koji morimoto @ anime festival asia 2008
UPDATED: 30.11 (Video)
[Higher-res version on my flickr / multiply / facebook]
Morimoto-san was to "speak about his creative work and also about his much-awaited latest animation "Genius Party Beyond" [www].I'd just arrived in time and sat down for the (full) screening of his segment (Impact #5) in Genius Party Beyond - dubbed DIMENSION BOMB [Jigen Bakudan], followed by an audience Q&A. (Image-left: Morimoto-san / translator / host).
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TRE-IMPRESSIONS of DIMENSION BOMB: Sitting amidst the silent crowd thronging the Suntec City Hall, I was personally held in thrall, with abject awe and wonderment of the hypnotic imagery and distinct character designs, that unfolded before the screen/s - a continous ethereal notion heightened by the pulsating soundtrack of the mindscape of dance and dub.
With character illustrations (that reminded me of Josh Middleton's), the filmlet made full visual effect of static object with moving camera-eye, floating in zero-gravity (which he explained further via a question from the member of the audience). Fluid and languid mind-tripping in a nigh desaturated color plaette (or was it the screening before a lit-hall? I hate it when that happens /:@) - a full reverse-engineered trip sans audio-dub or English subtitles, in full Japanese.
I wish I had an embedded video of Dimension Bomb to share with you folks, but alas we will have to make do with this trailer of Genius Party Beyond instead - Dimension Bomb is the fifth (and last) sequence show :)
A summarized set of (re-formatted) answers to audience questions:
- The design for Dimension Bomb had it's genesis from a piece of sketch Morimoto-san did initially.
- The "aim" (or rather message) of Dimension Bomb was to "not to limit your imagination", "1 plus 1 might not equal 2"
- On the frequent usage of the "zero gravity" motif in his animation works, Morimoto-san mentions that they derive from him imagining himself in zero-gravity, of the emptiness within himself. The feeling is akin to the notion of not knowing how to fight back / against "society", and to float to go along "with the flow".
- With the question of what future projects he is currently involved in, Morimoto-san mentions due to contractural-obligations, he cannot reveal much, except for a new story that he is working on - which is based on 3,000 years in the future, about daily life on Earth *Cool*
The event concluded with a presentation of a momento (couldn't hear what it was, perhaps Imaginary Friend's Pepper Project book? Can any TRE-readers confirm this? :p). Meanwhile, here are some more pics of the Genius Party booth @ AFA08 (wish they'd made available the first Genius Party anime-movie tho - which I'd totally missed *sob*)
AND here's an additional "blog-bonus" of an animated mv (non-Genius Party) featuring Morimoto x Tamura remix version:
