On-Gaku: Our Sound was the winner of the 24th Japan Media Arts Festival’s Entertainment Division Grand Prize. The film was made largely by one man, director IWAISAWA Kenji, over a period of over seven years. IWAISAWA employed inventive techniques such as rotoscoping and the use of actual locations, creating a unique blend of live-action and animation. In this talk, we speak to IWAISAWA about the making and meaning behind On-Gaku: Our Sound.
IWAISAWA Kenji was born in Tokyo in 1981. Working as an apprentice to director ISHII Teruo, he gained experience in live-action film production, and later taught himself animation, releasing the short “Man in the Tunnel Alley” in 2008. For On-Gaku: Our Sound, IWAISAWA took on a large part of the production himself, including screenplay, storyboards, animation direction and more. The film took over seven years to complete.
Born in Tokyo in 1981, DOI Nobuaki is the founder of New Deer, Inc., and works to showcase animation to the world through production, festivals, distribution, writing, and talks. DOI frequently works as a curator of Japanese animation or judge at international film festivals. He has written several books on animation, and produced indie games such as “My Exercise” (dir. WADA Atsushi, 2020) and short films such as “Anxious Body” (dir. MIZUSHIRI Yoriko, 2021).
