Todoroki Kawaii

It was really an honor organize our first masterclass with Greg Broadmore from Weta Workshop yesterday at Akiba Hall.  180 artists, students and professional came in attendance.   Greg for four hours discussed about his work journey in concept art which led him to Weta Workshop, the amazing projects he has worked on - some of which has never been seen by the public before----- and what he has planned for the future with Magic Leap.  An additional bonus, Greg  created an on-the-spot digital painting of an outer world monster for the audience.  Japan is on the cusp of changing it's approach towards concept art.  Due to the changing landscapes of our world culture, Japan is moving towards a more "western" approach towards art education for production art and animation. Big changes are coming. It was an amazing and informative show and most of all it was fun. Big thanks Greg!

The other week I posted about Katsuhiro GENGATEN exhibition at 3331 Arts Chiyoda. Amazing work. Sadly pictures weren't allowed in the exhibition, but I was able to get a shot of this:

From the people who brought you Ninja Scroll, Japanese animation studio, Madhouse, Inc. has not only acquired animation rights to Charles Schulz's Peanuts, but has already completed one animated short. Whether this means Madhouse will be animating only content for commercials or if they will be animating narrative content, is unclear at this time. Most likely it will be only for Japan since the American animation studio, Wild Brain has rights for the USA. Wild Brian animated the first Peanuts special with involvement of neither Schulz nor animation director/ producer Bill Melendez with "Happiness is a Warm Blanket Charlie Brown". Peanuts, otherwise known simply as "Snoopy" (poor 'ol Charlie Brown, upstaged again) is immensely popular in Japan , only rivaled by Mickey Mouse. Peanuts is now 63 years old. Charles Schulz at one time being the only person to draw the characters, as well as oversee all merchandising, there existed a certain purity in the int...

Celebrated but at the same time underrated manga artist and animation director, (my favorite Japanese animation director) Kastuhiro Otomo will have an exhibition of his original art at 3331 Arts Chiyoda starting April 9th and continuing on to May 30th. The exhibition entitled, Katsuhiro Otomo Gengaten will feature the history of Otomo's artwork (3,000 original sketches) as well as 2,500 first time released pieces from his most globally recognized work, Akira. It will also premiere his new artbook, Otomo Katsuhiro Artwork KABA2. Tomorrow marks the 1st anniversary of the 3/11 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster otherwise known as Great East Japan Earthquake. 30% of the event proceeds will go to donations for relief and aid still needed in those areas.