Japanese Manga 1929 - The Stolen Lump

Check out this Japanese Manga animation from 1929 Japan. It's called the Stolen Lump. Very interesting to see the style and artwork. The story is an old Japanese fairy tale and it's the sort of stuff nightmares are made from. It is sometimes referred to as Kobutori or Kobutori Jiisan which translates to "Lump-removing old man".

The tale features an old man with a tumor growing on the side of his face. He participates in some occult activity with the local oni, or demons. They like his dancing so much that they steal the lump from his face, thinking he will come back for it. The moral of the story is, the demons are kind of stupid and no one can dance like this early rendition of the same god whom appears in those six flags commercials from the 90's. Actually the moral is ones fortune can become another's curse, but who cares? We're having fun here, right? Right. Okay.

The interesting thing to note is the style. The artwork and motions of the characters is reminiscent of early animated Disney films. There are several moments where I am wondering how many frames or segments were custom and what was a re-used. There are moments where repeated parts or cycles can be obviously noticed, but they have a very smooth fluidity for something from this point in history.

The animation was originally printed onto 35mm film. There is not much more around about this animation other than that. It appears to be at a frame rate of 15fps but I can't validate that either and the information is not easy to find, just eyeballing it. There are many examples that reveal the early origins of animation in Japan. This is among one of them!

Here is the 1929 Japanese Manga The Stolen Lump.

Holy crap! Did that frighten you? Made me feel pretty weird. Anyway, if you're still reading, the history of anime in Japan stretches as far back as 1907. The earliest known film is called Katsudo Shashin and is fifty cells drawn directly onto a strip of celluloid. Katsudo Shashin is not verified and predates the earliest showings of animation films in Japan. Even more interesting, Katsudo Shashin was discovered in 2005. Have a great day!