toco toco — Season 1, Episode 23: Manabu Ōhashi, Animator and Character-designer

Episode synopsis

In today’s episode, one of Japanese animation’s living legends, Manabu Ōhashi, will take us to Asagaya visit the Laputa Cinema located in Asagaya, a unique cinema showing old Japanese film where he goes often. Laputa, with its unique building design and hidden entrance, is a perfect spot to discover traditional Japanese cinema, or just to relax around a cup of coffee. In the second part of the episode, Manabu Ōhashi takes us to the Laputa Art Animation School, where he is lecturing every week. This school offers a unique curriculum, which as opposed to normal animation schools, is not aimed for students pursuing a career in animation but enrolls students who never did any animation work before. These students get the opportunity to liberate their creativity by overseeing a project from scratch throughout the year. Manabu Ōhashi, who worked on iconic projects such as Ashita no Joe 2, Cobra or Robot Carnival, will then introduce his work as an animator in addition to his vision of the work style in Japanese animation. Lastly, he will introduce " Chibi neko no Tom no daibōken ", an old project directed by Ryōtarō Nakamura, that was brought back to life through crowdfunding.

About toco toco

toco toco is a program where Japanese artists and creators introduce places in Japan that inspire them. No scripted text or guidance, guests speak naturally and are free to choose any place they like. “toco toco” is the onomatopoeia to describe the sound of footsteps in Japanese, for the walks we go on together with our guests.

More episodes from Season 1

• E1Yusuke Shigeta, digital artist
• E2Soryo Matsumura, tea ceremony master
• E3Michihito Fujii, film director
• E4Hima://Kawagoe, illustrator
• E5Wagashi Asobi, Japanese traditional confectioners
• E6Professor Sakamoto, 8-bit musician
• E7Kyoka, electronic musician and artist
• E8Arisa Katayama, Walking Bicycle project leader
• E9Riyoo Kim, ceramic artist
• E10Fuyuki Kanai, illustrator and performer
• E11Ayaka Matsuno, cookie artist
• E12Montblancs, comedy duo