Research of Archiving Anime

Project Title

Research of Archiving Anime

Full-time researcher

Joon Yang KIM   Associate Professor/Faculty of Economic Sciences

Overview

The Research Project of Archiving Anime began in 2016 when anime director Hideo Watanabe entrusted Niigata university with anime’s intermediate materials (storyboards, scripts, design sheets, key frame drawings, animation cels, etc.) created and used in the process of anime production from the 1970s to the late 1990s. These intermediate materials are now known as the Watanabe Collection. In the same year, Studio Gainax entrusted Niigata University with intermediate materials from the feature-length animated film Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnéamise (directed by Hiroyuki Yamaga, released in 1987). Utilizing the data of the intermediate materials digitized and cooperating with the company, the Project team held exhibitions in Japan and abroad.

Respectively accepted in 2017 and 2020, the Research of the Material Dynamics of Anime Production based on the Watanabe Collection (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research C, Project Number 17K02356) and the Interdisciplinary Case Studies of the Analysis, Conservation and Utilization of Anime’s Intermediate Materials” (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research B, Project Number 20H01218) have led to a substantial progress in the archiving of anime’s intermediate materials. In particular, an online database system (only for researchers approved) was built for those archived materials, which enables to access images and their metadata, and is currently functioning as a digital archive. To avoid copyright infringement, the text-only simplified edition of the online database system (http://acasin-db.jp/) is also made available to the public. Actively embracing research methods from both humanities and hard sciences, the Project has made numerous achievements, for example, advancing research of the restoration of damaged animation cels in the field of polymer and materials chemistry, as well as building the online digital archive.

The Research Project of Archiving Anime entered a new phase in 2025. Comprehensive examination and research of the Watanabe Collection is no easy feat. The number of the archived materials reaches 4,000. Just for a single anime episode, the storyboard is composed of no less than 100 pages. The period in which the materials were created spans around a half century. To handle this situation, the Project is developing a link to research methods in digital humanities. What is aimed in the Project with those cultural resources, whose spatiotemporal dimensions go far beyond the reach of individual researchers, is to transform them into data and to find meaningful patterns and trends in them in terms of humanities and social sciences, employing digital technologies. To this end, we seek to develop AI applications that can identify and detect anime’ intermediate materials and what is on the surface thereof, in the hope of contributing to the construction of digital archives in research and education institutions, the anime industry, and many other scenes of the society.

The Watanabe Collection – Various Stages and Aspects of Anime Production

The Watanabe Collection, which triggered the launch of this Research Project, refers to the anime intermediate materials collected and conserved by Mr. Hideo Watanabe for his own research of directing techniques and skills, who initially involved in photographing at an anime studio, worked as production assistant, assistant director, storyboard artist, director, and key animator in the anime industry from around 1974 to the mid-1990s. Mr. Watanabe played a key role as a core production team member on many projects, including Space Emperor God Sigma (1980), Arcadia of My Youth: Endless Orbit SSX (1982), Dream Warrior Wingman (1984), G.I. Joe : A Real American Hero (1984: production outsourced from US to Japan), Thet Were Eleven (1986), Fist of the North Star 2 (1987), Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985), Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (1986), Legend of the Galactic Heroes (1991), and Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995).

Most of the anime intermediate materials collected by Mr. Watanabe span the 1970s through the 1990s, a period when he was involved in anime production. This period overlaps with the second and third anime booms which were crucial moments in the history of anime. In this sense the Watanabe Collection provides valuable hints and clues for anime studies in industrial, cultural, and aesthetic terms; it signifies various stages and aspects of anime production, with character design sheets, storyboards, scripts, key frame drawings, background artworks, to voice-over scripts, and even hand-written notes by crewmembers. It also includes many materials related to internationally outsourced and outsourcing productions. Currently, there are 639 items of storyboards, 252 items of scripts, 463 items of character design sheets, 612 items of key frame drawings, and 260 items of animation cels archived at Niigata University.

Educational Activities of the Project

Anime’s intermediate materials housed at the Research Center have been used in practice-oriented courses for students at Niigata University since 2016. The goal is that through analyzing the materials which help clarify the process of anime production, students proactively acquire knowledge about anime’s industry, history, styles, and aesthetics that the objects themselves tell. In the courses, students found and explored their own research subjects while examining and digitizing the materials, and also painted acetate cels with in-betweens selected from the Watanabe Collection.

With the Master’s Degree Program of Anime and Visual Media Resources Sciences starting in 2026, anime’s intermediate materials will be utilized more fully in educational settings. For students to examine and research complicated issues, from a variety of perspectives, raised when utilizing those materials, the Program embraces multiple academic disciplines such as visual information engineering, polymer and composite materials chemistry, and laws of intellectual properties. In doing so, the role which anime archives assume will become diverse and more meaningful in the society.

Project Members

Name

Institution

Area of Specialization

Joon Yang KIM

Associate Professor, Faculty of Economic Sciences, Niigata University

Animation and Media

Hiroei IMAI

Associate Professor, Center for Academic Information Service, Organization for Promotion of Digital Transformation, Niigata University

Information and Communication Network

Kazuhiro GOSHIMA

Media Artist

 

Taruto FUYAMA

Professor, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts

Animation Education Research

Tetsu MITSUMATA

Associate Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Niigata University

Polymer and Composite Materials

Shogo MURAMATSU

Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Niigata University

Visual Information Engineering

Hideo WATANABE

Professor, Kaishi Professional University

Directing in Anime

Akiko SUGAWA

Professor, Yokohama National University

Cultural Studies

Tomoya KIMURA

Associate Professor, Kaishi Professional University

History of Animation and Film

Dario LOLLI

Assistant Professor, Durham University

Japanese Media and Visual Culture

Jaqueline BERNDT

Professor, Stockholm University

Manga and Media

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