Tokyo Weekender - October 2017

Words by Alec Jordan
On the eve of his first ever major retrospective of his work at this month’s
Tokyo International Film Festival, anime director Keiichi Hara talks about why
he decided to set out on his own as a filmmaker
After graduating
from Tokyo
Designer Gakuin
College, director
Keiichi Hara was
taking a tour of the animation
studio Tokyo Movie, when he
decided to take his fate – and his
future employment – into his
own hands. He left the tour and
found Kyosuke Miyoshi, who
had directed some of the famous
Lupin the Third anime series, and
begged him for a job. Apparently
impressed with the young man’s
ardor, the artistic director asked
for Hara to come back after a
week or so with a script and a
storyboard for an episode of the
show. His creative abilities proved
a match for his initiative, and Miyoshi
got him a job at a company
that made commercials.
To say that he’s come a
long way since then would be
something of an understatement.
After more than 20 years working
as a director for commercially
successful and critically acclaimed
projects such as movies in the
Doraemon and Crayon Shin-chan
series, Hara decided to launch
his career as an independent
filmmaker, and has been able to
combine the singular vision of an auteur with the ability to bring audiences
into the theaters.
His first film as an independent director was Summer Days with
Coo, a film that depicts the adventures of an elementary school boy
who befriends a kappa, a supernatural water spirit. This was followed
by Colorful, an adaptation of a novel that retells the aftermath of a
junior high school boy’s suicide attempt. Hara turned his hand towards
live action film with Dawn of a Filmmaker: The Keisuke Kinoshita Story,
a biopic about the legendary film director Keisuke Kinoshita. (Hara
may have recognized something of a kindred spirit in Kinoshita, who
ran away from home when he was in high school in his first bid at a
career in cinema.) Finally, he took on the subject of Edo period painters
and printmakers in Miss Hokusai, which was adapted from the manga,
Colorful, ©2010 ETO MORI / FUJI TELEVISION
NETWORK, SUNRISE, DENTSU, Aniplex, Sony Music
Entertainment (Japan), TOHO All Rights Reserved.
Sarusuberi. This movie
focuses on O-Ei, one
of the daughters of the
great Edo period artist,
Hokusai, a young woman
whose talent and temper rivals that of her father.
Hara’s independent movies have drawn attention both in Japan
and overseas: Summer Days with Coo won the Grand Prize for Animation
at the 11th Japan Media Arts Festival and the Best Animation Film
award at the Mainichi Film Awards; Colorful took home the Excellent
Animation of the Year award at the Japan Academy Awards, the Best
Animation Film award at the Mainichi Film Awards, and the Audience
and Special Distinction prizes at the Annecy International Animated
Film Festival; and Miss Hokusai won the Jury Award at Annecy, as well
28 | OCTOBER 2017 | TOKYO WEEKENDER