#toshio hirata

[roseillith]

GRIMM DOUWA: KIN NO TORI (1987) dir. TOSHIO HIRATA

[rahmamustafa99]

Hadashi no Gen 2 (1986 / Toshio Hirata)

[onepiece-song-tournament]

One Piece Character Song Tournament

Round 5

Save My Heart | You Are the One

Strawhat VAs:

Luffy - Mayumi Tanaka

Zoro - Kazuya Nakai

Nami - Akemi Okamura

Usopp - Kappei Yamaguchi

Sanji - Hiroaki Hirata

Chopper - Ikue Ohtani

Robin - Yuriko Yamaguchi

[the-monkey-ruler]

Gokū no Daibōken (1967) 悟空の大冒険

Director: Osamu Tezuka / Gisaburo Sugii / Yu Dezaki / Ryosuke Takahashi / Masami Hata / Toshio Hirata / Sadao Tsukioka / Hideo Nishimaki Screenwriter: Osamu Tezuka / Ryotake Suzuki / Toshio Hirata / Hideo Nishimaki Starring: Kazuko Masuyama / Eiko Masuyama / Nachi Nozawa / Junpei Takiguchi / Kinya Aikawa / Shinsuke Chikaishi / Ichiro Nagai / Joji Yanami / Shūo Otsuka / Setsao Wakui / Mariko Mukai / Hiroshi Masuoka / Masashi Amamori / Toshiji Omiya / Kazuo Kumakura / Nori Kohara / Katsue Miwa / Hiroshi Otake / Kyoshi Kobayashi / Isamu Tanaka / Kenji Utsumi / Takuzo Kamiyama /Komiyama Kiyoshi / Ryusuke Shiomi Genre: Animation Country/Region of Production: Japan Language: Japanese Date: 1967-01-07 (Japan) Number of episodes: 39 Single episode length: 23 minutes Also known as: Goku no Daiboken / 孙悟空の大冒険 / 孙悟空的大冒险 IMDb: tt0997021 Type: Reimanging

Summary:

Journey to the West, one of the four great Chinese classical novels, has taken on a completely different look in the hands of the Japanese manga master Osamu Tezuka. Sun Wukong, who was born from a stone, once dominated the world and made a living by cutting people on the streets. Later, he was imprisoned by the evil king and met Little Draong Girl. After that, he became a disciple of Draong Immortal, and not only learned 72 transformations, but also got the precious Ruyi Jingu Bang. Sun Wukong, who had greatly increased his abilities, gathered in the mountains and forests, robbed the rich and helped the poor, and even alarmed the heavens, causing a series of good dramas in the heavens. In the end, he was suppressed under the Five Fingers Mountain by the Buddha because he overestimated his own abilities. With the help of the timid Tang Monk, Sun Wukong regained his freedom. Later, they met Zhu Bajie, who was wearing a suit and a bow tie, and Sha Wujing, who loved money and dug for treasures everywhere. The master and his disciples thus embarked on a dangerous and fun adventure to the West...

Source: https://movie.douban.com/subject/2154391/

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ_Sk4feb9M

[some-velvet-morning]

pet shop of horrors (1999, dir. toshio hirata)

[izimbracreenshots]

Bobby's Girl by Toshio Hirata, 1985

[op-charasong-index]

Main Index

(Each character with three or more songs is listed here. The links lead to individual posts compiling all their music. If you’re looking for a character with two or less songs (eg Sabo), type in “op-charasong-index.tumblr.com/tagged/(character name here)+sings”.

Luffy (voiced by Mayumi Tanaka)

Zoro (Voiced by Kazuya Nakai)

Nami (voiced by Akemi Okamura)

Usopp (voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi)

Sanji (voiced by Hiroaki Hirata)

Chopper (Voiced by Ikue Otani)

Robin (voiced by Yuriko Yamaguchi)

Franky (voiced by Kazuki Yao)

Brook (voiced by Cho)

Jinbe (voiced by Daisuke Gori and Katsuhisa Hoki) 

Vivi (voiced by Misa Watanabe)

Ace (voiced by Toshio Furukawa)

Law (voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya)

[givemefreshtofu]

Fair, then Partly Piggy (1988), Toshio Hirata

[sirfowlman]

The charmingly animated witch dance from the 1987 anime film Grimm’s Fairy Tale: The Golden Bird (グリム童話 金の鳥). Directed by the late great Toshio Hirata (平田敏夫).  A hidden cartoony gem from Madhouse & Toei Animation, loosely based on the tale of The Golden Bird that was made famous by The Brothers Grimm.

Special thanks to Animation Obsessive on Twitter for bringing this movie to my attention. Follow them for more rare, interesting & underappreciated animation tidbits from around the world.

The Toei Manga Film Festival poster.

The film is loosely based on the story collected by the brothers Grimm. With some elements taken from other similar & related stories such as the Hungarian tale of The Blind King (A vak király), which included a witch & a golden horse, while the Witch’s “cat-bats” are original creations. Clocking in at 52 minutes, I’d say give it a watch. You can find versions of varying quality on sites like YouTube. An official HD version is available through Amazon Japan, but I have yet to find an English translation of any kind. Though it was released in various parts of Asia & Europe, such as Greece. No relation to Grimm’s Fairy Tale Classics anthology series by Nippon Animation & Saban Entertainment.

From Left to Right: King Kane Match, The “Cat-Bats”, The Evil Witch with the Golden Bird, Prince Warner, King Kaiser, Rulu the Magic Fox, Prince Hans, Princess Lauren, Prince Collyer & King White Rose. (Image Source)

The characters look like they may have been influenced by the minimalistic & shapely anime & cartoons from the 50s & 60s, a style made popular by the likes of UPA. The Witch’s design also reminds me of Rita Repulsa from Power Rangers & Yzma from Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove (No wonder I like her).

Japanese Voice Cast: (Translated character names are tentative)

Katsue Miwa (Mokuba Kaiba, Fuchikoma, Enya Baba) as Prince Hans, son of King Kaiser & youngest royal brother.

Noko Konoha as Princess Lauren

Toshiko Fujita (Taichi Yagami/Tai Kamiya) as Rulu the Magic Fox

Kohei Miyauchi (Master Roshi) as King Kaiser, the father of Hans, Collyer & Warner.

Junpei Takiguchi (Fortuneteller Baba, Elder Guru, Porunga, Abe Simpson) as the evil King Kane Match.

Toshio Furukawa (Piccolo, Portgas D. Ace) as Prince Collyer, the oldest of the three royal brothers.

Keiko Yamamoto (East Kai, Choromatsu) as Prince Warner, the second oldest of the three royal brothers.

Takeshi Aono (Dr. Wily, The Joker, Kami, King Piccolo, Colonel Roy Campbell) as King White Rose, Lauren’s short tempered father.

Joji Yanami (King Kai, Boyacky, Gennai) as “Pinky” the giant pink bird, a giant alcoholic bird. (No relation to the Golden Bird)

Isamu Tanonaka (Igor, Krang, Piccolomon/Piximon), Kōzō Shioya (Buu, Gonzo) & Kazumi Tanaka (Jeice, The Fear, Shoichi Busujima) as the Witch’s “Cat-Bats”.

Kei Tomiyama (Bugs Bunny, Tochiro Oyama, Odate Pig, Ringo Star, Time Bokan series narrator) as the evil Witch.

[squidtree]

Kin no Tori (The Golden Bird)-dir Toshio Hirata

[screenshothaven]

Unico-1981

[cursecharming]

Pet Shop of Horrors (1999) dir. Toshio Hirata

[onepiece-song-tournament]

One Piece Character Song Tournament

Round 1, Part 5

Save My Heart | Utae! Jingle Bells

Strawhat VAs:

Luffy: Mayumi Tanaka

Zoro: Kazuya Nakai

Nami: Akemi Okamura

Usopp: Kappei Yamaguchi

Sanji: Hiroaki Hirata

Chopper: Ikue Ohtani

Robin: Yuriko Yamaguchi

[almasexya]

Attack of the Giant Rainbow Monster (Gamera vs Barugon, 1966)

Remember how around the time Godzilla vs. Mothra came out, the series settled into what would become more or less the formula for the series? Well, Gamera only took one sequel to get there.

The first sequel for Daiei’s fledgling kaiju series, Gamera vs. Barugon is a bit of an aberration when compared with the rest of the big turtle’s 60s and 70s offerings. For one, there’s not a kid in sight. Well okay, there’s a few clutching their parents in an underground shelter, but an expy of the wretched Toshio from the last film is nowhere to be seen. Secondly, of all the Gamera movies, vs. Barugon is probably the only one that has something that can be called a plot.

Don’t get me wrong here, this is still a Gamera film. The monster suits are still pretty goofy looking, and the action is nowhere near even a mediocre Toho offering, but Gamera vs. Barugon is still a far more mature movie than its predecessor, and honestly quite a bit more mature than a lot of Toho’s plots. Well, kind of, anyway.

Quite a bit of this can likely be attributed to the new director for the project, Shiegeo Tanaka, who had been directing for Daiei since the 30s. Noriaki Yuasa stayed on as the special effects director, with Niisan Takahashi penning the script. Even though a lot of the old team is here, Tanaka clearly had a vision for this film, because it really is nothing like what came before or would come since.

The plot gets going almost immediately, with the rocket ship carrying Gamera getting blown up by a stray meteor, causing the angry turtle to go careening back to Earth on the hunt for energy, or so the narrator, who is apparently necessary for some reason, tells us. After a neat scene involving destruction of a dam, the real plot gets going.

A trio of treasure hunters, Hirata (Kojiro Hongo), Kawajiri (Yuzo Hayakawa), and Onodera (Koji Fujiyama) head off to New Guinea in search of a massive opal that Hirata’s disabled brother found there during WWII. The trio struggles to reach the cave that holds the opal, a journey that ends in Kawajiri’s untimely death by scorpion (that Onodera conveniently forgets to warn him about). Hirata finds the gem, after which Onodera steals it, causes a cave in, and escapes.

Onodera, like the despicable Nelson from Mothra, is a real son of a bitch who fits in well in the pantheon of kaiju villains you just love to hate. Using a heat lamp to cure a bad case of athlete’s foot on the ship home, he leaves the lamp trained on the opal by accident, which quickly hatches into a tiny lizard that, before long, has grown to gargantuan proportions.

Meet Gamera’s opponent, Barugon! No, not the floppy eared lovable burrower from that Toho film with Frankenstein in it, this is someone completely new, elevating this film beyond just an okay kaiju movie into something really special.

Yep, that’s our boy. While Gamera has always looked a bit stupid and dare I say it, cheap, Barugon is on a whole other level, with chintzy looking skin, giant doll eyes, and a habit of shooting deadly rainbows out of his back (no, I’m not kidding). I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention his extendable tongue that shoots out freezing gas, or his absolutely ear-grating roar. Setting a trend for Gamera’s rogues gallery, Barugon feels like Homer Simpson’s makeup shotgun in kaiju form, with a whole bunch of ideas mashed together regardless of how ridiculous they sound or if they even make sense.

So of course, Gamera shows up so the two of them can duke it out in a bloody spectacle, something that will quickly become commonplace in the series, until Gamera gets frozen and taken out of commission for the rest of the movie. The fight itself is fairly lacking, more reminiscent of a couple of guys in rubber suits kind of whacking at each other and lumbering around, but Tanaka’s direction lends both this fight and the finale with some gravitas as the two square off in the burned out ruins of Kobe. This is the best cinematography you're going to get out of a Gamera film until the 90s, so you'd better enjoy it.

After that we get the requisite scenes of the military trying to stop Barugon and failing, though at the very least Onodera gets his in a truly satisfying end. I won’t get into the really hokey stuff, like the military’s plan to use a giant mirror to reflect Barugon’s rainbow of death back at him, or the big monster’s strange penchant for diamonds, but sufficed to say that it doesn’t end up mattering too much, because Gamera shows up to finish the job in a particularly brutal fashion.

Honestly though, I could almost say I enjoyed the adventure story of the quest for the opal rather than the big monster fights that make up the second half of the film. The actors all do a good job playing their characters, and the plot is easy enough to follow that it leaves you feeling invested in Hirata’s quest to get justice on Onodera, and to its credit the film manages to still fit their story in once the kaiju start stomping around.

All in all, if you’re going to watch one Gamera film from this era, make it this one.

[some-velvet-morning]

pet shop of horrors (1999, dir. toshio hirata)

[izimbracreenshots]

The Acorns and the Wildcat by Toshio Hirata, 1988