Post War Animation
1945-1967
Sakura - 1946
The first attempt to produce animation after the war was in November 1945 by Masaoka Kenzō. The rate where he began his production is still remarkable, however he was lead into this by occupation authorities. His post war work was Sakura (1946, Cherry Blossoms), it was a flawed work as it was doomed by poor materials and damaged cells and was never commercially exhibited. Masaoka would then leave afterward to teach Tōhō staff on how to make animation of their own and was influential in the next generation of post-war filmmakers.
The Tōhō studio had both and upper (in Sōshigaya hill) and a lower studio (in Kinuta). Tōhō was built in 1940 and served in the production on restricted military subjects and the head of the Special Film Unit had staff hid eight war films in the Sōshigaya studio to prevent it from being burned by Occupation forces. It allowed the survival of works such as The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya (1942). However, the animation variants of the films were destroyed. However, the film Momotarō’s Divine Sea Warriors (1945), one of the pinnacle of instructional films at the time, was considered lost until they resurrected it in 1983 when they found a rediscovered negative of the film.
In the early days of Occupation surviving film industries, like Tōhō, faced both pressure from Occupation authorities to continue output while dealing with a whole new censorship regime. However due to the lack of resources, and the lack of theatres, it was easier for some studios then others. They number of staff was limited however they tried to employ as many skills as possible. The film Muku no Ki no Hanasi (1947, The Tale of the Grey Starling’s Tree) and it caught the feeling of the time, conceptualizing the Occupation as an unwelcome season, which was fated to end, and it eventually would.
The Sōshigaya studio was eventually renamed Tōhō Kyōiku Eiga-bu (Tōhō Educational Film Diversion) in order to accept bits for potentially lucrative animation contracts in making educational movies for the Occupation authorities. Like the films from the Shadow Staff many of these films would disappear due to not having any official screenings. Although many studios bid for the chances to work for the US Occupation authority, Civil Information, and Education section (CI&E) they preferred to work with four studios, Tōhō, Daiei Shōchiku and, Masaoka Kenzō’s Nihon Manga Eiga-Sha.
Momotarō’s Divine Sea Warriors - 1945
Tora the Stray Cat - 1945
In 1947 the film Suke-neko Tora-Chan (Tora the Stray Cat) toured with the film The Tale of the Grey Starling’s Tree, however Tora the Stray Cat has a convoluted credit list as it is both credited by being made by Tōhō and Masaoka Kenzō’s Nihon Manga Eiga-Sha studios. Tōhō is on the production credits but as a participating studio. However, this film was still done in impoverished conditions due to the lack of cels during the post war era.
The idea of the union was brought over by the Occupation and while it started out as a way to make sure animation studios had resources and substance it later would be brought into a political light. These Unions were the Japanese Motion Picture, Theatrical Workers Union and the All-Japan Union Association. The union of unions would publish a list of war criminals, people who worked as the Shadow Staff as well as people who worked on propaganda films during the war. The faction who published it wanted to get rid of all those who had been associated with the war. This caused tension at studios due to them working with C-grade war criminals as people with any record with working on propaganda films were apt to be called out. Following this several more union actions would follow with an industry wide fifty-one-day general strike on October 1946. Schism would form, namely between communists and non-communists. As a result, a ‘new’ studio would be created called the Shintōhō whish was hosted in the Sōshigaya studio.
A third strike would occur and it would last 195 days. Watanabe, a former law professor, put pressure on the Tōhō studio saying that it was 2 billion yen in debt, and had three times more employees then rewired for its current film production. However, Watanabe would fire 266 people in April 1948 which was a part of his crusade against the Japanese Motion Picture and Theatrical workers Union. This caused further defections to Shintōhō.
The reaming staff at Tōhō were then suspended in May and then informed of the company’s indefinite closure in June. (Clements, 80). Rival companies would standby to take the leftover materials in the case of the company’s bankruptcy, and the people at the studio would try to fight back against their attackers but Watanabe fought back with 2,00 riot police, bulldozers, armored cars, basically everything but the battleships. The union would then back down and many animators would then become jobless or would join Nichidō. Only 60 workers remained at Tōhō and it would remain as the Educational Film Unit for several years.
The labor issuers were symptoms of larger economic issues, such as rising inflation, and the undervaluing of the yen, which was 360 yen to a dollar, forced to increase exports of the nation. However, unemployment rose and domestic consumption was repressed.
Masoka Kenzō’s studio, Nihon Manga Eiga-Sha would thankfully avoid the spat between Tōhō and Shintōhō, but his studios would not make it through the 1940’s due to Watanabe’s crusades against communists. Seo Mitsuyo sought to create a film to relive the success of the film Momotarō’s Sea Eagles’ and he wanted to create an anthromorhic adaption of Han Christian Andersen’s film Emperor’s New Clothes. However, Watanabe would cancel the film even before it was released and it would bankrupt Nihon Manga Eiga-Sha. This would cause three major animators, Obata Toshiharu, Fukui Hadekazu, and Seo to quite the industry in disgust. Furusava Hideo would leave to Nichidō animation studio where he already had connections.
During the war, very few people had access to see foreign animated films, however in the years after the war many foreign full-color full animation films. Many of these films were form America but also from European countries such as Czechoslovakia, Franc, and Britain. These films included Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, Fantasia, Lady and the Tramp, starting with 1948 with Gulliver’s Travels (which was suspiciously close to when Watanabe laid off the Tōhō workers) to 1958 with Goldilocks. As a result, this would lead many audience’s way from Japanese animations and it would be dispiriting for many Japanese animators.
With the introduction of the television, also known as ‘the brown screen’ by cinema circles, it exerted an indirect influence. Subsidy programs began to be killed off due to the rising cost of animation, and the growing adoption of television. During the 1960s many short features were on the decline, while the opposite can be said for long films. The only part of the cinema that wasn’t dropped was the pre-film commercials which animation started to hold onto both in cinemas and in television in later years. With the first commercial channel added in 1953 and more being added in 1955 and 1959 there was a need to create eye-catching ads and this is where animation came into play. Some commercials even gave way to animated short films such as Beer Mukashi-mukashi (1956, Beer through the Ages). As commercials got shorter, from 30 to 15 seconds, it became more important for companies to create something that would attract the audience and many companies would turn to animation to make most if not all of their commercials animated.
Onbu Obake - 1955
Otogi Pro (Fairytail productions or also known as ‘Tatami Productions’ by staff) was an animation studio created by Yokoyama Ryuichi, originally a manga artist, in 1956. He had ambitions of becoming an animation studio boss like Walt Disney, who he met in 1951, even being able to spend a few days at Disney studios itself. His first animated success was the cartoon Onbu Obake (1955, Piggyback Ghost). Then a year later he would start his own studio whish flourished between the late 1950s and 60s. The film Piggyback Ghost was the longest japanese animated film to be released in over a decade, as well as being in full color. His studio would release another animated short Fukusuke in 1957. However, Fukusuke would be the companies high point. After working with the TBS animated television series in 1962, Otogi Manga Calendar, a series of 312 3 minute shorts and this would lead to many new animation opportunities however Yokoyama had taken his experiment as far as he had wanted and didn’t expand his capabilities beyond that of the television special.
Rakin/Bass, an animation studio, exported much of the animation work to Japan. During the 1960s, 70s, and into the 80s many foreign ‘American’ films were animated in Japan. One such film was Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer (1964). While this fact was never secret it was overshadowed by big-named celebrities who supplied the voices and songs. These contracts in America would sustain many Japanese Animators during this time and they would form a fundamental part of supposedly ‘American’ works.
Tōei Dōga Studios
During the 1950s it saw an unsuccessful attempt by animators to participate in international film, in terms of ownership. Ashida Iwao, who was a member of the Shadow Staff was able to churn out several films for the American Market such as the film Mori no Ongakukai (1953, The Forest Orchestra?) and two other shorts over the next five years. He also supposedly had worked on an unknown twenty-minute film Osuaro no Okoku (The Kingdom of the Monkey). However, his animation studio saw little presence in Japanese Cinemas and within a decade he disappeared.
Nichidō was the largest surviving group of Japanese animators formed around major animators Masaoka Kenzō, Mori Yasuji, and Yabushita Taiji. It had a precarious existence until 1956 in which it was acquired by Tōei, and Tōei Dōga (Tōei Animation). Tōei was officially formed in 1951 and it became the newest of Japan’s big five animation studios. Tōei not only brought in Nichidō studios but also sought acquisition in stop motion animation; it was on a bit of a spending spree in investing in animating technology.
Ōkawa Hiroshi, at Tōei productions, would try and focus on making animation as the main attraction, just like Disney had done with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937). He first projects for the studio were two animated short cartoons and a short propaganda project Hanuman no Atarashii Bōken (1957, The New Adventures of Hanuman). This film was an anti-Communist parable, and it was commissioned for the Amrican embasy in Bangkok.
Hakujaden - 1958
Ōkasa pursued and audience in Asia and pursued a co-production from the Shaw Brothers, from Hong Kong, to make a full color live-action film Byaku Fujin no Yōren (1956, Madame White Snake). The Release of that film was immediately followed by announcement that Tōei would produce a fully animated remake. This film was Hakujaden (1958) and it was not only intended for an object for export but also as an advertisement of the animation division. It was the first post-war full-length and colored feature, but also first to be screened in the US. Not only this but it helped to lure animators to the studio, including recruits such as Miyazaki Hayao and Takahata Isao.
After the success of Hakujaden Tōei would then proceed to make a full feature length film every year. Due the amount of staff and the fact that they didn’t have different films at different stages at once many workers worked on different work or just sat idle. As a result he sought to have amateurs trained in in a matter of months eventually they would foster an increase in available animators, but at the same time a loss in quality, as can be seen with the 1962 release of Sinbad the Sailor. Due to the low wages of animators in training/low ranking animators many employees would leak the training program in search of work elsewhere. Employees would then seek better working conditions and would eventually lead the the companies first labor dispute.
Many animators saw Tōei training program as more of a form of low paying labor that they couldn’t even eat a balanced diet. Not only that but they had wide ranging pay rates, not only between men and women but also between high-school graduate and college graduates. The highest paid were men at the top of the company, and the lowest were women with a high school diploma working as a contractor. It was viewed that single men were the most loyal and were, seemingly, more willing to take on overnight shifts. This not only affected their health but also worthier of promotion. This would lead to notable lapses in health of the staff, often referred to as ‘anime syndrome.’
Due to these working conditions staff sought to create a union at Tōei demands were a list of grievances that allude to their working conditions in 1960. These negotiations would eventually turn hostile in September if 1961 with the studio refusing to give an end of year bonus demanded by the union. There would eventually be a lockout of the staff at the studio and this would last until December in which the studio agreed to their original list of grievances so long as they could decide the bonuses for their staff. The staff that was the most active agitators was pressured from management and their colleagues to toe the line, which leads to the defection of many animators from the company.