Interview: Isao Takahata

You do not wait to find in the Tomb of the fireflies   "cornofulgures"; or other "astéro-axes" who struck down formerly the meninges of the young witnesses of Récré A2 . The universe"manga" of Isao Takahata comes to seek its sources in the reality and the daily newspaper of a country dense and choking. Meet with the director of a poignant drama.

Amazon.fr: You are very famous in Japan. Your last animated drawing, Pompoko , even beat the King lion , in 1994, with the Nipponese boxoffice. How would you like to be introduced at the French public?

Isao Takahata: I do not know too what dire& I have soixante-trois years and I have worked in animation for more than thirty years. It is by seeing the drawing animated the King and the Bird , of Paul Grimault, that I decided to make animation. I do not know exactly any more how much animated drawings I realized, but I did much of it! (laughter) It is all.

Amazon.fr: The history of the Tomb of the fireflies is anchored in the storm of Japan in war. You declared that you want "to refresh the memory of (your) contemporary."  Do you think that this "memory tends to be dissipated?

I.T.: Yes, of course, because of rising generation which followed one another after the Second World war Japan. They are not any more aware of the war. Unfortunately, last year, there was in the area of Kobe, exactly at the same place as in the animated drawing, in the same district of Nishinomiya, a great earthquake. All was destroyed, in flames. After the earthquake, young people of the city wrote their experiment. For them, the war, it was something which did not relate to them. With this experiment, it became a reality. They reconsidered, precisely, with the Tomb fireflies . They had the impression "to revive" what there was in the animated drawing. After the drama, much of voluntary movements developed among the young people. I was fortunately surprised, because I have the impression that in the current Japanese company, the young people have very restricted human relations, very reduced. When I made film, I wanted to put the point on these human relations. I believed that under conditions like those of Kobe, the young people would have reactions appreciably equivalent to those of the Seita, the young boy of the animated drawing. That explains why I was so happy reactions after the drama of Kobe.

Amazon.fr: You speak about the human relations between Japanese. The book of Akiyuki Nosaka, whose feature film is adapted, is severely critical towards the company of your country. Is this a similar point of view which brought you closer the book?

I.T.: In the book of Nosaka, it is indeed a much question of the selfishness of this company and, myself, I knew the war. I met ladies like the aunt of the little boy, but, I also met people who helped each other and who had much humanity. Through this film, there is a criticism well, however not as much as one could think it. If one replaces oneself compared to the topicality, there is, in this moment, much of selfishness in the Japanese company. And my desire, it is to wake up this conscience and to make a little change the things.

Amazon.fr: In the Tomb of the fireflies , it is the realism and the acute direction of the detail which fascinate. A true diagram which tends as much as possible to bring cartoon film closer to the "traditional cinema"

I.T.: As soon as it is about cartoon film, it is thought that all can be done in a rather rough way. In fact, all is done through the small details, the research of reality, by looking after the invoice of the animated drawing.

Amazon.fr: But, contrary to the cinema, the animated drawing offers a freedom of creation to you quasi illimitée;

I.T.: The only thing that I want to say, it is that the animated drawing should not be confined in the fantastic one or the imaginary one, under pretext that creation in animation does not have any limit. One can have even more freedom all while opening on reality.

Amazon.fr: Ecology seems to be, for you, a topic of predilection, also present in two others of your animated drawings, the Memories are never forgotten and Pompoko . However, here, the relations between the children and nature are more than dramatiques

I.T.: In France, one must surely think: return to the countryside = freedom. In Japan, it is not the case. In a village, in the countryside, it is not at all idyllic. It is small, all people know itself. Compromises should be made. And there is no freedom. But, in fact, in film, the Seita and Setsuko do not go to the countryside. It is rather the periphery of a large city.

Amazon.fr: You left the Toei studios at the beginning of the Seventies. Then, in 1984, you create your own studios of animation. Do you think that this independence was necessary to the creation of a film like the Tomb of the fireflies ?

I.T.: I believe that at the time of Toei, I made things very new and very interesting for the time. The Tomb of the fireflies , I did not carry out it directly after the foundation of the Ghibli studios. I had to make at least two front animated drawings. All that falls under an evolution. But, if that had been Toei, I could certainly not have made this animated drawing. Moreover I left Toei because I could not do that of which I wanted.

Amazon.fr: The set ones on Dragonball Z or Sailor Moon are extremely likely to be surprised by your film;

I.T.: I do not know too much, because in Japan, they knew a parallel evolution and are as developed the ones as the others.

Amazon.fr: But don't you think that in Europe these animated drawings carry damage to your cartoon films, more "arts persons"?

I.T.: Yes, perhaps that there will be an influence. But in Japan, that does not exist at all. Each kind evolves/moves in harmony. The stimulating head of Goldorak , for example, is very good friendly. -- Remarks collected by Jean-Pascal Grosso

Taken from http://amazon.com.fr