FOREWORD by KATSUHIRO OTOMO
It was in 1958 that HAKUJADEN (白蛇伝 ), the first Japanese animated feature film in color, was made. Then came SHŌNEN SARUTOBI SASUKE (少年猿飛佐助 ), then, in 1960, SAIYUKI (西遊記) adapted from BOKU NO SON GOKU (ぼくのそんごくう) manga by Osamu Tezuka, who was credited in the film as "Original author responsible for the narrative structure'. Indeed, knowing that Tezuka was very influenced by the Disney animations that he loved,
TOEI ANIMATION (東映アニメーション) , which wanted to become the Disney of Japan, had asked the mangaka to participate in the pre-production, writing and directing of the film .
Unfortunately, things didn't go the way Tezuka hoped. It's easy to imagine how difficult it was for a young, popular and promising mangaka to get along with the artisan blacksmiths of animation. He must have felt immense frustration and bitterness. At least that's a figment of my imagination. Apologies if I extrapolate!
But isn't Osamu Tezuka a man who uses failure to bounce back? This is how he created his own company,
MUSHI PRODUCTION (虫プロダクション), in 1961, just a year after Sayuki. Was he very angry? Had this harsh ordeal triggered a real trigger in him? Still, the following year, he directed ARU MACHIKADO NO MONOGATARI (ある街角の物語) and the first episode of TETSUWAN ATOM (鉄腕アトム ).
From the start, Mushi Production operated recklessly, since, in the event of a financial deficit, Tezuka drew his mangas to cover debts.
The first Japanese television animation, Tetsuwan Atom, was created from Tezuka's own manga, so it was not subject to adaptation rights. It even ultimately generated revenue through the sale of derivative products, and this success led to the proliferation of animated television series. Rintarō's comic strip clearly shows that at the time, at the dawn of this flourishing industry, Mushi Production even ensured human resources devoid of any experience because its production system seemed attractive to certain young people. Unlike Toei animators, endowed with a real educational background and solid technical training, those of Mushi Production launched into the adventure simply being pushed by the spirit of entrepreneurship: the one who has the greatest passion is capable of doing for the best.
How exciting it was to acquire the know-how alongside older animators or the same age, despite the pressure of deadlines and the mountain of work that was piling up! In Japan, this spirit still seems to prevail in this industry.
Mushi Production faced some criticism because its preferred themes were neither educational nor emotion-based, but rather entertainment-oriented. The fact remains that society has enabled previously unknown artists to flourish. And, quite naturally, Japanese animation has moved towards the adaptation of popular manga, since young artists have naturally followed the example of Tezuka, the founder of Mushi Production, who himself adapted his own manga. one after the other. Of course, there were successes and failures!
In the 1970s, television animation therefore developed alongside the rise of manga. Japan was probably the only country experiencing such a phenomenon at the time. Rintarō, too, began directing within Mushi Production, directing works such as JUNGLE TAITEI SUSUME LEO! (ジャングル大帝 進めレオ！) or SABU TO ICHI (佐武と市), before leaving the company to become independent. His series JETTER MARS (ジェッターマルス) , GRAND PRIX NO TAKA (アローエンブレム・グランプリの鷹) and UCHŪ KAIZOKU CAPTAIN HARLOCK (宇宙海賊キャプテンハーロック) attracted the attention of the president of TOEI so much so that he entrusted Rintarō with the direction of the feature film GINGA TETSUDO 999 (銀河鉄道９９９) which was a huge success. This is how animated television series reached the level of quality of a feature film. Subsequently, feature films were screened in international festivals, then occupied a dominant place with the arrival of video cassettes, laserdiscs and DVDs. And it is therefore thanks to the influence of these precursors that today young people are creating original animations all over the world.
