Posts Tagged ‘animation’

More Chinese Plagiarism of Japanese Anime?

A video compares scenes of the Japanese anime “Hikarian: Great Railroad Protector” with a Chinese cartoon called “高鉄侠”:

It is painfully obvious that the Chinese cartoon is a copying the Japanese cartoon. The discovery was made by Chinese netizens, who found clips of the cartoon online and questioned its origin after noticing that it used a map of Japan and its main character ate Japanese-style onigiri

Japan’s NTV sent reporters to the Chinese animation company that created the cartoon:

The side-by-side clips are shown to random Chinese people, all of whom seem to agree that it’s a blatant copy. We are also shown angry comments from netizens who disapprove of the plagiarism. The incident is compared to Chinese state television’s unauthorized use of “Top Gun” footage.

They visit the offices of the animation company (its English name is, ironically, “Creativity Pictures”). Its walls are lined with prizes and awards. Apparently it is one of China’s top 10 animation companies. Two animated series from the company are currently airing on Chinese television.

The vice president of the company tells them that the clips being shown on the internet are pre-production “samples” that were created during the planning phase for the cartoon. She doesn’t know how they made it onto the internet, but she claims that the final product will look totally different from the “sample” clips.

An online advertisement for the cartoon shows characters from the “sample” that copied the Japanese anime. When shown the ad, the woman claims it was for promotional purposes, and her company is currently working on a totally original bullet train cartoon.

NTV found a blog post written by a former employee of the animation company. He writes that government subsidies are handed out to companies that can create huge quantities of animation, so the company cuts corners by copying old cartoons.

An article from SearChina contains more excuses. A company representative questioned critics by suggesting that it wouldn’t make sense for a Chinese cartoon about new Chinese bullet trains to copy a Japanese cartoon about Japanese trains from the 1990′s.

The Chinese cartoon was originally scheduled to air on television in August. Now, for unexplained reasons, the air date has been pushed back to October.

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PikaPika Stop-Motion Light Doodle Videos

Here’s a very awesome set of stop-motion animation videos found via w00kie’s ramblings. First off is PikaPika the Movie:

The creators of the animation describe it as the following:

We took a photo of each image using long exposures and put them together to make them look like one animation.

To work on this project,we went out to various places in Japan:parks,under the train track,the Tokyo Bay,school hallways,and so on.

We got all sorts of friends in different fields together to work on this project.
During the process,they got to know each other and discover new things. This is also about “communication”.
People can meet new friends as they create a piece art very easy which brings every one happiness.
We spend a very enjoyable evening at the workshop and the party through this animation.

In other words, a series of long exposure photographs of people waving around lights are combined to create very cool abstract animation, bringing happiness to all.

A clip that gives us a behind the scenes look at how the above clip was made:

An older PikaPika video from 2007:

More PikaPika videos can be found at their official blog!

The Long Road to Miyazaki

The Japan Society of New York City is currently presenting a film program entitled, The Dawn of Japanese Animation, a look back at Japanese animation from the late 20′s and 30′s. As a Nipponophile and a member of the Japan Society, I’ve got to say, I was pretty excited by this program. Here was an opportunity to see the very roots of what would grow into films like Tonari no Totoro and Spirited Away or film makers like Miyazaki.

However, what was presented were badly drawn, badly animated shorts. Now, I know that animation was just learning to crawl in Japan during this time, but come on. By comparison, in the early 30′s Max Fleischer Studios was releasing Popeye and Betty Boop shorts. A little later, Disney released Snow White in 1937 (the year of the second Sino-Japan War) while in Japan audiences were treated to the 1938 propaganda film Taro Overseas.

So, how did Japan eventually catch up and surpass the rest of the world in quality animation? It began in 1958 with Toei Studios’ Panda and the Magic Serpent[clip below], the first color full-length animated film in Japan. And one of the first to be made in the Disney-style studio system.

More on the history of Japanese animation check out this excellent article from Midnight Eye.