Contents

Exhibiting Anime:
Archive, Public Display, and the Re-narration of Media History

Gan Sheuo Hui ………… 2

Utilizing the Intermediate Materials of Anime:
Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise

Ishida Minori ………… 17

The Film through the Archive and the Archive through the Film:
History, Technology and Progress in Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise

Dario Lolli ………… 25

Interview with Yamaga Hiroyuki,
Director of Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise

What Do Archived Materials
Tell Us about Anime?
Kim Joon Yang ………… 31

Exhibiting Manga:
Impulses to Gain from the Archiving/Unearthing Anime Project

Jaqueline Berndt ………… 36

Analyzing “Regional Communities” with
“Visual Media” and “Materials”
Harada Ken’ichi ………… 41

About the Archive Center for Anime Studies in Niigata University ………… 45

Exhibiting Anime:
Archive, Public Display, and the Re-narration of Media History
Gan Sheuo Hui

Background of the Projectpresumably, the majority are in various storage
places after their production cycles. It is not

The exhibition “A World is Born: The

uncommon that they are forgotten, displaced or

Emerg­­ing Arts and Designs in 1980s Japaneseeventually discarded due to the expenses incurred

Animation” (19-31 March 2018) hosted at DECK,

for storage. In many ways, these materials

an independent art space in Singapore, isencompass an often forgotten yet significant

part of an ongoing research collaboration

research resource essential for understanding

between the researchers from Puttnam School

key aspects of Japanese animation productionof Film and Animation in Singapore and thecultures and practices.

Archive Center for Anime Studies in Niigata“A World is Born” was an exhibition focusing

University (ACASiN). It is also the start of aon these production preparatory materials forfive-year pilot project to study a selection ofRoyal Space Force: The Wings of HonnêamiseJapanese animation production materials, pri­(1987), on loan from Gainax Studio. Royalmarily consisting of conceptual arts, visualSpace Force represents a milestone of 1980s

development sketches, drawings, notes, memos

Japanese animation. The people who worked

and early-stage storyboards. The purpose is toon this animation, including Yamaga Hiroyuki,

create an opportunity for researchers to study

Sadamoto Yoshiyuki, Anno Hideaki, Maeda

these first-hand materials while the ACASiN

Mahiro, Ogura Hiromasa and the producer

scans these materials from their papers/celluloid

Okada Toshio subsequently became well-

originals to digital format for archival purposes.

known creators in the animation industry. The

Kim Joon Yang and Ishida Minori have referred

establishment of Gainax to create Royal Space

to them as intermediate materials. Such materials

Force and its subsequent productions inspired aare customarily unavailable for researchers. To

new wave of anime consumption culture. The

date, few animation studios in Japan have a

involvement of Bandai, then a toy maker in Japan,

long-term plan for these materials. A portionin financing this production, also transformedof them might be in private collections, while

the anime production landscape.

2Aside from its historical importance, Royallack of experience, all of them shared a passion

Space Force also provides a sizeable sample offor animation and believed it to be an attractive

production material in excellent condition thatmedium for storytelling. The materials on display

made it the best choice for this exhibition project.

aimed to highlight this background and their

In the loan agreement, the current president

processes of trial and error, failures and successesof Gainax, Yamaga Hiroyuki and one of theirduring the lengthy, complicated journey of

producers, Saito Tomoko agreed to cooperate

crafting a believable worldview for Royal Space

jointly on this project and its related events.(1)Force. The selection included various drafts andThis arrangement has provided an unusualdesigns from early production stages that were

opportunity to generate a renewed dialogue

unknown to the viewers as they were eventually

between the researchers and the filmmakers

discarded or altered in amalgamation in the final

through the exploration of the artefacts and thework. Such a strategy highlighted the textual,

curatorial process.

aesthetic and formal structure of anime-media,
while maintaining a sense of relevancy to art andcreation in the realm of popular culture.

The Story of “A World is Born”

Yamaga commented that the essence of a

From the Planning

contour (rinkakusen 輪郭線) is the most crucial“A World is Born” refers to the establishment

element in their work, a perception that is often

of Gainax. Yet, it also implied the new distinctive

echoed and emphasized in Japanese animation,

spheres, quirkiness and colourful lineage typicaland in the closely related manga industry. (2) Eachof the people who produced works at Gainax. The

animator has their unique way to compose a line,

exhibition’s narrative strategy was to em­phasize

and it remains recognizable like a signature.

the often-overlooked individuality, ide­a lism andThis comment helped spur the rethinking of theenthusiasm of the collective efforts involved indynamism of individual animators through their

the making of Royal Space Force. Several of the

distinctive lines seen in the production process.

main creators were still amateurs or inexperienced

On the one hand, the exhibition displayed

undergraduate students from different disciplines

minute details of the playfulness and energy of thesuch as oil painting, archi­tecture, design and film

creative process which up till now had remained

while they worked on Royal Space Force (Movic

invisible and concealed in the final work. On1987). Despite their different backgrounds andthe other hand, it highlighted the Japanese(1) A symposium “Archiving Popular Culture” (18 March 2018) and a sharing session with students (19 March 2018) about anime
production were held at LASALLE College of the Arts as parallel events to the exhibition.
(2) An interview given by Yamaga Hiroyuki to Lianhe Zabao, Singapore Press Holdings Limited on 28 March 2018. Yamaga also
repeated this comment several times during my visit to Niigata University in December 2018.

● Exhibiting Anime – Archive, Public Display, and the Re-narration of Media History3

animation industrial production process of thatis assigned. In most commercial productions, thehas grown up since the 1960s, where the final

essence is established by the animation director

concern about drawings is their collectiveness

作画監督 and the series animation director 総作

and functionality in serving the narrative rather

画監督 (often the same person)—who overlook

than perceived as a product of art. Considering

the whole anime series or production and who

the nature of animation-making is about theare responsible for the final check of the end

practice of layering, a vertical compilation

product. The materials found in the production

process to create movement through the change

envelope カット袋 provides a good evidence ofand multiplication of lines, it has been inevitable

this process. The exhibition was aimed to capturethat only a certain fragment of the essence of

these nuances of the artistic evolution that occurs

lines is visible in the final work. A product thatin the production process.

aims for mainstream consumption aims at a

The structural characteristic inherent instandardization process for maintaining effective

the medium and the expectation of generalvisual continuity of a narrative through a set

viewers over the years indirectly determined theof distinct and unified-looking characters andpresentation and the look of an anime produced

background designs. The notion of the contour

for commercial markets. However, an exhibition

asserted by Yamaga is about its representationalof anime and its archival materials does not

quality. The dynamism of lines in Royal Spacereplicate the same formula. Changing of theForce derives from its communicative ability andinstitutional location from cinema to gallery,

the presence of “photographic” details in thethe different spatial and temporal settings

depiction of an imaginative SF world unlike ours.

and expectations of a gallery space provide an

It was not the directness of sensual experiences oropportunity to unpack the projection, narration

abstract appeal—as discussed by Johnston (2014:

and montage into smaller units and clusters167) as the energy of lines, such as those by Len Lyeof texts, images and sound. In this case, thein his scratch films. It was also not about fluidity

intermediary archival materials are regroupedor “plasmaticness” as Eisenstein considered(for example, a categorization based on objects

in his remarks about early Disney animation.

or artists) and magnified, without needing to

The attractiveness of the lines in Royal Space

follow the narratology of the work and format ofForce emerges from their recognizable forms

the original release or broadcast. The focus is also

and shapes and their connectedness to others

reshuffled, from the character-centred narrative

generated through the overlapping production

to the background or object-centred imagery thatprocess in narrative animation.

provides the atmosphere of the story. The change

In short, the visibility and the preservation of
the essence of line varied greatly in the production
process. It also depended on the role an animator

4of the viewing experience aims to stimulatedifferent ways to engage with anime images.
The exhibition design reflected this narrative

strategy. Overall, a studio-like environment wasto generate a different set of extra-cinematicenvisioned to highlight the collective efforts,

experiences to provide new insights through thevarious tentative thoughts and the resultant

rearrangement and compartmentalization of

fabrications in the creative process. For thatanimation images in a gallery setting.

purpose, display panels and frames consistingof cork board and oriental strand board wereThe Installation of the Exhibition

chosen because of their unpolished textures“A World is Born” exhibition was installed in

and work-shop appearance. Several projectors,

a lower unit of a container at DECK, an urban

traditional light boxes, and two diorama-likeart venue that uses shipping containers as theirlight boxes were specially designed as display

exhibition space. Perhaps due to the low ceilingapparatus, with the aim to diversify the usualof the container, the existence of the fluorescentmethod of displaying the drawn images of anime

lights cast a cosy and warm impression on mostly

in frames. While recognizing their individuality,

paper-based artefacts varied in size, dimension,

drawings and paintings were often presented

material and texture. A glance upon enteringin clusters, meant to be seen as a whole thatthe space revealed its structure. There was acomplements each other rather than a dissectedpartition wall installed near the entrance forsingle piece. Most importantly, the display

the introduction wall text that loosely compart-

design brought attention to the collective energy

mentalised the overall space into two possible

and layered nature of the animation. The aim waspassages to explore the exhibition (Figure 1).

to avoid approaching animation as an isolated

The left passage prioritized director Yamaga

flattened image or a static object while enhancing

Hiroyuki’s perspective on envisioning Royal Space

its sequential processes. Considering the smallest
unit in animation as a frame, some displays
showcased multiple drawings from the same
shot, in a continuous manner that demonstrates
their slight variation from one another. This
compilation of similar, yet different, drawings
highlights the reproductive nature of the process,rethinking its aesthetic aura as a synthetic qualitythat emerges from layering.(3) The overarching
thought is to emphasize such essential features

Figure 1 The overall impression of the exhibition space(3) The word “synthetic” refers to the fact that often only a section of the line work of an animator will be refined or reworked in
the next layer by an animation director. Subsequently, this is further smoothened by the series director. That is to say, before theclean-up, at least two to three animators with different job descriptions have gone through each set of drawings.

● Exhibiting Anime – Archive, Public Display, and the Re-narration of Media History5Force. His handwritten notes exemplified that

but the different nuances are clear. One side

on a commercial flyer (an ad from MUJI) and

exposes some visual thoughts in the production

pages from a translated Japanese version of Carl

process, and the other, an unpublicized worldview

Jung’s Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious,

initially shared among the creators who worked

followed by a series of watercolour concept

on this project. The purpose here is to explore

arts drawn by his fellow animators. Next was athe duality of Royal Space Force, encouraging thefolder holding the storyboard from the opening

visitors to further ponder on its meanings whensequence of the pilot film. It was compared to thethe projected images and the hidden images

same sequence from the final work, played in a(the many other versions/drafts of the concept

loop on a wall-mounted flat screen.

arts that did not appear in the final print of

The right passage showcased another set

Royal Space Force) continue to intertwine andof concept arts in a chronological manner thatinteract in the extra-cinematic settings, like thismatched the overall storyline of Royal Spaceexhibition (Figure 2).

Force. The label revealed that although these

Shifting the focus from the usual character-concept arts did not appear in the final version,

centred emphasis to the background and location

they share the same worldview of those that went
into the final version. The selection was meant toepitomise a parallel world outside of the finalized
animation frames, as out-of-sight places where
the characters from Royal Space Force would
spend their free time alone or with friends, when
they are not in front of the screen. These images
also served as the incoherent voices, distinct
styles and designs from “behind the scene” that
contributed to the overall on-screen oeuvre ofRoyal Space Force.

Figure 2 The visitors comparing the storyboard with the final version of a short sequence at the opening night

The concept arts from the left passage and theright passage correspond to each other, creating aoffered a closer look at the cityscape, landscape,visual juxtaposition of a visible or “actual” worldbuildings, household items and various layouts

and an invisible “latent” world of Royal Space

that contributed to the world-building andForce. The visible world represents the familiar

general atmosphere of Royal Space Force. Anime

final images found on the DVD, in contrast tohas been conventionally a narrative-centric

the invisible world that embodies various priormedi­um where the character plays a significant

versions that contributed to the finalized images.

role to push the narrative forward. Royal Space

These two sets of concept arts are vaguely similar,

Force is not an exception, but its attention to the6Figure 3 The sketches of the props that used by the main female character. A landscape water colour
drawing and a pencil sketch of an interior were also included to establish the worldview around her

details of its world-building are still compelling

box with the original cut of the shot playing in aand unorthodox by today’s standards. Aboutloop projected on an adjacent screen. This design

half of the exhibition space was devoted to

was inspired by the concept of the multiplanarsuch materials, grouped in categories such as

camera widely used in the production of 2D

costume and accessory, character design, props,

celluloid animation in the past. With this newly

background and mecha, presented on coax boardthat gave them a studio-working environmental
touch (Figure 3). The two diorama-like light boxes
had switches at the back of the box that offeredcontrol over five different layers of LED lights(Figure 4- a, 4-b).

The visitors were encouraged to experiment,
comparing the different foci cast on the drawn
images by manipulating where the light would
shine. In the end, they were encouraged tocompare the drawn images presented in the light

Figure 4-a One of the specially constructed diorama boxes wherethe visitors were encouraged to manipulate the control of the lights(a: left); The marks in red illustrate the instructions meant for thecameraperson (Figure 4-b: next page)● Exhibiting Anime – Archive, Public Display, and the Re-narration of Media History7

Figure 4-b

constructed light box, the visitors gained the

As the exhibition space was small, the above-

freedom to decide where and when to shine

mentioned division was more suggested thanthe light. This setting provided an opportunity

enforced. No physical boundary cordoned theto isolate different layers found in a single shot

visitors from drifting from one side of the wall toof animation. The visitors could choose to see

the other. The visitors could roam freely within

the drawings as a whole or in a breakdown thatthe space. One could stand in the middle of theultimately brings their attention to specific details

room, and a 360-degree turn would be sufficientthat are often embedded or overshadowed by theto have a quick view of the whole exhibition.

narrative and the characters. The visitors wereNevertheless, there were sufficient bits and pieces

encouraged to construct different views as theyof information, as well as the attraction of thewere in the position of the camera eye, possessing

textuality and the materiality of the drawings

the freedom to zoom in/out and focus on specificthat aimed to stimulate the visitors to makelayers of detail. The attraction of the light

new connections and discoveries. The greatest

boxes is analogue and mechanical, considerably

success of this exhibition was heightening thedistinctive from many recent exhibition devices

attention to the production process, a researchthat tend to use digitalised technology as attrac­

area that has long needed careful study andtions when showcasing animation.(4)analysis. We strived to achieve a balance between

8the artists and the artefacts (Kim: 2017) in order

not enjoying such luxurious privileges. A popular

to re-narrate the inherent charisma of Gainax,

media like animation, in this case, Royal Space

whose raw desire to create, to provoke and, mostForce became a channel to express such concerns

importantly, to be different made them uniqueand instantly resonated with them.

in the 1980s Japanese animation production, andcontinues to inspire even today.
Royal Space Force is about alienated youth,

Concerns Aroused by the Exhibition

written by a young group of creators. Its

The anime media has served as a staple ofimperfections as animation at times seemJapanese popular culture since the 1960s, and it

amateurish.

However, it deeply appealed tohas continued to diversify its ecology, businessmany young viewers at that time. The portrayal

model and content presentation. Since theof the male characters is funny and relatable. The

early 2000s, there have been several permanent

biggest fascination is the protagonist’s struggle

establishments in Japan such as the Suginami

with his awareness of his own mediocrity. Having

Animation Museum, Toei Animation Museum

come from an average middle-class family, he is

and Ghibli Museum that are dedicated to theeducated enough to realize that he is not bright,

promotion and preservation of animation-or privileged and well-connected. He hides

making and its cultures. In conjunction withbehind affected disinterest to avoid any societal

that, there is an ongoing interest in different sorts

responsibility, pressures and expectations, whileof anime genga (original sketches) exhibitions in

carefully hiding from his melancholy and sense ofJapan focusing on both recent and retrospective

loss. The narrative resolves after he meets a girl thatworks. Anime archiving is a growing task,

motivates him to develop and do something that

especially given its gradual move from analogue

matters. This kind of narrative appeals to young

to digital production, distribution, screening andpeople raised in a youth culture continuously

storing since the mid-1990s. The technologicalfocussed on expensive branded material goods

development had, for example, witnessed theor overindulging in the ready-made popularobsolescence of specific production technologies

culture icons and related products (toys, idols

such as the use of celluloid and its related

and so on). It is true that Japan was then in theprofessions. In this trajectory, the establishment“bubble economy” but many of the young wereof the ACASiN that deals mainly with

(5)(4) “DreamWorks Animation–The Exhibition–Journey from Sketch to Screen: is a recent animation exhibition (13 June–27
September) in Singapore that came to mind.
(5) Unfortunately, the portrayal of the female characters maintained certain stereotypes and lacks sophistication. The female
protagonist is a young, cute-looking orphaned teen who dedicated her faith to religion, while other representations of women on
screen are limited to prostitutes in the downtown areas and the merciless assassin in female disguise.

● Exhibiting Anime – Archive, Public Display, and the Re-narration of Media History

9inter­mediary archival materials is a timely andas the issues of territoriality, issues of identity,

valuable effort. First of all, it is organized by anas well as the symbolic power of the processacademic institution, that comes with differentof exhibiting cinema in a museum or a gallery

priorities and agendas compared to a business orcontext.

private archive. Secondly, the studying of such

The copyright concern was flagged as an issue

materials provides an opportunity to discoverwhile preparing for the exhibition, especiallyhidden voices and the production processes thatin terms of associating a name to a specifichave not yet been well researched. The ACASIN

drawing. After much negotiation, the names ofallows for the study of the formal characteristics

the animators were accepted to be mentionedof the medium and its cultures, instead ofcollectively in the introduction text. This episodebeing predetermined by the commercial aims

reflected a certain uneasiness towards the in­of established companies and related businessfringement of copyrights of a still marketablemodel discourses. Far from just conserving the

product among the production company, dis­past, the research activates discussion by adding

tribution company and individual creators. It

new avenues of research to existing anime

also exposes the lack of knowledge of humanities

studies. The exhibition project was planned toresearchers regarding the problems of copyrightemphasize this potential while taking advantages

and fair use for academic and research purposes.

of working closely with creators and personnel

These concerns also confirmed an entwinedfrom the industry. Due to space constraints, thecollaboration process inherited from the very

following section will address only one of thenature of the animation-making that makes

concerns that arose from curating “A World is

it difficult to pinpoint a definite author. In theBorn” exhibition.

process of scanning and cataloguing, it is not
an issue to identify a drawing showing stronger

Inherited Media-Ties and Authenticity

visual traits and essences of a specific individual
animator. However, the challenge is that there

Some recent research focuses on theoreticalis no guarantee that another animator had not

perspectives and exhibition strategies related toalso worked on it. As Ishida and Kim (2018)

film images. Among them, the essays found inalso mentioned, the meaning of a signature or a

Preserving and Exhibiting Media Art: Challenges

hanko (a stamp) 判子 found on a drawing works

and Perspectives have especially provided a

differently in the animation production process.

meaningful overview and discussion, based

A signature does not necessarily mean it was put

primarily on case studies in European contexts.

down by the creator. However, it most often serves

Despite being in a different region of the world,

asa mark of approval that indicates a drawing has

the planning of “A World is Born” exhibition alsogone through a particular production stage andencountered what Dubois (2013: 311-314) observed

someone had vetted it. This discovery led to a10happy ending and legitimised the lack of names

Referenceson the display panels in this exhibition context.

Dubois, Philippe (2013) A “cinematic effect” in contemporary

The issues of territories, identity and symbolic
power are proven to be institutional problems
and can be renegotiated and resolved. However,it still posts an outstanding question aboutattaining a balance and transparency in academic
research while maintaining a functional working
relationship with industry people.

art. In: Noordegraaf, Julia, Saba, Cosetta G., Le Maîre,Barbara, and Hediger, Vinzenz (eds) Preserving and Ex­
hibiting Media Art– Challenges and Perspectives. Am­
sterdam University Press & EYE Film Institute Nether­lands, 311-324.
Eisenstein, Sergei and Leyda,Jay (1986) Eisenstein on Disney.
Translated by Alan Upchurch, Calcutta, London and
New York: Seagull Books.
Ishida, Minori and Kim, Joon Yang (2018) Crux of archiving

We believe this exhibition has done a goodintermediate materials of anime. Paper presented at

job to reaffirm a parade of colourful authorships

the symposium Archiving Popular Culture. 18 March.

found in the early stage of animation-making.

LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore.

We also acknowledge the excitement generated as
different styles, amalgamated and reincarnatedas they evolved through different stages of theJohnston, Andrew R. (2014) Signatures of motion: Len Lye’s
scratch films and the energy of the line. In: Beckman,
Karen (ed.) Animating Film Theory. Durham andLondon: Duke University Press, 167-180.

production process. There are organic elements

Kim, Jihoon (2017) Stanley Kubrick in the museum: post-in that process that oppose the xeroxing tendency

Cinematic conditions, limitations, and possibilities.

that generates the same outcome every time.
The nuances of the final product were shown toCurator: The Museum Journal 60(4): 467-87.
Movic (1987) Ōritsu Uchūgun Seisaku Kirokusyū (The Pro­
duction Records of Royal Space Force). Tokyo: Movic.

differ when they are in the hands of each set of
creators. This exhibition considered the exhibits
from a cultural studies perspective, where theobjects owe part of their identity to the media
reproduction and dissemination. The significanceof anime drawings and their popularity is notabout its collector values or being the originalpiece. The meanings and values are generated
through interpretations (even in meme) and thesense of authenticity is about the act of sharing
and the feeling of attachment among the viewers.

Dr. Gan Sheuo Hui is Lecturer at Puttnam School of Film and Animation, LASALLE College of the Arts. Her researchinterests include Japanese film, manga and anime, and popular culture and its visual representation.

● Exhibiting Anime – Archive, Public Display, and the Re-narration of Media History

11

Utilizing the Intermediate Materials of Anime:
Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise
Minori Ishida

What is the value of archiving the inter­

Japan and abroad. In short, the film marked amediate materials of anime? I shall explore thiswatershed moment, alongside theatrical features

question with reference to exhibitions of thelike Miyazaki Hayao’s Nausicaä of the Valley ofintermediate materials of Yamaga Hiroyuki’s

the Wind (1984), Otomo Katsuhiro’s Akira (1988),

Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, aand Isao Takahata’s Grave of the Fireflies (1988),

theatrical feature produced by Gainax.

as well as animated television series such as Super
Dimension Fortress Macross (1982-83).
Compared with the standards of TV ani­

The Significance of Royal Space Force: The
Wings of Honnêamise (1987) within Anime
History

the tightest of schedules and budgets—or even

I would like to begin by outlining a summary

those of theatrical works, which have moreof the film Royal Space Force: The Wings oflatitude—the production process for Royal SpaceHonnêamise (henceforth Royal Space Force).

Force was extraordinary. We know this in partSet in the kingdom of Honnêamise, which isfrom the amount of intermediate materials thatsituated in an alternate world, it relates in great

remain. Around 2,500 such materials—chiefly

detail the cares and dreams of Shirotsugh, an

director’s notes, scripts, various sketches, andordinary young man who is chosen to become anstoryboards—have been digitally scanned at theastronaut. The film excels in every respect—its

Archive Center for Anime Studies in Niigata

plotting, visuals, artistry, creation of a world; theUniversity (henceforth ACASiN).

mation, produced for weekly broadcasts onfact that it was produced by twentysomethings

As of December 2018, digital replicas oflike Yamaga (the director) demonstrates that,these intermediate materials have been shown inby the late 1980s, anime in Japan was no longer

three exhibitions: Royal Space Force: The Wings

just kids’ entertainment, but also a part of youthof Honnêamise—Image Boards (April 15-16, 2017;

culture. And so Royal Space Force is an important

Niigata City), A World is Born: Emerging Arts

work, when we consider how anime came to

and Designs in 1980s Japanese Animation (Marchprominence into the 1990s and 2000s, both in

19-31, 2018; Singapore), and Royal Space Force: The

12

Wings of Honnêamise—A Creative Path to the SFof the production. Anime cannot be produced

Animation Film (September 14-November 11, 2018;with just a single original storyboard. Yet while

Hachioji Yume Art Museum, Tokyo).

the storyboards handed to crew are copies, theadditional hand-written directions and other

Characteristics of Intermediate
Materials in Anime

notes differ between the assistant’s copy, thedirector’s, and the photography department’s—

This series of exhibitions on the intermediate

and therefore, ultimately, each copy becomes amaterials of Royal Space Force displayed theunique original. Thus intermediate materials in

replicas in an active way. In the exhibition spaces

anime possess a dual state, being at once copies

that are galleries, where the concept of art isand originals.

the guiding principle, exhibits are assumed to
be unique originals, and replicas occupy an
extremely negative place. In such cases, replicas

Exhibiting Intermediate Materials

are no more than copies of the original. However,

The Royal Space Force exhibitions set out thethrough the scanning and handling of vast

characteristics of intermediate materials, whichamounts of anime-related intermediate materials,

cannot be understood in terms of a dichotomy

it became clear that, with these materials, the very

between originals and copies, and the conditions

concept of originals and copies does not apply.

in which they are used in anime production.

As anime production is a collaborative endeavour

Drawing on all this, the exhibitions harnessed

involving a lot of crew, intermediate materials are

the curatorial freedoms afforded by replicas

copied and shared among them. At each stage ofin order to convey the process through which

the production, revisions are made to the picturesintermediate materials are created, as well as theirand directions on these copies, other materials are

purpose. The aim of these shows was to exhibit

stuck on, and they are even reused at other stages.

the very environment in which such materials

If we consider the whole production environment

were prepared and used.

in which these intermediate materials are used,

My discussion will focus henceforth on thethere is no essential difference between thefirst exhibition, Royal Space Force: The Wings oforiginal drawings and their copies. Meanwhile,Honnêamise—Image Boards (April 15-16, 2017).

even copies are often thought of as unique objects

In contrast to exhibitions that present pictures

too, because of differences in the revisions madein individual frames as if they are works of fineby the crew who use them.

art, this one grouped the replica sketches by

Take storyboards, for instance. One of thecategory—machines, buildings, miscellaneous

production assistants’ important jobs is to takeobjects, script—and displayed them together

the finished storyboard, make a large number of(Figure 1 & 2, next page). Its intention was closely tiedcopies, and deliver them to crew at every stage

to sketches that Gainax calls “image boards.”● Utilizing the Intermediate Materials of Anime: Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise13

In the exhibition, Gainax described image
boards as follows.
Image boards are not what we call “com­pleted pictures,” but “manifestations” ofimages drawn according to the director’s
instructions, with the aim of creating andbuilding new, as-yet-unknown worlds. This is
the first step toward creating the work’s
universe. (Excerpt from a caption featured in
the exhibition Royal Space Force: The Wings ofHonnêamise—Image Boards 2017)
The image boards are collections of materials
needed to create the foundations on which RoyalSpace Force is based. But this does not meanthat image boards are prepared for all anime
productions, and even when they are, they are
Figure 1 A panel is covered by a cluster of sketches

almost always limited in number (Production
I.G Archive Group 2017: 15-16). On the other hand,the production of Royal Space Force was shot
through with a desire to make the alternate
world that the characters inhabit as detailed as
our own, and all the elements that make up thatnarrative universe—clothing and accessories,
communications equipment like phones andradios, everyday articles such as tableware andwriting tools, and even letters and coats ofarms—are drawn in great numbers.
Figure 2 A visitor is taking a picture of the exhibits
by his smartphone

The Fruits of the Crew’s Collaborative
Endeavour
Of course, these image boards were not drawn
by a single person. Rather every crewmember
was involved in designing characters, directing

14

animation, and drawing aircrafts and rockets

that, with image boards, the question of

without any hierarchy. But even when roles are towhether they work as standalone pictures

some extent delineated like this, multiple people

isn’t important. (Saito 2017)

still draw the same thing, and so the feel of one
character can vary depending on the artist.

If image boards are displayed in individual

Yamaga, the director, has this to say about image

frames like conventional pictures, we lose sightboards.

of their role in exploring, through collaborative
work, the film’s world and sense of direction.

Image boards are part of the brainstorming

Instead, the exhibition’s approach focuses onphase, when people are drawing without

conveying the creativity of the collaborative

inhibition. That’s why there are a lot of them.

effort triggered by the image boards; it presents

They aren’t all usable. Because you won’t get

a new answer to the question of how to utilize

anywhere unless you really go for it, knowingintermediate materials, which are crucial to thethat none of them might be used at all.

completion of a film, yet all but ignored after it(Yamaga 2017)has been completed.

For Yamaga, who believes that a director’s

How Intermediate Materials Reveal theDiversity of Anime Production

job is “to connect subjectively with the crew”(Yamaga 2017),

directions are explored, details

This curatorial approach raises questions

filled in, through the very act of getting the crew

about the use of intermediate materials, whichto draw a large number of image boards. It is in

until now have only been made public when seen

this sense that image boards are not completed

to have market value. For example, Studio Ghibli

pictures. Gainax’s Saito Tomoko, who organized

has released Hayao Miyazaki’s storyboards inthis exhibition, had the following to say aboutbooks and exhibitions. Yamaga fears that Ghibli’s

the importance of displaying materials that are

production style, which centres on Miyazaki’s

not completed pictures.

storyboards, could become the norm, and thus
contribute to the narrowing of possibilities forIn this exhibition, we wanted to use the roughanime production.

image boards to show the line, or rather theflow, through which the images emerge; andIt’s necessary to tell young people, to let themso we were keen to try a brand new approach,know, that there are all kinds of ways to makeand display dense works alongside less dense

anime. Displaying intermediate materials

ones. That’s why we put them up unframed,makes this clear. The fascinating thingwhich may go down better with some people

about anime in the 1980s and 1990s was thethan others. Because we wanted to convey

diversity. That goes for both the works and● Utilizing the Intermediate Materials of Anime: Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise

15the ways they were made—and all kinds

could never learn anything by looking atof people were involved, too. Things havethem. (Yamaga 2017)

gradually become more homogenous sincethen, and it looks like none of that will be

Many anime studios are interested inleft once our generation, now in our fifties, ispreserving and utilizing intermediate materials

gone. Displaying intermediate materials, andthrough archives; naturally, they are particularly

thereby conveying that diversity, will also

keen on the trend for monetizing the rediscovery

help save anime from extinction. (Yamaga 2017)of materials. However, as I have argued, showing
these materials to younger generations not onlyThis exhibition also featured Yamaga’s notes,

helps to preserve anime culture—it may also

which had never been seen in public before.

open up new avenues of anime production in

The notes that were shown came in all forms

the future. This is the reason why universities,

and covered every stage in the creation of Royalas institutes of education and research, should

Space Force, ranging from jottings on a flier frombe involved with archiving the intermediatea store in Kansai (made in his Osaka days) tomaterials of anime.

a draft script. Moreover, cameras were allowed
everywhere inside the venue. When writing thesenotes, Yamaga surely could not have imaginedthat they would be exhibited 30 years later. This

References

is what he has to say about that.

Production I.G Archive Group (2017) Animeishon Akaibu No
Kino To Jissen: I.G Akaibu Ni Okeru Animeishon Seisaku

I think the intermediate materials worth
showing to people are those that haven’t beentarted up for public display, as if to explain

Shiryo No Hozon To Seiri (The Function and Practice ofAnimation Archives: Preserving and Classifying Animation
Production Materials in the I.G Archive). Edition β.
Tokyo: Production I.G, Inc.

how things are. Those kinds of things are of

Saito, Tomoko (2017) Interview. April 17, 2017.

no use at the site of production—outsiders

Yamaga, Hiroyuki (2017) Interview. April 17, 2017.

Dr. Ishida Minori is Associate Professor at Niigata University and Co-director of the Archive Center for Anime Studies in
Niigata University. Her research field is visual and audio cultures focusing on voice and gender in anime.

16

The Film through the Archive and the Archive through the Film:
History, Technology and Progress inRoyal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise
Dario Lolli

The international collaboration between

past. In other words, the exhibition created the

LASALLE College of the Arts and Niigata

conditions that prompted to ask what exactly

University (ACASiN) for the exhibition “A World

means to read the film through the archive andis Born: Emerging Arts and Designs in 1980s

the archive through the film. This is what I would

Japanese Animation” has been an extraordinary

like to explore further in this contribution.

achievement. Through an academic conversation

The reason why I am intrigued by thison the themes of animation production, pre­productive tension is that in the film, as well as inservation and archiving, the exhibition proposed

any archive, the themes of history, memory andto its audience a rare exercise in reading a

progress are ever interdependent, always alreadyrather understudied animated film—Royal Space

enmeshed in the problem of our technological

Force: The Wings of Honnêamise (Yamaga Hiroyuki

condition. For Derrida, for example,

1987) —through a collection of its preparatory

and intermediary materials. As Dr Gan (2018)the archive, as printing, writing, prosthesis,

highlighted in her Introduction to the exhibition,or hypomnesic technique in general is not

the imaginary world of this science fiction film

only the place for stocking and for conserving

had to be tentatively scripted and designed by aan archivable content of the past which would

visionary cast of creators well before it could haveexist in any case, such as, without the archive,

ever been animated, slowly coming into being

one still believes it was or will have been.

through the distributed and collaborative work ofNo, the technical structure of the archiving

visual storytelling. “A World is Born,” therefore,archive also determines the structure of theis a very apt title as it simultaneously underlines

archivable content even in its very coming

a double productivity: on the one hand, theinto existence and in its relationship to thematerial creation of the animation process; on the

future. The archivization produces as muchother, the immaterial productivity of the archive

as it records the event. (1995: 17)

itself as an enabler of novel connections, ways ofseeing and understandings of the film’s cultural

The physical, technical and organisational● The Film through the Archive and the Archive through the Film: History, Technology and Progress in Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise

17

structure of the archive produces the conditions

vast social inequalities within their sovereignby which future past-histories can be identified

territories. The story follows the adventure of thefrom old records and finally brought into

apathetic soldier Shirotsugh Lhadatt as a young

existence. An archive, like the knowledge it stores,

member of the obscure and almost forgotten

is therefore always productive. It is productive ofRoyal Space Force, a downsized space programa history that is constantly refashioned throughwith a bad reputation for its constant failures andspeculative practices responding to the technicalredundant costs—an apt allegory of animationand material conditions that organise the records

production, as I will explain in a moment.

involved.

Shirotsugh changes attitude, however, after

Similarly, the film Royal Space Force revolves

meeting Riquinni Nonderaiko, a religious girlaround the possibility of making history, of

seeing a higher spiritual meaning in his mission

telling a different history, from the generative

as an astronaut. Inspired by her trust, Shirotsugh

constraints of a socio-technical condition. The

becomes increasingly determined to redeem

film is set in a parallel world very similar to ours,

himself and the Royal Space Force by successfully

threatened by the imminent risk of armed conflictcompleting an ambitious task: becoming the first

between rival countries that are also plagued by

man in space in spite of a war raging all around.

[To view this image, refer tothe print version of this volume.]

Figure 1 The sophisticated war machines Ⓒ BANDAI VISUAL/GAINAX＊ This figure is modified in the purport of the ACASiN18

As it is known, the film itself was the first

themes of the film, it is also true how its line ofproduction by Studio Gainax, an independent

progress constantly bifurcates and diversifies,

team of amateur designers and animators that

presenting us an uncanny world of technologicalover the following decades emerged as one of thedevelopment. Like ours, for example, the parallel

most important forces in Japanese animation. In

civilisation of Royal Space Force has developed

this sense, therefore, the redemptive journey ofdeadly weapons of mass destructions (Figure 1);

the Royal Space Force, therefore, could be taken

yet, it has never succeeded in sending a missile

as an allegorical portrait of the animation studioin orbit. This uncanny technological temporality

itself, as its young team had to rely on an equallyis very well represented by the intermediaryintensive hard work, commitment and passion

materials utilised in the construction of the film’s

in order to produce an entire fictional world by

fictional world.

means of creative design.

As the designs and concepts of the ex­

This apparently linear narrative of tech­hibition show, a linear notion of progress isnological advancement and self-improvement,

constantly unsettled as futuristic technologies

however, should not be taken at face value. If it istend constantly to fold back into images oftrue that its drive represents one of the underlying

our own technological past (Figure 2-a, b). State[To view this image, refer tothe print version of this volume.]

Figure 2-a (this page), 2-b (next page) Advanced machines of mass destruction (Figure 1) coexist with diesel engines used for ordinarytransport systems (2-a), while futuristic aerodynamics is applied to trains propelled by steam power (2-b)
Ⓒ BANDAI VISUAL/GAINAX● The Film through the Archive and the Archive through the Film: History, Technology and Progress in Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise

19[To view this image, refer tothe print version of this volume.]

Figure 2-bⒸ BANDAI VISUAL/GAINAXof the art aerodynamics is applied to trains

cynically wonders,propelled by steam power (ACASiN 2018: 16-17),
while advanced fighter jets and other machines

Civilization did not create war. War createdof mass destruction coexist with diesel engines

civilization … The human race broke freeused for ordinary transport systems(20-21).

of the hell of primitive times and marched

Urban infrastructures of pipes and cables arethrough 100,000 years to reach this point.

everywhere to be seen, but rather than problem-

And what of the present? Have we reallysolving ‘smart cities’ they modestly characterise

advanced at all?

poor marketplaces mixing Asian, European andMesoamerican cultural elements (2-5).

In other words, a ‘macrostructural outside’

Most importantly, however, in this world

like history or progress does not seem to provide

progress seems to have lost any sense. Poor people

any viable alternative to the film’s techno-

are left behind by their greedy governments, andcultural condition, even though its narrative

Riquinni herself is abruptly evicted and maderevolves around God and religion as guiding

homeless for the need of building a lucrative

lights for the present and future generation.

power plant. Instead of fulfilling the ideal of

Rather than a definitive solution, however, in thehuman advancement and equality, progress seems

film religion can be only articulated as a tension

only to have generated war and exploitation. As

within the psychological life of the characters,

General Khaidenn of the Royal Space Forcea message of hope yet unable to fully redeem.

20

By portraying a world in which ‘modernity has

is listening to me […] Give some thanks forbecome undeniable and irrevocable and thus

mankind’s arrival here.

indefensible, irredeemable’ (Lamarre 2009: 168),
Royal Space Force seems to claim that we cannot

It is very tempting to read this situation inescape our technological condition by simply

relation to our present techno-cultural crisis asconverting war technologies into space missiles.

described by Bruno Latour (2018) in his latest

When, finally in orbit, Shirotsugh looks at thebook, whereby an ecological threat of planetarywide world from space, he is perfectly aware thatscale like global warming is not so much pro­his extraordinary achievement will not be enoughducing new common policies as fuelling huge

to clear away exploitation and war. Indeed, theinvestments in space travels on the parts of aimages of his space journey are superimposed overhandful of super-rich (Richard Branson, Elona kaleidoscopic sequence of personal memories

Musk, Jeff Besos), who are literally buying intoand historical events, in which scientifictheir private emergency exit to Mars. As Shiro­

discoveries and technological advancements

tsugh admits, the space program of the Royal

seem to be simultaneously entangled in a twist ofSpace Force might be well hunted by this very

civilisation and war, wellbeing and misery, order

possibility, of becoming yet another instrument

and chaos.

for pollution and conquest. Yet, the launch of the

If progress and religion do not have thefirst man in space by an unlikely collective of odd

power to save us, we can at least search for novel

scientists and young soldiers is also an impulse

forms of organisation to imbue progress withto re-write history, to open it up once again to a

new meanings and design alternative politics fordifferent line of progress (Figure 3-a, b, next page).

a different future. This is Shirotsugh’s ultimate

Is this a possible hint at how to look at

plea in his radio broadcast from space at the end

archives, including animation archives such asof the film:

the ACASiN? Similarly to the dystopic worldof Royal Space Force, archives in themselves are

The human race has just taken its first step

not guarantees of a better or more progressive

into the world of the stars. Like the oceans

history, even though the collection and preser­

and the mountains before, space too was

vation of past documents is an essential element

once just God’s domain. As it becomes afor historiographical enquiry. For a long time,familiar place for us, it’ll probably end up as

centrally managed archives have been used tobad as everywhere else we’ve meddled. We’ve

rule and govern through information on people,

spoiled the land, we’ve fouled the air. Yet we

customs and territories. European colonialism,

will still seek new places to live and so now

for example, heavily relied on archives andwe journey out to space. How far we will be

modern disciplines—such as demographics,

allowed to push our limit? Please… whoeveri­cine, criminology and orientalism—as
med­● The Film through the Archive and the Archive through the Film: History, Technology and Progress in Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise

21

instruments through which populations could

ACASiN has just set to undertake throughbe ‘identified and individuated through their

its collaboration with Gainax and LASALLE

records or files’ (Featherstone 2006: 592). Yet, archives

College of the Arts. Seen through the lenses ofalso represent the sites for the construction andits exhibition, for instance, the fictional world ofpreservation of cultural memories, instruments

Royal Space Force is brought to life all and overthat contribute—along with libraries, museums,

again as its intermediary materials are saved

publicarchitectures—tofrom obsole­scence and become new matter ofthe formation of national and post-national

study for fans and researchers. This collection of‘imagined communities’ (Anderson 1991). As thesketches, cells and notes is important because itavailability of digital technologies has turned

encourages us to depart from what we alreadythe impulse to archive into a daily and collective

know about hand-drawn animation or a famous

practice no longer in the sole control of pro­studio like Gainax, folding the future back in its

fessional archivists, the responsibility of what topast as in a speculative work of science fiction.

select, collect and classify has become over the

What to make, for example, of the unexpected

past years increasingly de-centred and horizontal.

character design by one of the crewmembers as

This multiplication and availability of digital

it emerges from these records? Can the rounded

data, however, does not mean that ever accessible

figures and pensive expressions of his or her oldmonuments

andrecords of information can be taken for granted
or as confirmations of a past already known. As
in Royal Space Force technology does not savehumanity but shows at least how to conceive
and act for an alternative future, so our idea of
the archive should be rather reconceived as an
open-ended project where counter or alternative
histories can be identified once some meaningful
objects and records are selected, preserved andstudied. At a time in which Japanese animation
has become truly transnational and transmedial,[To view this image, refer tothe print version of this volume.]

for instance, we are increasingly realising how
little of hand-drawn animation production andits intermediary materials we actually know andhave access to.
Like the Royal Space Force in the film,
opening up history to different lines of deve­
lopment is the challenging task that the22

Figure 3-a, b A sketch of the rocket and the launching pad(3-a); an image of the rocket thrusters (3-b: right page)Ⓒ BANDAI VISUAL/GAINAX

drafts emerge as a counterpoint to the sharp

life of possible ‘worlds’ is a task shared by bothand spindly characters Gainax came to be often

science fiction and historical practice—as wellassociated with in later years? As the essays inas hard science, for that matter (Eco 1985; Shaviro

this volume confirm, interdisciplinary questions2015). In the film, sending a missile in orbit does

and original connections amongst objects, styles,

not simply follow a univocal line of progress,

and techniques can only emerge once a set ofbut strives to give progress a different meaningmaterials like these is brought together, preserved

altogether. Likewise, an archive of hand-drawn

and analysed. Casual notes and fragments

animation does not resolve the problem of the

become invaluable documents to reconstructmaterial obsolescence of its objects or their

the specific processes, conditions and rationale

increasing subsumption into digital designof creative production, while sketches andpractices, but make a case to look at these very

intermediary designs provide insights on howpractices from a different perspective, from what

animated movement could have been imagined

we can learn from their technological past andand enacted by a young team of creators in theinherited aesthetic tendencies (Parikka 2012). Both

mid-1980s.

the film and its archive of intermediary materials,

The invaluable merit of the LASALLE

therefore, ask questions about history, memory

exhibition is to highlight how the coming toand progress. In different ways, they suggest[To view this image, refer tothe print version of this volume.]

Figure 3-bⒸ BANDAI VISUAL/GAINAX● The Film through the Archive and the Archive through the Film: History, Technology and Progress in Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise

23that their open-ended development is neverReferences

given, but can only emerge from the productive

ACASiN (2018) A World is Born: Emerging Arts and Designs in

tension between a technological condition and1980s Japanese Animation. Niigata: Niigata University.

collaborative practices of invention. To look

Anderson, B. (1991) Imagined Communities: Reflections on theOrigin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.

at anime’s past anew to better understand its

Derrida, J. (1995) Archive fever: A Freudian impression.

possible future is the task that the ACASiN andTranslated by Eric Prenowitz. Diacritics, 25(2): 9-63.

the LASALLE exhibition invite us to pursue in

Eco, U. (1985) Sugli specchi e altri saggi: Il segno, la

the years to come.

rappresentazione, l’ illusione (On mirrors and other essays:
the sign, the representation and the illusion). Torino:
Bompiani, 173-179.
Featherstone, M. (2006) Archive. Theory Culture & Society:
Special Issue Problematizing Global knowledge–
Library/Archive/Museum, 23(2-3), 591-596.
Gan, S.H. (2018) Introduction to the exhibition. In: ACASiN(ed.) A World is Born: Emerging Arts and Designs in 1980s
Japanese Animation. Niigata: Niigata University, 33.
Lamarre, T. (2009) The Anime Machine: A Media Theory of
Animation. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press.
Latour, B. (2018) Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic
Regime. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Parikka, J. (2012) What is Media Archaeology. Cambridge:
Polity Press.
Shaviro, S. (2015) Arsenic dreams. In: e-Flux: Supercommunity.
London: Verso, 31-35.

Dario Lolli (PhD, Loughborough University; Department of Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies) researches
at the intersection of media and communication, social theory and Japanese cultural studies. His publications appeared on
Convergence, Theory Culture & Society and The Routledge Encyclopedia of Citizen Media. Dario is a member of the ACASiN
since 2017.

24

Interview with Yamaga Hiroyuki,
Director of Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise (1)Anime: Discovery and Distancesecond episode, but I didn’t know how he knew
the new series deserved to watch the first episodeI discovered anime when in college I met

beforehand. At the time I didn’t understand the

Hideaki Anno, who directed Neon Genesis

sense in which the activity of watching anime

Evangelion (1995-1996). He suddenly came into

builds on some kind of context.

my room and started messing with my TV, saying

I really didn’t watch anime until discoveringsomething like, “Does your TV work?” I asked,

Ideon. I was asked about my favourite anime at“What do you want to watch?” and he replied,an edition of the convention, held in Germany,“They’re airing Episode One of Space Runaway

which I have participated in for many years.

Ideon (1980-1981),” and kept at it. Basically, each

Since it wouldn’t have been fun if I said I didn’t

room had a different level of receiver sensitivity

have one, I said, “If I have to choose one, I

because we had indoor antennas. Since my room

liked watching Road to Munich (1972, Nippon

was on the second floor with the antenna attached

TV Video) as a kid,” which I thought would get

onto a slightly higher spot, we tried things out but

a good response from Germans. The animatedcould only catch the sound. It was like the screen

documentary followed Japanese men’s volleyball

was all fuzzy like a sandstorm and the soundteam winning the gold medal during thewas the only thing coming out. When I asked,

Olympic Games in Munich. Even though it was“How do you know that the first episode of Ideon

an anime, it covered the men’s volleyball teamairs today?” Anno said, “Yeah, it’s Mr. Tomino’s

going to the Olympic Games in Munich in real

new series.” I wondered why this person knew

time. Such a miracle was that the TV series wentthat this was important, even though it was the

so far as to show them winning the gold medal atfirst episode of a new series. I understand once

the real Olympics. That was one of my favourites.

someone watched the first episode of a new series,

Another one I liked is Animetanry: Ketsudan

he or she thinks it’s good, then watching the(1971, Tatsunoko Production), which was about the(1) This interview was had on September 11, 2018.

● Interview with Yamaga Hiroyuki, Director of Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise25

marines during the Pacific War. This is also adraw anime,” and didn’t take it seriously, but

documentary. Those two are my favourite anime.

listening to this conversation, I thought, Wait a

As a kid, I didn’t like things made for children so

minute, this might be a good deal.

I always preferred those documentary-style ones.

We got the production budget from the sci-fi

I didn’t watch so many live-action films,

event. It was all manual work. We were doing it,either, but I did watch a lot of disaster films in

unpaid, so we only needed to cover the material

middle school. I liked Tidal Wave (1973, Nihoncost. Because we didn’t even know what cel was,

Chimbotsu) and The Towering Inferno (1974).

we bought thin plastic sheets from an industrial

Disaster films are good for me because there is nocomplex, cutting and perforating them ourselves

drama. People bring up The Poseidon Adventure

to use. None the less we earned a reputation.

(1972) when they think of the genre, but as an

We were invited to meet people from the anime

established actor, Gene Hackman plays the rolecompany Studio Nue, which was a high-flying

of a pastor, and it contains sort of drama wherecompany at the time, tremendously well-known

he has a conversation with god or something likefor sci-fi visuals. In a room of the company, we

that, so it doesn’t work for disaster film fans. Even

met Noboru Ishiguro, who is a regular guest

as a child, I didn’t like such a kind of made-up

for the sci-fi competition. Mr. Ishiguro is, in astories. I liked watching the ones with no drama,

substantial sense, the director of Space Battleshipwhere people just keep having an awful time.

Yamato (1974-75), and also the director of Super
Dimension Fortress Macross. We were told by Mr.

Path to Anime Production: From Daicon to
Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982- 1983)

Ishiguro and the Nue people to come to Tokyo

In the spring of 1982, a guy with whom Annocautious, saying that there was no way we could

made friends when they lived in Yamaguchi

make a living in Tokyo right now. I think theyPrefecture visited my apartment and said, “I’mwanted Anno and Akai to come, but I raised mygoing to do a sci-fi event in Osaka. The event,hand right away and said, “I go to Tokyo.” Seeing

taking the kanji character for ‘dai’ (read as ‘o’ or

the least unexpected guy raising his hand, they‘dai’) from Osaka, and ‘con’ from convention,must have thought, What can you do?

right away, but Anno and Akai were totallyto be named Daicon.” And he said he wanted
to use anime for the opening. He was the typeof guy that makes hasty commitments, and “I

Royal Space Force and Sci-Fi

have a friend, from when I lived in Yamaguchi

At the time, people gathering for the sci-fi

Prefecture. He could draw anime.” So I think I

competition were basically at the centre ofsaid, “let’s get him to do it.” And then he told

Japan’s sci-fi world, so their sensibilities wereAnno to do it. At the time as Anno wasn’t really

really influential. So after Daicon IV ended, they

ambitious, he said, “Well, it’s not that easy tostarted getting jobs, and I wasn’t sure what to do.

26

of what to do next, I present my ideas to him asa client (Figure 1).

[To view this image, refer tothe print version of this volume.]

On Riquinni, the heroine ofRoyal Space ForceRegarding Riquinni’s character, first, it wasdue to my ignorance and naivety. I just didn’t
understand it well. In fact, I didn’t notice at

Figure 1 Letters invented for Royal Space ForceⒸ BANDAI VISUAL/GAINAX

all that films are basically a locus of romance,
where romantic feelings just occur automatically.

We started talking about launching an anime

In short, the main female characters in a sense

company and I met up with Toshio Okada whoare supposed to be ideal women. I didn’t know

like me, was having time on his hands. We met up

what it means. I was not aware of what is an ideal

at a cafe in Momodani, Osaka in the afternoon

woman. The reason that I relied on something

and started talking about what we could sell in

like Jung’s anima was because I didn’t understandTokyo, and Mr. Okada’s only condition was thatthe position of female characters.

it should be about sci-fi. His condition was that

I knew I had to depict young girls in the film.

he would be involved in sci-fi, but would not

But as I just said, I didn’t really understand thewithout it. So he wouldn’t have been on board atconcept of a heroine. I was not aware that films

all if we had done something literary, like Kenji

are expected to be more typical. What I see now

Miyazawa or something. I accepted and said

is surprisingly the character Riquinni is nothingokay. That was his order, or the only condition

but me. At any rate, Shirotsugh is not me. If

we had to keep. But I wasn’t a sci-fi person, so

you ask me where I would position myself in

I kept brainstorming, asking myself, Does thisthe film, I would identify myself as Riquinni incount as sci-fi? If it includes the universe, is it sci-fi?

many aspects, in terms of the way I think. I was

And I kept presenting ideas to Mr. Okada. I

probably someone weird religious, ever since myneeded to get my own ideas of sci-fi, and trying

childhood (Figure 2, next page).

out different ideas, I kept talking to him about
what I thought might work.
We started a company thanks to him putting

Space and Old Men: The Flow of Timein 6 million yen, which was a good amount

When you look into the history of spaceof money for a student at the time. Ever sincedevelopment, in reality, first there were space

Daicon III, his position has always been a client.

travel associations, before World War II. TheyI presented my ideas for Daicon III and IV toappeared around the world, in Britain, and in

Mr. Okada in the same way. When I’m thinking

Germany. But if you look into what they were

● Interview with Yamaga Hiroyuki, Director of Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise27

[To view this image, refer tothe print version of this volume.]

Figure 2 Main Characters in Royal Space ForceⒸ BANDAI VISUAL/GAINAX

doing, they didn’t do anything. This might

I mean, it wasn’t until the 1960s that humanseem obvious, and fundamentally, they couldn’t

beings actually could travel to the space. In

make a rocket. And within that context, when

the sense, 50 years passed since then. In other

Goddard made a rocket and flew it a little, thewords, depicting the old men (as the characterswhole world talked about it: Now we can travel toof scientists or engineers) in Royal Space Forcespace. Those space travel associations, put simply,

wasn’t so much based on some kind of intention

were just for geeks to fuss around. If they had

as a natural outcome in the story. I thought

persevered until a time when people can actuallyrealistically, Young guys, who were saying

go to space, they would have come to be nothing

dream-like things, will have now been old men.

but old grandpas. I thought, Nobody else, besides

ust think; the Apollo program was run by vonsuch old grandpas, would be engaging. Rather than

Braun (1912-1977) from Germany. Von Braun

showing that they are old men, I wanted to show

formed the basis of the Apollo program withhow those guys who thought of stupid stuff inpeople he gathered in Peenemünde for the V-2

their youth are still seeking it. It would makerocket. He even invited the former Nazi Walter

sense, because all the space travel associations

Dornberger (1895-1980), who was the officer re­started popping up around the 1910s, just rightsponsible for Peenemünde, to witness the Apolloaround the end of World War I. No doubt there

11 launch. People who dreamed of actual space

was nothing they could do.

programs in their youth turned them into reality,28

with the Nazis as sponsors, and eventually theUnited States as sponsors. They really did it
within the historical span of about 50 years, so I
drew such people as old men in Royal Space Force(Figure 3, Figure 4).

From the Production Notes:
Kishotenketsu and Diagrams[To view this image, refer tothe print version of this volume.]

Here is a diagram, which shows kisho­tenketsu（起承転結）–the four narrative stagesof introduction, development, twist, and con­clusion–whose parts I wasn’t entirely sure of at
the time. I was still an imperfect researcher ofkishotenketsu. Now I use this kind of chart so I
don’t sidetrack too much. My research of
kishotenketsu was at a transitional stage when I
was working on Royal Space Force. The way I

Figure 3 A sketch of Dr. Gnomm, an old space scientistⒸ BANDAI VISUAL/GAINAX[To view this image, refer tothe print version of this volume.]

Figure 4 The old men from the space travel association in Royal Space Force Ⓒ BANDAI VISUAL/GAINAX● Interview with Yamaga Hiroyuki, Director of Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise29

work is much more stable now because I’mcaught up with a system, you get free to do

writing using this kind of chart system.

anything concerning the rest. Every moment I

I’m not sure if stability makes it more

get free when I have delimited what to do withinteresting. To tell the truth, performance is arigour, rather than when I am unsure about

momentary issue, so the writer shouldn’t getthat. So I decided to determine the boundaries,

too caught up with something like boundaries.

even though I’m not sure they are correct. As I

What I mean is, paradoxically, once you areresearched into kishotenketsu, I studied what thestructure should be like. Whether or not thisapplies to all the stories is another issue. I reacheda point where I decided that kishotenketsu shouldhave this kind of structure, and as long as I’m[To view this image, refer tothe print version of this volume.][To view this image, refer tothe print version of this volume.]

Figure 5 Yamaga’s conceptual notes Ⓒ BANDAI VISUAL/GAINAX

writing on this basis I’m free to do whatever (Figure
5, Figure 6).

[To view this image, refer tothe print version of this volume.]

Figure 6 Yamaga’s conceptual note of the narrative structure ofRoyal Space Force Ⓒ BANDAI VISUAL/GAINAX

Yamaga Hiroyuki is a film director and also President of Gainax. He made his debut producing original animation works
when he was in college and at his age of 24, directed the animated feature film Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise
which has had great influence on many animation works in Japan. He is now creating and producing its sequel animatedfeature film Uru in Blue. He has also been involved in various fields such as live-action films, events and opera works.

30

What Do Archived Materials Tell Us about Anime?

Kim Joon Yang

Approaching Animation as Media
Even today, research methods that treat

tendency to focus the debate on the material
aspect of the media environment, which includes
animation.

animation as a set of moving image media canhardly be said to be well established—this ispartly to do with its multifaceted production

Archiving Intermediate Materials

techniques. As concerns traditional hand-drawn

In Japan, recent years have unquestionably

animation on celluloid, however, there is aseen a growing interest in archiving film in its

general awareness of how its production processmaterial form, as demonstrated by the designation

works, owing to a range of publications andof film prints as important cultural properties

making-of documentaries released by producers;which are a modern-day heritage. Regarding

further, research into the actual technique of cel

Japanese anime, the same initiative can be seen

animation is yielding a certain amount of in­in the activities of the National Film Archive ofsights. For instance, Kristin Thompson’s 1980

Japan, for example. Yet conditions are as toughessay “Implications of the Cel Animation Tech-as ever. The reason is that, in animation’s case,nique,” which shines a light on the pro­duction

a suitable approach is needed not just for themechanisms of cel animation and discusses its

materials on which the actual work is recorded,

ideological implications, still stands up today.

such as film prints and video reels, but also for the

Going beyond narrative analysis and auteur

vast quantity of intermediate materials prepared

theory, recent animation studies has been guided

for and used in the production process: screenby the rise of the concept of media archeology,

plays, model sheets, storyboards, key drawings,

shedding new light on the apparatus of theinbetweens, etc. In her essay “Toward a Future

moving image as a set of “objects” dating all theArchive of Japanese Animation,” which isway back to the 19th century. On the other hand,included in Archive Japan Manifesto (2014), Ueno

from the broader perspectives of production,

Junko writes that, since the 2000s, there has

distribution, and reception, there is also a striking

been a growing awareness in production sites that

● What Do Archived Materials Tell Us about Anime?

31

making intermediate materials the responsibility

the maintenance of cels (McCormick and Schillingof the producers alone is not practicable. As one2014).

person from the anime business puts it, “If wecarry on like this, Japanese anime as an industry,a culture, and above all a training and nurturing“Scanning” the Watanabe Collection
through Theoretical Lenses

resource will be lost to future generations,

Inaugurated in 2016, the Archive Center forwhether we like it or not. Once it’s gone, it’s gone

Anime Studies in Niigata University (ACASiN)

for good” (Ueno 2014: 181).

is home to the Watanabe Collection: all the

The intermediate materials provide crucial

intermediate materials collected and kept byevidence of anime’s production process, and

Watanabe Hideo, whose career in anime has

enable demonstrative research into the core of the

included stints as a director and key animator,

dynamics in which aesthetic meaning is created.

between the 1970s and the 1990s. I am a co-While some of these are released on the market

director of the Center, and while conducting

as storyboard books and the like, it is fair to saya basic survey of the Watanabe Collection, I

that we still have no formal point of contact

attempted an analysis of some of its materials

through which researchers can access anime’s

using methods developed in fields like animationarchived materials in a raw state. An example ofstudies. I shall present the overview of mywhat scientific research can produce when using

findings with a specific case below.

archived intermediate materials from animation

In approaching intermediate materials pre­is Walt Disney and Europe: European Influences onpared as part of animation’s production proc­

the Animated Feature Films of Walt Disney (1999),

ess, one of my main references was Donald

written by Robin Allan, who supposedly could

Crafton, who sees animation as a performance;

have access to the 65 million items housed in theanother was Harada Kenichi, who conducts

vast Disney Animation Research Library. As thesociological analyses and interpretations centred

title suggests, the author reveals the influence

on archives of ethnographic photographs andof European art on Disney’s animated films,

films. By linking the performanc—that is, thedrawing on iconological research and extensive

acting—of characters depicted in animation tointerviews with people involved in the films’

the performance of the animator who animates,

production. In collaboration with the Getty

Crafton (2013) highlights the existence and theConservation Institute (part of the J. Paul Gettyrole of the community of creators and viewers

Trust, which is famous for its art museum),that forms around the viewing experience. On

the Disney archives initiated a research project

the other hand, Harada (2013: 16-18) points out

in 2009, conducting chemical analyses of thethat film media systems are capable of creating

materials; they approached it from an engineering

a community on a global level, but that thestandpoint, looking at both the preservation andcreation of meaning therein happens within local

32

Force Five: Spaceketeers), by Toei Doga (nowToei Animation). As the title hints, this anime
is a television series which relocates the classicalChinese novel Journey to the West to outer space,adding a sci-fi twist.

What Moves Is Not What You See
on Screen
On the storyboard for Episode 39 of theanime series, “Beautiful Snow Forever,” all kindsof directions are written on the right-hand sideof each page; the following three directions,which are translated into English here, caught
my attention above all (Figure 2-a, b, c).
The above directions are all to do with the
Figure 1 A Storyboard for Episode 39 of Sci-Fi Journey to the WestStarzinger

structures.
If we connect these arguments, we cometo see the intermediate materials of anime as
documents that, while serving as the physicalbasis for the systems of meaning creation thatrun through the production sites’ organizational
structures, can thus also reveal what kind ofcommunication was involved in the actual
process of meaning creation. In fact, the various
materials of the Watanabe Collection, which
preserve countless handwritten instructions from

Figure 2-a S4/C34 Like the
top scene in Star Wars

Figure 2-b S5/C20 Just like when
you suddenly go full-throttle on a
speeding motorbike

the production crew, give a concrete glimpse not
only of the “system” of storyboards and design
sheets, but also of the “performance” of thecrew engaging in this system. The part of thiscollection that I shall focus on is the storyboard(Figure 1) of

the anime television series Sci-Fi

Journey to the West Starzinger (1978-79, a.k.a.

Figure 2-c S5/C39 Spins around here
(mimicking jets in aerial combat)● What Do Archived Materials Tell Us about Anime?

33

movement of spacecraft traveling through space.

Lamb and Watson (1979: 5-6) suggest, it is difficult

The direction for S4/C34 is intended for theto capture in writing the shifting movements

scene in which the Queen Cosmos, the largeof a body; the fact that someone envisioned aspaceship carrying the show’s heroes, enters

spacecraft’s movements in two dimensions—from the top of the frame and travels into thesomething that does not exist in reality—thenbackground; what is fascinating is how it refers

deployed the phrase “the top scene in Star Wars”

specifically to the film Star Wars. Sci-Fi Journeyin order to share his or her vision with the crewto the West Starzinger was aired from 1978 toattests to the multiplicity of the language of

1979, between Star Wars: Episode IV (1977;

moving image media.

released in Japan in mid-1978) and Star Wars:

The same can be seen in the directions for S5/

Episode V (1980), and so the aforementioned

C20 and S5/C39. What goes for “the top scene

direction for S4/C34 is thought to indicate thein Star Wars” is also true of the movement “whenopening scene in the first film, Star Wars: Episodeyou suddenly go full-throttle on a speeding

IV. Its opening scene shows the Star Destroyer,

motorbike” and “mimicking jets in aerial

an enemy battleship, entering from the top of thecombat”: It can be considered as vocabulary usedframe and traveling slowly into the vast depths

to share within a community a vision of howof space. This composition is almost identical tospacecraft move when traveling through space.

that of the drawing in S4/C34, as well as that of

In addition, the direction for S5/C39 uses thethe finished scene.

mimetic word “kuru-kuru” (meaning “aroundFar from imitating a Hollywood film, as

and around”)—but the storyboard artist who

people could all too easily accuse it of doing,gave the direction, perhaps fearing that this was

the direction for S4/C34 actually demonstrates

insufficient, refers to the movement of jet fighters,

how there existed a multi-layered common

possibly that which was to be seen in films suchlanguage in the world of animation production.

as Zero Fighters Daikusen (Shiro Moritani, 1966),

All moving image media entail not just form but

before this series was made. In brief, the creators

also movement. In the case of animation, where

were not just inventing spacecraft unique to theform and movement are discretely constructed,

science-fiction world of the anime series. The

animators refer to the movements of various

storyboard—an intermediate material—reveals

bodies—from those encountered in realitythat they had the additional challenge of deciding

to those seen on screens—then “re-perform”

what movement to give to each spacecraft, andthose movements (Crafton 2013: 32-33). Therefore,

also that they could rely on their community—

in Sci-Fi Journey to the West Starzinger, this re-including viewers who could feel or discern such

performance applies to the movements of notmulti-layered kinaesthetic sense—existing on ajust the characters but also the machines. As

global scale.

34

References
Allan, Robin (1999) Walt Disney and Europe: European

McCormick, Kristen and Schilling, Michael R. (2014)

Influences on the Animated Feature Films of Walt Disney.

Animation cels: preserving a portion of cinematic

Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University

history. Conservation Perspectives: The GCI Newsletter.

Press.

Spring, 2014, 29 (1): 10-12.

Crafton, Donald (2013) Shadow of a Mouse: Performance,

Thompson, Kristin (1980) Implications of the cel animation

Belief, and World-Making in Animation. Berkeley:technique. In: Lauretis, Teresa de and Heath, Stephen

University of California Press.

(eds) The Cinematic Apparatus. London: Macmillan,

Harada, Kenichi (2013) Chiiki, eizo, akaibu wo tsunageru

106-120.

tameno shiron (An essay to link regions, films, andUeno, Junko (2014) Mirai no nihon no animeishon akaibusu

archives). In: Harada, Kenichi and Ishii, Hitoshi (eds)wo mezashite (Toward a future archive of Japanese

Natsukashisa Wa Mirai To Tomoni Yattekuru—Chiiki

animation). In: Fukui, Kensaku and Shunya Yoshimi

Eizo Akaibu No Riron To Jissai (Nostalgia Comes with(eds) Akaibu Rikkoku Sengen (Archive Japan Manifesto).

the Future: Regional Film Archives in Theory andTokyo: Pot Publishing, 179-195.

Practice). Tokyo: Gakubunsha, 2-24.
Lamb, Warren and Watson, Elizabeth M. (1979) Body Code:
The Meaning in Movement. London: Routledge.

Kim Joon Yang is Associate Professor at Niigata University and Co-director of the Archive Center for Anime Studies in
Niigata University. His research field is animation studies, focusing on subhuman/posthuman figures in animation andbeyond.

● What Do Archived Materials Tell Us about Anime?

35

Exhibiting Manga:
Impulses to Gain from the Archiving/Unearthing Anime Project

Jaqueline Berndt

Held first in Singapore and now in Stockholm,

artists. For so-called research exhibitions (kenkyū

the ongoing exhibition project by the Archive

tenji) it takes more comprehensive facilities. In

Center for Anime Studies at Niigata University

the 1990s and early 2000s it was the Kawasaki(hereafter Archiving/Unearthing Anime project)

City Museum with its manga department which

is of critical value not only for the study ofsignificantly advanced the field, while in the

animated films from the pre-digital era like Royal2010s the Kyoto International Manga Museum

Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, but also

(hereafter MM), and from 2012 onwards also themanga, that is, comics or graphic narratives

Kitakyūshū Manga Museum, have come up withassociated with Japan, as both research fields

several landmark shows.

share crucial concerns pertaining to what should

As registered museums these institutions havebe collected and how, and also the way in which

been struggling with the four tasks of collecting,these materials are publicized, for example,

preserving, researching and publicizing manga

through exhibitions.

materials in a way similar to the case of anime.

In Japan, manga can arguably look back on a

The sheer quantity of the materials compels

longer, more varied history of gallery presentations

choices between a focus on original drawings

than anime. In view of the Unearthing Animeand replica, character design and sequential

exhibition it stands to reason to focus on

narrative, outstanding creators and creative

research-related projects addressed to a more or

consumers, including participatory cultures.

less general inquisitive public, leaving out shows

The Tezuka Osamu retrospective held at thethat serve primarily taste-specific audiences and/National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo in 1990

or media corporations. Such manga exhibitions

highlighted isolated visuals instead of graphic

took their departure from public art museums

storytelling, original artwork instead of printed

around 1990. By now, they are often held at

matter, and individual authorship instead of

specialized museums. Approximately 50 mangashared conventions. In contradistinction, The

museums exist in contemporary Japan, but mostManga Age (Manga no jidai) exhibition, held atof them are small-scale and dedicated to single

the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in 1998

36

and subsequently the Hiroshima City Museum,display. Unfortunately, this did not meet thegave preference to slightly enlarged monochrome

curatorial orientation. When we finally visited

copies of whole pages or double-page spreads,

the exhibition, we were dismayed to discover thatpinned to the wall. As such, it evinced a shift ofthe magazines and books were not flipped open

critical focus from manga as a form of visual art

but shut—allegedly because they did not comply(bijutsu) to manga as media resting on technicalwith the aesthetic requirements of the museum

reproduction, magazine serialization, and thespace.
Something similar happened almost a decaderelated gendered genres.
But magazine-based manga narratives arelater on the occasion of the Tricky Womennot easily displayed, and printed pages do not

Festival (an annual event featuring animatednecessarily meet visitors’ demand. Initiallyfilms made by women) in Vienna in March 2017.

produced as throwaway reading material, printed

In the gallery “Bildraum 07,” the Japan Media

manga’s monochrome visuals on acidic paper,

Arts Festival presented a small show curated byoften with ink bleeding through, look much lessOkamoto Mitsuko, animation producer andattractive than eye-catching cover illustrations,professor at Tokyo University of the Arts. As thecolored supplements, or merchandising goods.

animated feature film In this Corner of the World

Precisely this conflict between visual attraction

was screened at the festival, one of the gallery

and media-cultural expertise came to the fore inrooms featured Kouno Fumiyo’s same-named

the preparation of the exhibition Mangamania:

manga. Instead of monochrome and paneled

Comic Culture in Japan 1800-2008 produced bymanga pages, framed color illustrations took

the Museum of Applied Arts, Frankfurt/Main,center stage, among them the dust jacket of theGermany, ten years after The Manga Age show.

third volume of the Japanese tankōbon edition.

Commissioned to provide exhibits for the section

But whereas the artist had used the jacket’s foldon contemporary Japanese comics, Kanazawa

to hint at the tragic climax of the narrative—the

Kodama (then manga curator at the Kawasaki

loss of the protagonist’s right hand—by showing

City Museum) and I together with Takeuchi

her lying on the back with her arms straight up,

Miho and other students of Yokohama National

but her right hand folded inwards, the exhibition

University tried to showcase the actual diversity

presented an unfolded, and as such flattened,

within manga (in terms of historical era, genre,

illustration (Figure 1 & 2, next page).

and also individual style) as well as manga’s

Manga’s narrativity, which was sidelined inmaterial mediality by favoring a threefold

the two cases introduced above, has been at thepresentation: a double-page spread from thecore of manga experts’ concepts for exhibitions.

magazine series, the same double-page spread

An early example was Manga: Short Comics

from the book edition, and captions whichfrom Japan (1999-2002), curated by Natsume

provided the narrative context of the spread on

Fusanosuke and Hosogaya Atsushi on behalf● Exhibiting Manga: Impulses to Gain from the Archiving/Unearthing Anime Project37

issue was how to present manga in a public threedimensional space, that is, how to “unflatten” it
without withholding its narrativity.
In recent years, this awareness of spatial
display has heightened, as the sequential imagesof Inoue Takehiko: The Last Manga Exhibition(2009-2011) or MM exhibitions curated by ItōYū, like 18,000 Original Manga Drawings by
Figure 1

Tsuchida Seiki (2014), evince. But highly affective
design as such is not necessarily based on manga
research, and it does not necessarily elicit new
ways of conceiving “manga” either. On closer
inspection it seems as if manga exhibitions inJapan have proceeded from “visual art” to media
culture to design over the course of the last 30
years, and that this has led to foregoing any
ideology (for example, related to “Art” as status)
but also any kind of conceptualization. In otherFigure 2

words, those novel views of the past that theArchiving/Unearthing Anime project at Niigata
University is heading at have not become visible
yet. This is not to say that there are no attemptsof The Japan Foundation for venues in Westernat materially revisiting manga history.

Europe. In order to undermine the image ofSince 2002 manga artist Takemiya Keiko has

manga as a media abundant in representations ofbeen heading the so-called Genga’ Dash project,

sex and violence, 25 short stories were displayed

an attempt at reproducing fragile original mangain order to introduce the viewer to manga-

artwork full-scale and with all visible flaws, byspecific storytelling, and dialogue translations

combining manual skills with digital technology.

accompanied each exhibit. While this show

In addition to conservational and educational

intended to make the visitor actually read,

purposes, the reproductions are primarily in­a second one by The Japan Foundation, thistended to accommodate the increasing demand

time for venues in Asia (2010-2011), highlighted

from abroad for manga items-to-loan. Although

the storyworld of individual narratives: Mangaof a premium quality which only a supervising

Realities: Exploring the Art of Japanese Comics

manga artist can guarantee, European andToday. Curated by Takahashi Mizuki, the central

North American curators have been in favor of38

“real originals” but in recent years the demandmanga tankōbon, the ephemeral manga magazine

for loans of Genga’ Dash items administered

may also appear as “intermediate material.”

by MM is increasing. This suggests a shift ofRemarkable in this regard is the researchinterest from original artefacts to intermediateby Dalma Kálovics (now curator at Yokotematerials which bear witness to processes of

Masuda Manga Museum). Titled Discovering

production and mediation as manifested in

the forgotten 1960s shōjo manga, her PhD thesis

pencil script, unevenly colored or mottled parts,(2019) investigates the relation between primary

white correction fluid and also tracing paper withmagazine serialization and secondary bookprinted dialogue glued over speech balloons.

edition, stretching from the rearrangement of

Admittedly, the digital reproduction flattens out

panels and pages to the oblivion of works andall material surface irregularities, but this shows

creators caused by confinement to the magazine

only from up close.

medium.

The biggest potential that the Archiving/

It is hoped that the brief outline given above

Unearthing Anime project holds for the study ofentails some suggestions for manga-studies

manga museums and exhibitions is the focus oncontributions to the Archiving/Unearthingintermediate materials instead of final outcomes

Anime project. The relation between theor ready-to-sell goods. The Genga’ Dash is one

project’s “archive” and the—in both our fields

way towards acknowledging processuality andnotorious—“database”, which appears as a sort ofmateriality, although it does not consider story-

virtual archive in the way it interrelates elementsboards (names) as possible future exhibits and theand enables certain statements, is one of thevital role of editors as well as scenario writers.

issues that call for further discussion.

From the perspective of the globally dominating

Dr. Jaqueline Berndt is Professor in Japanese Language and Culture at Stockholm University. Her research field is visuals
arts and media cultures with a special focus on manga and anime as serial narratives.

● Exhibiting Manga: Impulses to Gain from the Archiving/Unearthing Anime Project39

Analysing “Regional Communities” with
“Visual Media” and “Materials”

Harada Ken’ichi

other words, how rural inhabitants received andProblems Concerning Research on
Visual Media in Japan (1)utilized photography and visual media such asfilm and video has hardly been studied.

It was from the 1970s, when local TV

Media originally convey information bystations and cable television emerged in various

mediating between one person and another as aparts of the country, that visual media of/from

communication tool. As mass communication,

local communities became an issue in media

visual media such as photography, film, television

studies in Japan. Rural people are counted

and video have linked different people, things,

among the audience or viewers of movies anddomains, and relationships beyond specifictelevision (broadcasts) of central cities suchregions, built a national sphere, expanded to a

as Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. Cinema andglobal dimension, and spread out creating new

broadcasting are treated basically on a national

relationships among people.

level so that the structure of information

On the other hand, however, as everyday(screen images) transmitted from the centre tocommunication tools in our daily life, they

the regions alone has been the point of issue.

permeate into each regional community that

Amidst such tendencies, studies on regional

people live in, that is to say, into the relationships

media have centred on looking into local cablethat have already existed among people, and also

television and community radio broadcasting.

spread deeply into our local everyday life itself.

As photography is widespread in our daily life,

Being similar to symbols, visual media possesswith the few exceptions of tourism and public

an inherent nature and recordability different

relations, photographs tend to be treated asfrom “language” and therefore function as an

personal images of the family. Consequently,

external memory device which becomes a joint

they were hardly ever questioned or surveyed. Inthat creates social memories and expands the(1) Translated here into visual media or visual image, the Japanese term, eizo, usually signifies photography as well as film, animation, video and television.

40

depth of our feelings. In other words, getting
involved in the realm of each person’s emotional
memories, they bring about temporal, as well as
spatial, spread.

Visual Media of Regional Communities
in Niigata
In order to clarify the complicated situation ofsuch visual media culture, it is necessary to draw

Figure 1 Taken by Imanari Bujihei, 1866-1877, Muikamachi IF001-023

up the framework of a “regional community” andexcavate the various visual media that remain.
In Niigata, we have steadily been carryingout surveys and excavations of visual media
materials in local people’s everyday life since2008. Following is a brief summary of what wehave been doing. Photography came into use in
Niigata from early on and wet collodion plates
taken not at a professional photographer’s but bya layman with his own camera and developedby himself around 1866 have been discovered

Figure 2 Kamo sanja saiten (Kamo Sanja Festival), May 22, 1919,
Aomi Shrine, Kamo City, KA-M-001

from the Imanari family of Muikamachi in
Minamiuonuma City (Figure 1). Niigata’s earliest

communication. (2) The communities where

film to date is Kamo sanja saiten (Kamo Sansha

such images remain in abundance are locatedFestival), which Nakabayashi Jinshichi, a printerin semi-mountainous areas. Viewed in terms ofin Kamo City, commissioned Tokyo Cinema to

the region, such images show themselves spread

produce in 1919 (Figure 2).

not from cities but from regions which are now

Our findings from the visual media materials

considered out-of-the-way.

we excavated are as follows. (1) The contents ofThese two facts revealed through our sur­the images were more the human relationships

veys and studies in Niigata make it necessary

among friends at schools, the village youth

to reconsider the premise that the spread of

association, the theatre, or workplaces than

images or visual media occurred in parallel

those within the family. They were received

with urbanisation and individualisation. Con­by activating a midrange of communication

ventional media studies have employed theentailing communality of some sort, i.e. anframeworks of cities and farm villages inintermediate realm between mass and personalconsidering the process in which visual media● Analysing “Regional Communities” with “Visual Media” and “Materials”

41spread. It was assumed that visual media spread

milieu is required. That is to say, the paradigm

through urbanisation and individualisationof our studies needs to be shifted from “grandcausing breakaway from the common standards

history” to “little history” in everyday life andwithin each village. However, intermediate

furthermore from settlement to mobility. Thisdomains—semi-mountainous areas engaged inshould make clear in a different form how social

commercial farming or forestry, or retaining

memories have been formed in modern andmines of coal and other minerals, and waters

present times.

around which areas and regions are connected bymeans of fishery or shipping—between cities andfarm villages played an important role in social
relationships and media spread actively in suchdomains.

Visual Media Viewed in the Frameworkof Migration and Settlement
Let us now consider specifically the social
context of the excavated visual media materials.

In modern times, commercial farming such as

In this essay, they will be analysed within the

producing raw silk and weaving was undertaken

framework of “migration and settlement.” Thatin semi-mountainous areas and these businesses

is to say, the act of people migrating and settlingwere also closely involved in foreign trading.

is regarded, in a broad sense, as an activity ofThrough the distribution of goods, there was ancommunication.

active circulation of people and information. The

With the framework for analysis in mind, it

existence of such intermediate domains helped

is important to note that the semi-mountainous

establish not only the relationships between theareas were societies where migration was acities and the farm villages in Japan but also

culture linking cities to farming villages; antheir relations with foreign countries. In theimpasse concerning materials is hidden here. The

sense, national channels overlapped with global

problem is that the only way to excavate materials

channels, and this also goes for the channels of

is to search the residences of those who settled

the spread of visual media. In other words, it isthere. As a matter of course, what is left in thethe areas which now appear inconvenient at firstvisual media materials depends on what thesight that functioned as the cradle and basis ofowner of them photographed or shot.

receiving visual media.

For example, there are as many as twenty-six

Such discussion clearly shows that it isdams along the Agano River system including

necessary to reexamine society and culture

The Tadami River which flows along the borderfrom the point of view of the distribution andbetween Niigata and Fukushima. Sixteen of thesetransfer between cities and farming villages,

dams were constructed during the two decades

instead of the urban-rural structure discussed

approximately between 1946 and 1968. It was

thus far within a national “grand history”; theindeed a construction rush deserving to be calledchange of a paradigm in studies of the social

as Dam Ginza. Naturally, it is easy to surmise42that twenty years of large-scale construction
work would have brought about significant
changes in the area surrounding The TadamiRiver. However, surveys and studies concerning
such matters are scarce. As far as visual media areconcerned, with the exception of industrial films,
there has been hardly any relevant discussion.
Let me draw on the survey of photographs
that

EnomotoChikakoundertookin

Kaneyamamachi. There are four dams, namely

Figure 3 No. 16 Uwada Power Plant, Tadami River, Kaneyamamachi, December 1953

Miyashita Dam (1952), Uwada Dam (1954),
Honna Dam (1954) and Taki Dam (1961), in
Kaneyamamachi. As regards photo albums,
a set of photographs was found in several
residences, which are considered to have been
distributed by Tohoku Electric Power, theowner, in commemoration of the completionof the construction work (Figure 3). There arevery few photographs of the construction worktaken by the villagers, and this suggests that the

Figure 4 Taken by Meguro Ken, Princess Chichibu and Shirasu
Jiro Visiting the Completion of Uwada Dam, Kaneyamamachi,
1954

construction of the dams was out of the scopeof their everyday life. There remain photographs

those days, on the mountain side of the villageof the visit by Princess Chichibu and Shirasu

was a company dormitory of Tohoku Electric

Jiro in commemoration of the completion

Power. On the river terrace, bunkhouses were set(Figure 4).

Visitors from afar (guests) attending

up and approximately 4,000 people are said toan auspicious commemorative event were an

have been there at the peak of the construction.

important photographic subject for the residents.

The employees of the power company came to

The settlers’ mentality is mirrored in and by thelive in the company houses with their families,

visual media materials.

while single, migrant workers stayed at the

However, an oral survey revealed a slightly

bunkhouses. In the village, not only were there

different world. Although Uwada Village, whereshops such as a barber’s or a grocery necessary

Uwada Dam stands, consists of around ten

in daily life, but also theatres of plays, movies

households, people moved to live there for theor strip shows, along with pubs and hotels of ill

construction work over nearly ten years, from

repute. Korean workers also came to work there

the late 1940s, while the dam was being built. In

in the early 1950s, who kept staying in Japan,● Analysing “Regional Communities” with “Visual Media” and “Materials”

43

after they were brought from Korea and forced towork during WW II.
However, there remain no photographs ofattempt to search obscurity unknown to us.
The digital data of the visual images we excavated can beviewed on the following website. Yet, registration is required

the prosperity of the village. Neither are there

for viewing.

photographs, taken by villagers as settlers, ofniigata-u.ac.jp/malui/

Niigata MALUI Regional Database http://arc.human.

the people in the bunkhouses. Such lack ofphotographs (as visual media) can be regarded
as an indication of how the villagers beholded

Oral Survey

the migrators. That is to say, the visual media

Hoshi, Masaya (2018) interviewed by Harada Ken’ichi andmaterials that are left are not the records ofEnomoto Chikako. July 18, 2018, at Hoshi Masaya’s

everything and it is necessary to admit that

residence.

there is the vastness of social domains which was
not photographed, or if ever, not preserved inmaterial form.
In this sense, the need to integrate not only
visual media but various materials becomesan actual issue. To put it in another way, only
collating the different materials can help the

References
Harada, Ken’ichi and Ishii, Hitoshi (eds) (2013) Natsukashisa
Wa Mirai To Tomoni Yattekuru (Nostalgia Comes with
the Future). Tokyo: Gakubunsha.
Harada, Ken’ichi (2018a) ‘Kano genjitsu sonzai’ toshiteno
dejitaru akaibu no saho (How to create digital archives
as ‘existences of feasible reality’). In: Harada, Ken’ichi
and Mizushima, Hisamitsu (eds) Te To Ashi To Ne To

obscurity of the visual media come to light.

Mimi—Chiiki To Eizo Akaibu Wo Meguru Jissen To

When the photographic images from the

Kenkyu (Hands, Feet, Eyes and Ears: Practice and Studies

regional communities are connected to mass

on Digital Image Archives of Regional Communities).

communication, to intermediate communication,and further to personal communication, theseTokyo: Gakubunsha.
Harada, Ken’ichi (2018b) Chiiki no eizo to wa nanika—
rokaru kyoku no dokyumentari eizo no bunkateki,fragmented images will weave a picture of the

shakaiteki bunmyaku to sono mondai (What are local

way we are in social worlds. It is through theimages?: The cultural and social contexts and problems

visible that the invisible is revealed. The obscurityof documentary images produced by local stations).

of a society which is not grasped in visual media
makes meaningful a visually-mediatised world.

Masu Komyunikeshon Kenkyu (Mass Communication
Studies) 92; 3-21.
Tsurumi, Kazuko (1977/1993) Hyohaku To Teiju To—

The complicated social nature of visual media lies

Yanagida Kunio No Shakai Hendoron (Wandering andhere as an inconceivable possibility. Considering

Settling: A Discussion on Social Changes by Yanagida

visual media of/from regional communities is an

Kunio). Tokyo: Chikuma Gakugei Bunko.

Harada Ken’ichi is Professor at Niigata University. His publications include Eizo Shakaigaku No Tenkai (Development ofVisual Sociology) and Natsukashisa Wa Mirai To Tomoni Yattekuru (co-edited). He has a decades-long career of film andmusic production.

44

About the Archive Center for Anime Studies
in Niigata University

Anime has been a central part of the Japanese
popular culture for many decades, and yet
now, as the digitalization of the anime-making
process advances, the “intermediate materials” oftraditional animation production such as model
sheets and cels are facing obsolescence. Some of[To view this image, refer tothe print version of this volume.]

them are published and distributed as books,
but an enormous bulk of intermediate materials
remain inaccessible for scholars.
The Center takes a media ecologicalapproach to anime as a platform organizing
images into multi-layered fluid structures. Theintermediate materials are expected to provide
a valuable basis for demonstrative research of
the processes and aesthetic dynamics of anime
production. Archiving—acquiring, cataloguing,and preserving—these materials, the Center
aims to serve as an international research hub
making them available to scholars both inJapan and abroad. Furthermore, it also seeks to
use the collected materials for nurturing futurespecialists equipped with media literacy byincorporating them into the academic programsof Niigata University. A further aim is to channel
the achievements in education and researchback into the public sphere through a close45

cooperation with animation productions andvisual media industry at large, as well as withlocal communities and municipalities.
About the Watanabe Collection of the Center

The Archive Center for Anime Studies was
originally established to manage and organize
the Watanabe collection—the intermediatematerials of anime works entrusted to Niigata
University by anime director Watanabe Hideo
teaching animation production in the Shonan
Institute of Technology. Mr. Watanabe wasinvolved as a key production crewmember in

A Storyboard for Episode 138 of
Fist of the North Star II

the production of many animations, including
Space Emperor God Sigma (1980), Arcadia of My
Youth: Endless Orbit SSX (1982), Dream Soldier
Wing-Man (1984), G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero
(1984; a Japan-US joint project), They Were Eleven(1986), Fist of the North Star II (1987), Mobile Suit

Zeta Gundam (1985), Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ(1986), Legend of the Galactic Heroes (1991), Neon

Genesis Evangelion (1995), etc.
Mr. Watanabe made a collection of inter­

A Storyboard for Episode 47 of
Sci-Fi Journey to the West Starzinger

mediate materials as a part of his research on
the role and function of the director. Manyof them are from the works which he himself

of animation production—character design

was involved in from the 1970s to the 1990s,

sheets, storyboards, key animation drawings,

the period that witnessed the second and thirdbackgrounds, screenplays, scripts for voice

peak points in anime history. In this sense, therecording sessions, and production crewmembers’

Watanabe collection is an invaluable source

hand-written notes. Moreover, it includes afor research of anime in terms of industry andconsiderable amount of materials outsourced

aesthetics. It covers various stages and aspects

from Japan to other countries and vice versa.

46

A Production Crewmember’s Hand-written Instruction Note for a Japan-US joint project47

Archiving Movements: Short Essays on Materials of Anime and Visual Media V.1
Copyright © 2019 The Archive Center for Anime Studies in Niigata University
Advanced Education and Research Bldg. Niigata University
8050 Ikarashi 2-no-cho, Nishi-ku 950-2181 JAPANE-mail acasin@human.niigata-u.ac.jp

All rights reserved.
ISBN 978-4-9910746-0-8
Archiving Movements: Short Essays on Materials of Anime and Visual Media V.1
edited by

Ishida Minori and Kim Joon Yang

1. Anime—Japan—Visual Media. 2. Animation—Japan—Archiving. I. Ishida, Minori
and Kim, Joon Yang, II. Archiving Movements: Short Essays on Materials of Anime
and Visual Media V.1
DesignRakuhoku-Shuppan
Printing

Takayoshi Co., Ltd.
Acknowledgement

GainaxBandai Namco Arts
Khara, Inc.
Anime Tokusatsu Archive Centre (NPO)
Toei Animation Co, Ltd.
Niigata Regional Image Archive in Niigata University
First Printing March 2019

Printed in Japan
Not for Sale