The Story of a Bird Who Never Knew the Sky

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Overall Table of Contents

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Chapter 01 Begins

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Days Chasing the Illusion of FLCL

My Experience with Trying Crowdfunding

Shino

Nice to meet you. My name is Shino and I mainly work on animation production. Recently, I have been involved in character design for “Digimon Ghost Game” and I also had the opportunity to shoot “Mune no Kemuri” by “Zutto Mayonaka de Iinoni” not too long ago. Thank you in advance.

Sakoda

First of all, I always ask this at the beginning, but I believe you have become involved in works as an animator. I would like to delve into the background of why you chose this creative career as an animator, what your starting point was, and the path you have walked. What do you think?

First, I always ask, but I think you are involved in the work as an animator, Shino-san. I would like to delve into the reasons behind choosing this creative career as an animator and the journey you have taken. How did it become the starting point and what kind of path have you walked? What do you think?

Shino

Actually, I might not have deeply thought about wanting to become an animator, but let me briefly explain my background and how I got here. There is a fine arts university called Tokyo Zokei University located in the mountains, and they have an animation department. I somehow ended up enrolling there and paid a high tuition fee to become a hand-drawn animator. That’s the path I took. Well, I also love movies, so I sometimes think that maybe I could have pursued that path instead. But I think the reason I was drawn to animation in the first place was because when I first saw it, I thought, “Wow, this is amazing.”

And so, I have been chasing that illusion and feeling lost for a long time. For example, if you watch FLCL for the first time, it can drive you crazy, right? It’s like, “Wow, it’s so free.” You can incorporate any style, any grammar, and it feels like you’re enjoying the freedom of creating something. It made me realize, “I’m able to work with such freedom, it’s amazing.” That’s the kind of feeling it gave me.

Well, there are types. I’m not particularly strict about following types for various things, but I make sure to adhere to what needs to be conveyed. I wonder what you call it. For example, there are movies like “Home Alone” or Christmas movies. Well, most of them end nicely. In other words, I learned from anime that there are works that are not just about everyone enjoying it to some extent and safely finishing it at that moment, and that’s okay.

I guess it’s like poking at myself and saying things like “the conversation isn’t over yet.” It’s like the grammar of how stories are made in videos I’ve seen on TV since I was a kid, or in manga, or the grammar of how I perceive things. It’s like breaking those things for me. As someone from the countryside, there’s always the same daily life, you know. You can’t go outside without a car, and there’s no concept of freedom in the outside world, or even the concept itself. There are, of course, some works that give me a shock, like another language suddenly bursting out. Of course, lately, I’ve been mainly watching movies, so I feel that a lot in movies. But of course, I think the first thing I ever experienced was in anime.

Sakuta

Somehow, to put it in a slightly different way, SHINO, who was born and raised in the countryside and went on to university, has been exposed to various forms of creativity, including anime and live-action films. In the midst of watching these works, FLCL stands out as a creative piece where the creators themselves engage in self-awareness and irony, while also adhering to and breaking away from conventions. This ability to maintain the established norms while breaking them is what makes it incredibly creative, I suppose.

Shino

Maybe that’s how it is.

Sakuta

I think the work called “FLCL” is a piece that dragged various creators into that swamp.

Shino

Yeah, that’s right. Well, of course, I watched Evangelion when I was 14 or 15 years old, so I guess our generation, especially those around that age, were quite influenced by the old Gainax era, or something like that. I think there are quite a few people who were deeply affected by it in that regard.

Yes, that’s right. I want to organize it in chronological order a bit, but originally, before entering university, Amoto-san had already watched a considerable number of movies and had a subconscious awareness of film genres, or something like that, right?

No, I actually became a movie lover in college. I ended up watching a lot of weird movies, but I always liked sci-fi movies, so I watched them a lot. So while watching movies like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” I was thinking, “Wow, there are crazy movies like this?” and gradually got hooked on them.

If I could recommend something today, there’s a song with English lyrics that Godiego released first, and there’s a movie that uses the entire soundtrack. I personally love it and it got me really excited, but the content is not something I can recommend to others.

As I watched things like that, I realized that movies also have freedom, and I got more and more immersed in that world. And of course, I learned about the basic structure of visuals, like editing and using various clichés, from anime. I went through a period where I was just watching movies all the time. Recently, I haven’t been able to watch as much, actually.

In this second half of Episode 1, I would like to go back to the starting point to follow Shiho-san’s journey before entering university. If she didn’t have much experience watching or participating in entertainment activities, I’m curious why she decided to enroll at Tokyo Zokei University. I would like to hear about her feelings at that time. So, in the second half, I hope to explore that aspect. But before that, let’s take a detour here and decide on the first song.

First, let’s start with a bright and energetic song, shall we? Personally, I’m someone who is always searching for what I like and tends to end up in strange situations, so I think a song with that kind of vibe would be nice. Please play “Tenjou ura kara Ai wo Komete” by Angie-san. Thank you!

Daiziro Moroboshi's "The Bird Seller"

In the first half, I heard the story of how you entered the art university and encountered a work called “FLCL” while watching various movies, which made you feel free and became a guiding light for your journey as an animator. Now, I would like to go back in time to before your enrollment and delve deeper into what led you, Shino-san, to leave the countryside and come to Tokyo Zokei University. Can we explore that?

Shino

Well, in the end, even if I went to Tokyo, Aihara was still a boring countryside. The nearest station to the Zokei University is Aihara Station, but even if you come out there, it’s a quiet place. Well, I’m originally from Chiba, and Chiba is also kind of on the outskirts, you could say. Speaking in terms of the region, it’s more like a plain, with flat land and originally had marshes and lakes, but they built mountains and filled them all in with the soil from those mountains, it’s called reclamation. So the land there is all flat. Chiba Prefecture loves reclamation, so they are filling in everywhere, but it’s been a long time since they did that kind of reclamation, so it’s just flat with no mountains and well, the sea is somewhat close, but there are hardly any trains, and it’s a single track, so basically it’s difficult to go out and there are no convenience stores nearby.

Somehow, I never had the concept of wandering or anything like that in the first place. It didn’t matter how long I stayed awake, but I just never had that kind of thinking. So, for example, I think I encountered FLCL around the end of junior high school or maybe in between junior high and high school. As I watched various works, I started to find that kind of freedom. It’s like there’s always this feeling that this isn’t my place, you know? I think many creators and people probably say similar things, but for me, there was always this feeling of “this isn’t my place” from elementary school to high school. For example, not having people with the same aspirations around me, or not having people with a similar level of enthusiasm, or being forced to do something I wasn’t good at. Personally, I’m not good at ball sports, but I was forced to join the basketball club, and it’s like, “Ah, this is the countryside” when I think about it now. Anyway, the scenery was narrow and there was nothing I knew, no freedom at all. It was like feeling “this isn’t my place” every day.

Sakuda

I am also from a rural area in a basin, born and raised surrounded by mountains, so I personally feel like I understand to some extent. Reclaimed land and plains have a different nuance, I think. In my case, being surrounded by mountains, there is always a sense of not being here but somewhere else. However, as a child, I didn’t have the means to cross the mountains or the money, so I had these restless days. On the other hand, that accumulated impulse can suddenly burst out, like going to Tokyo or going abroad in one go. There are episodes like that, right? Like the ones with Isayama-sensei, the creator of “Attack on Titan”?

Shino

I was just thinking about that story while talking now.

My own independent project is exactly like that; the protagonist is a bird, but it doesn’t know the sky. So it doesn’t know how to fly, nor does it understand the wind. In a short story collection by Daijiro Morohoshi that features birds, there’s a story about a bird seller. In that story, a merchant from the underground world captures a crow and brings it, asking, “What is this?” The residents of the underground world don’t have a sky or anything, so they don’t even understand what it means to fly.

In the end, the bird escapes and flies away, and everyone watches it blankly through the ventilation shaft, and that’s how it ends. There are parts that are deeply moved by that. So in the end, it’s just that we don’t know, right? The danger or the vastness or the freedom of this world, for example. When you see it in a work, it feels like your brain’s neurons are accelerating and connecting, don’t you think? Definitely.

Hakuta

I’m not sure if I can express it well, but it’s like being made aware of preconceptions or biases. Back in the day, it was harder for external stimuli to come in, unlike now. By “back in the day,” I mean a time when smartphones didn’t exist yet. During that time, it was difficult to research or gain new knowledge and expressions. But somehow, during those times, when something from the outside came in and I was deeply moved by new knowledge or that kind of stimulation, I have memories that trace back to a distant past.

Shino

Yeah, that’s right. So, I mean, changing places or something like that can be a good stimulus because it’s just changing the amount of physical stimulation. It’s a bit blunt, but it seems to be true. So, going back to my story, when I entered university, I really felt like my life had improved a bit. Basically, I had friends who liked similar things and we could push each other to improve. We were constantly being shown art and anime and other works that I didn’t really understand, and it was like “what is this” every day. Well, that being said, tuition fees are high, and I don’t think it’s something you have to go out of your way to attend.

#02 continues