Japan House to host “Our Road to Recovery: An Anime Studio in Fukushima” event with Asao Yoshinori

By John Freeman on June 27, 2019

Mirai e no Tegami

London’s Japan House hosts an event on Tuesday 2nd July with producer, director and screenwriter Yoshinori Asao, focusing on novel initiatives to bring fresh life and vitality to Fukushima and the region of Tohoku, which was overcome by tragedy. There are only limited places, so booking will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

Eight years have now passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake, the largest major earthquake in Japan’s recorded history, which triggered a tsunami of a scale said to occur only once in a thousand years and was followed by the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

In memory of the events of 2011, Japan House is collaborating with Japan’s Reconstruction Agency to host a series of public talks featuring Tohoku residents, documenting the area’s recovery. Each talk highlights a different initiative that has contributed to reconstruction efforts and brought fresh life and vitality to communities in Tohoku.

Mirai e no Tegami

In 2014, producer, director and screenwriter Asao Yoshinori established the animation studio Fukushima Gainax (now known as Gaina Co., Ltd.) with the aim of reinvigorating his home prefecture Fukushima which had been severely damaged by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The studio has since brought many tourists to the region through its animations which introduce the appeal of Fukushima and Tohoku to the world, and accompanying manga and animation museum.

In “Our Road to Recovery: An Anime Studio in Fukushima“, a special event on Tuesday 2nd July 2019, Yoshinori will explore the role that animation has played in the recovery and revitalisation of Fukushima and introduces a screening of two of his studio’s representative works that have been specially subtitled in English for this event at Japan House.

Gaina’s first television animation, the two-minute short ‘Omoi no Kakera’ (Fragments of Feelings) tells the story of an energetic junior high school student who lives with her father in temporary housing in a seaside town in Tohoku after her mother passed away during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Mirai e no Tegami

The anthology style animation Mirai e no Tegami (Letter to the Future) (25 minutes) conveys the light and shadows of everyday life in Fukushima after the earthquake and tsunami through ten stories based on the real-life experiences of ordinary people living in the prefecture.

Piano no Mori

Producer, director and screenwriter, Asao Yoshinori was born in Fukushima Prefecture in 1968. Appointed as an associate professor at Osaka University of Arts in 2014, he established the animation studio Fukushima Gainax in the same year. In 2015, he opened Fukushima Sakura Yugakusha, Japan’s first animation and manga museum, in the town of Miharu, Fukushima Prefecture.

Hulaing Babies

Omoi no Kakera

In 2018 Fukushima Gainax was acquired by the Kinoshita Group and its name was changed to Gaina Co., Ltd. The studio’s major animated works include Piano no Mori (Forest of Piano), Hulaing Babies, Omoi no Kakera (Fragments of Feelings), and Mirai e no Tegami (Letter to the Future).

• Our Road to Recovery: An Anime Studio in Fukushima | Session 1: 3.30 – 5.00pm; Session 2: 6.30 – 8.00pm, followed by a drinks reception | Japan House, 101-111 Kensington High Street, London W8 5SA. Kind regards, JICC| Entrance is free and currently there is good availability for the first session from 3:30-17:00. Visit the Japan House web site for more information and to book your seat

• Fukunaka: A multilingual tourist information website for tourists visiting central Fukushima

• Gaina: Official Japanese web site

• The Sakura Yugakusha Anime Museum is located at 213 Seyama Takanosu Aza Oaza Miharu Town Tamura Gun Fukushima Prefecture, open 10.00am – 5.00pm daily (note however that it seems visitors are required to book in advance to visit. The museum’s web site says the closes in the winter from December through to February) | Google Maps | The museum’s web site is here on fukushimagaina.com, but be aware it is currently only in Japanese | Follow the Museum on Twitter @fukushimagaina

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.