Comments on: Vintage Anime

Vintage Anime

vronsky — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:41:17 -0800

Vintage anime: Evil Mickey Mouse invasion! (YT) and an even more beautiful example from 1943.

By: CitrusFreak12

CitrusFreak12 — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:18:52 -0800

I know I've seen this before somewhere, because I have a screencap of Evil Mickey riding the mickey-dactyl on my desktop. Thank you for reminding me, because this is great.

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:28:25 -0800

FUN! This one is still my favorite.

By: schwa

schwa — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:31:55 -0800

Nice to know Japanese animation was always batshit insane.

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:01:36 -0800

Not really any more batshitinsane than Western cartoons. What's exciting to me about these is that they mix the very clear influence of American animation and characters with themes and characters from traditional Japanese folklore - elements like magic, ghosts, and shapeshifting. In the American cartoons, especially the Fleischer studios cartoons that the animators clearly admire, there is a lot of random transformation - watch this Betty Boop cartoon for an example - which is strange, but not really related to anything much deeper than the flexibility of the medium.

By: IndigoJones

IndigoJones — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:04:56 -0800

Is it just me, or is that 1943 spider in blackface? (And if he is, what does this say about Japanese popular understanding of America at the time?)

By: Dizzy

Dizzy — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:35:16 -0800

I'm so glad you found this, vron. And so sad that even Mickey can turn to the Dark Side.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:05:19 -0800

He has a good side?? For those of you strange synchronicities and new ideas - try the soundtrack from this (very beautiful) video while playing the video from the "1943" link. Better than Pink Floyd / Wizard of Oz I tells ya.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:06:30 -0800

here

By: Avenger

Avenger — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:16:05 -0800

Cease and desist order from Walt Disney Co. in 5, 4, 3....

By: KokuRyu

KokuRyu — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:48:35 -0800

The 1943 YT cartoon you linked to really is beautiful. Nice post. As for: Nice to know Japanese animation was always batshit insane. Bah, what would you know? Because if what is linked to in this post is "batshitinsane", then what does that make this?

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:56:05 -0800

That's not insane, so much as it is shocking and vile. Those cartoons had a purpose - they were meant to dehumanize the "enemy" via caricature and stereotype. If there's anything insane about it, it's the mass insanity of casual racism and of the wartime mindset, but the people who made it knew exactly what they were doing.

By: Mei's lost sandal

Mei's lost sandal — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:05:52 -0800

That was nice with the sound off and Ernst Reijseger's 'Colla Parte' on in the background. My daughter left today on spring break and I choked up when the Cat-With-A-Mouse-Head had his seemed-like-a-daughter-to-me snatched up. She loves Myazaki and I miss her. Thanks for the post.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:27:29 -0800

For those of you [who appreciate] strange synchronicities... Damn! Me type pretty one day:( Thanks for that KokuRyu.