the first to include shonen-ai in shojo manga. I'm more shocked that not only have I never heard of Time Stranger but didn't search up the director after watching it. But Jesus, the guy's credits are missing on certain sites online and that sucks even more.
The problem with modern otaku, & I guess it's not really their fault given the amount of free anime dumped onto them every year, is that they never talk about or remember anything more than 3 years old. Find an unenthusiastic middle aged casual viewer who got over their weeaboo faze ages ago; those are the ones who can remember at least 3 decades worth of titles.
Exactly, it's all about the new shows. New, new, new, new, new. People are literally forgetting all the greats that came out back in the 2006-2008 with few exceptions.
Lieutenant BaconWaffles most new shows are recycling the same ecchi to easy win, anime is going throught a decline now, but thise weebs didnt live in the 90s to enjoy what we enjoyed and dismiss what we saw as "bad looking" 😂
I am considerably high and I want to watch this, but you're gonna have scenes from that *fucking* (great) film Barefoot Gen. And I can't, I can't bare to watch that again. You might as well just show us Grave of the Fireflies if you really want to mess with people's heads.
I got my college library to adopt the barefoot gen manga and place it with historical fiction, which contains stories that either depicts real world happenings in literary form or has stories that have lasted throughout the ages, and anybody who has ever read it (myself included) can't get through even one book without tearing up or just flat out crying.
I have tried to research stuff in different languages and boy is it difficult if you’re trying to be as thorough as you’re being. I am impressed with the amount of effort it is clear you went through to find all the information you did on Masaki. This is important work and this insured he won’t be forgotten, good work Digi. As a side note this video is very enjoyable and I’m glad I got around to watching it.
This type of dedication to catalogue and preserve the past is so fantastic. So many of these works fall through the cracks of history. While they may not be vital to understanding the history of the medium documenting works and people from it like this enhance my appreciation for it. I look forwards to your future videos on both the old and obscure.
Holy shit digi. Holy shit. This video is not what i was expecting from you and not what i would expect to care about. However it might be one of your best. Theres so much here its insane. Goddamn. Thank you
Barefoot Gen is one of the first Anime media I've ever seen. I think I was about 6 years old when I saw it. And yes, it was freaking traumatizing, but it was when I first learned about Hiroshima, and started a life-long fear of (and fascination with) radiation and nuclear weapons. And contributed to my lifelong love of Anime, I suppose.
cool cool, chill chill pretty interesting. This video was like a animator mystery, a who done it, for old anime. I really felt like a detective piecing together clues watching this.
Thank you so much for introducing me to this amazing author and director, especially with a brilliant connection to Mori Masaki's lived experience. This deepens my love of this genre to no end!
This was probably your most impressive video Digi, from a perspective of research. Also a really entertaining presentation throughout the video and an engaged voicing of the script. Nice job. Do you think all of the sidenotes in this were needed for the narrative though? I felt especially when laying out what mushi pro. was you went on those tangents for quite a bit longer, to the point where when you jumped back to Mori Masaki i went "Oh right that is who this video was about." To your credit you did put in a bit of a recap piece there where you even said "So where on the timeline are we now with Mori Masaki?" and put me back in the video. But i still felt like a lot of the momentum of the presentation was lost at that junction. Still a great video and research effort though. Nice job. This is a stellar reason to Patron a man like you.
This is the kind of stuff that I like to see from Digi. The stuff that keeps me coming back despite him infuriating me quite often, lol. Documentation and preservation of the history of the medium is really important imo, so I always really appreciate videos like this.
Toki no Tabibito is a movie that I've certainly talked about, written about, and shown clips of for many, many years. It's 2 AM right now, so the quickest example I can provide is that I did mention it in my Anime News Network article "Thirty Years Ago: The Best Anime of 1986" which is basically a summary version of my anime convention panel done at places like Otakon, AnimeNEXT, Anime Weekend Atlanta etc. Not really a thing that would drive the Internet zeitgeist, to be sure, but the title is at least known enough to have been distributed back in the VHS days (though not easy to get) as well as digitally fansubbed (still readily available).
This video is incredible. Thank you for taking the time. Learning so much about the history of anime feels like a treat and seeing the thread of meta is eye opening and fun.
I remember watching Barefoot Gen. It was during a time where I wasn't afraid that I was going to die every day in my sleep from a nuke. Good times. Great video, but if I get nightmares about being nuked to death... Again, I'll know who to blame! =D (My self, for watching this video right before going to bed.)
Thanks for the work Digi! This is the kind of content I'm here for, content that painstakingly goes over every small piece of information about one certain topic, person, studio, or era (or combination of any of those four).
EXTREMELY comprehensive body of work here. I cant imagine the hours that went into doing research for this vid. Thank you for your hard work sir & I'm definitely subscribing
You said that Tezuka founded Mushi Productions to be a competitor to Toei, and that it's not exactly true. I heard on a conference by Masao Maruyama himself that he did it so he could do the anime of Astroboy,. A weekly anime (which was a crazy idea at the time) he was forced to do it himself with his own studio and staff.
This was a really well made video. Great job Digibro. I think I've realised that I need to watch 80s and 90s anime at some point because there is simply too much amazing stuff for me to miss out.
Hey digibro, you should listen to the anime world order podcast, they talk about obscure anime (specifically from the eighties) and this is one they reviewed. They're really layed back and talk about directors they like and stuff too.
Yoshiaki Kowajiri is my personal favorite anime director. Ninja Scroll, Wicked City, Goku Midnight Eye, and Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust are some of the most entertaining, bad ass, and visually stunning pieces of animation I've ever witnessed. I also love how balls to the wall his animes are. So fucking awesome.
I don't even like older anime and found this fascinating. I feel like most history majors put less work into their historical analyses. Excellent content as always
Great video Digi, one of your best in a long time and I like how you went into depth on the origins of Madhouse. You definitely strung a narrative like you said you intended. The only criticism I have is that it could have used more of a conclusion. Maybe your own abstract take on the career of Mori Masaki and how he had an affect on the industry.
I was unaware that I had watched any anime made before the 80's, but I surprisingly felt nostalgic when watching the clips from Nagagutsu wo Haita Neko (1969). I watched that film as a kid but never knew it was Japanese until now. I have recognized Toei Animation's logo as the Puss in Boots for the last two years but never drew the connection that they might have made the movie in question. I thank you for inspiring me to revisit this old classic.
I really like this. It’s interesting and mentally stimulating, esp seeing how much of my fav anime is involved in this big web of influences and falling actions. I esp like that you mentioned metropolis.
Of course Lensman is going to be remembered fondly; it was based on one of the most influential western sci-fi series' of all time. Nobody cares who directed or produced the anime. People in the west loved it when it came out because they already loved Doc Smith's work, and still remember it for all the same reasons that other anime that were popular in the west at the time remain popular today. (And because it's one of the most easily digestible adaptations of that work available today, I suppose.)
People used to and still think that Grave of the Fire Flies was the saddest WW2 Anime film. Obviously they have not heard or even seen Barefoot Gen. You want to talk about tragic WW2 Anime films, nothing can ever top Barefoot Gen.
It would be great for you to be able to read/understand more Japanese. Out of all eras of anime, no doubt the stories behind the creation of older minor works remain the most spottily translated. Your commentary made me curious, so with my Japanese abilities I went hunting for answers as to why Toshio Hirata seems to sometimes be credited as a director of Belladonna of Sadness AKA Door into Summer alongside Mori Masaki, but sometimes not. The section of credits you showed in this video doesn't contain the director or producer credits, however, I found that the official Japanese synopsis and credit list at madhouse.co.jp makes no mention of Hirata at all. (Hmmm.) Finally, I stumbled across an article with commentary on the movie's production at www.style.fm/as/05_column/365/365_088.shtml. In a large part the article is based on the author's interviews with both Toshio Hirata and Yoshiaki Kawajiri (who was in charge of scene setting/screen layout.) The following is in part a summary of the article, and in part selected direct translations of it, with a few personal gleanings from the whole of my investigations. I get the impression that Hirata's position Madhouse at the time didn't change based on the production--it was more a permanent post of "Production Assistant". So technically, it sounds like, he could be credited on, or have had some kind of input into, most any Madhouse work of the time. The article additionally notes that the roles of the different staff members were not as cut-and-dried in the industry's early years as they became later, (so this work, and possibly others from this time period, are likely prone to being "collaborative" efforts. I think this may make it more difficult to pinpoint whose influence is showing where when trying identify production roles strictly based on how people were named in the credits.) Getting down to the specifics brought up by Hirata and Kawajiri in their interviews about Belladonna of Sadness/Door Into Summer, unlike the modern role of a director, who would concern themselves mainly with ensuring the continuity and flow of the work overall, and have artists there to draw the specifics out according to their vision, Mori Masaki drew all the initial storyboard work himself. However, since Kawajiri was responsible for the final full layouts of the scenes and he oversaw the rough key animations, he took liberties at the "full layout" stage to tweak the imagery to have a more shōjo manga sensitivity--especially when he found certain parts of Masaki's storyboards to be too "manly" in feel. He even made adjustments to the lengths of scenes and the camera angles. The article's author also reprints verbatim a section of the interview he had with Hirata, where he asked specific questions of Hirata about Belladonna of Sadness'/Door Into Summer's production. Hirata comments that while Masaki was in charge of continuity, and Kawajiri did the layout, he and Kawajiri would consult together about changes such as the overall color hues being used in a scene. Certain bold color choices, such as bright red flowers on a black background, were entirely Kawajiri's idea. Hirata stated that he would make comments like, "it would be good to make it rather dreamlike by using a reddish lavender color here ... " He also remembers making suggestions like, "wouldn't it be better if we did this part more like this ... ?", and then that would cause the key animators to go ahead and fiddle around making their own changes. Hirata describes his place in the making of the movie as that of a "jack of all trades." Continuity, color, animations--he helped out in all these things and more. The article's author concludes that while at its core the movie shows Masaki's organization and mental vision as a director, the sensibilities and ideas of the other staff working on the movie, (particularly in the issue of color usage,) were included in the final work much more than they would be in a more modern production. In this way, Masaki, as a director, did not take total control over all the movie's elements. However, the final result became much more expansive conceptually, due to allowing the production staff as a whole to exercise their creativity during the production process.
I was born in Japan in 1960 and was raised watching many of the anime you show chips of and it was a great walk thru memory lane. I remember the White Lion Cub, as well as Wolf Boy Ken (Ookami Shonen Ken). My mom even bought me a eating utensil set consisting of a compartmentalized plate, a square bowl, and a fork and spoon all featuring images of Wolf Boy Ken. I wonder what ever happened to them. I used to always watch Atom (Astro Boy), and Tetsujin (Gigantor) which were both black & white when they first appeared on Japanese TV in the early '60s. Great memories, thanks again!
Oh, time to learn something about old anime. I have been prejudiced against old anime for a very long time until I started watching some really good stuff. I'm glad you're one of the youtubers who cover old anime as well because my interest in it is growing, and I get to hear many new names in videos like this, thank you for making this kind of content :)
Tin Man when is next mail video :(
Three reasons:
First, anime used to air over multiple seasons and 50+ episodes back in the day, would often drag on forever and do nothing, and sometimes I am just not up for that. I haven't even watched any of the long running shounen except for hxh and gintama, both of which are god tier, but also 2000+
Second, the art seems dated, and a lot of older anime has 80s music and just bad sound design (compared to the modern day) as well which I am not really a fan of.
Third, I got into anime at 22 years of age, and I am now 24, I have watched 66 days of anime (as MAL says) in less than two years. I never had any sort of nostalgia that'd make me "forgive" old anime for sounding or looking bad or not to my "modern" sensibilities. Oh, and also 4:3. Being both a "visualphile" and "audiophile", those were some deadly sins.
But the more I've explored more old anime, like Ninja Scroll (which digi pointed out to me) and Vampire Hunter D (which I found somewhere in suggestions), and also I kind of learned that there's something very peculiar that's lost in modern anime, and it's hard to put your finger on all it represents. As Digi said in this video, there are some art styles that have simply died out since the late 80s, and it's hard to find that kind of asethetic in modern anime. And there's also anime that looks stylistically dated, but still amazing, with great 2D animation (well pretty much all of old well drawn gundam falls into this category I guess), which is another thing that's dying out today.
I still don't like shows spanning more than 50+ episodes that go nowhere for a good reason, but I don't think old anime is worse than the new stuff now, despite not being as "HD" most of the time.
Tin Man I get so happy when people in the anime community learn about stuff and open their boundaries to other stuff. Good on you, dude.
As someone who watches and collects almost exclusively vintage anime, I always bite my lip when the younger crowd dismisses an entire era. Always glad to see more younger people who are starting to "get it." Just like retro video games offer a kind of experience that modern games cannot, retro anime offers an animation and storytelling style that has been lost.
I have a prejudice against newer anime, so I understand. My primary issue is that they look too sleek, almost overproduced. Too shiny and plastic. I am starting to give them a chance, though.
Lol. How do i explain 1 anime director? >Runs through entire history of anime and all directors and companies and theories relating to.
I loved it, i actually learned a lot.
The western hemisphere is a fascinating place to me. At 11:25, we have to censor what I imagine is just a nipple so that the video doesn't get demonetized, or worse, removed for inappropriate content. But then a mere 4 seconds later, we get to see some guy's jaw erupt from his mouth as it transforms into a monstrosity. Despite the latter being a far more traumatizing image, showing it on youtube will have no negative repercussions.
Kazuma Taichi Merica
Yeah, we definitely need to cool it a bit about sex.
I feel you, bro. Western logic regarding sex and violence’s presence in media has never made sense to me after I thought about it for more than 2 seconds either, even as a westerner myself.
@@Harrinsain As Krusty the Clown would joke in the Family Guy and Simpsons crossover, "violence is okay, as long as you do not show a nipple".
This was a fascinating and very well-crafted ride, filled to the brim with all the kind of information that I find the most interesting and weaving an engaging narrative throughout. Really solid stuff. I enjoyed this a lot and it even inspired me to go on my own little research adventures about some of the creators that were only breezed over in this video.
OH YES DIGI MORE OBSCURE STUFF THIS IS WHAT THE INTERNET WAS CREATED FOR, KNOWLEDGE
I really needed this holy shit
the internet was created for shitposting you pleb
Pretty sure it was invented because the dudes over at DARPA were to lazy to walk to the other side of the office to tell each other shit >.>
From a Japanese perspective, it is pretty awesome to see a foreign enthusiast paying so much attention to such an obscure piece of Japanese culture.
The way I see it though, Mori Masaki was called on to direct Haguregumo, Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen), and Tokino Tabibito (Time Stranger), and coordinate Bobii ni Kubittake (Bobby's Girl) pretty much says that he was the go-to guy for films that were considered near impossible to animate or film. (Same can be said for Natsuheno Tobira - Door into Summer - whose story was sexually explicit for the 1980s and very reliant on suggestion to make it work. But this was also a "non-theater" release, meaning that it played in auditoriums and music halls, but not movie theaters, for a day or two before it was released on video. At the time, such works of animation faced little moral oversight.) Mori really seems to be sort of genie character that people call on in times of trouble when circumstances force the studio to take on an impossible task.
Barefoot Gen seems like a case in point. The original manga had a weird history. It was serialized in Shonen Jump and continued in spite of its poor popularity with the readership at a time when Shonen Jump had a strict policy of cancelling any series that performed poor in the polls. When the paper shortage following the 1973 oil crises and the removal of the editor finally put a stop to the unpopular series, the publisher deemed it too unpopular to publish in book form. Then the editor of the leftist Asahi newspaper pushed for its release and it was published in book form from an obscure publisher, while the cancelled series was revived, first in leftist Shimin magazine, then in Bunka Hyoron which was the pipe organ of the Communist Party, then it was transferred to Kyoiku Hyoron which was the journal of the liberal teacher's union. School teachers were encouraged to "recommend" the comic books to students, which they duly did (when I was in junior high school) and was duly ignored by the students. Although the depiction of such a serious subject matter brought some respectability to a medium that was still largely considered "for kids", the series was never popular. The style of the artwork was already outdated by the time of its publication and by the time animated movie was planned three live action adaptations had already been released and flopped at the box office. As the comic series became increasingly political near the end of its run, there were protests against it in several parts of Japan. I do not know what kind of pressure compelled Mad House to undertake such a project, but it was a sure fire commercial failure obvious from a mile away. It was also destined to raise a political shit storm.
Haguregumo was another mission impossible for a very different reason. It was a beloved manga that ran from 1973 to 2017 which was not concerned with telling any story, but in describing the Taoist aesthetic of the main character. And since the Taoist ideal is a life in which nothing ever happens, much of the manga depicts the main character just gazing at the rain, or looking at the clouds go by, or listening to the wind, or just basically watching the grass grow. Things do happen to the main character, but not because he proactively seeks adventure or makes decisive choices. Things happen like the rain falls on him. Each episode is an anecdote that teaches the reader the virtues of living a Taoist life. I don't know who's bright idea it was to turn this into an animated movie, but most likely it was an accountant who never actually read the Haguregumo series or knew what it was about, and had very poor understanding of what makes a movie. On top of that, a live action television adaptation had already flopped before (and after) the animated movie was released. It made no sense to make this into an animated movie, but once the project was picked up somebody had to direct it.
Bobby's Girl may be the most obvious made-to-fail effort of the lot, however. It was based on a "novel" by Yoshio Kataoka, who was a very popular writer at the time. Between 1980 and 1989 alone, he published 61 volumes of fiction and 6 books of essays (and he kept writing at that pace thereafter). His books were mostly stream-of-consciousness style meanderings of lonely young people on motorcycles cruising through windy seaside landscapes. His paragraphs where often less than a line long, and his books were less like stories and more like extended haikus. It was pretty much Japanized Jack Kerouac with two less wheels. Three of his books had already been made into live action movies with only one moderate success before the animated movie was made. Because Kataoka's books were on the best seller lists, financiers must have thought movie adaptations were logical extensions. It is hard to imagine that any of them ever read the books.
(On top of all this, the character design was done by Akimi Yoshida, who did some of Kataoka's book covers, but whose own manga narrative is mostly creepy or sensual or both.)
So in this context, why was this trouble shooter hired to direct Time Stranger?
Given that studio Mad House was not yet a financially solid entity, the studio may not have had full control of what projects to take on. They may have made any full length movie that they could find sponsors for.
Time Stranger is based on a novel by Taku Mayumura, who wrote 38 novels during the 1980s, and was even more prominent on the best seller lists than Kataoka. Many of his novels are a mix of sci-fi and "gakuen" (school romance) stories. The rapid pace of his writing showed in the quality of his novels. It is hard to say why this particular novel was chosen for adaptation, but the movie was bankrolled by Kadokawa Productions whose parent company Kadokawa Publishing had made a fortune selling Mayumura's novels.
On the face of it, this movie was much less a mission impossible than the other works Masaki took on. The only apparent problem is that the source material is mediocre.
But this film was planned from the outset to be double featured with Rintaro's Phoenix: Karma Chapter, the most ambitious animated project Kadokawa Production had taken on to date, not to mention that it was a de facto follow up to Toho's 1980 Phoenix 2772 directed and written by Osamu Tezuka himself. For those familiar with the mind bending Phoenix manga series, this should start sounding like a mission impossible along the lines of making a sequel to Citizen Kane.
So maybe, it was Rintaro who was slated to direct Time Stranger and Mori Masaki who was hired to direct Phoenix. But when you consider that the opportunity to direct a legendary epic like Phoenix was a once in a lifetime honor and that the third installment to Phoenix was planned but never filmed, Rintaro would have preferred to direct Phoenix however disaster prone the endeavor may be. This is just a wild guess with no real documentation to back it up, but maybe Mori Masaki, who was only ever called upon to direct when the project seemed doomed to failure, was the original director of choice for Phoenix: Karma Chapter.
i agree
"While you were out creating madhouse I was studying the art of the pen"
One the best things about your channel is to know about the historical aspects of anime that time or people forget as they are too busy looking forward. I'm not a hardcore anime watcher, but stuff like this is extremely illuminating. Thank you.
Being a big video game enthusiast, your video reminds me of the many game studios and people who were involved with either classics or cult games with few very good aspects. Stuff like importance of Wizardry(and Ultima) and Robert Woodhead, rogue and rogue-likes(and lites), that weird Japanese action RPG era which lead to inspiration of Legend of Zelda, cult studios like Quintet and Human, SEGA's indirect contributions to gaming, Sony hiring people from Sony Music to make games for the first PlayStation, THE WHOLE CRPG GENRE....
Things which not gamers today even think or care about.
Like there are people who think that Diablo created the ARPG genre, because David Brevik said so.
Anyways, great video, really enjoyed it.
EDIT : Please do watch the anime adaptation of the Indian epic Ramayana. There are inaccuracies with the actual written source, but its a miracle that it even happened. Not many anime/TV/games go into the Hindu Mythological/Indian Historical side of things.
(Try watching it in Hindi with English subtitles for the authentic experience. One of the very few great-tier Hindi voice acting)
Speaking of games it reminds me of the director of Castlevania, the original NES version. Cause like Masaki, that guy basically disappeared off the face of the earth, and one journalist who tried tracking him down had no luck in doing so
Ramayana was my first anime please digi talk about it
Back in the day, there was little attention paid to who created the games. So many times they would skip out on that. And the ones that had credits would be either poorly translated or used nicknames instead of real ones.
There is also the case of people falling out of game dev to more favorable jobs, or sometimes killed of by Yakuza (they have deep ties with game industry, believe it or not)
As for the journalist, I think you are referring to this : www.kickstarter.com/projects/1748556728/the-untold-history-of-japanese-game-developers/posts/494229
Forget the journalist, tell me more about the ties yakuza have to the games industry???
Actually the same journalist, John Szczepaniak, covered probably the most extensive Yakuza piece that I've seen (not that I've seen many).
www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JohnSzczepaniak/20160921/281799/Dark_Side_of_the_Sun.php
(That's why I'm really interested in buying his books whenever I get the money for it)
But I rather suggest you watch this video by Dark Pixel Gaming first : ua-cam.com/video/uQT0Cw1A448/v-deo.html
That's Digibro content I love from the bottom of my heart
That "Barefoot Gen" scene will forever be burned into my brain.
With Spongebob music...
timmer919hep we watched it in history, when we were 14
The eerie and accurate silence underscores the disturbing detail.
oofongo booga same here except we read the manga
Can’t believe this isn’t gone
The author of the barefoot gen manga also went through ww2/hiroshima, the visions of seeing melting people and burning horses were things the creator actually saw. I would HIGHLY recommend reading the manga, it is insanely good and detailed. I think you'd really like it digi. There are a lot of great details missing from the anime that are in the manga and the manga also explored the post war too.
As a father of a 4 year old boy, watching this kind of images just hurt's too much, the idea of so many civilians and innocent kids die and suffer in such horrible way and that he was right there makes me wonder how did this man felt while working on barefoot gen.
Where can i read the manga
@@animatehn5664 grief, maybe. 🤷🏻♂️
Absolutely incredible. Honestly, thank you so much for making me aware of this director.
Holy shit, Digi's fully back in the swing of it with writing that's not only tight but has a clear direction and narrative, albeit its still short of a thesis, and this showcases some of Davoo's best editing: Skilled, detailed, funny, but not distracting. 2018 is already looking up
Here before it’s gone forever
I imagine Mori Masaki logging on to the internet once a week after he checks his news and does his trivia, he googles himself. Just to see if anyone finally appreciates his work after all this time, after all some of his former co-workers who he is still friends with tell him all the time that this happens now with projects thanks to places like UA-cam. So one of these days he'll come across this video and watch it til the end, lean back in his chair, and just the slightest smile will slip past. His life will be fulfilled.
Maybe put his name in parentheses or something in the title.
I gotta say, Digi, your videos focusing on just a single person on the industry, from the Shinbo ones, the Shinkai video, and even I guess the tangentially related Lupin III video.
The research, dissection, and analysis of them has become some of my favourite works of yours. If this is a vein you plan to continue down in the long term, I am super excited!
I think his video on Anno is still the best he ever did.
Not having barely any idea about the details of the anime industry, I found this video very educational, easy to understand and overall enjoyable. Thanks for the video, I'll sure take a look into Barefoot Gen, probably Time Stranger too.
God Damn have I been waiting for an anime youtuber BESIDES Super Eyepatch Wolf to make a video of this quality for months.
Good one Digi, keep it up.
thank god this one's still around, it's one of my faves. thank you, bea
the amount of sheer knowledge and research in this video..the brilliant editing .. the concentrated yet simple to follow narrative..
this video itself apart from the content is a masterpiece .
i salute you DIGIBRO. you've earned an avid fan from now on. please try to dabble in cinema and tv professionally . in directing and editing.
I know Time Strangers is Khoda's favourite anime who runs the 80s anime tumblr. She did a podcast on it not so long ago, if anyone hasn't checked out her blog and want to know about the old anime you should.
Stevem That's actually a DIFFERENT 80's anime film with the same name if you can believe it. That one was released as Time Étranger in Japan and is a sequel to the tv series Goshogun.
Really wow there's two of these? That is wild
Link her Tumblerone plzzz
I dont think im allowed to link in Digi comments but its just called 80sanime
TushAtoo Backup 80sanime.tumblr.com
I can surely say that this is already one of my favorite videos made by you, as it's not only interesting from the historical standpoint but also accidentally came out right during my 80s anime movies kick.
On the side note, it reminds me of your Akiyuki Shinbou videos because of the subject matter, relatively extensive research and (obviously) Davoo's editing style. This man keeps getting better and better.
Something for whoever dives deeper into this. NONE of Masaki's films were screened at Anime Con 1. Given that over 100 shows WERE shown and a couple of these (mostly Shojo) are still not noted on the web, this suggests something happened concerning distribution. Maybe these weren't available for sale for some time, or maybe there was no laserdisc release (the major gateway to the US in the early days of fandom).
But that's the key point, NONE of these were in fan consciousness at ALL in the late 80s early 90s, I don't think they made Animag either. And plenty nastier stuff did so it wasn't squeamishness (Barefoot Gen was known, but through the Manga). One missing could be luck, two coincidence, ALL (and not any other Madhouse stuff), suggests distribution issues. These films got MADE, they were in theaters but WHEN did they hit home video in Japan?
Amazing stuff dude. Incredibly well researched and put-together, you'll be an even bigger winner in the UA-cam anime space if you keep up this type of historical content.
Thought this person sounded like Digi! So happy to see his work again. :D
Uniko is actually really fucking good. Like, much better than what you'd expect from a show so obviously aimed at a very young demographic. It's actually sorta dark when the magician turns everyone into stone dolls, and the children in the show watch what they would understand to be their parents dying. I'll def have to check out some of these works :) Especially Natsu e no Tobira
The Unico movies were my very first animes back in either 1989 or 1990. I'll never forget the handsome villain from Fantastic Adventures of Unico being impaled on the roof.
I watched the first Unico movie too, surprisingly nice movie. The dub is good too
Danielle Spargo Well, it is from from Osamu Tezuka. His other kids work such as Astro Boy has some messed up moments as well. Also, if you want something more like A Door Into Summer from the same author you can also check out the manga of Kaze to Ki no Uta, which has one of its main characters use sexual relationships as a coping mechanism as well. Keep in mind that it is shonen-ai, said character's backstory gets pretty dark, and it isn't fully translated yet. It also has an OVA, but it just doesn't do the story justice.
Bit of a hello kitty barefoot gen thing then, eh?
I'm definitely interested in shounen-ai, though I'm not sure just how dark you mean. It doesn't matter that it's not translated, because I'm relatively fluent, but I'm not fond of vivid graphic depictions of sexual violence. If it's too intense, I'll prob have to give it a miss tbh :/ What do you think?
Aww yissss, an anime detective video I love this stuff!
I've watched some Obscure stuff, but WHAT IN THE HELL!
Thank you for showing me this eye candy.
Everyone loves madhouse, they are such a consistent studio its amazing.
Eden! Too bad they let OPM season 2 be animated by JC staff...
lol no what are you talking about
alexww180 the animators did prison school, I think season 2 will be fine
If you ignore the fact that they have been consistently mediocre since a decade then sure.
sure, MadHouse owns One Punch Man and they are the ones who decide who will animate it...
I searched up Mori Masaki and surprisingly I had seen his work on Natsu e no Tobira (5:08) because I enjoy the work of Keiko Takemiya. She's a shoujo veteran mangaka known for being one of, if not the first to include shonen-ai in shojo manga. I'm more shocked that not only have I never heard of Time Stranger but didn't search up the director after watching it. But Jesus, the guy's credits are missing on certain sites online and that sucks even more.
Downloading right now, the Year 24 ladies are brilliant. I'm somewhat shocked I haven't seen it. That is, if I can find seeds after nyaa died..
Danielle Spargo I actually recall A Door Into Summer being on YT, but good thing you're using downloads because I don't recall the quality being good.
The problem with modern otaku, & I guess it's not really their fault given the amount of free anime dumped onto them every year, is that they never talk about or remember anything more than 3 years old. Find an unenthusiastic middle aged casual viewer who got over their weeaboo faze ages ago; those are the ones who can remember at least 3 decades worth of titles.
Exactly, it's all about the new shows. New, new, new, new, new. People are literally forgetting all the greats that came out back in the 2006-2008 with few exceptions.
Lieutenant BaconWaffles most new shows are recycling the same ecchi to easy win, anime is going throught a decline now, but thise weebs didnt live in the 90s to enjoy what we enjoyed and dismiss what we saw as "bad looking" 😂
i wouldn't say a decline, where just getting more stuff now than back then.
Ghorda9 there is way less diversity now than in the 90s and 00s
a lot more anime is also being released annually now then ever before which balances it out.
I am considerably high and I want to watch this, but you're gonna have scenes from that *fucking* (great) film Barefoot Gen. And I can't, I can't bare to watch that again.
You might as well just show us Grave of the Fireflies if you really want to mess with people's heads.
I got my college library to adopt the barefoot gen manga and place it with historical fiction, which contains stories that either depicts real world happenings in literary form or has stories that have lasted throughout the ages, and anybody who has ever read it (myself included) can't get through even one book without tearing up or just flat out crying.
now after having watched most of the movies you covered here i appreciate this video so much more and its probably my favorite work you've done now!
I have tried to research stuff in different languages and boy is it difficult if you’re trying to be as thorough as you’re being. I am impressed with the amount of effort it is clear you went through to find all the information you did on Masaki. This is important work and this insured he won’t be forgotten, good work Digi. As a side note this video is very enjoyable and I’m glad I got around to watching it.
This type of dedication to catalogue and preserve the past is so fantastic. So many of these works fall through the cracks of history. While they may not be vital to understanding the history of the medium documenting works and people from it like this enhance my appreciation for it. I look forwards to your future videos on both the old and obscure.
Holy shit digi. Holy shit.
This video is not what i was expecting from you and not what i would expect to care about. However it might be one of your best. Theres so much here its insane. Goddamn. Thank you
Gen is splendid, saw that movie in school actually, on history class
Barefoot Gen is one of the first Anime media I've ever seen. I think I was about 6 years old when I saw it. And yes, it was freaking traumatizing, but it was when I first learned about Hiroshima, and started a life-long fear of (and fascination with) radiation and nuclear weapons. And contributed to my lifelong love of Anime, I suppose.
masterpiece video, truly only something you could've made and this is why I love you and your content
These are the type of videos that made me intrigued by the channel in the first place. Hope to see more in the future.
This might just be one of my favorite Digibro videos. Congrats to everyone involved in making it. :D
cool cool, chill chill
pretty interesting. This video was like a animator mystery, a who done it, for old anime. I really felt like a detective piecing together clues watching this.
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Thank you so much for introducing me to this amazing author and director, especially with a brilliant connection to Mori Masaki's lived experience. This deepens my love of this genre to no end!
This was already a complete video by 5 minutes. Everything else was just pure awesome. Thanks.
that google translate edit turning the wikipedia from japanese to english was a nice effect
YES! This is the direction Digi was born to take, anime historian, love it! Awesome job man, thank you.
I hope this video gets to Mori Masaki, someone on the other side of the world made a 26 min video about you.. that's nice.
This was probably your most impressive video Digi, from a perspective of research. Also a really entertaining presentation throughout the video and an engaged voicing of the script. Nice job. Do you think all of the sidenotes in this were needed for the narrative though? I felt especially when laying out what mushi pro. was you went on those tangents for quite a bit longer, to the point where when you jumped back to Mori Masaki i went "Oh right that is who this video was about."
To your credit you did put in a bit of a recap piece there where you even said "So where on the timeline are we now with Mori Masaki?" and put me back in the video. But i still felt like a lot of the momentum of the presentation was lost at that junction. Still a great video and research effort though. Nice job. This is a stellar reason to Patron a man like you.
Masaki is Madhouse’s Mary Poppins
This is the kind of stuff that I like to see from Digi. The stuff that keeps me coming back despite him infuriating me quite often, lol. Documentation and preservation of the history of the medium is really important imo, so I always really appreciate videos like this.
This is one of your best videos, mainly because of Davoo's editing and the interesting subject
Toki no Tabibito is a movie that I've certainly talked about, written about, and shown clips of for many, many years. It's 2 AM right now, so the quickest example I can provide is that I did mention it in my Anime News Network article "Thirty Years Ago: The Best Anime of 1986" which is basically a summary version of my anime convention panel done at places like Otakon, AnimeNEXT, Anime Weekend Atlanta etc. Not really a thing that would drive the Internet zeitgeist, to be sure, but the title is at least known enough to have been distributed back in the VHS days (though not easy to get) as well as digitally fansubbed (still readily available).
This video is incredible. Thank you for taking the time. Learning so much about the history of anime feels like a treat and seeing the thread of meta is eye opening and fun.
One of your best videos, love learning about anime history with you.
I remember watching Barefoot Gen. It was during a time where I wasn't afraid that I was going to die every day in my sleep from a nuke. Good times.
Great video, but if I get nightmares about being nuked to death... Again, I'll know who to blame! =D
(My self, for watching this video right before going to bed.)
Thanks for the work Digi! This is the kind of content I'm here for, content that painstakingly goes over every small piece of information about one certain topic, person, studio, or era (or combination of any of those four).
This is your best writing and editing yet
edited by the davoo
EXTREMELY comprehensive body of work here. I cant imagine the hours that went into doing research for this vid. Thank you for your hard work sir & I'm definitely subscribing
Excellent articulation, editing, and pacing.
Very interesting video.
Great work!
You said that Tezuka founded Mushi Productions to be a competitor to Toei, and that it's not exactly true. I heard on a conference by Masao Maruyama himself that he did it so he could do the anime of Astroboy,. A weekly anime (which was a crazy idea at the time) he was forced to do it himself with his own studio and staff.
Thank you! Please, more of this kind of content! Your recent stuff has been really good.
There's so much content. I feel overwhelmed by all the things I want to see.
30 minutes of Digibro's wisdom. Yes. Just yes
You mean Google translate right?
And this is why i love you and subbed to this channel.
Fantastic video. Thank you!
you have really outdone yourself!
this video was great!
This was a really well made video. Great job Digibro. I think I've realised that I need to watch 80s and 90s anime at some point because there is simply too much amazing stuff for me to miss out.
This was a video that was due a long time ago! Great work Digi!
I love this video, thanks for making it....
Hey digibro, you should listen to the anime world order podcast, they talk about obscure anime (specifically from the eighties) and this is one they reviewed. They're really layed back and talk about directors they like and stuff too.
In fact that talk about all of those directors and animes from the 80's you mentioned
He has mentioned them somewhere already, im pretty sure Digi follows the podcast
this is the kind of content I stay subscribed for
As someone who has done a lot of research using the internet, I can really appreciate how much time and diligence you put into this video.
Yoshiaki Kowajiri is my personal favorite anime director. Ninja Scroll, Wicked City, Goku Midnight Eye, and Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust are some of the most entertaining, bad ass, and visually stunning pieces of animation I've ever witnessed. I also love how balls to the wall his animes are. So fucking awesome.
I always seem to be the one who brings up "Barefoot Gen" in anime discussion and most people don't know what i'm talking about.
This editing was crazy. good job.
This is a really awesome video. Good job, Digi.
I don't even like older anime and found this fascinating. I feel like most history majors put less work into their historical analyses. Excellent content as always
This. THIS is the content that I live for.
Great video Digi, one of your best in a long time and I like how you went into depth on the origins of Madhouse. You definitely strung a narrative like you said you intended. The only criticism I have is that it could have used more of a conclusion. Maybe your own abstract take on the career of Mori Masaki and how he had an affect on the industry.
I cant believe I never heard of barefoot gen! I just got done watching it an came back here to thank you for mentioning it.
Kristopher B Barefoot Gen is great - the manga is even better. I remember watching the anime and reading the manga in college
I've seen Barefoot Gen when I was 8 y.o. or so. Could not sleep normally for a couple of weeks afterwards.
I was unaware that I had watched any anime made before the 80's, but I surprisingly felt nostalgic when watching the clips from Nagagutsu wo Haita Neko (1969). I watched that film as a kid but never knew it was Japanese until now. I have recognized Toei Animation's logo as the Puss in Boots for the last two years but never drew the connection that they might have made the movie in question. I thank you for inspiring me to revisit this old classic.
He worked on Kimba the White Lion?
Fuck everything else, this man is my new God.
Really good background, clever detective work, great job overall mate!
I really like this. It’s interesting and mentally stimulating, esp seeing how much of my fav anime is involved in this big web of influences and falling actions. I esp like that you mentioned metropolis.
Another amazing research video, I have so much anime to watch from all these videos.
Of course Lensman is going to be remembered fondly; it was based on one of the most influential western sci-fi series' of all time. Nobody cares who directed or produced the anime. People in the west loved it when it came out because they already loved Doc Smith's work, and still remember it for all the same reasons that other anime that were popular in the west at the time remain popular today. (And because it's one of the most easily digestible adaptations of that work available today, I suppose.)
You sir, are doing blessed work.
This was one of those good random 6AM n still tipsy youtube clicks. thanks
*All I know about this anime is that there was spongebob music played over it during the nuke scene*
Hello
@@milkcrow226 yeah
Cartoon theory: the anthropomorphic marine life in _Spongebob_ are creatures mutated by the infamous Bikini Island nuclear tests.
Damn this is the first anime history video of yours that I liked and watched all of.
People used to and still think that Grave of the Fire Flies was the saddest WW2 Anime film.
Obviously they have not heard or even seen Barefoot Gen.
You want to talk about tragic WW2 Anime films, nothing can ever top Barefoot Gen.
WICKED CITY.... If you haven't seen it you're missing one of the best classics.
Congrats on your work, lots and lots of research’s to brings us so much brilliant details.
As always, worth my time and incredibly informative.
im really liking this and the other director video you did. would be cool if you made a series about it.
I love how your opening here plays a show i have never heard of as you iterate the very idea of finding a hidden gem. Good play sir
It would be great for you to be able to read/understand more Japanese. Out of all eras of anime, no doubt the stories behind the creation of older minor works remain the most spottily translated. Your commentary made me curious, so with my Japanese abilities I went hunting for answers as to why Toshio Hirata seems to sometimes be credited as a director of Belladonna of Sadness AKA Door into Summer alongside Mori Masaki, but sometimes not.
The section of credits you showed in this video doesn't contain the director or producer credits, however, I found that the official Japanese synopsis and credit list at madhouse.co.jp makes no mention of Hirata at all. (Hmmm.)
Finally, I stumbled across an article with commentary on the movie's production at www.style.fm/as/05_column/365/365_088.shtml. In a large part the article is based on the author's interviews with both Toshio Hirata and Yoshiaki Kawajiri (who was in charge of scene setting/screen layout.)
The following is in part a summary of the article, and in part selected direct translations of it, with a few personal gleanings from the whole of my investigations.
I get the impression that Hirata's position Madhouse at the time didn't change based on the production--it was more a permanent post of "Production Assistant". So technically, it sounds like, he could be credited on, or have had some kind of input into, most any Madhouse work of the time. The article additionally notes that the roles of the different staff members were not as cut-and-dried in the industry's early years as they became later, (so this work, and possibly others from this time period, are likely prone to being "collaborative" efforts. I think this may make it more difficult to pinpoint whose influence is showing where when trying identify production roles strictly based on how people were named in the credits.)
Getting down to the specifics brought up by Hirata and Kawajiri in their interviews about Belladonna of Sadness/Door Into Summer, unlike the modern role of a director, who would concern themselves mainly with ensuring the continuity and flow of the work overall, and have artists there to draw the specifics out according to their vision, Mori Masaki drew all the initial storyboard work himself.
However, since Kawajiri was responsible for the final full layouts of the scenes and he oversaw the rough key animations, he took liberties at the "full layout" stage to tweak the imagery to have a more shōjo manga sensitivity--especially when he found certain parts of Masaki's storyboards to be too "manly" in feel. He even made adjustments to the lengths of scenes and the camera angles.
The article's author also reprints verbatim a section of the interview he had with Hirata, where he asked specific questions of Hirata about Belladonna of Sadness'/Door Into Summer's production.
Hirata comments that while Masaki was in charge of continuity, and Kawajiri did the layout, he and Kawajiri would consult together about changes such as the overall color hues being used in a scene. Certain bold color choices, such as bright red flowers on a black background, were entirely Kawajiri's idea.
Hirata stated that he would make comments like, "it would be good to make it rather dreamlike by using a reddish lavender color here ... " He also remembers making suggestions like, "wouldn't it be better if we did this part more like this ... ?", and then that would cause the key animators to go ahead and fiddle around making their own changes. Hirata describes his place in the making of the movie as that of a "jack of all trades." Continuity, color, animations--he helped out in all these things and more.
The article's author concludes that while at its core the movie shows Masaki's organization and mental vision as a director, the sensibilities and ideas of the other staff working on the movie, (particularly in the issue of color usage,) were included in the final work much more than they would be in a more modern production. In this way, Masaki, as a director, did not take total control over all the movie's elements. However, the final result became much more expansive conceptually, due to allowing the production staff as a whole to exercise their creativity during the production process.