Category: Events

Otakon 2013: 10-minutes with Yuzuru Tachikawa and Michihiko Suwa

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narutaki_icon_4040 There was a special presentation at Otakon 2013 about the young animator and director project called Anime Mirai with producer Michihiko Suwa and director of the Death Billiards short Yuzuru Tachikawa. Over the weekend all of the shorts were shown in 3-parts divided up by year.

At this point, most people have probably seen Little Which Academia but may not know it was funded through the Anime Mirai initiative. Many more probably hadn’t seen Death Billiards until Otakon’s weekend. Once you have seen it however, it is impossible to forget. Many are looking forward to what Mr. Tachikawa will do next.

Mr. Suwa has a great history in the anime business as a producer for mega hits like City Hunter and Inu-Yasha, as well as the indomitable Detective Conan. He appeared at Otakon before in 2007 along with director Mr. Kenji Kodoma and presented the U.S. with its first look at Kekkaishi.

Anime Mirai started in 2010 and was renewed in 2012 and 2013. Studios have already been announced for the continuation of the project in 2014, too. Each year studios pitch ideas and are given the funds to make a short anime. These shorts are funded by Japanese government grants in the hopes of promoting innovation and young talent in the anime industry.

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Otakon 2013: Artist Alley

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narutaki_icon_4040 The last couple of years I have been spending more and more time in artist alleys at conventions. At this year’s Otakon, I resolved to spend twice as much time as I did last year (I don’t think I actually accomplished that) and was still left with a feeling of having not seen all that was on display. In fact, I barely even glanced at the art auction!

I realized this time, more than any other, depending on the pace at which you explored the alley, the experience and what you took away could be different. On my first casual walkthrough, I felt a twinge of disappointment. Nothing seemed to jump out and the myriad of crafts I had seen growing in previous years felt diminished. But once I took a more careful and slow pace in my return visits, there was still plenty of artists producing worthwhile pieces. However, my first reaction was not completely off the mark.

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Otakon 2013: Shinichiro Watanabe

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(photo courtesy of Gerald from AWO)

hisui_icon_4040 It was quite telling that so many people started their questions to Shinichiro Watanabe at his public Q&A with the simple statement that Cowboy Bebop is what made them anime fans. The sheer electric feeling you got from people when FUNimation announced that licensed rescued Cowboy Bebop and had the Blu-Ray rights was physically palpable when I heard people talk about the news. Hayao Miyazaki winning the Oscar might have shown that anime could be art but Bebop showed English-speaking fans that anime could be cool (at least in a way that no one had done since Akira.) So the impact of the series on Western fandom cannot be underestimated. His work on Samurai Champloo and Kids on the Slope had noticeable impacts on the fandom but Bebop changed things forever. So being able to pick the brain and get a little insight into this underused luminary director was an invaluable experience.

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