Jumping

Even at the twilight of his life and career, the legendary mangaka Osamu Tezuka continued to busy himself with several circulating manga publications, as well as dabbling in animation as a hobby. In fact, there have been accounts of him going out of his way to fund projects with money from his own pocket. One of those instances is with Jumping, Tezuka’s entry for the 1984 Animafest Zagreb, a prestigious animated film festival organized by the International Animated Film Association or ASIFA. Back in 1981, Tezuka enlisted the help of animator Junji Kobayashi, who famously worked on the ambitious animated cityscape scene in Hi no Tori2772, also a film by Tezuka. Jumping is envisioned to be a grand expansion of that scene—a continuous, fluid short of a child who jumps, jumps, and jumps until he reaches clouds, skyscrapers, forests, and inhumanly unreachable areas, while subtly infusing outlooks on society represented by quick shots of the environments he jumps to. With limited technology, Kobayashi had to think out of the box to be able to acquire reference shots for the short. Unlike Hi no Tori 2772 where he and the animation staff were able to create a model of the futuristic city within the Tezuka Pro office hallway, the sheer scale of Tezuka’s storyboard had led to him hopping on similar roads to imitate the movement, as well as riding on a Cessna plane to take the aerial shots necessary. The result was a six-minute visual wonder consisting of approximately 4,000 cuts (!) made over the course of a two-and-a-half-year long production period. While admittedly not consistently fluid (and at times possibly nauseating), the formidable scope within this short, as well as the fact that this work is produced without any reliance on CGI, is nothing short of inspiring. Within a short amount of time Tezuka crams in as much visual information as possible through each jump, not being overbearing on its gradual shift to disturbing imagery while imbuing in as much meaning as he can. Unsurprisingly, Tezuka would go on and win the Zagreb award, in fact being the first Japanese to ever do so (and the only one alongside Koji Yamamura to win it to this day). Jumping is possibly one of Tezuka’s most nuanced and definitive works. Kobayashi, of course, also deserves recognition for undertaking in this monumental project. This film is one of the many testaments that display the man’s infectious passion for the medium that continues to be felt within the industry beyond his death.

Excuse me, I'm Spanish and I don't usually write in English. If you want you can read my review in Spanish. Jumping (1984) constitutes the case of a particular idea. This short simply focuses on a jumping boy. From a subjective point of view, as if we were the aforementioned young man, we observe how a stranger jumps from one place to another. He first begins with small jumps that do not make him advance much, but after dodging a car he begins to jump higher and higher and further. Thanks to this, he makes a kind of trip around the world seeing forests, cities, oceans,etc. Sometimes, we notice curious or strange facts such as a bird that gets in the middle of our friend's jump, the sight of a naked woman who was on a balcony or the presence of a whale in the sea. They are simple touches of humor to get us a smile. In just six minutes we completed this long journey. At first, the journey doesn't seem to have meaning, but it really does. For thousands of years, the human being has advanced progressing little by little, as if they were small jumps. But at certain times, especially in recent centuries, this progress has multiplied, making the jumps enormous, impossible to calculate in their distance. It is not surprising that too big a jump can destroy us and that is why it is advisable to start reflecting. The idea seems to be haunting the short film because in one of those jumps the boy reaches a war zone where he apparently dies after the fall of a nuclear missile that destroys everything. In the fall the jumping boy ends up in hell where the devils seem to feel sorry for him and send him back to the finish line. A message in the vein of a mangaka and animator so obsessed with the issue of war and uncontrolled progress. Speaking of other important aspects, this short film draws a lot of attention for two reasons: on the one hand, the subjective point of view that allows the viewer to feel as if he or she is jumping, thus improving that idea of ​​the short; and, on the other hand, the handling of the camera, which allows Tezuka to be offered a view from different angles, something very original on his part and with which he had not explored much until then. However, the work is not perfect. The journey itself is not particularly fascinating, even with those slight touches of humor at work. Anyway, the short occupies a prominent place in the author's non-commercial production. You can read my review here: https://elarmarioanimados.blogspot.com/2020/06/cortometrajes-de-osamu-tezuka-anos-80.html

Wow! Who knew looking through anime from the 80s would let me find such a breath of fresh air? This short anime, directed by the acclaimed Tezuka Osamu, is about a child that starts walking down the street and has to jump to avoid an accident. After that, he decides to keep jumping and goes higher and further each time. The awesome thing about this (at least for me) is that it is all in first person perspective the entire time. Perhaps there were other anime shorts that used first person before Osamu thought of the idea, but this is the first one that I know of,and it's a blast to watch. The sound effects add a great deal of enjoyment to it as well. If you enjoy the evolution of animation, or even just want to see all of Tezuka Osamu's works, I wholeheartedly recommend giving this one a watch. It is short, sweet, and worth every minute!

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