GH Jr Animation Festival Day 1

Japan is well known for its anime. Many Japanese anime have become popular worldwide. However, anime isn’t only Japanese. “Anime” is just a shortened version of the word “animation.”

And at the Hiroshima Animation Festival, animations from all over the world are screened. Many of them are in competition, others won awards from the past animation festivals, and still others are simply there to be enjoyed. The animations can be happy or sad, calm or chaotic, harsh or peaceful, or a mix of everything.

Today, for example, I watched a two hour film called The King and Mister Bird, which was comedic and cutesy. I also watched a series of award winning animations from the previous animation festivals which included animations that, in a set, were quite contradictory in themes, such as light and dark, and fantasy and history. But they all are very well done and fun to watch.

The Hiroshima Animation Festival isn’t all about watching animation, though!

In one room near the front entrance of the building, there are people advertising their different animation softwares, as well as different intermedia design universities and classes. These are fun to explore, especially if you are interested in animation as a career, like I am! Sometimes directors and animators give short presentations in this room too.

There are also workshops for kids to participate in on the 4th floor. The whole floor is completely free, and you don’t have to be a child to participate. There were a few other teenagers, including myself, who drew short flipbook animations and made pipe cleaner creations for stop motion animations in the “Kid’s Clips” workshop room.

The other room is a computer animation workshop, and is also very fun to test out. But with both of these rooms, be sure to let the littlest kids go first! (See Kira’s more in-depth article about her experience in the workshops). The festival lasts from August 20th to the 25th this year in Aster Plaza a short walk south of Peace Memorial Park.