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Architecture and Japanese anime shine in the release of a new book by Les Jardins des Pilotes

2020-04-27T09:26:00-04:00

Futuristic megacities and out-of-this-world cityscapes created for Japanese animated films have influenced video games, films, as well as architects and designers. Similar to the work of Syd Mead and his highly influential artwork, Japanese anime has developed a special relationship with how fictional built environments can look and feel. From beautifully hand-drawn sketches, storyboards, and paintings, anime artists and creators have expanded the worlds of Japan's "ultramodern animated films."

AKIRA - Final production background. Image courtesy of Anime Architecture/Les Jardins des Pilotes

The non-profit organization, Les Jardins des Pilotes, has dedicated their time gathering and showcasing the influential worlds of these fictional spaces in their latest book Anime Architecture. Author and curator Stefan Riekeles showcases the work of famous Japanese artists and their iconic cityscapes found in animated films like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Metropolis, 2001, to name a few.

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Studio Ghibli reveals more details of their anticipated theme park

2019-06-07T19:48:00-04:00

At a press conference in Tokyo on Friday, Studio Ghibli producer and co-founder Toshio Suzuki, Aichi governor Hideaki Omura and Chunichi CEO Uichiro Oshima laid out the basic plans for the park. The site is located within the Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park, and in keeping with director Hayao Miyazaki's strong environmental beliefs, is to be built in harmony with existing nature and without cutting down a single tree. The park will not feature roller coasters or other ride-type attractions.

The celebrated Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli announced more details of their upcoming theme park in Nagakute City, in Japan's Aichi Prefecture. The studio and their collaborative partners revealed that three areas of the 494-acre park will open in fall 2022. According to Japan Today, the “Hill of Youth Area” will feature the whimsical, steampunk architecture of the film Howl's Moving Castle; the “Dondoko Forest Area” — in reference to My Neighbor Totoro — will have walking trails; and the “Ghibli Big Warehouse Area” will feature shops, cafes, an exhibition room, and a rumored Cat Bus building. Other parts of the park, which will be modeled after the studio's other beloved films Princess Mononoke and Kiki's Delivery Service, are scheduled to open in the following year.

Geek out to the architectural drawings used in classic sci-fi anime in this London exhibition

2017-08-07T15:45:00-04:00

Each of the settings on display in the exhibit capture that promise of the future balanced with the starkness of reality. The settings also celebrate a disappearing craft—hand-drawn animation. The anime industry long resisted the shift to computer-generated art that took hold in the West starting in the 1990s, but as technology has advanced, fewer and fewer artists practice the craft traditionally, making the art on display especially striking.

London's House of Illustration is currently displaying “Anime Architecture: Backgrounds of Japan”, an exhibition that showcases over 100 of the intricate paintings and drawings used in the production of iconic dystopian anime films like “Ghost in the Shell” and “Akira”.

Demolished Tokyo apartment building, the "holy land of manga," to be rebuilt as a museum

2016-07-08T13:26:00-04:00

An apartment building known as the “holy land of manga” due to its famous former tenants is to be rebuilt and opened as a museum of manga and anime in Tokyo’s Toshima Ward. Tokiwaso, which was demolished more than 30 years ago, will be reconstructed in a park [...] Past occupants included “God of manga” Osamu Tezuka, the author of “Astro Boy,” who lived there in the 1950s; Fujiko Fujio of “Doraemon” fame; “Cyborg 009” creator Shotaro Ishinomori; and “Osomatsukun” artist Fujio Akatsuka.

13 Works of Japan’s Anime Architecture

2012-10-04T16:49:00-04:00

Cartoons have been a major genre of popular entertainment in Japan dating back to 1917. The country’s unique style of animation, or anime, came into its own in the 1960s — notably in the pioneering work of Osamu Tezuka. In the 1990’s, a generation of architects, who came of age watching anime cartoons on television, were granted license to build fantastic creations fueled by the excess and lack of restraint that characterized Japan’s asset bubble.