Douglas Watches Every Anime

Category: Building Tensions

  • 1936: YAMAMOTO, ASHIDA AND MABO

    1936: YAMAMOTO, ASHIDA AND MABO

    Even when the Ministry of Education had been sending work to YAMAMOTO Sanae, he was never the most prolific animation creator.

  • 1936: MURATA’S END

    1936: MURATA’S END

    On February 26th 1936, a group of young military officers, convinced that their brand of ultranationalism was correct and losing the internal struggle for the ear of the Emperor, attempted to overthrow the Japanese government; a coup d’etat.

  • 1935: ENTER SEO MITSUYO

    1935: ENTER SEO MITSUYO

    SEO Mitsuyo begins a career that will survive the war, even though it’s not entirely clear how he managed it.

  • 1935: ALMOST EVERYONE

    1935: ALMOST EVERYONE

    Today, JO Studio works on a shoestring, Masaoka throws in the towel, a skiving fuel store owner keeps going, and Murata runs out of steam.

  • 1934: FOUR DIRECTORS

    1934: FOUR DIRECTORS

    Masaoka Kenzō gets unlucky, Ofuji Noburo uses another name, Seo Mitsuyo monkeys around, and an unknown director drives his characters mad.

  • 1934: TANAKA & OISHI

    1934: TANAKA & OISHI

    Two future parts of entertainment behemoth, Toho Studios, are making their first moves in animation. But one director is making his last.

  • 1934: HISTORY AND MURATA

    1934: HISTORY AND MURATA

    STAGGERING INTO CHAOS When Prime Minister SAITO Makoto was appointed in 1932, he was supposed to be a safe, compromise candidate. As a career politician and a former Governor-General of occupied Korea, he was a safe pair of hands. As a retired naval captain who fought in the First Sino-Japanese War, it was thought he…

  • 1933: MURATA THE INEVITABLE FREIGHT TRAIN

    1933: MURATA THE INEVITABLE FREIGHT TRAIN

    MURATA Yasuji’s work has been dominating this blog since the company was founded, and this year will be no different.

  • 1933: MASAOKA, OFUJI, AND TEAM GODZILLA

    1933: MASAOKA, OFUJI, AND TEAM GODZILLA

    MASAOKA was the first Japanese director to make a talking animated picture. Unless he wasn’t and it was OFUJI instead. Elsewhere, Godzilla’s owners shake a claw or two.

  • 1933: HISTORY AND THREE DIRECTORS

    1933: HISTORY AND THREE DIRECTORS

    If I’m going to be completely fair to the Japanese government, which is not a happy sentence fragment, they were still working to keep their citizens safe in 1933.