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Originally Posted by lilitu93
I was going to name wartime propaganda anime as the rarest thing I'd seen, though I've only seen some clips of one of them in a lecture that Jonathan Clemens was giving at the London Sci-Fi Film Festival a few years back. He showed a clip of one where all the people were portrayed by animals (I think), and there were some English generals with English voice actors (presumably prisoners of war)--all the English people talked very strangly, and Jonathan thought that perhaps they were purposely talking wrong as a sort of rebellion.
I'd love to see the rest of the one I saw (and any others), as they're quite fascinating, both from a historical perspective in terms of the war and in terms of animation itself. I think I can understand why they aren't shown that often in Japan, though.  Would they be legal to release for historical reasons, or would the be banned outright? I know loads of Nazi things are banned in Germany, but I don't know what Japan's policy on wartime propaganda is. |
While I would like to own a VHS copy of those films, unfortunately not many people know about this here in Japan as well. It is plausible that these animes might actually be easier to find in the US as the Allied Occupational Forces took away those films during the occupational period. However, the copies that were distributed to the theaters at the time still do exists (in very bad shape - something needs to be done!!) and once in a while it is shown here in Japan at a film festival - where I was lucky enough to see this back in middle school.
Seeing that I cannot find any useful info in my local library or on Google, I assume that this film cannot be transfered over to video anytime soon, especially in Japan. But it does give you the feel of the era and a chill down your spine when you get to see this - the quality is actually good for a Japanese anime made at the time (of course, it pales to Disney propaganda films which I have also seen a glimpse on TV). And there is something weird and makes you ponder when the credits roll and you see "Produced by: Ministry of the Navy - Public Relations Division"