Chisato Started

There were actually only three animations showcased in this programme that were directed by men, the last one being this one, and I have to say that this might be my favourite one out of the three of them.

I felt a strange sense of melancholy watching this piece, but at the same time I couldn't help but admire the fluidity of the animation (Were parts of it done in Flash? It felt that way when the in between frames are looked closer upon), and in truth, the overall contemporary style actually appealed to me. The colour palette is absolutely gorgeous, matching the abstractness of a seemingly dark representation of escapism.

From what I have managed to gather online, Wataru Uekusa seems to focus a lot on young, socially awkward girls who desire to escape from reality (No matter how violent), before eventually coming to terms with reality. On a brighter note, there weren't any unnecessary panty shots in this one like "Transfer".

What is notable is how the girl's hair continues to grow in length throughout the animation. The helicopter seems to be an important element throughout the animation as the girl finds herself back in a hospital room every time she hears or sees it... it could possibly suggest that she has been in a coma throughout the majority of the animation and only truly awakens near the end. This theory seems to be supported by the fact that no one actually seems to notice her when she's around, save for the bespectacled girl, who might be her closest friend, and it is also the same girl who seems to happily welcome her friend back. 

And so throughout the animation, the helicopter is the thing that manages to awaken her from her coma, the only sound that is able to pull her away from a world that she had actually believed to be real.

Since finding out about Wataru Uekusa, I think one of my favourite works by him is "The Tender March", but I believe it's just as violent and seems to focus on similar themes as mentioned earlier, and honestly it all still looks really pretty.

Agitated Screams of Maggots

Warning: NSFW, lots of over the top gore, violence and sexual content.

As someone who has already exposed herself to enough guro in her young life, I wasn't as horrified as I thought I would be by this one, but more amused by how hard the song and animation had tried to disturb its audience, which I believe it was somewhat successful in doing so (I do pity the parent that accidentally brought in her child at that exact moment this video started playing...).

Keita Kurosaka graduated from the Musashino Art University in 1979 where he majored in figure and still life painting. He later spent two years in France at the Ecole Nationale Superier des Beauz-Arts a Paris under the tutorship of J. Yankel majoring in oil painting. According to Kurosaka, these two years of study in Paris opened up his "sensibilities and feelings" to textures and surfaces. Kurosaka has been exhibiting his works since the early 80s, having spent 13 years on the animation film "Midori-Ko", having made 30000 drawings completed by himself for this hand-drawn animation. His style is not surprisingly described by critics as "very painterly, grotesque and surreal".

Having read that brief bio about him, it was no surprise that this animated music video was really well drawn, the animation is also alright especially when you consider how much detail was put into everything (Seeing that he probably drew every single frame by hand without any sort of digital editting). While I think I understood most of what this animation was trying to represent, I didn't really get why a cat-like creature was formed from the parasite that the mother had cut in half, while the other was clearly a male humanoid.

The little girl's rather calm demeanour throughout most of the video definitely implied that there was more to her than she let on, in the end, she was shown to be something akin to the angel of death (Or... just some fairy thing) that efficiently and mercilessly vanquishes the foul creature that had taken over her mother's body.

Transfer

The introduction to this programme seemed incredibly promising, it is no surprise that male and female animators tend to present female characters quite differently from one another in their works, and it is in this program where we get the chance to watch a variety of different works from Japan, known for their huge animation industry, I was intrigued to be given the opportunity to see their indie works that are of course overshadowed by mainstream animes.

"Transfer" was created by director/designer Fantasista Utamaro, co-director Kazuma Ikeda and cel-animation director and character designer Kubotabee in 2012. Utamaro graduated from Tama Art University in Textile Studies, and is currently on of the most innovative manga artists in Japan, he is also an animation director and a member of Mashcomix creators' union. Being known for his fashion and graphic design-related works, his contemporary art style and unique choice in colours is most notable in this animation.

I suppose I shouldn't look too deeply into this music video (Because I know I am going get some serious hate from anime fans), it probably seems fine if it is simply left to play in the background of a clothing store or anime themed dance club, but when we are made to watch it so intently in our seats for the whole six minutes, we can't help but think about the hidden messages this animation...

I hate to say it, but despite how brightly coloured, prettily designed and decently animated (And of course how cheerful the song is) this piece was, I was getting a lot of negative vibes as I watched on, especially when the unnecessary panty shots commenced less than a minute into the video, the same scene is then repeated over and over through different settings... which is absolutely draining to watch when you are ACTUALLY made to really watch it, instead of allowing it to play in the background as I mentioned earlier.

This awful side of me (That I keep wanting to apologise for) begins to feel that they are simply focusing on the anime stereotype of the magical schoolgirl. The repetition of that one scene with the girl running, jumping and flying seems to also imply that the archetype is used so incredibly often that no matter what setting the character is in, she never changes.

It just feels like a really bad start to the program as it seems to present male animators in a somewhat negative light when it comes to the portrayal of female characters (Which we know isn't true...).