Toei Animation Co., Ltd., was established
in 1956, but its inception dates back to the merger of Japan Animation
Co., Ltd. with Toei Company, Ltd. in 1948. The current studio was
built in Tokyo's Higashi Oizumi district at the end of 1956 and production
started in 1957. As early as 1958, the first feature animation called
The White Snake, which won numerous international film festival
awards, was released. Since then, Toei Animation has been the leader
in Japanese animation, releasing to the world many features and TV
shows. It would not be an exaggeration to say that there are hardly
any Japanese who spent their childhood not going crazy over
Toei's animes.
Especially recently, Toei Animation has produced many TV animes which
are broadcast abroad. Sailormoon, Galaxy Express 999,
Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Saint Seiya and Ken,
the Great Bear Fist....these names are well known to children
all over the world.
Toei Animation has also contributed to the animation industry by nurturing
talents. For instance, Mr. Hayao Miyazaki (Kiki's Delivery Service,
My Neighbor Totoro, The Princess Mononoke) and Mr. Isao
Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, Memories of Yesterday,
The Raccoon War) of Studios Ghibli once worked for Toei Animation.
Taking a Trip
I visited the company's studio in Higashi-Oizumi in the middle
of April, 1999 (the company's headquarters is in Shinjyuku in central
Tokyo). Higashi-Oizumi is somewhat like a "Studio Town,"
with Toei's studios for live-action films, special effects and animation
all in one city. The town itself is rather quiet, a mixture of residences
and commercial buildings with a small downtown area with a casual
atmosphere.
The studio currently produces a weekly output of 5-6, 30-minute TV
series and one full-length feature animation every 1-2 years. In addition,
longer versions of TV animations, special feature-length animations,
for "The Toei Animation Festival" are made here. The Toei
Animation Festival is held twice a year during school holidays, and
features hit TV shows in special versions. About 200-250 people, including
clerical workers, staff the studios regularly. For almost all of the
TV animations, external studios also work for hire. For each TV series,
the average number of involved staff ranges from 50 to 100. At the
time of my interview, five television series were in production. Toei
Animation also has affiliated studios abroad, including one in the
Philippines.
The interviewee this time was Mr. Shinji Shimizu, Producer of Toei
Animation Co., Ltd. Mr. Shimizu joined Toei Animation in 1977 and
has produced such animes as Ge-Ge-Ge No Kitaro, Shoot!,
The File of Young Kindaichi, Galaxy Express 999, Eternal
Fantasy, and many others.
Toei's Production Process
According to Mr. Shimizu, one of Toei Animation's outstanding
characteristics is that one director takes responsibility for the
entire production process of the episode he/she is in charge of. In
other words, the director himself/herself draws the storyboards, and
directs the total production including sound effects and voice-over.
Typically, storyboards are drawn by a specialist, and there is usually
a special sound director for sound and voice-over. This style of Toei's
comes from its mother company's tradition. Also the leader of the
live-action Japanese film industry, Toei's directors are responsible
for every segment of the movie making process. Mr. Shimizu kindly
showed me a couple of scenarios and storyboards from The File of
Young Kindaichi, a hit anime series now on TV. As TV series are
broadcast weekly, each series has 6-8 directors, who take turns in
a shift system. I hear even some of Toei's live-action directors switch
to be animation directors.
Toei Animation introduced Celsys' RETAS, a digital ink and paint system,
in 1996. In April of last year, digitization of the ink & paint
division was fully completed, which led to a cost reduction of ¥100
million per year. In addition there weren't any difficulties with
the staff either, as they embraced the shift to new technology. Editing
is also digitized with Avid's editing system. Toei Animation's shift
to digital production has been very successful. Mr. Shimizu expects
that in 3 years, all work from the ink & paint part of the process
on will be fully digitized in the Japanese animation industry.
Other areas still remain manual like character and prop model sheets,
storyboards, layouts and backgrounds (PCs are used for a part of this
step). "What distinguishes Japanese animes is the importance
of characters. Maybe this is based on the fact that most Japanese
animes are based on `manga' [comic books]. Japanese manga culture
is unique...in the whole world. By animating characters from manga,
Japanese animation has established its own style. This is a stark
contrast to animations outside of Japan, in which stories are considered
to be the most important. In Japan, stress has always been on characters...spotlighting
characters in an impressive way is always the big issue," says
Mr. Shimizu.
Practicality and Tradition
Another characteristic "Japanese" method is the usage
of "Kime" postures -- static, dramatic pauses -- as the
ones used in traditional kabuki theatre. Should we call it "beauty
of form" or "beauty of abbreviation," Japanese animes
contain a lot of "Kime" postures. One "Kime" posture
reveals so many things. But in fact, this technique has been derived
for a very practical reason. By holding poses, the number of needed
drawings and animation is reduced, which is a key cost cutter. I believe
this realistic solution made a happy marriage with the stylings of
Japanese traditional art.
Such a combination of traditional arts as kabuki and Japanese animes
may not be anything surprising. Japanese animes, especially TV animes
are, as described in Mr. Shimizu's quote, based on manga, and manga
itself is called an "art of intervals" (from Understanding
Comics by Mr. Scott McCloud). How to express scene changes and
characters' feelings and emotions in the most efficient and impressive
way -- this is what Japanese manga has been pursuing. The unique world
that Japanese manga has established has already become part of Japanese
culture. Especially in TV animes, some specific expressions and marks
used in mangas can often been seen.
Most of the TV animes Toei Animation produces are based on manga.
For example, the series now on air The File of Young Kindaichi
2, Jeanne the Kamikaze Thief, Digimon Adventure
and Dr. Slump are all based on mangas. Recognition of characters
is very high in manga-based animes. Sometimes even the anime director
is a big fan of the manga.
Behind Dragonball
I also met with Mr. Daisuke Nishio, director of the well-known
series Dragonball and Dragonball Z (he worked as Sub-Director
on Dragonball and Chief-Director on Dragonball Z). Mr.
Nishio was very familiar with the original manga and the heroes and
other characters. It must be a very exciting experience to direct
and animate a manga you like so much, I said to him. "In the
case of Dragonball, the original cartoonist, Akira Toriyama's
strength was the driving force. In other words, I was doing my best
to follow his great works. During the production of the series, Mr.
Toriyama left a large part of the work to me. That was such an honor
but was also a lot of pressure for me," says Mr. Nishio. Sometimes
people say that characters grow so alive, they seem to start acting
autonomously. Is this true? "Sometimes characters do get very
alive, but characters do not just begin to act independently and automatically,
as the production process is very involved," answers Mr. Nishio.
In addition to the Dragonball series, Mr. Nishio has been involved
in the production of Shoot!, Gegege no Kitaro, etc.,
and is now directing the feature version of The File of Young Kindaichi
2 for its summer vacation 1999 release. "As a director, I
need to take the leadership role. It is not an easy task to show a
vision to the staff clearly, and share it with them, but this is vital
for a successful production," says Mr. Nishio about his duty.
The title "Director, Toei Animation" must be one of the
dreams of every animator. What kind of person is he? Mr. Nishio, now
in his late 30s, joined Toei Animation in 1981, and now has a career
spanning 18 years at the studio. Graduating from Ritsumeikan University
in Kyoto with a BA in economics, Mr. Nishio had no experience with
movie making until he joined Toei. When he was job seeking, one of
his friends found out that Toei Animation was recruiting new staff,
and Mr. Nishio applied...and was accepted! It was this simple. I asked
for his message to his successors. "Life itself is a big subject,
and contains a lot of hints for movie-making. Even daily conversations
can give you great hints. Challenge a lot of things. Be bold. Then,
think carefully how to appeal and show what you can do."
Finally, I asked Mr. Shimizu about his future goals. "This isn't
anything extraordinary, but I would like to keep making animations
full of dreams, love and hope. Animations you can see with your children,
that is. And hopefully, I would like to make an original full-length
feature film for the audience all over the world."
Toei's animes are indeed in the soul and blood of many Japanese people.
Children of today grow up with Toei's animes, and so have their parents,
and even their grandparents. I hope Toei will keep producing animations
to give dreams to the many children of the world, and to those who
once were children.
Mayumi Tachikawa is a manager in the corporate planning department
of Kyoto Research Park in Japan.
Links:
[1] http://www.awn.com/imagepicker/image/4079
[2] http://www.awn.com/imagepicker/image/4080
[3] http://www.awn.com/imagepicker/image/4081
