Japanese (Animation) Artists

I guess it's been alot longer than I thought since I posted. It's not that I haven't been drawing lately but it's been harder to draw since I've been working alot more and don't have too much time to draw. Well, I guess that's not entirely true... I just haven't been too motivated when I do find the time, until recently. I did complete a couple more pieces but unfortunately was not satisfied with them. I think I'm trying too hard or something. Alot of times my friends tell me I'm a little too critical of my art and yet don't like criticism from others. That might be a little true.

Lately I've been really into Japanese culture ever since I stumbled upon NHK World. Since not having anything to watch on TV, I started flipping through the digital channels (the .2s .3s and so on) and for some reason or another started watching channel 18.2 because of their news. They also run mini documentaries throughout the day (in English) and other Japanese television shows (some with subtitles and some without). But what has really caught my eye was the fashion and art programs.

In particular, a program called Imagine-Nation which features and interviews Japanese artists of all genres; like manga, anime and other media. What I really liked about last night's episodes was that most, if not all, of the artists do hand-drawn or painted art that is then animated. So this got me to thinking about those artists and I decided to post videos up of their work

Anyways, on to the artists...

Atsushi Wada

Hana no hi (Day of Nose)



I really like how you can see all the lines in the areas that are filled in and how primitive it looks. It really gives it a hand drawn feel, more so than other anime that is refined.

Yuichiro Natori

Although none of his films are available online, his website (in Japanese, translated through Google) features alot of the work he's done.

Yusaku Hanakuma

His manga is simply drawn, but has an endearing quality to it. Makes you realize that you don't have to draw every single page perfectly. His art can be found on his website (in Japanese, translated through Google). He is mostly known for creating and drawing the Tokyo Zombie manga series.

Alot of the other artist were either hard to find online, or really had no presence. So I also posted a trailer which is comprised of several Japanese short films.



And I just had to post a clip from my favorite animes of all time, Akira by Katsuhiro Otomot. I also collect the manga, which is just as good as the anime. He's also done other anime like the excellent Ghost in the Shell and written various manga. The clip is a little grainy, which doesn't do the movie justice, but is from the best scene in the whole movie.



More to come...