November 2016 Interview 16

-I also feel strongly that there are a lot of stories that are buried (such as the story of the anime labor union).

H: Yes. It's a bit frustrating.
Also, there aren't many people in the union who can use computers or the Internet, and there aren't any young people either.
There's also the fact that there isn't anyone who can regularly send out information.

Also, somewhere in the minds of researchers and labor unions, there's a reluctance to easily hand over past materials.

For example, Mr. O will give us as many materials as we want if we show that we want to learn. It's important for Mr. O to show that we want to learn.
Also, Mr. M, a veteran anime craftsman, will tell us a lot of old stories if we confirm that we have a mutual trust, but he also says, "Stop publishing them on the Internet."

Personally, they're all nice people, but there are subtle differences (about archiving).

-When I approached Mr. A, he coldly rejected me, so I thought I had said something that offended him.

H: That's not true. Maybe he's getting old and tired of talking to people.

The online version of Anime Report has a relatively large number of political articles.
But university professors and researchers contacted me.
You're the third person to do so.
On the other hand, I think it's amazing that people who contacted me even though I write political articles are all amazing.

I think that from now on, labor unions will need people who will steadily scan and store materials.
The "映画人九条の会(Filmmakers' Association for Article 9)," which I'm a member of, also has many elderly members who don't use the internet very much.
Mr. O said that in the past, opinions clashed over the internet, through websites and emails, and then they decided to have a face-to-face policy.
I told Mr. O, "The internet is important, too." So we had a discussion at the bar.

This is a completely unrelated story, but at the time, Mushi Productions was making TV series and also had animators make short films. There are a lot of unreleased short films in Mushi Productions' editing room. I saw them before. It's a shame that those aren't available to the public. There are a lot of films I've never seen before, like Sadao Tsukioka's independent productions, that are lying dormant.

-I've heard that when Mushi Productions was doing well financially, (then-president) Tezuka was doing it as a hobby.

H: If there's no one to properly interview and archive Mushi Productions' short films and labor union, they'll be forgotten.

-I started interviewing after I entered graduate school, and the information I've collected is limited, so I'm a little worried about whether I can be of any use to you.