Tag: Jasper Sharp

May 21, 2016 · 0 comments

By Jasper Sharp. At a time when digital releases from Pixar and DreamWorks had become the new monolithic style for American animation, the use of computers on such landmark titles from Japan as Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, Mind Game, Appleseed (2004) and Howl’s Moving Castle was still very much in service of an instantly […]

April 27, 2016 · 0 comments

Jasper Sharp investigates the hype over “free” animation software. Last month, a press release went out under the heading ‘TOONZ goes Open Source!’ The revolutionary 2-D animation software, developed for the professional market by the Rome-based company Digital Video in 1993 and originally distributed by Softimage as Creative Toonz, has now been placed freely within […]

March 4, 2016 · 0 comments

Jasper Sharp uncovers some animated treasures streaming for free. The word ‘anime’ only really entered the English lexicon at the beginning of the 1990s, whereas the history of Japanese animation taken as a whole stretches back at least 70 years earlier, its beginnings usually pinpointed to 1917. However, the immediate problem for curious viewers wishing […]

January 27, 2016 · 0 comments

By Jasper Sharp. Just a few stops to the west on the Sagano line from Kyoto lies the suburb of Uzumasa, an entertaining but curiously overlooked destination for tourists with more than a passing interest in Japan’s pop-cultural heritage. It is the site of Toei Kyoto Studio Park, commonly referred to by the locals as […]

December 22, 2015 · 0 comments

By Jasper Sharp. Ask anyone what Japan’s greatest contribution to the world of film is, and few would offer “film itself” as an answer. Nevertheless, by the end of the twentieth century, one of the country’s best-known brands, Fujifilm, had successfully managed to corner the global market for raw print and negative stock with its […]