Overview
“Midori-ko” is the first animated feature film by Japanese animation artist Keita Kurosaka, who is known for his short animation films with a wide range of techniques including drawing, photo and stereoimage.
Direction, screenplay, storyboard, character design, art, drawing, key animation, in-between animation, background art, color design, photography, and editing by Keita Kurosaka. Produced by Mistral Japan. 55 minutes.
Plot Outline
Set in near future Tokyo lined with wooden houses like the Showa era. Five scientists develop a dream food “Midori-ko” by crossbreeding human with dishcloth gourd, but Midori-ko refuses to be eaten and escapes.
A female university research student in the agricultural department, Midori finds Midori-ko and starts keeping it.
Midori, scientists, and the apartment dwellers, who try to eat it, starts scrambling for Midori-ko.
Commentary
“Midori-ko” is a surreal, grotesque and comical art film influenced by paintings, manga, monster movies and experimental films.
It features half-plant/animal, half-human characters.
Kurosaka drew all the over 30,000 drawings with pencils, photoshopped them, edited them with anime software AnimeStudio, did all the processes of animation production almost by himself, and completed it for 13 years (1997–2010).
The film was premiered in the 2010 Ottawa International Animation Festival, and screened at film festivals, museums, and theaters in over 20 countries.
