Director focus:

Yoshitaro Kataoka

片岡芳太郎

Kataoka was an animator primarily active at Yokohama Cinema before the war. Representative works include the entertaining samurai cartoon Danemon Ban—The Monster Exterminator, in which the hero battles an army of racoons. He also took over the “Monkey Sankichi” series from Mitsuyo Seo and maintained its popularity. After the war, he tried to make color films using the newly developed Konicolor system, while also working as an artist for rental manga.

 

Available from Zakka Films:

The Roots of Japanese Anime—Until the End of WW II

Roots of Japanese Anime Until the End of WWII DVD cover Total running time: Approx. 92 minutes. / monochrome

8 classic masterworks of early Japanese anime, featuring legendary heroes battling mountain demons and raccoon samurai, a notorious bombing of Pearl Harbor by cute animals, and many more gems by the true pioneers of anime.