Suginami Animation Museum
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Name: |
Suginami Animation Museum |
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Address: |
Suginami Kaikan 3F, 3-29-5 Kamiogi, Suginami Ward, Tokyo, Japan. |
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Phone: |
+81-3-3396-1510 |
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URL: |
http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tag/index.html |
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Business hours: |
10:00-18:00(admitted by 17:30) |
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Closed: |
Mondays (on national holidays closed on the day following), New Year’s holidays, and temporary closing |
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Admission: |
Free |
Suginami Ward in Tokyo is known as an anime town, where a lot of animation productions and related companies are located. Anime is created in some 400 studios in Japan, and more than 70 of these are concentrated in Suginami Ward, making this area as a true anime town. Located in this anime town, Suginami Animation Museum is not a specified artist named museum such as ‘Ghibli Museum’ (三鷹の森ジブリ美術館,), but as like Japan’s first comprehensive animation museum. It had been originally a public facility of Suginami Ward as a morgue for animation related materials since May in 2003. Then, it was promoted into the Animation Museum on March 5, 2005.
The Animation Museum provides you a fun and systematic way to learn, experience, and understand anime. In addition to an exhibition covering general information on animation, such as the history of animation and animation production process, the museum has a participatory exhibition in which visitors can actually experience dubbing and an ad-hoc exhibition featuring popular animation works and creators. The museum also invites professional creators to give talks, and organizes workshops where you can actually experience producing anime.
The museum is operated under the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA). The curator of the museum is a famous animation writer Mr. Shinichi Suzuki. He often appeared as a character ‘Mr. Koike’ in the works of Fujio Fujiko.
[Guidance of the Museum]
[1] History of Japanese anime
A timeline tracing the history of anime in Japan
When you go into the museum, a huge chronicle of Japanese anime catches your eyes. Animation was first created in Japan in 1917, but only after World War II did it begin to be produced commercially and shown regularly.
Few complete animations made during the beginnings of Japanese animation have survived. Oten Shimokawa was a political caricaturist and cartoonist who worked for the magazine Tokyo Puck. He was hired by Tenkatsu to do an animation for them. Due to medical reasons, he was only able to do five movies, including ‘Imokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no Maki’ in 1917, before he returned to his previous work as a cartoonist.
Feature-length anime films produced by Toei, a major movie company, were shown at movie theaters during summer vacation beginning in 1958, and anime first made an impact on television in 1963 with the weekly broadcasts of Astro Boy, created by Osamu Tezuka.
In 1948, Toei Animation was founded and produced the first color anime feature film in 1958, Hakujaden (The Tale of the White Serpent, 1958). This film was more Disney in tone than modern anime with musical numbers and animal sidekicks. However, it is widely considered to be the first “anime” ever, in the modern sense. Osamu Tezuka started a rival production company called ‘Mushi Productions’. The studio’s first hit Mighty Atom became the first popular anime television series in 1963. Contrary to popular belief, Atom was not the first anime series broadcast in Japan; that honor falls to Otogi Manga Calendar, which began broadcasting in 1962. The first non-series anime broadcasted was Three Tales. However, Atom was the first series to feature regular characters in an ongoing plot. American television, which was still in its infancy and searching for new programming, rewrote and adapted Atom for the US in 1964, titled differently as Astro Boy.
The chronicle area of the museum includes video footage and provides an easy-to-understand explanation of the history of Japanese anime.
[2] How Anime is Made area
Each work process under general director, drawing director, and art director is introduced from the beginning to completion of cell animation with exhibiting continuity, ‘cel-ga’ or celluloid sheet on which objects are drawn for traditional animation, and also through experience of ‘afureco’, or post recording.
Just go into the dubbing booth and you can become the voice actor for one of your beloved anime characters. Within the booth are a microphone and a screen, where Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack is projected on to the screen. You assume the role of either Black Jack or Pinoko, and after speaking your lines into the microphone, your work is played right back for you.
[3] Recent technology in Japanese animation
This corner exhibits recent process of making animations including a report from animation studios using most advance digital technology.
[4] The basic animation
You can understand what principle is based on the animated actions while learning on several devices such as zoetrope, thaumatrope, and others. A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures. A thaumatrope is a toy that was popular in Victorian times. A disk or card with a picture on each side is attached to two pieces of string. When the strings are twirled quickly between the fingers the two pictures appear to combine into a single image due to persistence of vision.
[5] Digital workshop
The museum, which has many hands-on exhibits, also has a digital workshop, where visitors can add color to illustrations and then set them in motion as animation. For anyone who thinks they might like to become an animator in the future, this is a great place to visit.
[6] Special Exhibit Zone
There is also a Special Exhibit Zone, where exhibitions on various anime series are held. The exhibition presents the world of featured series, and the many changes it has undergone in all the years since it was first created. There is also a collection of panels, exhibits, and images of the series included in the exhibit.
[7] Anime Theater & Library
The museum also has an anime theater, where anime films are shown on a 150-inch screen, as well as an anime library, where books and documents on anime can be read and filmed interviews with anime directors and producers can be viewed. Moreover, in the library filled with a rich collection of anime-related materials, you can browse through books and watch DVDs.
＜Reference materials＞
Japan Anime Tourism Guide published by Japan Tourism Agency
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://blog.asiahotels.com/anime-town/
We are very happy to introduce “Suginami Animation Museum”. If you have something to ask, please feel free to contact us. Thank you for your kind cooperation, we are looking forward to your contact.
Contact us at: http://www.tenkai-japan.com/cooltours/
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