Those with any interest in animation, Japanese animation or Japanese cinema and history in general are in for a rare treat with the Japan Society’s four day festival/retrospective titled “Dawn of Japanese Animation.” The short films on display are broadly divided into four categories, each playing on a different night. The first night features chambara swordplay films and other adventure stories; the second horror and comedy shorts; the third propaganda films; and the fourth musical and dance. The films in this series help to fill in one of the gaps between the traditional Japanese graphic arts that presaged the comic book, like ukiyoe masters Yoshitoshi and Hokusai’s manga series, and the modern cultural giant that is the Japanese animation industry, a massive force of business and art increasingly prominent in international media.

As anime aficionados, or even casual viewers of children’s programming, know, there is a huge difference in style between American and Japanese animation. However, the shorts in this collection hark back to a time when both American and Japanese animation, were fresh and new, and the signatures and tropes of the two styles had not yet been fully established. These short films, dating from between 1929 and 1948, but primarily from the early thirties, exhibit signs of the then-dominant Disney house fashion (Mickey Mouse had made his first animated appearance in 1928) – rounded features, slapstick – but already were beginning to show signs of what would become Japan’s unique style.

While far from the heights (or depths, depending on what side of the cultural divide you fall on) of ultra-violence reached in the 1980s, this apparent children’s programming already had a darker side, depicting deaths in casual short films in a way more verboten in US animation. Exceptionally well-made shorts like the propaganda films “Momotaro’s Underwater Adventure” and “Sankichi the Monkey: The Air Combat” frequently depict guns as causing only harmless damage but also show terrified pilots careening through the air on fire and a gory finale to a death struggle between a submarine and a shark. Films from the adventure series are equally grue-filled.

The shorts, particularly those in the horror and adventure programs, also delve deeply into Japan’s rich culture for inspiration – many of the stories depict anthropomorphic animals in a manner making clear that they are still animals, not just humans in animal skin as in the works of Disney and Warner Brothers. Instead of humanized ducks and mice, we are given witchy tanukis and foxes playing tricks on humans, fierce octopi, and a war between the animals of the ground and of the air. The creators also mine the spirit world of yokai – goblins and demons. The long-nosed, flying tricksters known as tengu in particular play a large role in many of the stories. I was impressed particularly by “The Stolen Lump,” perhaps the most fully realized stories in the set. Drawn in a completely different and more classical style, this roughly ten minute short tells the folk tale of two men who try to impress a gathering of tengu with their dancing.

Overall, while each night contains an interesting assortment of films, I would have to say that the adventure and musical programs are the strongest. Highlights of the former include “Ninja Fireball in Edo,” an utterly incomprehensible bit of nonsense that appears to pack 15 different plotlines into its 1 min 8 second runtime; “Over a Drink,” a drunkard’s fantasy as he descends to the ocean floor and battles skeletons over sunken treasure; “The Bat,” in which the titular flying mammal finds itself in an awkward position during a war between the animals of the land and the air; and “The Plane Cabby’s Lucky Day,” which presages Japanese animation’s fascination with science fiction.

The music and dance program, on the other hand, appropriately features more original sound than the other nights. In addition to “The Stolen Lump,” the program features an animated version of the tale of Taro Urashima; “The Unlucky Butterfly,” in which a mouse steals a butterfly’s drying wings; and the wacky slapstick/morality tale “The Bear Dodger.”

Each evening’s program also is accompanied by live narration and a live-action film from the era – all but one silent and accompanied by a newly composed musical score. Samurai film buffs will be particularly excited to see “Orochi,” playing as a bonus after the Saturday program. Overall, the festival is a fantastic opportunity to immerse oneself in the origins of what has become one of the world’s most influential and important forms of media.

::: Visit the Japan Society’s Webpage