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Moyoco Anno’s The Diary of Ochibi-san manga has been animated by filmmaker Masashi Kawamura and his team which is based in both New York and Tokyo. In the making of this animated version, over 900 individual teacups and fans were used - wow! Everyone is looking forward to seeing this film that recreates the feeling that everything is happening in the real world which is so hard to capture in CGI.
The Diary of Ochibi-san is a full color manga in which Ochibi-san, who lives in Mametsubu-cho, enjoys each of seasons in turn and makes various discoveries in the process. The series began in Asahi Shimbun in 2007 but has since shifted to Aera where it is currently running and has also become popular in animated and picture book forms.
The creative team endeavouring to animate The Diary of Ochibi-san this time are a highly talented bunch. The director, Masashi Kawamura, was listed in the American magazine Creativity’s “Creative 50” list of the top 50 creators in the world in 2011. Khara, Inc., who handled animation on Evangelion, will form the basis of the animation production team, while Dwarf, Inc., who have handled photography for NHK on such projects as Domokun, will be responsible for the stop motion process.
Stop motion animation has proceeded using real world objects to express the feelings of the Japanese seasons which Ochibi-san holds so dear: hanami bento for spring, uchiwa for summer, fallen leaves for autumn, and teacups for winter. Each season only occupies about 1 minute, 30 seconds of film, but about 900 fans and 900 individual teacups were used in the making of the animation. In the making-of video “Mendokusai Seisaku Fuukei no Making Eizou” (Annoying Production Landscape" Making-of Video) you can get to understand the overwhelmingly steady state of operations. You could even say the film is the crystallization of the creative team’s endeavours - the cute and lovely The Diary of Ochibi-san stop motion animation is a must see!
The Diary of Ochibi-san Stop Motion Animation Website
Green Funding (Activity Reports)
The Diary of Ochibi-san Official Website
Moyoco Anno’s Official Website
© Moyoco Anno / Cork
© Moyoco Anno / Kamakura-shi, Mametsubu-cho Ochibi Film Production Committee
