The FICCI Frames’ dedicated session on Japan-India partnerships was moderated by Ashish Kulkarni, CEO, Reliance Animation. The panel consisted of Yuji Nunokawa, (Chairman of AJA (Association of Japanese Animation), also CEO of animation studio Pierrot, Co.Ltd.; Yoshihiko Shinoda, Head of Media Content DIvision, Asatsu-DK Ltd., Steering Committee member of AJA, Producer of Doraemon, Crayon-shinchan and other famous Japanese animation TV and movie; Shuzo Shiota; CEO of Polygon Pictures, received many awards in CG/VFX, Producer of “Muybridge’s strings”; Naohiro Shichiko, Professor; and Munjal Shroff, COO, Graphiti Multimedia.
The session was an interactive session with the Japanese delegation from animation industry speaking about their own properties and perspectives. It explored the opportunities that exists in Indian and Japanese animation market for mutual benefits and also explored the co-production opportunities.
Yuji Nunokawa spoke about the various properties of Pierrot like Doraemon, Naruto, Bleach. Pierrot Company was established in the year 1979 and has produced over 90 TV series and 30 theatrical series. Artists in Pierrot Studio creates around 5000 hand drawn frames for a 30 min episode. According to Yuji Nunokawa, the animation property meant for the complete family usually have long-lasting life in Japan. As an expample he mentioned Doreamon that is on-air for around 30 years.
According to Yoshihiko Shinoda Japanese Animation is good because of the good stories on which it is based. To emphasis the point he mentioned, “There are 5000 comic writers in Japan as a result of which Japan produces 288 comics every year!” Most of the successful Japanese properties are based on comics.
Polygon Pictures established in the year 1983 concentrates more on CGI animation in a country known for its classic 2D animation. The studio successfuly running for 29 years has been initially involved in character design and development. It has developed a Penguin looking character for a TVC qand has retained the rights for the character. Polygon Pictures has made 140 million USD in the sales of merchandise based on this characeter.
Munjal Shroff the clip from the movie Ramayana. The film was made 20 years ago as a joint venture between India and Japan. India handled the pre-production of the feature while the production was done in Japan. This 1992 Indo-Japanese traditional animation feature film was directed by Yugo Sako and Ram Mohan, produced by Sako and Krishna Shah. According to Munjal, Ram Mohan has conducted workshop in Japan to explain Japanese animators to animate the characters in an Indian style and not the Japanese style.
On Ashish Kulkarni’s statement that people in Japan travels a lot just to read Manga comics, Yuji Nunokawa said, “You are completely right! On any monday morning you’ll not only find a school boy reading a Manga comic while travelling but you’ll also find a suited man reading the same manga comic.” To this Shuzo Shiota added, “The appeal to the same Manga comic is very diverse.”
On the audiences query that whether Indian animation will be accepted in Japan as India has readily accepted Japanese animation, Naohiro Shichiko replied, “Animation will be accepted everywhere irrespective of the language or culture. Indian animation will be accepted in Japan if the story and art is appealing”.
Why Japanese animation is so successful? Ashish Kulkarni answered, “India doesn’t have 5000 writers writing 288 comics every year!” Naohiro Shichiko added, “Japan has many vocational schools and FIne Arts colleges. And many Universities teaches Animation and related courses.”
Munjal pointed, “Recovering investments from a single territory is not possible. And the Asian countries should come forward and collaborate to make something for the global or atleast Asian audience. And Asian countries are also suited to work together because we do share certain values and ethics with each other”.
The session was concluded and was followed by the scheduled one-on-one meetings with the Japanese delegate.