Toei Doga Movie Trailers: From Hakujaden to Sinbad

A YouTube member named Kenshiro Minami has posted a video compilation of trailers for the first six Toei Doga animated feature films. This is a terrific find that I am happy to share with you.

As we all know, Toei Doga was the leading animation studio in Japan's postwar years, growing into a powerhouse that trained, educated and inspired an entire generation of animators. Nearly every famous anime artist or director from the 1970s and 1980s got their start at "Toei University." And that includes Isao Takahata, Hayao Miyazaki and their many friends with whom they crafted so many classic films and television shows.

The movies featured in this compilation include: Hakujaden (1958), Shonen Sarutobe Sasuke (1959), Saiyuki (1960), Anju to Zuzhiomaru (1961), The Adventures of Sinbad (1962) and Wanpaku Oji no Orochi Taiji (1963).

All of these movies were given limited theatrical release in the US, usually with a change in title, all-star cast and the addition of new musical numbers. These are interesting historical curios that are worth checking out, and are available on VHS and LaserDisc. Alakazam the Great (aka Saiyuki) was even released on Netflix and Amazon Video.

Of course, none of these Westernized variants are anywhere as good as the Japanese originals, which stand as true animated classics of a bygone era, as good as animated classics from Russia, France and America. They remain almost entirely unknown, and only a small number of titles were released outside of Japan on DVD. In Japan, Toei is only now beginning to open the vaults for complete restorations on Blu-Ray, but only for a select few.

In the States, only three Toei Doga films were released on DVD, all by Discotek: Horus, Prince of the Sun, Puss in Boots and Animal Treasure Island. The latter two are now out-of-print and highly collectible, while Horus has also been released on Blu-Ray.

The first six Toei Doga features represent an era of complete creative freedom and dominance. In 1963, manga legend Osamu Tezuka, who collaborated on Saiyuki, Anju and Sinbad, founded his own animation studio called Mushi Productions and moved into television, sweeping in the TV anime era with Tetsuon Atom, aka Astro Boy. The winds of change were sweeping through the industry, and before long, nothing would ever be the same again.

Hayao Miyazaki's Eulogy of Isao Takahata (English Subs)

It's hard to believe that Isao Takahata has been gone for nearly two years. His presence and impact found in his work continues to shine and inspire us, and will continue to do so for many years to come. But his loss is equally profound and will always linger in our hearts.

At the public memorial service at the Ghibli Museum, Hayao Miyazaki offers a touching tribute to his lifelong friend, colleague and rival, offering a couple personal anecdotes from their days at Toei Doga in the 1960s. We still feel the emotional weight of his words.

Studio Ghibli Full of Food

Studio Ghibli Full of Food (スタジオジブリの 食べものがいっぱい) is a wonderful little picture book that showcases the many examples and varieties of cooking in Studio Ghibli's movies. Food is an essential part of life, and features prominently in the studio's many animated features. We see all aspects of preparation, mixing, baking and eating. We are also shown many examples of dishes from around the world, from Japanese ramen and rice to Western casseroles, desserts and even the classic eggs-and-bacon combo. Hmm...I could go for some of that bacon right about now.

The layouts of this book are highly colorful and packed with screenshots from your favorite Ghibli films. Text is light and easy and also includes hiragana characters over the Chinese kanji to help you pronounce the words. If you cannot read the text, at least you will be happy with the artwork.

This book is part of a series of Ghibli-themed books. Other themes include vehicles and animals, and if you enjoy this volume, you should pick up the entire set.

Kudos, as always, to Halycon Dreams for their excellent post on this book, including more photos. If you'd like to purchase a copy of the book, please do so through the Amazon link on their site.

My Life at Studio Ghibli: Toshio Suzuki Book Available in USA

Mixing Work With Pleasure: My Life at Studio Ghibli (Amazon Link)

Toshio Suzuki has worked tirelessly as the driving force behind Studio Ghibli since its founding, and his impact and influence is equalled only by the studio's co-founders Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. Many of the story elements, visual designs and marketing concepts hail from Suzuki. His role as the studio's main producer is critical to its success in Japan and throughout the world.

In 2018, Suzuki's memoirs, titled Mixing Work with Pleasure: My Life at Studio Ghibli, shares many great insights into the drama behind the scenes and his relationships with the directors, as well as Yasuyoshi Tokuma, the boss of Tokuma Publishing who was Ghibli's patron and financial backer until his death in 2000.

This excellent book was published in the US in 2018, fully translated by Roger Speares and published by the Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture. If you are eager for an inside view of the workings of Studio Ghibli, you can't do better than this.

Aaron Long wrote a great essay on this book that you should check out.

Hayao Miyazaki: From Horus to Ghibli, or A Very Long Interview-Slash-Homework Assignment

A couple years back, I received a request from a student named Isabelle Lai. She was writing a school essay on Hayao Miyazaki and wanted me to share my thoughts on his work and career from Toei Doga to Studio Ghibli. Hopefully, I did overwhelm her with my long and detailed answers.

After much thought, I decided that I should share the entire interview here in the pages of Ghibli Blog. Hopefully, you will find it enjoyable and illuminating and spark new discussions about these great works of art. It's very long, so be prepared for a lengthy read. Enjoy!

Could you tell me a little bit about your career and your connection to Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli?

I’m part of that first generation of American anime fans, back when it was known as “Japanimation” mostly to diehards who would trade videocassettes at sci-fi conventions. There was a show called Star Blazers that aired when I was in early grade school, and I thought it was the most amazing thing in the universe, after Star Wars, of course. Years later, we were exposed to shows like Robotech and a lot of American cartoons that were animated in Japan, shows like Inspector Gadget and Transformers and Ducktales.

In the late 1980s, comic books were going through a transformation, thanks to Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Scott McCloud and, of course, Art Spiegelman, whose Maus became required reading in schools. There was this fantastic comic book (“ugh, it’s a graphic novel,” the teenagers would whine) from Japan called Akira. It seemed to take the worlds of Blade Runner and Neuromancer and fuse that to the gritty violence and dark realism from The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke and take it to a whole new level.

Then the Akira movie arrived in the States sometime in the early 1990s, and it just exploded like a thermonuclear bomb. There were a few previous attempts to bring Japanese animation to our shores, but they met varying degrees of resistance and either played in a handful of art-house theaters or disappeared on home video. Those works could be dismissed as “cheap, low budget, Saturday morning cartoons” by critics and animation lovers who worshipped at the feet of Walt Disney. Akira just blasted through all of that. It became the first major anime work to be seriously respected. And, of course, it scared the hell out of parents who probably thought it was another nice cartoon to pacify the toddlers. You know, like Bambi, except that Bambi’s mom gets her head shot clean off with blood splattered all over Thumper’s back side while the forest animals slash out endless strings of f-bombs.

Anyway. I loved Akira and sometime around 1994 I found myself scouring the neighborhood video rental stores for more “Japanimation” to discover. I don’t remember any names, but the movies I watched were mostly terrible, low-budget affairs. One movie depicted God as a giant green slug who drove a flying saucer straight into the side of Mount Fuji. I have no idea what that was about. I lost interest shortly after.

In the late ‘90s, you could be expected to find at least one really good anime film per year making its way to the States. There was Ghost in the Shell, which I thought was pretty good but a little stiff. Ninja Scroll was very popular and would get played often when at a co-worker’s apartment for Saturday night binge drinking. I don’t remember the plot very much, only the ridiculous amount of sex and gore which always embarrassed me at the time.

The “big” anime movie for 1999 was Princess Mononoke. I knew nothing about the filmmakers, but I really enjoyed this movie. It felt more mature and disciplined than all the others, and actually had compelling characters and an interesting story. Over the next couple of years, I would stop and watch the movie anytime it was showing on cable, and my respect for it grew and grew. A housemate at the time told me that Mononoke was his favorite animated movie ever, and I found myself agreeing with him.

Artist Spotlight: Gio Gio Art

I found this terrific illustration of San the Princess Mononoke at the Reddit Ghibli thread. It was created by a person named "Gio Gio Art," who also has an Instagram account at "Giorgio.rt."

This piece has a great sense of tension in its pose, a sense of action and motion. I think it defines the character very well, who is defined by action and assertiveness. San is not a "cutesy" anime character but a tough gal who will whomp you six ways from Sunday.

I also enjoy the color palette with its light brown fur and ample use of empty space. The red tones on the mask are especially nice as well, as are the blood splatters. All in all, great work.

3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (Marco): The Series Playlist

I present to you 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (aka "Marco") in its entirety. This 52-episode series was the 1976 season of World Masterpiece Theater, and the second in Isao Takahata's celebrated Heidi-Marco-Anne trilogy of masterworks.

This video contains the playlist for all 52 episodes, presented in Japanese audio with English subtitles.

Now a few quick notes about its creators. This series was a teamwork collaboration between Takahata (director), Hayao Miyazaki (layout, scene design) and Yoichi Kotabe (character design). It is the direct followup to Heidi, Girl of the Alps, which became a groundbreaking success in Japan and throughout the world. The trio had begun at Toei Doga and continued as a team for a number of years, first teaming with alum Yasuo Otsuka on Moomin and Lupin the 3rd, then working tirelessly on the Pippi Longstocking project that was notoriously scuttled by author Astrid Lindgren, then finally to Heidi.

Heidi succeeded because the trio of Takahata-Miyazaki-Kotabe worked together as a team, contributing story ideas and characters together. With the Marco series, however, Takahata took a more firm control over the story, pushing relentlessly in the direction of emotionally-charged melodrama. Its scale became epic, spanning two continents, an ocean and a widely varied cast of characters, and all stylized after the Italian Neo-realists. Flights of fancy or imagination are almost nonexistent. Marco's journey is not driven by wonder or discovery, but obsession, suffering and pain. Imagine the Book of Job starring James Dean and you'll have some idea of what to expect.

It would seem that Marco's obsession reflected Takahata's, and is it said that his relationship with Miyazaki and Kotabe suffered as a result. By the end of the series, Kotabe walked away, effectively breaking up the band that had stuck together throughout the decade. He would return five years later to work with Paku-san again in the 1981 movie Jarinko Chie, and later with Miyazaki in Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, but his animation career began to decline. In the mid-1980s, he found himself working at the most unlikeliest of places: Nintendo. There, he would help with art and character design for many of the company's most beloved videogames, including Super Mario Kart and Pokemon. Remember Pikachu? That's Kotabe.

Hayao Miyazaki would finally begin his solo directing career (not counting the 1972 Yuki's Sun pilot film) with the spectacular 1978 series Future Boy Conan. Yasuo Otsuka, who served as the animation director, famously noted how his friend's relentless creative drive and work ethic had exploded during his time as Paku-san's right hand. And while Miyazaki did return one final time to serve as layout/scene designer for Anne of Green Gables in 1979, he left the series after 13 episodes to join TMS's Telecom studio to direct his first feature-length movie, Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro, once again with old friend Otsuka by his side.

The next time Takahata and Miyazaki worked together was on the infamous Nemo movie project, traveling to California as members of the Japan delegation. Both walked away over creative differences, and while Takahata continued to thrive with the wonderfully sublime 1982 film Gauche the Cellist and the 1982-83 TV version of Jarinko Chie, his colleague struggled after several years of commercial and creative failures.

Miyazaki retreated to his first love, drawing manga comics, creating a serial comic for Animage Magazine called Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind in 1983. After a long period of begging and pleading by the magazine's young editor, Toshio Suzuki, Miyazaki was convinced to direct a film adaptation of Nausicaa which was released to great success in 1984. Its success led directly to the founding of Nibariki, Miyazaki's production company, and, of course, Studio Ghibli, which found its first commercial success in 1989 with Kiki's Delivery Service*. The rest, as they say, is history.

Takahata, as I've said, continued to enjoy success as a director, and he was the top dog at the time. He helped Miyazaki by guest-directing two episodes of Conan, and brought along young animator Yoshifumi Kondo as the animation director/character designer for Anne of Green Gables. Kondo had previously worked on Lupin Series One and he quickly became Paku-san's new prized student, the right-hand-man for the famous "director who cannot draw" in Grave of the Fireflies, Omohide Poro Poro and Pom Poko. Kondo died in 1998 from a brain aneurism, leaving Takahata reportedly guilt-stricken over working his prodigy so hard**.

3000 Leagues in Search of Mother sits at a fascinating crossroads in these three careers. It represents the peaks of the post-Toei years, drives the evolution of 1970s anime and sets the stage for Studio Ghibli. It represents a beginning, middle and end of converging eras. And despite any creative turbulence behind the scenes, this series remains a masterpiece of dramatic storytelling and naturalist animation. In my opinion, it is the greatest of the Heidi-Marco-Anne trilogy, the richest and deepest and most compelling, filled with mythic grandeur.

Watch this series. Just put down whatever is on your Netflix playlist and watch this instead.

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(*Note: That's correct, the first three Ghibli features -- Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies -- all lost money in their initial theatrical runs. Their success, especially Totoro, would come years later with home video and merchandising.)

(**Note: This story came from a rather strange rant last year by Toshio Suzuki, who accused the late Takahata of being a tyrant who drove away talent and led Ghibli to ruin. It's very odd as this portrayal of the director as a hotheaded control freak is greatly at odds with his image as the epitome of zen cool ("walking logic" in Mamoru Oshii's words) and more descriptive of Miyazaki.)

Artist Spotlight: Iggy Starpup

Phoenix-based artist and illustrator Courtney Doom, aka Iggy Starpup, has created a series of lovingly crafted Studio Ghibli felt embroideries. According to her bio profile, she crafts pop culture-themed embroidery hoop art and subjects also include Harry Potter and Pokemon.

Iggy Starpup is an arts graduate of Arizona State University and enjoys crafting, drawing, photography and film. You can purchase her work directly from her Etsy page.

More photos of her Studio Ghibli craft works are available below the jump.

(h/t to the excellent Ghibli Collector)

Poster: My Neighbor Totoro (China)

This charming and artistic poster design for My Neighbor Totoro was created for the film's theatrical release in China on December 2018. It marked Studio Ghibli's long-awaited foray into mainland China and has already been followed by Spirited Away in June of this year. Four more Ghibli features are planned for release as well: Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle and The Wind Rises.

I enjoy the spaciousness of this poster design, very much in a classical Asian style of utilizing negative space. You can almost feel the fur of the giant Totoro as the two girls wade through, like walking through boundless fields of grass. The text simply describes the title, Hayao Miyazaki's name and the voice cast. No need for any tag line or description as this is a well-known children's classic.

Chinese movie lovers, of course, have long been able to watch My Neighbor Totoro on home video formats, to say nothing of pirated bootlegs. But this theatrical release was a first and marks a new development in the growth of Ghibli across the globe. Whatever becomes of the studio, its catalog titles are guaranteed a long and bright future.

Hakujaden Blu-Ray Box Released in Japan

This is great news for all animation lovers. Toei Doga's seminal 1958 animated feature Hakujaden is now available in Japan on Blu-Ray. This wonderful box set includes a treasure trove of memorabilia, including a copy of the poster, illustrations, newspaper clippings and a color booklet.

Hakujaden is Japan's first feature-length animated movie, as well as the first animated movie in color. The story is based on a Chinese folk myth of a magical serpent who transforms into a young woman and falls in love with a young man. She is pursued by a monk, and a pair of cartoon animals tag along for the adventure. The key animation was drawn entirely by the studio's founding veterans, Yasuji Mori and Akira Daikubara, and young animators who began their careers here include Yasuo Otsuka, Reiko Okuyama and Akemi Ota, as well as visionary anime director Rintaro, who I absolutely adore for his masterful 2001 Metropolis that he created with Katsuhiro Otomo.

Unfortunately, it does not appear that English subtitles are included in this release, which is extremely fortunate for those of you who have not seen it. A fansub translation was released a decade ago, but it has completely disappeared since then as the related anime sites have disbanded or shut down. It would have helped greatly if Toei would include subtitles in their home video releases, now that their legendary movies are (finally) arriving on Blu-Ray.

The Hakujaden Blu-Ray is available on Amazon JP for 10,258 Yen, or roughly $94USD. Be sure to spend a few minutes begging your favorite anime publisher to pick up this title for a Western release. Hey, GKIDS, is anybody listening? Discotek? Anybody? Bueller?

Hayao Miyazaki's Next Feature Film Is Still 2-3 Years Away

This is an old news post, but bears repeating as there has been very few updates in the past year. As we all know, Hayao Miyazaki returned from his "retirement" to create one more animated feature with Studio Ghibli. Titled "How Do You Live," this movie is based on a 1937 novel by Genzaburo Yoshino.

While originally planned for a theatrical release in time for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, the extremely slow production schedule has pushed back that date to 2021 or even 2022. As always, Miyazaki is drawing the storyboards himself, and animation is reportedly progressing at the pace of one minute per month (I'm still trying to find the source on that).

The pace of this production is far slower than in the past, owing greatly to Miyazaki's age (now 78) and reduced work schedule. Studio Ghibli has also had to completely hire a new staff of artists and animators, since the disbanded its animation teams in the wake of Miyazaki's retirement. Many of the biggest names such as Kazuo Oga, Yoshiyuki Momose and Katsuya Kondo have moved on to other projects and studios, most notably Studio Kajino.

For these reasons, we should not expect to see the new movie for another two or three years. Progress is being made slowly but consistently. The greatest challenge, of course, is time, as last year's passing of Isao Takahata makes all too clear. Let us hope and pray that Miyazaki-san will stay in good health long enough to complete this final work.

Western Ghibli fans should also be aware that Miyazaki's new movie will not be a fantasy in the style of My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away or Ponyo, but will be a "realistic" story similar in style to The Wind Rises. Don't let the Harry Potter-ish illustration above fool you. In any event, expect one last brilliant masterwork from the sensei.

Poster: Gulliver's Space Travels

Here are two movie posters for the 1963 Toei Doga animated feature film Gulliver's Space Travels. Specifically, these belong to the US version, dubbed Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon. This is a terrific movie that's full of spark and adventure and color, a nice change from the usual Toei fare of Eastern myths and fairy tales. It has a very distinct Western flair in its visual design and story that helps set it apart from just about anything at the time.

Hayao Miyazaki fans know about this movie, of course. It was his second feature film as an in-between animator, and he famously drew attention by suggesting a vital change to the movie's ending, one that was embraced by the director and production team. The scene in question was later riffed in My Neighbor Totoro in one of those cool "blink and you'll miss it" moments.

The US version of Gulliver is very nice and benefits nicely from the source material. The voices are not too irritating and the songs are bearable. By anime dub standards, you could do a lot worse. These poster designs are also very nice, especially the second one which is washed in rich color tones and dynamic character poses.

It's very unfortunate that the Toei Doga classics are all but impossible to find today. A decade ago, a few dedicated fans created English fansubs for nearly all of their anime feature films, but the websites are gone and its creators vanished. Today, you might be able to track down the Japanese DVDs that were released around the turn of the century, but you'll have to live without subtitles. Hopefully, that situation will change one day.

P.S. Here's a great surprise: Gulliver's Space Travels is available on YouTube, in the original Japanese audio and English subtitles. Check this out before it gets pulled down.

Photos: Anne of Green Gables

Some screenshots from the latter episodes of Isao Takahata's 1979 Anne of Green Gables. A fascinating bit of trivia: the house in this series is modeled after the "official" Green Gables house in Canada. Takahata and his team visited the location for their research (Paku-san was a pioneer in location research in anime). A 2004 NHK TV documentary showed the director returning to pay his respects as well as meet with the legendary animator Frederic Back.

Again, watch this series by any means necessary. It's fantastic and if you've ever enjoyed the Studio Ghibli movies, you'll be head over heels for this one.

Heidi, Girl of the Alps English Fansub Translation

Heidi, Girl of the Alps is the landmark 1974 anime television series created by Isao Takahata, Hayao Miyazaki and Yoichi Kotabe. It was a tremendous success in Japan and helped to spawn an entire genre of literary-based cartoon dramas, sparking the World Masterpiece Theater to prominence for years and inspiring generations. Outside of Japan, Heidi also became a beloved childhood favorite, as the series was exported to nearly every corner of the globe.

That is, of course, every place on the globe except the United States. For reasons that remain unknown, Heidi was never brought to our shores, meaning that we missed out on what all the other kids were enjoying these past 45 years.

Thankfully, after many years of dedication and hard work, an English fan translation, or "fansub", was completed by Silver Zero Subs. Using the Japanese Blu-Ray box set as a video source, Heidi has never looked or sounded better, offering crisp picture displays that burst with color and detail. And finally being able to enjoy this series in English is a genuine thrill.

You can find a copy of the Heidi English fansub at the Silver Zero Subs download page. This series has also been posted onto YouTube, but we should probably expect the copyright robots to take those videos down, sooner or later.

As always, I would be thrilled to see Heidi given a commercial release here in the States. GKIDS would be my best choice, and their biggest challenge would be to find a television or streaming network to broadcast all 52 episodes. As we are now entering the next stage of the "streaming wars," perhaps this is the opportunity to strike. Oh, well, it likely won't ever happen, but it's good to dream.

In any case, download Heidi while you can and enjoy this all-time classic.

Heidi, Girl of the Alps - Silver Zero Subs English Fansub

Anne of Green Gables: 2018 Fansub Translation

In December 2018, Silver Zero Subs finally completed their long English fansub translation of Anne of Green Gables, Isao Takahata's 1979 television production with World Masterpiece Theater.

Anne had been translated into English many years ago, but this new fansub takes advantage of the show's Blu-Ray box set that was released in Japan. The picture quality is a dramatic improvement over the ancient DVD (or possibly even VHS) source.

Obviously, we would love to see Anne and all the other WMT series commercially released on home video in the West, but given the enormous costs of licensing and producing an English-language soundtrack, such a move is highly unlikely if not impossible. These fan translations are always a labor of love, often taking years of dedication and hard work to see completion. They're certainly not doing this for the money, but love of anime and the need to preserve those works that disappear unfairly.

Personally, I think this is a magnificent series and the best adaptation of Anne ever seen. Takahata captures the spirit of Maud Montgomery's classic novel while skillfully filling out the characters and their world. The addition of new animation director Yoshifumi Kondo (replacing Yoichi Kotabe, who worked on Heidi and Marco) also adds a degree of natural realism to the story, thanks to his brilliant character designs. You can see why Kondo was so beloved at Studio Ghibli years later. Hayao Miyazaki also served as the sole layout designer, as he did with the two previous series, but he famously dropped out after episode 13 to direct his first feature film, The Castle of Cagliostro. Because of this, Anne feels much more like Paku-san's baby, especially when compared to the team effort on Heidi.

A fantastic series, overall, one that deserved to be seen and enjoyed by everyone. Expect the usual amount of humor, psychological realism and tear-jerking melodrama. This is Paku-san, after all.

You can find Anne of Green Gables at the Silver Zero Subs download page.