Otaku Meets Tradition at Kyoto International Film and Art Festival 2017 [Event Report]

Kyoto International Film and Art Festival 2017 was held for four days between October 12 and 15. This is the fourth year this festival has been held, and in honor of 2017 being the 100th year anniversary since the birth of Japanese anime, they added an Animation category to the film festival.

They held six screenings as part of the Animation category. The screenings included the short film series of G9+1 Project and Anime Tamago 2016. The other showings were The Dog of Flanders, Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal, Kokuhaku Jikko Iinkai - Romance Series, and Gekijouban Hakuouki: Daiishou Kyoto Ranbu. These various works have one big thing in common: they’re all set in Kyoto!

G9+1 is possibly the world’s oldest animation writer’s group, since the members have an average age of 73.5 years. This screening featured four short films ranging in length from 6 to 29 minutes. It also included a talk event with the group members, allowing audiences to hear about the techniques and imaginations of some veteran creators of Japanese animation.

Anime Tamago 2016 was a screening of a series of shorts from up-and-coming animators that were chosen from the “Young Animator Development Project” of the Agency of Cultural Affairs. These animators are sure to have illustrious careers ahead of them!

The festival also included an art exhibition called “The World of Kyoto Through Animation” that featured The Eccentric Family and Gekijouban Hakuouki: Daiishou Kyoto Ranbu. The exhibition highlighted works that used Kyoto as the background scenery. The Eccentric Family is especially known for the beautiful art techniques used to animate modern Kyoto as realistically as possible.

While not directly connected to the Kyoto International Film and Art Festival, the city is currently in the middle of various anime, manga, and pop culture collaborations such as with ONE PIECE and Rilakkuma. The city of Kyoto actively collaborates with anime and manga fairly often, so you’re sure to find something interesting even though the festival is over!

The city itself is a setting for many stories, so it’s considered a great place to visit if you want to check out locations from your favorite anime and manga. Why not head to Kyoto and check out all sights otaku?

(C)G9+1
(C)文化庁 あにめたまご2016
(C)THE DOG OF FLANDERS PROD.
(C)和月伸宏／集英社・アニプレックス
(C)Honey Works Movie
(C)IF ・DF／「劇場版 薄桜鬼」製作委員
(C)小林賢太郎/シグナル・エムディ/トゥインクル・コーポレーション
(C)Beyond C.
(C)武右ェ門
(C)手塚プロダクション
(C)森見登美彦･幻冬舎／｢有頂天家族２｣製作委員会

This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article.