1956: YABUSHITA, OFUJI & MOCHINAGA
Given my focus on art and entertainment pieces, there are really only six pieces of animation I can talk about from 1956.
1955: NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING
1955 was as low as Japanese animation had been since 1918, back when the first Japanese experiments in making cartoons had been shown not to pay.
1954: KAPPA, DOG AND BUTTERFLY
Japanese animation wasn’t quite at rock bottom in 1954, but it wasn’t far away.
1950-1953: GULLIVER TRAVELS
Ofuji Noburo wasn’t the kind of person to let a little thing like the total collapse of the Japanese animation industry stop him.
1950-53: DAIEI & DISNEY
For the first time since the passing of the 1939 Film Law, it was legal to import films from overseas.
1950-53: THE OCCUPATION ENDS
April 28th 1952 saw the signing of the Treaty of San Francisco. While World War II had been over for years, this was the actual declaration of peace.
1949: THE KING’S TAIL
Time to talk about the film that nearly ended anime before it began: “The King’s Tail”.
1949: THE FOX, THE LOST, THE HORROR
1949 is arguably the most important and difficult year in Japanese animation history.
1948: MORINO, MASAOKA & OFUJI
This year, OFUJI Noburo got back into the studio to make “The Bear Dodger”.
1948: THE BATTLE OF KINUTA STUDIO
In early April, Watanabe’s new leadership fired 1200 employees, including “all forty-two animators”.