TV Standard: NTSC
Color: Color
Aspect Ratio(s): 4:3
Layers: single-sided/single-layered
Original Release Year: 1985

Credits:

Hisaya Morishige,Mariko Miyagi,Chuji Kinoshita

Description:

The origin of Japan's animation powerhouse! As Japan's first full-length color animation, "Hakubenden" has left its mark on the history of animation. The 4K master of "Hakkenden" has been restored as much as possible to the original footage from the time of its release on Blu-ray! Shirahakuden" was Japan's first all-color feature-length animated film for theaters, released in October 1958. Until then, animated cartoon films, known as manga-eiga, had been produced as short films for theatrical screenings and commercials, but no feature-length color films like Disney's feature-length animated films had yet been produced in Japan. Toei, then a fledgling film company, saw the future potential of animated films and established Toei Doga (now Toei Animation) in 1956. Hakubenden" was completed about two and a half years later, in 1958. The story and basic design were set by Kazuhiko Okabe, a painter and mountain climber, and the backgrounds were created by Kiyoshi Hashimoto, a stage designer, and other art professionals active at the time.Two veteran staff members, Akira Daikuhara and Koji Mori, were in charge of original drawings and led 42 new animators in charge of animation to complete the project. At a time when no one had experience in animation production, "Hakubenden" was produced while educating the sequentially recruited staff in animation know-how, and was successfully completed after approximately seven months of drawing, a production cost of 40,471,000 yen, 16,474 original drawings, and 65,213 animated pictures. The film was created through a process of trial and error, including the creation of dolls from character designs for use as reference for drawing, and the incorporation for the first time in Japan of live action, which was also used in Disney's feature film productions. The live action film, which depicts the movements of the characters by copying actual actors' movements onto paper, was used in the filming of performances by newcomers to Toei at the time, such as Jo Mizuki and Yoshiko Sakuma, who played the roles of the main characters. All characters in the film were played by two different actors, Hisaya Morishige and Mariko Miyagi, a singer.The film was released on October 22, 1958, and was a box-office success. It was also highly acclaimed as a film, winning the Art Festival Group Encouragement Award, the Blue Ribbon Special Award, and the Mainichi Film Concours Special Award in the same year. It was also highly acclaimed overseas, winning the Special Award in the Children's Category at the Venice International Children's Film Festival, the Berlin Civic Culture Award, and the Mexican Government's Honorary Award, and was released in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United States, Brazil, and other countries, earning a total distribution of $95,000. In 2017, "Anime NEXT_100," a project to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Japanese animation, officially registered October 22, the day "Hakubenden" was released, as "Anime Day. and was also screened in the Cannes Classics section of the 72nd Cannes International Film Festival in 2019, which screens masterpieces from the past. *35mm NegaScan telecine 4K master. This digital remastering was done in 2018 using the original 35mm original negatives as the source material for the restoration. In restoring the film, we have referred to the existing celluloid images and other related materials to reproduce as much as possible the colors of the film as they were at the time of its release.