Urashima Tarou (supposed title)

Urashima Tarou is based on a well-known Japanese folk tale about an honest fisherman who is invited to an underwater castle after saving a sea turtle on a beach from bullies.

(Source: forum.bcdb.com)

Note: The latest research has revealed that the film identified on this website as Urashima Tarou (supposed title), which was so named on the basis that it was believed to be a work by Seitaro Kitayama that was originally released in 1918, is actually a different film. Read more...

(Source: Japanese Animated Film Classics)

Note: Urashima Tarou (supposed title) is tinted in pink film. Not to be mistaken with Urashima Tarou (1931) which is a black and white film.

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Feb 13, 2019

AnchientProphet2

Recommended

Having accidentally seen the 1931 version, I finally came upon the real, 1918 version, and as a fan of very antiquated things, I loved it!

Though from the silent era, when animation was less about even using cell, which had not really come around yet even in america, and simply about what seemingly amounted to motion capturing different pictures- frame, after frame, after frame.
BUt growing up with claymation shows as a child, I dont hate this.

ON my quest to see much anime, I of course could not pass up any of the oldest still available to watch, and I encourage others to not pass up the ... opportunity to watch this near ancient piece.

Though lacking in aesthetics, it was funny to see the way the animators created the illusions of aquatic life underneath our fisherman protagonist, as well as the scenes underneath the sea itself.
Oddly enough, the whole backdrop was red colored, either due to the fragility and damage over time done to the original stills or thats just how twas back than. NANDA TO?! O>o
Supposedly filmed and/ or hand drawn by people at a japanese company listed at the films end, called Y.N .& Co., there is a picute of a young gal point to japanese words that, maybe, say "thanks for watching" but I could not tell. Also there is a backwards 87, likely the number of frames of single pictures that made up this historic gem. I though it was funny to see the protagonist end up old, like he had spent too much time or all his life nearly underwater be the films end, which made me chuckle at how much old things remind us that people have always been people, now and forevermore. Give it a watch at :
http://animation.filmarchives.jp/works/play/72126

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Aug 14, 2017

assholisms

Mixed Feelings

The other reviews mentioned the existence of three tellings of the same story so I won't harp on it too much, just mind that this review is for the 1918 animation (the one in the thumbnail) by Seitaro Kitayama.

The story is very short so there's not much to say about it, really. In this version, a boy capsizes at sea and meets a kind talking sea turtle who invites him to live under the sea and is then returned to firm land many years later as an old man.

The art and animation are simple but get the job done, this version doesn't make excessive use ... of transitions like at least one of the later tellings of the story which is great, and it doesn't meander like most other retellings of Japanese folk tales.

It keeps it short and sweet and is, at worst, inoffensive. Just okay. 6.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 4, 2017

aniMayor

Not Recommended

First of all, please note that there are multiple versions of Urashima Taro. This MAL entry is for the 1918 silent short film, and it is only about 60 seconds long. If you are watching a version with narration, with any sort of sound, or that is longer than a minute (as I suspect the other review here was) this is the wrong MAL page.

With that out of the way, Urashima Tarou is (as of this writing) the 3rd-oldest Japanese animated film known to exist and obviously a very early prototype of what anime would one day become, and I will attempt to judge ... it within the context that it was made, not compare it to later anime.

The plot itself is an engaging one - a simple story of a fisherman briefly visiting an enchanting undersea world. Modern viewers may find the pace is too rapid to fully understand what is going on, but bear in mind that since this was silent film it was almost certainly preceded by an explanation of the story before the film actually began when it originally aired.

Visually, I did not find this film to be very impressive. The backgrounds are overly simple, the characters' design are not very expressive, and some instances of motion don't have enough middle frames to fully convey the motion. Yes, this is only 1918, but I think every one of these aspects was done better by The Dull Blade, an even earlier Japanese animation film from the year prior, or in Urashima Tarou's western contemporaries such as The Sinking of the Lusitania.

All that being said, Urashima Tarou is decently animated, better than many other short animation films from the same period. I feel that it ranks just below average for its era in terms of quality and novelty.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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