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Animator Shingo Tamagawa Shares Insight on Creating Indie Animation in Japan

In November last year, animator Shingo Tamagawa released his three-minute independent animation Puparia on YouTube. He created the entire film by himself with hand-drawn illustrations. It proved to be popular on YouTube, accruing over a million views since its release.

Fast-forward to January: The documentary YouTube channel Archipel has released a new video about Tamagawa's three-year journey creating the film, as well as his thoughts on creating indie animation in Japan.

"Pursuing challenging methods of expression, different from what had been done before. I believe that there's less and less room that allows for that these days," he said. "I wish there could be different approaches to animation in Japan. The fact that I took on that idiotic process was a way to show that it can be fun doing what you want to make. I wanted to take a stand in a way. It shouldn't just be about working in the most efficient and easy manner. If we pursue something more beautiful that we've never seen before, I believe that it will ultimately have a commercial potential in the long run."

Shingo Tamagawa was an animation director on Gundam: Reconguista in G and Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt. He also participated as a key animator on various anime produced at Sunrise, including Valvrave the Liberator, Code Geass: Akito the Exiled, and Phi-Brain - Puzzle of God: The Orpheus Order.