Kotatsu Festival will be having a table at the Cardiff International Comic & Anime Expo, which will be held on 2nd – 3rd March 2013 at the MERCURE HOLLAND HOUSE. Please come along to this amazing event and say hello.
Asuka Tanaka will run a MANGA DRAWING WORKSHOP for teens on Sat 02.03.13 and pre-registration is crucial. Please email comicexpo@hotmail.co.uk for more information. Last year her workshop at the Kotatsu Festival was sold out, so please be quick to avoid disappointment!
Thank you very much for all the people who came to the 3rd Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival, making it another successful event for Kotatsu.
We had 5 stalls at this year’s marketplace, one of the highlights was the authentic Japanese Bento boxes by Yakiniku. Toys, anime and manga comics were available from Super Tomato previously known as Otakuzoku.
Arts and crafts were on sale from local artists Twilight Amoeba offering oil paintings, prints and original felt artwork and Niggleberry Treen offered hand crafted wooden objects, including spoons and fun-birds.
Japanese multi-designer Asuka Tanaka from Kodawari-Chaya was also at the marketplace selling her self-published fan illustration book Do-jinshi. She was drawing manga characters for people on request.
Screenings
This year we had 3 Welsh premiere screenings, including:
‘Children Who Chase Lost Voices‘
‘Berserk Golden Age Arc 1: The Egg of the King
Raffle tickets are available at Super Tomato and Chapter Box office from the beginning of November for 50p each.
Courtesy of Stopmotion Pro
Stop Motion Pro V7 has been developed in consultation with Aardman Animations (the makers of Wallace and Gromit). The software offers students, animators and animation producers the most comprehensive and easy to use toolset yet. Stop Motion Pro requires a video camera, webcam or digital stills camera and is compatible with Win XP, Vista and Windows 7. It can also be used on Apple Macs using either Boot Camp or Parallels.
Courtesy of The Japanese Shop
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) was born in the shogun’s capital of Edo (now Tokyo) and is considered to be the last great master of the woodblock (ukiyo-e). In the Japan of his day, his prints fostered a new and far-reaching appreciation for nature in art, and in the west, his work influenced artists such as Whistler, Cezanne and Gaughin. The Japanese Shop has an excellent collection of these superb quality woodblock prints which have incredibly vivid colours having been crafted in the same style as the originals.
Courtesy of Super Tomato
Selection of manga comics and anime DVDs such as Ghost in the Shell.
Courtesy of Calon TV
Have fun watching 8 Episodes of the fun loving cave girl Igam Ogam!
Courtesy of Calon TV
From the famous Children’s TV series Igam Ogam.
Courtesy of Calon TV
From their famous Children’s TV series Igam Ogam.
Courtesy of Seoul House Restaurant
Treat yourself to some excellent cuisine at the reknowned Japanese and Korean restaurant on the east side of Cardiff.
Courtesy of Calon TV
A pretty Sali Mali doll, the famous character from the Welsh TV series.
Courtesy of Toyo
Great fun to be had building your very own origami creations, with full instructions on each and every fold required to make some truly amazing designs out of plain paper. These sets feature sweets such as birthday cake, boats and cars, and Rilakkuma bento box.
Courtesy of: Major Brushes
This painting set comes complete with paints, brushes and canvas.
Courtesy of Euro Japan Trading Co
Beautifully hand knitted and perfect for keeping you warm this winter.
Courtesy of Nigel Leach, from Niggleberry Treen
A hand carved, fruit wood bowl with a whale tail handle.
Courtesy of Saemi Takahashi
Beautifully handmade, these badges are adorned with a cute Japanese girl’s face.
Courtesy of Saemi Takahashi
We are happy to announce a fantastic event at this year’s festival.
Manga drawing Workshop – ‘Let’s draw your character’
(3pm ~4pm)
The teacher is Japanese multi-designer Asuka Tanaka. People attending the event will see Asuka demonstrate how Manga characters are drawn and have the opportunity themselves to create their own manga characters with professional advice.
Previously stated as 15 years and over but due to the popular demand this has been lowered to 12 years.
The event will be held in the Chapter foyer at 3pm.
Tickets are 5.00 each and are only available via the festival website as tickets are not available at the Chapter box office.
Bookings via email to info@kotatsufestival.com
11:00 Japanese Marketplace
11:00 Arrietty – Cinema 1
13:00 Komaneko -The Curious Cat- / Komaneko’s Christmas – Cinema 2
15:00 Arrietty – Cinema 1
15:00 Manga Drawing Workshop “Let’s draw your character!”
15:30 Children Who Chase Lost Voices – Cinema 2
17:45 Raffle Prize Draw
18:00 Berserk Golden Age Arc 1 The Egg of the King – Cinema 2
20:00 From Up On Poppy Hill – Cinema 1
For ticket information please contact
Chapter Box Office on +44(0)29 2030 4400
Thanks to NEO magazine we have over 100 copies of their latest issues to give away at the event.
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We are glad to announce this year’s main event.
A screening of the wonderful stop motion animation ‘Komaneko’ directed by Tsuneo Goda, followed by a live Q&A session with the director and Hirokazu Minegishi, stop-motion animator via Skype from Japan.
Komaneko is a stop-motion series of shorts featuring a curious cat, his friends and their adventures. Beautifully animated, with lovable characters, exquisite set pieces and enchanting story lines guaranteed to please all ages.
Tsuneo Goda is also the creator of Domo, internationally famous character and the official mascot of Japan’s NHK television station.
Here is a special message from director Tsuneo Goda.
“The Kotatsu Film Festival is such a lovely name for this festival of animation. Thank you once again for inviting me to participate in the festival. Komaneko is presented using `cat language’. Some parts are also shown in `dog language’. The film should therefore be enjoyed by Japanese and British people, and indeed by people the world over, whatever their language. I would be thrilled and delighted to know that you enjoyed my film.“
Tsuneo Goda
The New Diorama Theatre in London with the co-operation of Studio Ghibli, Whole Hog Theatre presents the world’s first theatrical staging of Hayao Miyazaki’s renowned animated film.
Using giant puppets made from recycled materials, visceral, physical storytelling and original live music, Studio Ghibli’s epic ecological fable is re-told for the stage.
Princess Mononoke is a 1997 epic historical fantasy feature film set specifically in the late Muromachi period of Japan but with numerous fantastical elements. The story concentrates on involvement of the outsider Ashitaka in the struggle between the supernatural guardians of a forest and the humans of the Iron Town who consume its resources. There can be no clear victory, and the hope is that relationship between humans and nature can be cyclical.
Dates and Ticket Prices
Tuesday 2nd – Saturday 6th April, 19:30.
Saturday Matinee @ 15:30.
£13.50 / £11 (Concessions)
Unfortunately due to popular demand, the play is already sold out!!
Hello everyone, we are happy to announce the date for this year’s Kotatsu Japanese animation festival!
The festival will be held on Saturday 1st December at Chapter Arts Centre. We are hoping to repeat the success of previous year’s festival with a selection of films such as studio Ghibli film.
This year we have more spaces available in the market place. Any shops or artists involved with a Japanese/Anime theme, please contact the festival for details.
Thank you very much for all the people who came to the 2nd Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival; again it was another successful year for us.
Short Film Screenings at The Atrium
Day 1 of the festival opened at the University of Glamorgan, Atrium in Cardiff with the Japanese Short Animation Film Screenings which sported a packed cinema. The audience enjoyed several short films from up and coming, as well as established, Japanese animators followed by some animations from courses taught at the Atrium itself.
Down in the foyer were a selection of local specialist retailers such as Otakuzoku, who sell retro video games, manga, comic books, and toys, anlongside the comic specialist The Comic Man who both laid out their stands for the whole afternoon prior to the short film screenings..
Chapter Arts Centre
Day 2 was held at the Chapter Arts Centre with the feature film screenings including:
In keeping with last year’s tradition of showcasing a premiere film, Redline had its Welsh premiere in front of a packed cinema.
The Japanese Marketplace
Held in the foyer area again this year, the marketplace really adds to the atmosphere of the entire weekend. Food, snacks, sweets, toys, videogames, anime and manga were available to buy, and the stalls which included Otakuzoku, Yakiniku, and The Comic Man helped create an event fit for celebrating Japanese animation.
The Haiku Animation Workshop
This was a great success with lots of children taking part. Gerald Conn, the director of an award winning animation company Gritty Realism Productions, hosted the workshop which taught children how to animate with sand and cutout card on a lightbox. Each frame was captured using a stills camera mounted on an overhead rostrum.
Initially tasked with creating a Haiku poem, they then set about animating a short piece with their poems being read out as a soundtrack.
The result of their efforts is presented here (see video below), and we think you’ll agree they did a wonderful job considering they had no animation experience at all.
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The Calligraphy Workshop
Ever wanted to try your hand at writing Japanese? We invited Yukiko Ayres, a London-based professional Calligrapher, whose workshops allow everyone to try their hand at writing in Japanese using a traditional brush and ink.
Whether it was your own name, or the name of a loved one, Yukiko would show you how to do it, and then supervise while you tried to copy the intricate brush strokes.
Japanese calligraphy obeys strict rules when it comes to the number and order of the brush strokes, even down to the posture held whilst writing.
Raffle Prize Draw
This year’s raffle draw took place in the foyer near the cinema entrance with an excited crowd waiting to hear their numbers called. Bet Davis who is Head of Corporate Affairs, Wales Millennium Centre and also a member of Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival Committee hosted the raffle prizes.
There were some great prizes, such as a StopMate Motion Animation Armature by Japanese armature maker Tetsu, animation software Stop Motion Pro HD, anime DVDs, a beautiful kimono, books, dolls, badges, gift vouchers, bento boxes and lots more. It was also nice to see the armature being won by an animation student from the Atrium, a somewhat fitting end to a great weekend.
Plans are under way for this year’s festival, and will be published here as soon as they are finalized. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who came to this year’s festival, we really hope you enjoyed yourselves. Please spread the word to all your friends and family and we hope to see you all again next year for the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival 2012.
The UK’s biggest J- Culture event Hyper Japan is being held at Earl’s Court in London. This event features Animation screenings, Cosplay, Japanese Street Fashion Show and much more.
Professional Calligrapher and Kendo master Yukiko Ayres will be giving demonstrations of Joudo, Kendo, and Calligraphy. Joudo is a type of martial arts which uses a wooden stick called Jo or wooden sword.
Yukiko will be attending Hyper Japan on the following dates.
24th February Jyodo 17:00 ~ 17:30
25th February Kendo 12:00 ~ 12:30
25th February Kendo 17:00 ~ 17:30
25th February Jodo 15:00 ~ 15:30
26th February Jodo 15:00 ~ 15:30
On Sunday 26th Yukiko will be supporting the Calligraphy Workshop which is organized by the Japan Society.
Please come along and enjoy a sense of Japan.
