Japanese Animation and New Media

Lecture Two: Chapter Three: Compositing

Just as Cartesianism is not a neutral set of techniques but a regime of visuality grounded in and associated with one-point perspective, so cinematism is not simply a set of techniques to impart a sense of movement into depth.  In the works of Paul Virilio, cinematism is associated with perceptual logistics, optical ballistics, and an instrumentalized regime of visuality.  Cinematism is also grounded in one-point perspective.  But, by producing movement into depth in accordance with one-point perspective, cinematism covers the world with a grid the allows for the rationalization of space and time in accordance to speed (unit of distance per unit of time).  Under conditions of movement, the vanishing point of one-point perspective becomes a target.

In prewar Japanese animation, especially between 1931 and 1945, that is, during the Fifteen-Year Asia-Pacific War, there are signs that cinematism is becoming the dream of animation.  There is an effort of produce effects of movement into depth, and these tend to be associated with weaponry, ballistic technologies, optical devices, and targeting.

Let’s look at some examples in chronological order.

In this clip from Sora no Momotarô (Momotaro of the skies, 1931), although there is no actual movement into depth, binocular-shaped irises are superimposed on the image to create an effect of looking through binoculars, in this case at the enemy Eagle who is impeding Japan’s flow of resources in the southern seas.

In this clip from Norakuro nittôhei (Norakuro, second class, 1933), we see the bumbling stray black dog Norakuro speeding down a road in a truck.  The view of movement is initially lateral, but then in one sequence, the lines of road are drawn into one-point perspective and are animated to create a sense of the truck speeding down the road toward us.  The effects are intentionally comic, for Norakuro is the inept solider whose bumbling somehow always produces a victory for the Japanese dog brigade.  Nonetheless, the moment of movement into depth is associated with a speeding vehicle.

In this first clip from Momotarô no umiwashi (Momotaro’s sea eagles, 1942), which stages the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor using the folklore hero Momotaro (Peach Boy) and his companion animals (monkey, dog, pheasant), there are a series of techniques that associate vision with ballistics, targeting, and movement into depth.  First, a view from the cockpit at planes flying ahead gives the impression of seeing from the speeding plane, even though there is no compositional indication of depth, and the planes are moving laterally.  Second, the monkey aligns his eyes with the gun, bringing vision and ballistics together.  Third, a panoramic view of Pearl Harbor from the plane gives the impression of mastery over it, which is underscored in the next clip by the superimposition of target indictors onto the images of Pearl Harbor to transform them into targets.

Finally, in the clip below from Momotarô, umi no shinpei (Momotaro’s Divine Navy, 1945), the viewing position is initially associated with bombs and bullets converging on a target and later with the tank’s targeting as it moves down the road.

In all of these examples, even though the actual images are often flat, various optical devices are superimposed on the image in order to frame the viewing position in accordance with a militarized ballistics of perception.  This is a precursor of cinematism, and it entails a kind of closed compositing.  By centring and focusing our viewing position on a target, or by directing movement toward the target, the image draws our attention away from the sliding layers of the animated image.

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