anime – Doctor Comics

Last month I spent a wonderfully productive week in Fiji…on behalf of the Japanese Embassy and the Japan Foundation in Sydney…to present a lecture and workshop at the School of Arts, Language and Media, University of the South Pacific. I also introduced films at an Anime festival held there. It was part of Japan Culture Week 2011 in Suva, the capital city on the largest of the 300 islands. It seemed like an act of cultural colonisation…with the raising of the Anime and Manga flags and the flying of their colours on Treasure Island…creating a little Anime and Manga paradise in the Pacific Ocean.

Lecturing on the global spread of Japanese pop culture in the 1980s. (Photo by Louise Graber) — _{Dr. Michael Hill at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji…presenting a slide lecture for the Japan Foundation on the global spread of Japanese pop culture in the 1980s. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

My lecture titled Up In The Air: Anime’s Journey To The Stars described the global success of Japanese animation…and its rise to prominence both in the film world and in popular culture. It covered the work of Osamu Tezuka and its international success. It also referred to Rintaro’s involvement with him as an animation director on Astro Boy…prior to his subsequent productions that included his Tezuka homage film Metropolis…his adaption of Leiji Matsumoto’s manga Galaxy Express 999, and of Sanpei Shirato’s manga The Dagger of Kamui. Describing Shirato’s beginnings as a kamishibai artist…before moving to manga and the alternative publication GARO…the lecture included anecdotes from my time as a lecturer at Sydney College of the Arts…and the University of Technology, Sydney where I observed the growing interest of students in Japanese popular culture. They became fascinated with manga, Anime, cosplay, fashion,…J-Pop, scanlations, computer games…cameras, turntables, TV game shows,…food and fashion, not to mention learning Japanese and visiting Tokyo. The lecture concluded with an analysis of the productions…and the rise to prominence of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli…who, like Tezuka, found both both an international audience and critical acclaim.

_{The tools and materials for the printmaking workshop. My Rugby woodblock print is on the table alongside some of my art postcards and printmaking tools. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

In addition to the theory lecture I presented a practical arts workshop…demonstrating the printmaking technique I had developed as part of my artistic practice. Based on the Japanese creative print movement Sosaku Hanga,…and the work of Koshiro Onchi and Shiko Munakata in particular. I showed examples of my work that had been made using this approach and methodology…and applied to my prints, postcards, T-shirts and comics.

_{Dr. Michael Hill teaching printmaking techniques to students of the University of the South Pacific. In the foreground his Rugby themed woodblock print is being studied. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

After the demonstration the students had the opportunity to make their own prints. By chance, the cultural activities took place in the same week as the Rugby World Cup finals…and the only paint colours to hand were those of the Wallabies, yellow and green. My own rugby woodblock print (being passed around the class, in the photos above) provided some amusement and interest.

_{The ‘sosaku hanga’ creative printmaking workshop. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

Downtown, on the roof of the Village Cinema complex Batman and Spiderman look down…intrigued at the sight of people going in to see the Ninja super hero Kamui. It was here that the Anime Film Festival was held each evening. Films screened included Galaxy Express 999…The Dagger of Kamui…Laputa: Castle in the Sky and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Anime is now a fixed part of the Japanese cultural coat of arms…emblematic of the country’s long history of graphic arts which feeds into and nurtures both Anime and manga. The week long festival of Anime films and supporting cultural events was an alternative offering to American movies…and helped spread Japanese popular culture in the South Pacific.

_{Village Cinema Centre, Suva, with superhero cinema on the screens. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

In the hotel pool in Nadi, my friend the octopus. (Photo by Louise Graber) — _{At the bottom of the hotel pool in Nadi, the elegant octopus tile design. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

Doctor Comics in shark jaws at the University of the South Pacific. (Photo by Louise Graber) — _{Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics playfully poses in shark jaws at the University of the South Pacific in 2011. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

_{In the Fiji Museum in Suva, the Eel God sacred club. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

In addition to my admiration of the octopus and various fish I am also a fan of the eel. During my Fiji visit I was pleased to find that the eel had acquired the status of a deity…and a creative one at that…in Melanesian mythology. Below is an artwork I had created, featuring eels once found in the Parramatta River near Blacktown in Sydney.

My own eel art work(print, painting and collage-© 2009 Michael Hill). — _{My impression of the freshwater eels once found and fished in the Parramatta River near Blacktown, Sydney…a mixture of printmaking, painting and collage-© 2009 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics.}

Another treasure inside the Fiji Museum was this old metal Hopkinson & Cope printing press…imported from England in earlier days. At my printmaking workshop in Suva I demonstrated an alternative, Japanese method…that employs one’s body weight as a press instead of a device such as this.

_{Old metal, pre-digital printing press. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

On this “Treasure Island”…in addition to the art and marine life…there were collections of coconuts, palm trees and flowers including red hibiscus and white frangipani.

Big frangipani presence on the island. (Photo by Louise Graber) — _{An example of the abundant frangipani presence on the island. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

Many thanks to Sayuri Tokuman and Susan Yamaguchi of the Japanese Studies & Intellectual Exchange Department…and Tokiko Kiyota, Director of the Japan Foundation in Sydney…and to Nobuko Iwatani, Mako Nakauchi and Mele of the Embassy of Japan in Fiji..and His Excellency Yutaka Yoshizawa, Ambassador of Japan, for their ideas, assistance and support with this project.

INVITATION: Please respond to this post if you would like to make a comment…or suggest topics for future posting. Being new to blogging I would love to hear any feedback about my posts. Are they too long?…have too many images?…or too much text?…or there are too many of them?…or not enough? Michael.

Dr. Michael Hill aka Doctor Comics.

Saturday July 16, 2011 was a day of comics and anime amusement at SMASH! (Sydney Manga And Anime Show). Over the past few years the local interest in manga and anime has been increasing. Initially ignored by existing comics conventions the manga fans went out and created their own event. Some even began learning Japanese so that they could translate the manga that they loved! The new conventions provided opportunities for fans to meet and enjoy these two media. Some local female creators even began making their own versions of shōjo manga. Interest continued to grow, as did the events. Within Australia, Sydney had Animania, Melbourne had Manifest...then along came SMASH! also in Sydney.

In 2011 it was located, for the first time in its short 5 year history, at the Sydney Convention Centre. It had outgrown its previous smaller venues at the Roundhouse, University of New South Wales and the Sydney Town Hall.

_{Welcome from Box Man. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

A suitable event for Cosplay, there were some costumes featuring sewing, beading, feathering and functioning. These were paraded both inside and outside the venue and on the cosplay stage.

_{A tutu moment…(Photo-© 2011 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{A posing trio. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

In addition to university and high school students, many young children attended, some with their parents or older siblings.

_{Young cosplay fans. (Photo-© 2011 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

There were Hobby Rooms for the construction and display of dolls and robots.

_{Some Dolfie dolls. (Photo-© 2011 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

Other events included a Gundam workshop, Karaoke session, videogames and a screening of the anime Summer Wars. There were also sewing, pattern and armour making workshops…plus the huge trading floor full of vendors, artists and fan clubs. It all flourished in the presence of the patronage of the Japan Foundation. Japanese popular culture thrived at this event and made it a wonderful day!

FOOTNOTE: I SAW A BIG SAW AT BIG SIGHT! As an addendum to this convention report I wish to mention an event I attended in Tokyo last year. I travelled by monorail to Odaiba Island, an artificial island built in Tokyo Bay…to attend the Tokyo Anime Fair at a venue called Tokyo Big Sight (pronounced Biggu Saito in Japanese). Big Sight? I thought that must be a misspelling along Japlish lines for the name of a large exhibition space. There were definitely some big architectural sights to behold as it was a very large exhibition space. No sign of Godzilla though! I thought of Thor as the monorail travelled over the Rainbow Bridge…but instead saw the high tech buildings of Fuji TV headquarters.

The headquarters of Fuji TV(building designed by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange) and the Joyopolis Arcade. (Photo by Michael Hill) — _{The headquarters of Fuji TV(with the building designed by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange) and the Joyopolis Arcade. (Photo-© 2010 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

On arrival at the Big Sight location things started to look a little unusual. There was an open space beneath a series of inverted pyramids sitting on glass covered, cantilevered legs(see photo below). This giant entrance had the effect of considerably reducing the scale of the people passing beneath it. Then I understood the ‘big’ aspect implied in the name of the site.

Tokyo Big Sight-entrance. (Photo by Michael Hill) — _{Tokyo Big Sight-massive scale entrance. (Photo-© 2011 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

The walk from the monorail station to the Big Sight exhibition also had an epic feel to it. It looked a lot closer than the long walk it took to get there. It was during this walk that I experienced a visual surprise…the sight of a large object embedded in the grass on the level below. It was a sculpture, an art installation of a large saw…unmistakably something by the Swedish/American Pop artist Claes Oldenburg. It also was a “big sight” to see at this big site.

Saw, Sawing by Claes Oldenburg. (Photo by Michael Hill) — _{Saw, Sawing by Claes Oldenburg. (Photo-© 2011 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

This is the third in my series of posts on the theme of comics art…that document moments in the recent history of Australian comics, particularly alternative comics and the Australian Small Press..and related overseas comics events that I attended as part of my research. I had started researching this subject in the late 1990s and it eventually led to my PhD thesis. Details: Ph.D. Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media and Philosophy…A Study Of Contemporary Australian Alternative Comics 1992-2000…With Particular Reference To The Work Of Naylor, Smith, Danko And Ord, 2003. On completion of this research I donated my large collection of comics to the National Library of Australia…for listing as the Michael Hill Collection of Australian Comics.

NOTE: I wish to acknowledge the shorter gap between my posts in this instance…this was influenced by the attendance and timing of the anime and manga event in Sydney. BTW please let me know what you think about the content and frequency of my blog posts. With this post there’s an opportunity to compare the two events…Sydney and Tokyo…comics and anime…small scale and grand. I welcome any comparative comments, Michael.

Doctor Comics

Tag: anime

FLYING THE ANIME FLAG ON TREASURE ISLAND

Archive of Australian Alternative Comics: GETTING SMASH(ed)!