I found a cool site where you can download alot of Koji Morimoto's work! He did the "beyond" piece in the Animatrix. You can translate it at babelfish if you want to surf around for some other videos. He has a very visual style of storytelling that's similar to Peter's, quite beautiful. I wish I could find a fansubbed version of Noiseman Sound Insect though, you'll see why.

-- scottai (scottai10@netscape.net), June 23, 2003

Answers

This is really an interesting site Scottai; thanks. The Gorillaz vids are on here, I think they're kinda cute actually but did Morimoto do them? I can't seem to figure out who did what on here.

-- Barb e (Suesuesbeo9@cs.com), June 25, 2003.

...

-- scottai (scottai10@netscape.net), June 23, 2003.

Good find, Scott. Those are some rarely seen clips.

I see that Koike's "Party 7" title sequence is available under "court-metrages". I did some animation on that.

(Scott- do you have an ftp site?)

-- Peter Chung (pkchung@sbcglobal.net), June 23, 2003.

Hmmm. Just noticed they've also got a section for my commercial work too, under "creative". "Chickens and wich"? (Reminds me I've gotta update my showreel.)

-- Peter Chung (pkchung@sbcglobal.net), June 23, 2003.

Hi Scott, that's quite an intersting site. I'm just browsing it. Thanks for posting it here.

Hi Peter, browsing through your clips on this side I was reminded of this "legedary" Pepsi commercial you once made with cindy Crawford (It's often referred to as "Cindy Flux". Despite of some stills I haven't been able to see this clip yet. Do you know of any source for this clip? I remember from my searches on the web that there was quite a lot of people interested in seeing this clip. It would be great to hear from you.

-- Martin (zak1111@hotmail.com), June 23, 2003.

I can't seem to open any of the files... a little help?

-- Inu (paul@nadisrec.com), June 23, 2003.

I can't believe I missed that whole section on Peter! Paul, you need real player to play the .rm files, assuming you unzipped them already. You can download it for free. Here is a little background on that jaw dropping Party 7 opening. I love the quirky little dance sequence Peter! Koike is a supremely talented, I'd love see some more of his stuff. Has he directed anything else besides that and World Record? Peter, I'll email you on the ftp thing.

-- scottai (scottai10@netscape.net), June 24, 2003.

The movies on this site are "RealVideo" files (.rm). You would need the "Real player" from http://www.real.com to play them. Download the 'Free Real Player'. The link to the "free" player is often well hidden; today the link is in the upper right corner of their main page. Follow the links to the 'free basic player' downloads. When installing the software, beware; disable all 'send me marketing crap' buttons, which usually default 'on', and are sometimes hidden in such a way you have to scroll around the install windows to be sure you get them all. RealPlayer has been accused of being spyware many times, and I myself have seen the behavior described. It also installs a bunch of junk in your system tray (windows) with all kinds of flashing reminders, which you can disable if diligent.

-- erco (erco@3dsite.com), June 24, 2003.

Hey, advice from my second favorite artist! Thanks, yeah, it was that and trying to open the files without saving them. Love the site, is it commercial? Or are they just dedicated fans? Scott, I notice that Koike is working on animated sequences for the next Tarantino film. Koike and Tarantino... hmm... *that* should be interesting...

-- Inu (paul@nadisrec.com), June 24, 2003.

Hi

I'm the french webmaster of Catsuka.com Happy of reading that you discovered it and appreciated ^_^

Catsuka is not a commercial website, no any advert, it's a fansite where I try to present my favourite artists, works, my tastes for Drawing, Animation. I try to present original and rare things, often from authors who have styles influenced by many countries ... I try to make people discover as many talentuous (and not enough famous) authors and works. Moreover, I try to permit amateurs authors to present their work on the web.

One of my favourite animator is Koji Morimoto, indeed there's a lot of very very rare clips of him on Catsuka ... He's a genius but unfortunately, few people know him ... so I make this area about him since 3 years, spending a lot of time to get informations and works of him.

I like also a lot of animators, like Peter Chung :) I'm used to read this board sometimes, to get new informations about his work. I hope Peter is not annoyed because I put video clips of him on Catsuka. I just want to permit people to discover his past works ^_^ ...

Indeed for Party 7, the animated sequence is the work of Takeshi Koike, and the official director Katsuhito Ishii. I'm happy to read that Peter Chung worked on the opening's making. Takeshi Koike is very talentuous, after Party 7 (and before World Record) he directed a series of shorts called "Trava Fist Planet" in Madhouse (each "episode" of Trava is composed by 4 parts). I like Trava very much, it looks like to Party 7 and World Record ... Koike has a really recognizable style, for character-designs, backgrounds and animation.

As I told in the Catsuka's News, Taekshi Koike has worked on the animation sequences (produced by Production IG) of the next Tarentino's movie "Kill Bill". I hope to see it soon :)

Sorry for my poor english ^^

Tsuka

-- Tsuka (catsuka@free.fr), June 24, 2003.

Great site Tsuka! That is quite a collection of animation, thank you so much for making it available. I'd love to see the "Trava Fist Planet" shorts, can you post them or do you know where I can find them online? This trailer for Kill Bill has been around for months, apparently shooting went way over schedule. It's supposed to come out October 10th.

-- scottai (scottai10@netscape.net), June 24, 2003.

Scott,

http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/dvd/ B0000896U4/250-2779319-3162659

The DVD is in region 2. It has English subtitles.

As extreme as Koike's style seems in Party 7, Trava and World Record, though, it's tepid compared to the four spots he did for the SMAP TV show. That's some REALLY crazy stuff.

Tsuka,

No, I don't mind that you have some of my commercials posted on your site. In fact, if you want to post more, let me know.

I'm glad to see you helping to promote the work of Koji Morimoto. His work has long been an inspiration to me, and it was great to become friends with him during the making of Animatrix. It's very ironic that his episode "Beyond" seems to be the most popular overall. He had the hardest time getting it approved by the Wachowskis, who demanded many revisions along the way. His original proposal was much wilder and fantastical (closer to his music video work). I wonder if he'd been allowed to just do it his way, viewers might have found it "too weird" (which is the reaction many have to Matriculated). Either way, his persistence has paid off beautifully.

-- Peter Chung (pkchung@sbcglobal.net), June 25, 2003.

Thanks Peter to allow me to continue on Catsuka with your commercials :)

For Trava, like Peter said there is a japanese DVD available with the "episode 1" (4 parts) and the 1st part of the "episode 2". I'm wondering if Koike will go on Trava ... Personnaly I haven't got this DVD but I've got 4 others DVD wich 1 part of the "episode 1" on each one ... All these DVDs are Grasshoppa's DVD. A sort of japanese DVD-magazine with very great shorts. Available on Amazon.jp I think, or on other websites like cdjapan.co.jp ... You can see a trailer of Trava Fist Planet here

I would like to put Trava's shorts on Catsuka but actually I put very very few official shorts, because their are "works", and I try to put essentially promotional videos, less prejudicial for authors ... If one day I put Trava on Catsuka, it will be in Real Video 9, as usual ... for two reasons, because it takes less webspace, and because it's not a high-quality format, so if people like a short they will buy the original dvd or video-tape to get it in high- quality.

About Koji Morimoto, I'm actually working on a new fansite about him, I hope it will permit more people to discover his work ... the huge problem is that the majority of his works (like Noiseman or Tekkon Kinkurito) have never been sold, and it's impossible (I think) for Morimoto to make a DVD compil of his clips, because he worked for too many customers, he haven't got the copyrights, and there would be too many different beneficiaries ... we can only wait for other DVD of interns works of Morimoto at the 4°c studio.

For Takeshi Koike, I didn't know that he worked on SMAP commercials, thank you very much for the info Peter :) I'm going to look for theses clips, I hope I'll find ^_^

I like very much the animation style of Koike, like the style of Masaaki Yuasa wich worked on Crayon Shin Chan and who is actually working on an animated movie at 4°C. I hope that a lot of originals animation styles will appear again in the future, it's so exciting to see new ways in animation :)

About Gorillaz, Morimoto didn't work for the clips. I don't know who directed these clips, but the original drawings are by Jamie Hewlett (Tank Girl) and some Gorillaz's shorts were made by Robert Valley.

Tsuka

-- Tsuka (catsuka@free.fr), June 25, 2003.

One commercial of yours I always wanted to see again, Peter, was "Loaded" for MTV. I caught a long glimpse of it in '96 and I've been aching for it since. Really beautiful. (I wonder if Tsuka could manage to acquire it... hmm...)

An interesting connection... Morimoto's "Extra" is a video for a Ken Ishii track. Ken Ishii did some of the music for Alexander, it seems. I know someone on this board was interested in finding out more about him -- check out this video.

-- Mat Rebholz (matrebholz@yahoo.com), June 26, 2003.

Noiseman Sound Insect was amazing... every frame was thick with image.

-- Mat Rebholz (matrebholz@yahoo.com), June 26, 2003.

By now I've seen all the Morimoto clips, except for Macross (the link's broken) and the magazine promo. It's gorgeous work! Wow, this guy has the wildest imagination I've seen (after Takashi Nakamura and Peter Chung, anyway).

It's hard to judge them based on compressed files viewed on a laptop, but I'll try anyway: I think he really shines in the music video area. I loved "Connected", for its technological terror, "Survival" and "4 Day Weekend", for their urban romanticism, and "Mixjuice" for its surreal dreamscapes. "Extra" didn't quite work on me... maybe it's because I've heard the album, and the version on here is a hackjob. And I felt it was needlessly violent. Oddly enough I loved this video when it played on AMP a few years ago. Maybe my tastes have just changed?

The Urashiman and Dirty Pair intros reminded me a LOT of Osamu Dezaki's "Space Cobra" film... similar colors, similar background images, similar animation and art style.

Franken's Gears is a funny one... again, I'd seen it before... this is more of a meditation on the "mad scientist" archetype than a real story. Most of it is just his crazy gesturings. Nicely done though.

The one with the girl baking her parents is just... ODD.

Tekkon Kinkurito I want to see more of. More weird skydiving kids, garishly colored cityscapes and *those* birds. The kids jump around like in a Super Mario platform game.

Noiseman... I think... I think I need to see it again ;) Can't this be sold in the US, with "from the minds behind The Animatrix" or some such BS line? It's so pretty...

-- Inu (paul@nadisrec.com), June 28, 2003.

OK, criticisms (just because I can)...

Morimoto-san does lean towards the grotesque. Sometimes I find his character designs cute, other times they just creep me out. Beyond helped ease me into it, but I think the way he draws people (kids especially) is an aquired taste.

Second, a little of this stuff goes a long way. It's just SO crazy, so over the top, that I wonder what the hell he would do for a feature film. Though needless to say, I'd go see it. Beyond is definitely my fave of his, and I hope he does more slow pieces in the future.

Much thanks to Tsuka for providing these!

(oh, and check the Robert Valley clips... more stylish shorts from a former Flux artist)

-- Inu (paul@nadisrec.com), June 28, 2003.

Paul- Morimoto was a key animator on the Cobra movie, as well as on the even more visually adventurous Cobra TV series (the first 13 episodes were directed by Dezaki).

By the way, if you haven't already done so, next time watch the movie with one dark lens over your LEFT eye to get the trippy 3D effect. Space Adventure Cobra was one of the few feature films to be designed and photographed to be viewed this way.

Dezaki made several TV series using this method, including Mighty Orbots, for ABC in the U.S.

http://www.stereoscopy.com/faq/pulfricheffect.html

-- Peter Chung (pkchung@sbcglobal.net), June 29, 2003.

Noiseman video is out there, but it's very, very expensive. The DVD came out as a complimentary gift from Pioneer Japan's first line of DVD players back in '97. Fansubbers don't put it into fansub because it's obsecure. Because of satellite broadcast in Japan, fansubbers have no need to buy Japanese DVDs.

-- Henry Park (injenius57@sbcglobal.net), July 22, 2003.

For people who are looking for Trava Fist planet episode 1:

Trava Fist Planet episode 1 shorts are available in region 2 DVD called "Grasshoppa!". "Grasshoppa" is a compilation of short animations and live action films. It's cheaper than most Japanese import videos. 2980 yen or $25. It's worth buying because it has a lot of short animations from Studio 4ºC. There is the compilation of the Trava Fist Planet episode 1, which is going for 5800 yen or $49, with preview of the episode 2.

-- Henry Park (injenius57@sbcglobal.net), July 22, 2003.

Cyber X

I found out that Peter Chung made an commercial of Avex Record Japan. It's called "Cyber X feat.misono" CD commercial. I visited the official site, but the webmaster forgot to put his animation on the webpage. Instead I watched other two Cyber X animations done by Kazuto Nakazawa. I wish I could watch his animation.

-- Henry Park (injenius57@sbcglobal.net), July 22, 2003.

I'm a sucker for short animations because they stand out. There are so many ANIMES that have generic visuals that I can't even stand watching them. It's like too much sugars in a diet. I can't stand those giant robot/cute girl animes anymore. Too many fans watching them as they are the greatest things.

-- Henry Park (injenius57@sbcglobal.net), July 22, 2003.

Does anyone know the composer of the "spiritual" tune in Koji's Beyond where time slows down, and the girl sees the bird flying? The credits for the Animatrix only list "hands around my throat" which is not it.

Thanks.

-- Andy (andys_junk_address@yahoo.com), August 18, 2003.

I found this place by accident when trying to look for stuff about trava. There is some seriously cool discussion about some really interesting animations. Nice that people aren't just saying how they like 'this or that cause it's pretty' but because there's something technologically nice touch or some brain warping metaphors. something like that. Anyways, I can see why: professionals! So, as some of you know something about the field, do you have any suggestions for schools or perhaps what you might look for in an employee? What do you find helpful? anything is great. I'll be completing my bachelors in 3D animation in spring 2006. I figure: better start investigating now or find some miserable job later. Thanks!

p.s. does anyone know if real player works for OS X? :)

p.p.s. if I'm not supposed to be here...I humbly ask for your forgiveness. I just don't understand these things as much as I should.

-- Brenna Lindblad (RadicalEdward131@aol.com), August 19, 2003.

hands around my throat is by death in vegas, latest album scorpion rising. excellent. amazing music promo of this too by a japanese cf director. not cel animation. more digital effects.

-- Matt (matt@advancedmovingimage.com), September 28, 2003.

scottai, cheers for finding the Catsuka site. I, myself, owe a lot to that site for bringing information on great animation, animators, etc. I have good news for you. I was able to help start a fansub group and offered we translate Noiseman Sound Insect. After some struggles, it's finally ready to be released! It is available on IRC so please pay us a visit at #anime-rakuen on irc.mircx.com.

-- ykDB (ykdb@shaw.ca), November 01, 2003.