Kiyubaru Underground Museum 2

Eye Size and Shape

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 02:12:03 +0900

Harada’s mentor, Koizumi, once said: "When meeting someone, the first thing we look at is their eyes. It is the same with animation; viewers look at a character's eyes first. That is why eyes must be drawn with great care."

Furthermore, there is a tendency—particularly in Japanese manga and anime—to draw characters with large eyes.
This is footage Harada shot at the Zagreb World Festival of Animated Film in 2007:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5WYtOoQMU4&t=193s
In the video, a producer named Eric—who was also attending as a guest—asks, "Why are eyes drawn so large in Japan?"
Japanese creators need to be able to answer this question.
Historically, depictions of large eyes have existed since ancient times, long before the Common Era.
However, quite apart from that, one must always consider the underlying rationale—the conceptual basis—for determining the size and shape of the eyes.

(This is also something Harada spoke about every year in his art college classes.)

Weight

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 01:17:03 +0900

Kiryukan’s works are created on paper.
When paint is applied to thin paper, the paper tends to warp or curl.
For "MIDORI," the artwork was pressed flat using non-reflective clear glass before being photographed.
"Horizon Blue" was scanned rather than photographed, so no surface irregularities appeared.
"Limitless Paradise" and "Death Lullaby" were created on slightly thicker paper and colored with markers, so the paper did not become significantly uneven.
Starting with "Zashikiro," a technique involving thin layers of poster color was adopted, causing the paper to become uneven after coloring.
To address this, heavy objects are placed on top for a full day to flatten out the irregularities.
Even then, however, slight unevenness remains in the paper.
Harada notes that by capturing these slight irregularities, the resulting image seems to record a sense of organic quality and atmosphere—a harmony with nature rather than a purely mechanical reproduction.
The sounds associated with paper are also soothing to the spirit; the sound of turning pages or the crisp, crackling noise of drying paint feels pleasant to the human ear.

The paper in every shot is slightly rippled and uneven.
At Kiryukan, the images are deliberately captured exactly as they are—much like photographing a real-world landscape.

Tropical Nights

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 12:43:34 +0900

We are seeing a succession of days where temperatures remain close to 30°C even at night.
Yet, world leaders merely hold meetings in air-conditioned rooms, failing to take any concrete measures to address the situation.

The Climate Crisis

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 02:08:08 +0900

This is the indoor temperature of the Kiryukan Atelier when the air conditioning is turned off.
On the Earth of the past, humans needed neither electricity nor air conditioning to live their lives. Nor were there any national borders.

Consequences of the Additions

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 01:22:26 +0900

Due to the substantial addition of episodes, the overall completion of ”BOO” is now projected for the end of 2027.
Furthermore, the project currently lacks most of its music and sound effects.
However, this significant expansion has allowed the narrative structure to link with current global social conditions—much like in ”Zashikiro” and ”Horizon Blue”.
For future works like ”MAZE” and ”KKU”, too, various global events will likely unfold during production, creating a dialectical relationship between those events and the works themselves. A creative work is a living thing.
When Harada lectured at an art college last year, he was surprised by a student who asked, "Is it acceptable to make changes or additions to an animation while it is still in production?"
Even during his time teaching regularly at art colleges, Harada had witnessed how students were increasingly forgetting what freedom meant, becoming inhibited and fearful with each passing year.
Creators must break the "shackles" (a term Marx favored to describe chains binding the hands and feet) imposed upon young people.
To do this, one must—as was the case with works from the 1970s—continue to create freely, without fear of authority, regulations, or unjust laws.
Harada’s inclusion of banned terms, discriminatory language, depictions of sex and violence, and real footage of war is entirely intentional.
While society’s shift toward liberalism is positive, it has simultaneously led to a toning down of artistic expression; consequently, the gore, splatter, and pornography characteristic of the 1970s began to disappear.
Since the eras of far-right Liberal Democratic Party Prime Ministers Koizumi and Abe, the far-right has projected an aggressive, destructive image. To young people born into a society where gore, splatter, porn, and the underground scene had vanished, this image appeared "cool," thereby garnering support for far-right administrations.
Acts like crime and discrimination, once confined to the realm of cinema, are now being carried out by these individuals in the real world. Moreover, they perceive these actions as a victory—an act of rebellion and defiance against the school education they once endured.
Therefore, no matter how unjustly regulations or laws are tightened or enforced with a heavy hand, works of art and creative expressions must not shrink back, cower, or succumb to self-censorship.

Rhythm and Calculation

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 18:46:45 +0900

We previously discussed the origins of rhythm, touching upon sounds such as heartbeats and footsteps.
The following article presents a fascinating hypothesis:
https://nightingaledvs.com/old-data-processing-that-changed-history/

Various calculating devices—ranging from ancient clay tablets to modern machines—have existed throughout history.
The article suggests that their origins may lie with women.
It posits that in the ancient world, women observed the changing phases of the moon.
They then began to perform calculations to predict the cycles of changes within their own bodies.
Patriarchy has shown a complete indifference to sustaining the events of daily life, repeatedly erasing history and material traces.
It is a wonderful concept to imagine a reality that transcends the traditional roles of men as hunters and women as gatherers (though recent research has revealed numerous exceptions)—one linked to the changing moon and cosmos.
While men destroy and erase rather than preserve, women observe nature and engage in calculation.

Signatures in Support of the JCP

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:54:45 +0900

An appeal titled "We Support the Japanese Communist Party," published in the party's newspaper ”Shimbun Akahata” during the 1980s.

In addition to Harada, the list of names includes Yoji Yamada, Isao Takahata, Hideo Furusawa, Moribi Murano, Nizo Yamamoto, Hiromi Yamamoto, Chikao Katsui, Yoshinori Kanada, Yoshio Kabashima, Hideo Kawachi, Osamu Kobayashi, Yoshifumi Kondo, and Tsutomu Shibayama.

Directionality and Laterality

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 14:33:07 +0900

Previous studies have noted that the majority of ancient artists were right-handed. Consequently, it was hypothesized that there would be a prevalence of animal depictions facing left.
However, recent research has revealed that figures facing both directions exist, and that there are actually more depictions of horses facing right.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10816-026-09796-y

Harada previously investigated the origins of directional orientation by focusing on the directionality of writing, examining materials such as those from the British Library collections.
The findings showed that when writing first emerged in the ancient world, scripts existed in both leftward and rightward orientations. Some styles, known as ”boustrophedon” (or "ox-plowing" style), involved alternating directions.
Subsequently, the West adopted a rightward writing direction, while Asia adopted a leftward one.
In Japanese visual media and art, active scenes are often depicted facing left, whereas negative scenes are depicted facing right.
The convention in the West appears to differ somewhat.
Eisenstein, for instance, associated active movement with a rightward direction.
Some experts suggest that this difference is influenced by writing habits: the Western practice of writing the alphabet from left to right versus the Japanese practice of writing characters in a way that progresses from right to left (traditionally in columns).
As for why the majority of humans are right-handed, numerous studies have been published on the subject; please refer to journals such as ”Nature” or ”Science” for further information.

From an early scene

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 02:02:33 +0900

From a shot drawn in January 2025.

Rhythm

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:52:16 +0900

As noted in Excite Blog and in essays for Bunka Gakuin（2010-2011）, Harada states that the origins of rhythm lie in the sounds of the heartbeat and walking.
Research has suggested that this heartbeat sound quietly shapes the mechanisms of information processing in the brain.

https://www.science.org/content/article/your-heartbeat-quietly-shapes-how-your-brain-processes-information