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Isao Takahata (1935-2018) Tze-Yue Gigi Hu

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Isao Takahata (1935-2018) Tze-Yue Gigi Hu The Japanese Journal of Animation Studies, 2020, vol.21, no.1, 101-109 A Towering Presence and Spirit in Japan’s Postwar Animation: Isao Takahata (1935-2018) Tze-yue Gigi Hu ■ A Towering Presence and Spirit in Japan’s Postwar Animation: “Takahata Isao: A Legend in Japanese Animation” Isao Takahata (1935-2018) Abstract: – that was the title of the exhibition held recently at the National This essay is an expansion of my earlier blog article, “Isao Takahata Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo from July 2 to October 6, (1935-2018) A Towering Presence in Japan’s Postwar Animation” 2019. on animationstudies 2.0, May 7, 2018. The blog is affiliated with Perhaps this English title was adopted based on Western reviews the Society for Animation Studies as the editors are members of the of the director’s last animated feature film, Princess Kaguya (2013). society. The blog is an internet space whereby scholars, artists and fans can present their current thought and work in a concise and Descriptive praises of this work included “A visionary tour-deforce” prompt manner. As such, there is limited space to engage at length the and “Legendary Filmmaker”.1) As an outsider, animation studies deeper insights of the subject concerned. Here, I take this opportunity scholar and author, and a non-Japanese, my study of Takahata’s in discussing further my perception of the director’s contributions artistic career considers the corpus of his output including published to the animation medium and the world of storytelling. I revisit the writings, live lectures and his other literary and cultural activities. animated works of Takahata, review and reflect the director’s career in the postwar history of Japan, including anecdotal recollections of Having lived in Japan before and in particular Tokyo where the late my research study and understanding of the his creative spirit. director resided and worked, also aided me in understanding the environmental surroundings and social-cultural nexus of the country 抄録： about which he had cared much. 本稿は、私が以前書いたブログ記事『高畑勲（1935 ～ 2018 年） The towering presence and spirit of Isao Takahata cannot be 戦後アニメーションにおける卓越した存在感』（「アニメーショ overstated. For the shades of merits or demerits, brilliance and ンスタディーズ 2.0」2018 年 5 月 7 日）を発展させたものであ る。このブログはアニメーションスタディーズ協会に属してい darkness, perfections and flaws, overdue deadlines and expansive る。同協会のメンバーが編集者であるためである。ブログは、 production costs, drive and inspiration, the thrive to innovate and 学者、アーティスト、ファンが自らの現在の考えを簡潔かつ迅 experiment, the sensitivity to the reality of life, sounds, voices and 速に発表できるインターネット空間となっている。そのため、 music, the courage to animate difficult stories, extraordinary or 関連する主題について深く洞察するには詳細に取り組むスペー “ordinary” characters and the profound love of nature and so forth スは限られている。この機会を用いてアニメーションメディア .. all these qualities and observations demonstrate the unshakeable とストーリーテリングの世界に対する高畑監督の貢献に対する 私の認識をさらに深めたい。高畑監督のアニメーション映画に position of the director in the social, art and cultural history of Japan 立ち戻り、戦後史における監督の経歴を再検討するが、その in the post-Second World War era and up to the contemporary 21st 際、逸話でつづった記憶と彼の創造的な精神についての私の研 century. 究と理解を含んでいる。 Grave of the Fireflies and its First Public Screening in Singapore My first encounter with the director’s work was in the mid- 90s when I was a key organizing member of the first Animation Fiesta (1996) in Singapore. At the fiesta, Grave of the Fireflies was first screened publicly in Singapore. As the fiesta was supported by the Singapore government including the support of its cultural The Japanese Journal of Animation Studies, 2020, Vol.21, No.1 101 The Japanese Journal of Animation Studies, 2020, vol.21, no.1, 101-109 A Towering Presence and Spirit in Japan’s Postwar Animation: Isao Takahata (1935-2018) Tze-yue Gigi Hu agency, the National Arts Council (NAC), Grave of the Fireflies comfort women (ianfu); during that time, parents especially feared (1988) gained the attention of a Singaporean audience curious to for their teen daughters and how they could kept them in safety. view a Japan-made animation feature film. Singapore, which war- Distinctly aware of its literary and artistic value, the organizers time Japan romantically named Syonan-to (Light of the South let the film occupy a premier evening slot on the opening day of Island) was historically known as an island city which witnessed the fiesta which was a Saturday as well. The audience nearly filled tens of thousands of killings by the Japanese Imperial Army which up the prestigious screening theater of the world-renowned Raffles occupied the place 1940-5. As members of the organizing committee, Hotel which the fiesta was held in. We noticed a number of expatriate I remember a NAC staff member and I discussed the film’s contents Japanese families came to view the film too besides Singaporeans from an artistic and objective perspective and concluded that it was keen to watch this special screening. After the screening, we were equally important for Singaporeans to empathically understand the approached by some members of the audience sharing with us openly children and youths from the other side of the war who suffered; their feelings of the film. Many were attracted to the spellbinding that is the aggressor Japan too had an impelling story to tell by its visuals and compelling storyline. I remember a feature-writer cum commoner-civilian people. As the film credits rolled on, we noted that reporter of a well-known local Chinese language newspaper, Lianhe the story was based on a published book by award-winning author, zaobao, showed appreciation of the film’s screening and he pondered Akiyuki Nosaka (1930-2015) and it was adapted into an animated loudly to me. “Do the Japanese know that the peoples in the places story. Both the author and director shared similar experiences of the they invaded suffered horrendously as well? Do they know their war as we read the background story of the film’s production. stories?” Consciously and in a courageous sense, we decided that the The point is the reporter and I both silently agreed that the film film would add diversity and spark dialogue among viewers. In had an illuminating effect on our human consciousness - that is our a mid-1990s wealthy-looking Singapore, real-time experiences, ability to understand and evaluate the story was based on our higher memories, passed on factual stories and official archival records of unrestrained reception of the narrative even though it was literally the cruelties and atrocities of the Japanese Imperial Army still held the invaded watching a once invader’s sorrowful story. However, it strong among the old and young generations. The Japanese military was not easy to view the film ahistorically, as the obstructive invaded/ operation known as sook ching was an extensive exercise of mass invader’s boundary existed and lurked subconsciously. Strangely, one executions of Chinese males from ages 18-50 and the Chinese, might say that it takes an adversary to comprehend the other. In the Malay, Indian and Eurasian populations of Singapore all felt cold case of Takahata’s achievement, the sheer creative spirit of animating shivers when encountering sights of Chinese males being summoned a painful past is admirable. I think in the minds of Singaporeans who or forcefully taken away on large vehicle trunks – for to see a watched the film that evening, it was revealing to be able to learn Chinese neighbor, friend, colleague or even someone unknown to you the multi-farious ways of storytelling and realize the functional and losing a grandfather, father, uncle, brother or son in broad daylight artistic value of the animating medium. was uncomfortably non-comprehensible and disturbing. It was a trip of no-return for many who boarded the vehicles almost equivalent to Grave of Fireflies, A “Victim’s History”? the Japanese kamikaze military aviators who sacrificed their lives for In terms of critical analysis, Grave of Fireflies has been negated fatal missions. For women, many were afraid of being taken way as as a form of local grown genre in response to Japanese personal and 102 The Japanese Journal of Animation Studies, 2020, Vol.21, No.1 The Japanese Journal of Animation Studies, 2020, vol.21, no.1, 101-109 collective accounts of the Second World War. At best, it is categorized ex-colleagues whom I have had the chance to talk to in my research as an “anti-war film” much like the anime film Barefoot Gen (1983), work, all in an affirmative tone commended the late director’s truthful live-action films Burmese Harp (1956) and Fires of the Plain (1959) treatment of the ending as indeed there were countless orphans, lost featuring the sufferings of the protagonists (Napier, 2001: 161-173).2) children and youths seen loitering on the streets of Japan by the end The above categorization is perhaps influenced by a trail of of the Second World War. Creating animation is certainly not just international academia work which is critical of the “victim’s angle” about slapstick comedy, senseless humor or necessarily adopting a which majority of made in Japan’s anti-war films seem to portray. For formulaic delusionary way of ending a narrative with a happy ending. example, research work like Hibakusha Cinema (1996)3) and Atomic Moreover, the original author of the book Akiyuki Nosaka wrote the Bomb Cinema (2002) discuss the complexity of this critical stance semi-autobiographical story to commemorate his younger sister who as foreign audiences confront the storylines of films featuring the did not survive the hardship during the war. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The main argument is In one sense, the “victimhood” is actually the “childhood” of that such films though highlight the sufferings of the Japanese during many Japanese youths and children who either perished during the the Second World War within and outside of Japan (like the Harp of war or who “survived” nevertheless.
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