2009 Japan Media Arts Festival Animation Division Excellence Prize Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

Excellence Prize

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

Artist : TACHIBANA Masaki

(Japan)

During their summer holiday, Mirai, a 13-year-old girl, visits Odaiba in Tokyo with her 9-year-old brother, Yuuki, when a massive 8.0 magnitude earthquake hits the mega-city! People are driven to despair at the sight of the ruined city…. By chance, the children run into Mari, a single mother and bicycle messenger, and join her. The three set out for their respective homes, where their families might be waiting. Will they really be able to see their loved ones again?

TACHIBANA Masaki

Born in 1976, TACHIBANA Masaki first stage-directed a TV anime series, Wild Arms: Twilight Venom, and was in charge of storyboarding and stage-directing in works such as the series, Ghost in the Shell: S. A. C. After working as a director for the first time on The King of Fighters: Another day, a bonus gift for early purchasers of a game, he was chosen to be the director of Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. He works for KINEMA CITRUS Co. Ltd.

Every animation is both fiction and fantasy even if its story is based on fact. Many works treating this kind of topic have tried to depict the fear in an extremely realistic manner through high-quality pictures and artwork. As a result, the animations become an “excellent fantasy.” However an earthquake is “reality.” This work is fully illustrates this. In the development after the middle part of the story, the work changes from mere fantasy to super reality. Many viewers will be moved at the point where the main character’s sister reaches her destination in the last part. Father, mother, big brother, big sister, little brother, little sister, grandfather, grandmother, boyfriend, girlfriend, best friends—the work reminds us not only of the fragility of the world in which we live, but also of the importance of the people around us in our daily life. We may lose those we love tomorrow. The sense of loss depicted in this work is real, and in this sense, it is an incomparable masterpiece.

What makes you create a work?

In my early days at elementary school, I was shocked when I watched a movie on the huge screen at the civic center. I’ve been interested in images since then.

What tools do you use the most at present?

Paper and pencils

What do you place greatest value on in your work?

Depicting the interior of humans.

What personal concept runs through your creative activities?

Creating a work which can communicate itself to people.

When you create a work, in what way do you think of a presentation using technologies or media as a means to communicate?

It involves the limits of presentation, and at the same time gives me an opportunity to try my luck with my ideas. If I can surprise viewers and make them say, “How are such things possible with this technology and these media?” it will be very interesting, and so on.

Could you name a person, a work, or an event that has most influenced you?

The Neverending Story directed by Wolfgang PETERSEN, which I saw at an event for elementary school children at the civic center. I talked excitedly about the film with my friends back at school. It was a new experience for me to share an imaginary world with others after watching a film.