Author: TE/Anitama Cover Source: Memories
Among the more than 100 animation companies in Japan, there is a company with a very personal character and rarely commercial TV animation, and this year happens to be their 30th anniversary, on this National Day, we will learn about this maverick company that has persisted to the present - Studio 4 °C.
Studio 4°C的logo。
In 1986, Studio 4°C (commonly referred to as S4C or 4 degrees) was established. Similar to the company's unique style, S4C is different from other animation companies, first of all, the company's president is a woman, and secondly, it basically does not produce TV animation, from these two points, it is very different from many animation companies in Japan. The female president, Eiko Tanaka, graduated from Aoyama University's Department of English Literature, and began to work in the animation industry from an advertising agency in 1983 as an animation producer, and when Studio Ghibli was going to produce "Totoro", she was responsible for the production of the entire film.
Eiko Tanaka herself.
During the production of "Totoro", Eiko Tanaka heard about another animated theatrical version of "Akira" that was being produced at the same time, because the supervision of Katsuyo Otomo had strict requirements for the work, and while the picture was refined, the production schedule lagged behind expectations, afraid that it would not be able to catch up with the scheduled release time. She took the production team of "Totoro" to help the production team of "Akira", which greatly accelerated the production progress, which made Katsuyo Otomo grateful, and she also knew the members of the entire production team of "Akira". Feeling the help of the production team of "Totoro", in return, when Ghibli's next work, "Witch House Rush", rushed to work, the production team members of "Akira" also returned the favor and went to help. You know, many of the people in the production team of "Akira" were big names who were later promoted to animation supervisors or painting supervisors, and Eiko Tanaka got a lot of connections, which is one of the reasons why S4C was able to bring together so many excellent animation talents to make films.
It was during this mutual aid that Eiko Tanaka became acquainted with Koji Morimoto. Although it is the golden age of Japanese animation, the entire market is booming because of the glory of Japan's bubble economy, but in the production of traditional TV animation, it still continues the one-shot three-money method pioneered by Osamu Tezuka, and the theatrical animation with large investment is not independently completed by ordinary companies. The two sides felt this, and together with another master of painting, Yoshiharu Sato, founded Studio 4 °C, the water is the most dense at 4 °C, taking this name, it is their goal of "making something of higher density and higher quality than ordinary animation".
Koji Morimoto (middle) and Ryoko Yodanaka (right).
At first, S4C only participated in the outsourcing of other animations in the name of the studio, as the founder, Eiko Tanaka was responsible for the negotiation and operation of external work, Koji Morimoto was responsible for specific work, and as for the third Sato Yoshiharu, he was more involved in Ghibli's work. Although they have great hopes for S4C, the road has to be taken step by step, and the initial focus of the establishment is to consider how to survive. A few years after its establishment, S4C participated in the production of other animations while exercising the new members after training, in order to accumulate strength and wait for a blockbuster moment. After waiting for many years, I finally waited for this opportunity, which is the Memory Trilogy Memory.
Memories movie poster.
Memories is an animated theatrical version based on Katsuyo Otomo's original short manga, consisting of three different stories, namely "Her Memories", "The Stinkiest Weapon", and "Cannon Street", which was also divided into three groups when it was made into animation, and was also produced by different people and companies. It was the relationship established during the previous "Akira" period, coupled with Koji Morimoto's friendship with Katsuyo Otomo, so this time Otomo Katsuyo finally decided to hand over "Her Memories" and "Cannon Street" to S4C for animation production, and the other "Stinky Weapon" was responsible for another veteran animation company Madhouse, which was also the first open cooperation between the two companies, and the two sides would intersect again.
Since Katsuhiro Otomo himself directed the third "Street of Cannons", the second "Stinkiest Weapon" was handed over to Okamura Tensai and led by the Madhouse team, and the first "Her Memories" had Koji Morimoto as the animation supervisor, and it was equipped with a production lineup that now seems very luxurious. Katsuhiro Otomo, katsuhiro Ōtomo, script toshi Imatoshi, director of characters and painting, Mitsuo Iso, Yoko Sugano, and director koji Morimoto and producer Eiko Tanaka, just seeing this list can make people very excited. Think about it, Katsuhiro Otomo's original work, Imatoshi's script, Koji Morimoto's production, such a dream combination has now become a masterpiece.
This animation production is the first time that S4C has appeared as a meta please, and it is also the official appearance of the name Studio 4°C in the Japanese animation industry. At the same time, S4C has also established contacts with many animators because of this cooperation. Later, the re-collaboration with some directors was based on this unity and harmony, such as the cooperation with Yoko Kanno, a talented musician, after "Memories", Koji Morimoto and Yoko Kanno produced a musical-themed animation short story "Sound Life".
Memories tidbit documentary.
The production of "Her Memories" took three years before and after, for Koji Morimoto, this work, whether it is the theme or the form of expression, is what he likes, so he still feels very happy to make it, but because the time before and after is too long, resulting in some pictures in the early stage, and later he feels that he can do better, but if he wants to modify it, it will take more energy, and he can only give up, making him regret it. Because in "Her Memories", music as an important element of the plot, connecting the development of the story, makes Morimoto pay attention to the performance of music, especially the combination of music and animation pictures, so that he constantly thinks and studies at the same time, resulting in the production of a pure performance of music animation works, which is the music animation MV "EXTRA" that later made him famous.
Another short story, "Cannon Street", was handled by Katsuhiro Otomo, who took over the positions of original work, script, human design, art, and supervision, and other positions such as painting supervisor Shuichi Obara and technical design Katamoto Nao, which can be regarded as auxiliaries. The stronger part of this "Cannon Street" is its one-shot production method, from the beginning to the end, the middle cut, all the way down, which is also the first one-shot to the end work in the history of Japanese animation. In the documentary about memories production, you can see how the members of S4C racked their brains to bring all the background images together during the production of Cannon Street.
Poster for Cannon Street.
After completing the Memories work, S4C began to produce its own original works, but they initially aimed at the music MV market. In 1995, Koji Morimoto produced the MV (Musical Video) of "EXTRA" by the famous Japanese electronic music composer Ken Ishii. This work is an important milestone for both S4C and Koji Morimoto, on the one hand, S4C has found its own way to survive, in addition to making theatrical version and OVA animation, it can produce high-quality short films such as music animation and advertising animation, and can show its own technology and ideas. For Koji Morimoto, this work was the beginning of his transformation from an ordinary Japanese animation worker to an artist and internationalization. This "EXTRA" caused a sensation not only in Japan, but also around the world, allowing Koji Morimoto to discover that this kind of animation that abandons various restrictions and creates as he pleases is what he really wants. So since then, Koji Morimoto has never been a supervisor of other commercial animations, devoting himself to his original work. The work "Sound Life Body" is another attempt by him, serving as the original and supervising at the same time, but also trying to use new technologies.
Animated screenshot of EXTRA.
This is an anime with an experimental component, the focus of which is that when it was produced in 1996, it tried to add computer digital painting, especially in the background, the background and some scenes in the work, using a new 3DCG rendering 2D new technology, which was also the original version of the gorgeous background of "Bad Boy". And this innovative thinking, which is one step ahead of the industry, has also been throughout the history of S4C, and it still makes them at the forefront of the times. It can be said that this 15-minute short story allows Koji Morimoto to exert his creative desire at the same time, but also allows S4C to accumulate a certain CG production technology, which is very helpful for the production of subsequent works.
In addition to supervising Koji Morimoto and Yoko Sugano, another noteworthy member of this "Sound Life" is Masaaki Yuasa, who is the human designer. This was also Yuasa's first cooperation with S4C, when Yuasa was mainly working in the "Crayon Little New Theater Edition", this time it was busy sneaking around, to do part-time work, mainly introduced by Daipei Shin, Who had previously worked with Morimoto in "Her Memories", and Yuasa had cooperated in the OVA of "Eight Dogs", knowing that Morimoto needed a helper, he introduced Yuasa Masaaki. However, after Yuasa finished this character setting, he went back to continue to work on his "Crayon Little New Theater Edition", and then the next cooperation will go to 2004's "Mind Game".
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