18th Impact: Animé 100, the great celebration of Japanese animation

2017 was the 100th anniversary of Japanese animation: a unique opportunity for Japan Expo to celebrate this aspect of Japanese pop culture that is at the heart of the festival. When it first turned up on air in France in the late 70s with Grendizer, it was love at first sight for the youth of the 70s and 80s. It was also the beginning of a long love story that Japan Expo embodies perfectly. Japan Expo echoes the way fans, through their passion for anime, slowly opened to manga, and then to Japan and other aspects of its culture. With Animé 100, Japan Expo has wished to highlight the strong link between Japanese animation, and the festival and its attendees.

Early this year, on our website and social media, Japanese animation was under the spotlight. The festival team but also well-known figures rallied around this anniversary during the months before Japan Expo and on site. 

The climax of Animé 100 and of the celebrations was the festival itself. Our programming put forward Japanese animation, with signings, masterclasses, and 22 panels. A dedicated stage, the Animé 100 stage, hosted part of them. The Animé 100 exhibit presented a selection of 100 anime chosen among the flourishing production of the last 100 years, to offer an insight through time and universes. Screenings were proposed on several stages and in the exhibit screening room, with classics and exclusives. Other themes also mingled with animation for this anniversary, such as cosplay, music, or video games. In all, 82 events were programmed for Animé 100!

13 major figures of Japanese animation had accepted Japan Expo’s invitation to celebrate this amazing anniversary. Among them was Masao MARUYAMA who agreed to be the Ambassador for Animé 100. With over 50 years of experience in animation, the producer is one of the professionals of the industry who has contributed to the highest number of anime. He has worked with the greatest and on mythical works in the history of animation, from Astroboy to Ashita no Joe, Death Note or the late Satoshi KON’s movies. He has shared this long and rich experience with you at a fascinating panel.

Directors, animators, chara-designers, producers had come together with him and also held panels and live drawings to show you their talent live:

• Nobuyoshi HABARA, who has a 30-year long career and has contributed to dozens of anime as an animator, mecha- and chara-designer, and director
• Shichiro KOBAYASHI, a master in the art of hand-drawn anime sets, who contributed to the atmosphere of Space Cobra, Berserk, or Nobody’s Boy Remi, and who drew one of the landscapes he is so talented at in front of you
• Takuo NODA, the chara-designer of the successful 70s anime Captain Future, the main character of which he brought back to life with a few majestic strokes of his pencil
• Masahiko OKURA, animator and director who’s worked on Blue Drop or Yukikaze
• Masami SUDA, animator and chara-designer who’s recently been in charge of the characters of season 1 of Yo-kai Watch, or of those in Hokuto no Ken, and he performed an impressive drawing of Ken live
• Koji TAKEUCHI, producer of many cult anime such as Lupin the Third, Sherlock Hound, or Jarinko Chie, who has worked with many great names of Japanese animation including Isao TAKAHATA and Hayao MIYAZAKI
• Takuya WADA, animator, chara-designer, and director who has worked on Lupin the Third, Space Cobra, or Hokuto no Ken

Japanese animation was not alone with an anniversary to celebrate as Lupin the Third was 50 years old this year! Arsène Lupin’s grandson was created by mangaka Monkey Punch in 1967, before the many anime adaptations that followed. Kazuhide TOMONAGA, who was among us on this occasion, contributed to many of them, from Lupin the Third Part II, on which he worked with Hayao MIYAZAKI, to the most recent, Lupin the Third Part IV. On top of a panel during which he also made a live drawing of Lupin, he was also part of the big panel organized to celebrate Lupin the Third’s 50th anniversary, beside Shuhei KATO, CEO of M.P. Works, Yu KIYOZONO, President of studio TELECOM, and Ryota KATO, senior vice president / managing director, TMS. On top of screenings, this event revealed the coming of Lupin to his grand-father’s country as the next Lupin the Third series will be set in France.

The anime Yuri!!! On ICE has ever more fans in France and had pride of honor with Sayo YAMAMOTO, director, and Mitsurô KUBO, screenwriter, attending the festival in partnership with Crunchyroll. The series fans turned up at every apparition they made, including their full house panel, illustrated with a live drawing.

The Ghost in the Shell saga was also the subject of a much-attended panel with Kenji KAMIYAMA, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex director, and Yoshiki SAKURAI, screenwriter, in partnership with @Anime. The event saw a remote-controlled Tachikoma (Cerevo) come on stage. 

Together, they spent 39 hours signing, offering you the memory of a magic meeting and a precious souvenir. They were also ready to share their secrets and techniques with artists to be – or more experienced – at masterclasses. In front of small groups of animation and art fans, Shichiro KOBAYASHI, Masami SUDA, Koji TAKEUCHI, Kazuhide TOMONAGA, Sayo YAMAMOTO and Mitsurô KUBO, or else Takuya WADA led the classes. With Human Academy, Japanese school of manga, anime, and video games, Nobuyoshi HABARA also taught some of his knowledge at a masterclass about how to draw manga characters like Hokusai or, in a more kawaii style, to draw and color yuru chara.

To welcome those many guests, among others, for panels, a stage was set up for Animé 100. It proposed 24 hours of programming, featuring 25 events.

On top of the solo panels with the guests we mentioned above, Marc AGUESSE, a French specialist in Japanese animation, went back over its history with four panels to which he had invited the guests.  Shichiro KOBAYASHI, Masao MARUYAMA, Takuo NODA, and Masami SUDA joined him to tackle the subject from the beginning to the 70s.  Masao MARUYAMA, Takuo NODA, Kazuhide TOMONAGA, and Takuya WADA shared their experience of the 80s Golden Age. Nobuyoshi HABARA, Masahiko OKURA, Masami SUDA, Koji TAKEUCHI, and Takuya WADA were invited as witnesses of the sensitive 90s, with its successes and international booming. Eventually, the years 2000 ended the cycle on Sunday with those who had been and still are part of its story: Nobuyoshi HABARA, Kenji KAMIYAMA, Masao MARUYAMA, Yoshiki SAKURAI, and Sayo YAMAMOTO.

Another panel with Marc AGUESSE was about sakuga, quality animation sequences by some of the major animators in the industry. The association AEUG talked about the challenge of translating and localizing anime while three more panels were about anime dubbing. The French webradio Japan FM presented a dubbing session live while Misterfox and the dubbing artistic director Bruno MÉYÈRE explained the process of dubbing an anime. They were back on Sunday with Arnaud LAURENT – Natsu’s French voice in Fairy Tail – to tell you how to become a voice actor and maybe create a few vocations in the audience.

To finish with, the Animé 100 stage hosted the festival organizers, Jean-François DUFOUR and Thomas SIRDEY, to review this 18th Impact with a few of the guests, UMI☆KUUN and Nobuyoshi HABARA. The latter took this opportunity to express his desire to be back next year and Japan Expo will welcome him for the 19th Impact!

To come back over 100 years of Japanese animation, a great exhibit was organized. Behind black curtains, the attendees entered its hushed atmosphere to (re)discover 100 anime that have punctuated this remarkable story. Over 600 sqm unveiled a selection of 80 anime chosen by Japan Expo’s team and a committee of experts for the years 1917 to 1999, and 20 other anime chosen by the fans with a vote for the anime released in the years 2000, corresponding to the existence of the festival. The exhibit highlighted innovative works and public successes, anime popular in Japan and others that have appealed to the French audience. 

Six rooms immersed you in six different universes to present the anime symbolizing each of them, from science fiction to marvelous, slice of life and fantasy worlds. Anecdotes told you a bit more about the anime while display cases showed figurines, artbooks, collector boxes, and goodies. A screening room was set in the middle to show anime all day long.

In the exhibit screening room but also in the video room or on the Yuzu stage screen, Animé 100 screenings showed feature films, OAV, and series episodes. Some of those anime had never aired in France and were shown exclusively at Japan Expo, with French subtitles realized on the occasion of Animé 100.

Five anime were featured on Saturday night, during the Animé 100 night that took place after the festival ended. During five hours were showed two episodes of Lupin the Third Part II directed by Hayao MIYAZAKI in which you could spot a few elements used in the films he made later (like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind or Castle in the Sky), the feature film Chibineko Tom no Daibuken, a “ghost” work that stayed hidden from the audience for about 25 years, the first episode of Martian Successor Nadesico as well as the OAV Gekiganger III, a spin-off of the series for which Nobuyoshi HABARA brought together major animators from the world of giant robots, and the film Aim for the Ace!. 

And you had many more opportunities to discover those titles and many more during the festival. On Thursday, the panel dedicated to Lupin the Third featured, on top of one of Hayao MIYAZAKI’s episodes mentioned above, an episode from Lupin the Third Part IV, set in Italy, directed by Kazuhide TOMONAGA. Let’s keep on talking about anime made by our guests with The Mermaid and the Red Candles, a short movie entirely made by Shichiro KOBAYASHI who usually only realizes anime sets. This beautiful work has been adapted from Mimei OGAWA’s tale. 

Music, video games, cosplay: other themes of the festival mingled with animation to celebrate this anniversary!

Music is an important part of an anime, with openings and endings, or the music contributing to the atmosphere of the story. The Karasu stage featured two Animé 100 concerts to make you enjoy the legendary openings and endings of your favorite anime. On Thursday, The World Standard, Kamitsuki et UMI☆KUUN invited you to sing along with them the most popular of anime musics. On Saturday, the French band Neko Light Orchestra paid them a tribute in a melodic rock style.

Video games and anime are also a very good match, as proved by the many games adapted from anime (and the other way around). Organized by R-Cade and hosted by Guillaume "Asenka" Dorison from the TV channel J-ONE, the Retrogaming Animé 100 event invited you on stage to fight other attendees, festival guests, and top players at arcade games adapted from some of the greatest anime, from Hokuto no Ken Fighting to Dragon Ball Z 2: Super Battle and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Heritage For The Future.

When thinking of a tribute to Japanese animation, cosplay also comes to mind! Many attendees come as anime characters, wandering the alleyways or performing on stage. This year, the association CoSa also proposed on the Ichigo stage playlets dedicated to cult anime with studio Ghibli movies such as Princess Mononoke or Howl's Moving Castle, Sailor Moon, and the Macross saga. 

To finish with, we thank you very much for being part of this celebration!