Month: July 2017

Inazma Delivery Service

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If you asked me what animation director I would most like to work with, the first name that would come to mind would be Satoshi Tomioka.  He is responsible for the fantastic Usavich Rabbits that ran on MTV Japan.

So I am thrilled to find new work from Tomioka’s company, Kanaban Graphics.  Inazma Delivery Service is a series of short videos on “Space Shower TV”  The delivery service employee is a pig-like character named Hemingway, and he becomes responsible for a lost space alien, named Bytheway.  Bytheway always wears a shark costume.  If you like Usavich Rabbits, you will no doubt enjoy Inazma Delivery Service.  It has an identical format, with very short episodes stringing together a longer story.  It has a similar 8 bit video game music track.   Also, these two characters are very similar to the Usavich Rabbits, Kirenenko and Putin.  One of them is a nervous character who worries and sweats.  The other has unpredictable fits of rage.  It seems as if Tomioka likes this particular combination.  He probably finds them effective in creating situations that are both comedic and dramatic.   Artists do well when they know their signature style, and spend time exploring the possibilities.

Inazma Delivery Service introduces an improvement over Usavich, by having a somewhat emotional moment in the story.  Episode nine is a powerful 2 minutes.  Be sure to watch that far.

The show is almost 100 % visual comedy.  It is silly and bizarre and full of high energy gags.  Below, you can see the first ten episodes, which I pieced together from YouTube.

 

Temper Tantrums

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Here is a tip for an excellent animation exercise, having a character experience a temper tantrum.  Check out the compilation video below. Many of these examples of temper tantrums aren’t from comedies, but when you isolate them, they are funny. It’s interesting when someone loses control, and stops behaving.  It’s extremely physical with lots of prop interaction. If there are any words, it’s usually profanity.  If you have two characters, the other one can have a reaction.

Argument to Beethoven’s 5th symphony

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This might inspire an exercise in animation. Take a piece of instrumental music, and use it as the dialog track for two characters.  This is Sid Ceasar and Nanette Fabray arguing in pantomime, to the music of Beethoven’s 5th symphony.

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