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64-505: The Daicon III and IV Opening Animations are two 8 mm film anime short films that were produced for the 1981 Daicon III and 1983 Daicon IV Nihon SF Taikai conventions. They were produced by a group of amateur animators known as Daicon Film, who would later go on to form the animation studio Gainax . The films are known for their unusually high production values for amateur works and for including numerous references to otaku culture, as well as its unauthorized appropriations of

128-695: A Klingon battle cruiser, the moon ship from H. G. Wells ' First Men in the Moon , the Millennium Falcon , Lord Jaxom and the Thunderbirds . Once back on land, the girl jumps off the Stormbringer and it splits into seven parts, which fly through the sky spewing smoke in seven colors. A sequence of famous spaceships crashing into each other is shown. Then, suddenly, "what could only be described as an atomic bomb" explodes over an unpopulated city, leaving behind

192-543: A TIE fighter , and Martian fighting machines from the film The War of the Worlds (1953) cross the background. Reaching into her backpack, the girl pulls out a bamboo ruler, which magically becomes a lightsaber . After slicing an Alien Baltan in half, the girl launches a number of miniature missiles from her backpack. Hit by one of the missiles, a Maser Tank from the Godzilla series catches fire. The Atragon breaks in two as

256-498: A cliff. The Stormbringer suddenly appears in the sky, and the girl jumps on it, riding it like a surfboard. A few scenes unconnected to the main plot are shown, such as Yoda as Yū Ida given a Japanese comedy routine with various characters in the audience. The girl is still riding the Stormbringer when she runs into a formation of Ultrahawk 1's. Then the Yamato , the Arcadia attached to

320-634: A flurry of sakura petals. Successive upheavals of the Earth give birth to new worlds. As a beam launched by the Daicon traverses the sky, lush greenery sprouts and grows. The camera then pans over a massive crowd of fictional characters, the sun rises, the camera zooms out to the solar system, and the film ends with an image of the Daicon logo. Afterwards, a short behind the scenes clip is presented (with another Electric Light Orchestra song playing, " Hold On Tight ") showing

384-650: A lightsaber duel with Darth Vader , with Stormtroopers sitting in the background and the Death Star enshrined in one corner. From atop a cliff, a xenomorph with artificial legs, a reference to Dai Sentai Goggle V's monsters who when grown giant, have the same metallic legs, wielding the Discovery One , knocks the girl down with an energy burst and the Dynaman robot (Dyna Robo) attempts to crush her. The girl lifts Dyna Robo off her with superhuman strength and smashes it against

448-506: A modified Bolex (H16 or H8) camera. Similar to the Techniscope cameras of the 1960s, UltraPan 8 achieves wider aspect ratios generally reserved for camera systems with anamorphic lenses through manipulating film negative exposure instead of light capture. The area of film exposed per frame is 10.52 mm × 3.75 mm, having an aspect ratio of 2.8:1. There are effectively two UP8 frames for every one 16 mm frame. The design means there

512-509: A part of his parents company to sell SF Goods in Osaka. Before opening his shop, he borrowed money from his parents and got permission to use term of general products from Larry Niven . In this year, he got married. In 1986, he established Gainax as an Anime studio and isolated General Products from his parents company. Okada assumed office as CEO of Gainax and Yasuhiro Takeda assumed office as CEO of General Products. In 1989, Okada's first child

576-411: A textile union. Takeda defined it as a literal anime sweatshop, the building was shut down at 9:00 pm and a majority of the staff would be locked inside and working through the night without air conditioning. Later, in 1984, Daicon Film made a tokusatsu film called Yamata no Orochi no Gyakushū using 16mm film, which was rare for an independent film at the time. This film was sold by Bandai in 1985. At

640-407: Is a "revival of DAICON FILM" and includes the release of several goods inspired by the original films from the eighties. The project's official site has started accepting pre-orders for the first lineup of memorial goods. A new illustration of the "Daicon Bunny Girl" has been drawn by Takami Akai , the original character designer of the opening animation films and one of the founders of Gainax. The art

704-552: Is considered rare and highly valuable among collectors, easily fetching prices over a thousand dollars on online auctions. Since its release the animations have been referenced several times in Japanese media productions, especially those focused on otaku culture. Clips and characters from the animations appear in the 1991 Gainax OVA Otaku no Video . The opening sequence of the Train Man Japanese TV drama series from 2005

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768-410: Is no waste of film emulsion for the targeted aspect ratio. Earlier versions of this general idea date from the 1950s and exactly the same design occurs in implementations of the 1960s and 1970s. The current implementation of the idea gains impetus from the relative ease with which digital delivery systems can handle what would otherwise have required, in the past, either a dedicated mechanical projector or

832-524: Is representative director of Otaking Inc. and Cloud City Inc., as well as the founder of FREEex Inc. He also served as a part-time lecturer at the University of Tokyo's college of art and sciences and as a visiting scholar at Osaka University of Arts' character creative arts department. Okada was born on July 1, 1958, in Osaka, Japan . He has written several Japanese-language books on otaku culture, and lectured on

896-457: The Yamato , the USS Enterprise , an X-wing fighter and Daimajin explode in complete chaos. The girl pours her cup of water on a shriveled daikon buried in the ground. As the daikon absorbs the water, it turns into the spaceship Daicon . Bathed in light, and now wearing a naval uniform, the girl boards the ship, where the film's producers, Toshio Okada and Yasuhiro Takeda , sit at

960-403: The Daicon animations as the 35th of the "Top 100" anime of all time. In August 2023, Wonder Festival Summer convention featured a special exhibition to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Daicon IV . Gainax revealed the details of a new campaign to celebrate Daicon Film's 33rd anniversary. The new project is named "DAICON FILM 33" and was announced on January 8, 2014. The basis of the project

1024-526: The Daicon IV animation. According to Toshio Okada, the theme of water in the opening represented "opportunity" and Lawrence Eng, an otaku researcher, describes the theme as, "... making the best use of one's opportunities while fighting against those who would seek to steal such opportunity away." The team behind the animation that gathered for the SF convention was supposed to disband and cease its activities at

1088-486: The Great Depression and released to the market in 1932 to create a home movie format that was less expensive than 16 mm . Double 8 spools actually contain a 16 mm film with twice as many perforations along each edge as normal 16 mm film; on its first pass through the camera, the film is exposed only along half of its width. When the first pass is complete, the operator opens the camera and flips and swaps

1152-463: The Playboy Bunny costume. Usage of the songs "Runaway" by Bill Conti (from the soundtrack to the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only ) as well as " Twilight " and " Hold On Tight " by English rock band Electric Light Orchestra were also unauthorized. Daicon III was made by Hideaki Anno , Hiroyuki Yamaga and Takami Akai and Daicon IV credits twelve people, including Yamaga as

1216-403: The 20th Nihon SF Taikai (nicknamed "Daicon III" because it was held for the third time in Osaka ), an 8 mm animation was shown. Nihon SF conventions are usually organized by university students in the vicinity of the host city, and Daicon III was also organized by university students in the vicinity of Osaka, including Toshio Okada and Yasuhiro Takeda . At the request of Okada and Takeda,

1280-409: The 8 mm format, no provision was made for the addition of a sound track. Nevertheless, in the 1960s, projectors appeared on the market that were capable of recording and replaying sound from a magnetic stripe applied to the film after it had been processed. The only part of the film wide enough to accept such a magnetic stripe was the area between the edge and the perforations. A much narrower stripe

1344-436: The SF convention. Hideaki Anno , Takami Akai , and Hiroyuki Yamaga who were undergraduates of that university worked on those animations. Okada realized that he could make a business out of selling SciFi products because he made a large profit selling garage kits and videos of opening animations at this convention. In 1981, he was formally expelled from his university. On February 14, 1982, he opened " General Products " as

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1408-497: The animation production company Artland , including Ichiro Itano , Toshiki Hirano , Narumi Kakinouchi , Sadami Morikawa, and Kazutaka Miyatake, also collaborated. Anno and Yamaga were invited to Tokyo by Studio Nue, a science fiction planning group that had taken notice of the quality of Daicon III's opening animation, and introduced them to Artland, which led them to join the staff of the TV animation Super Dimension Fortress Macross that

1472-577: The animation was actually produced by Hideaki Anno , Hiroyuki Yamaga and Takami Akai , all of whom were students at Osaka University of Arts at the time and would later become professionals. Anno and his team were not so enthusiastic, but Yamaga took the initiative to promote the project. Takeda explains in Notenki Memoirs that Anno had experience in paper animation, but never worked with animation cels. Since they had no professional skills or know-how, they went to professional animation studios to learn

1536-572: The animations has proven impossible. For the American release of the film, the rights to use of the Playboy bunny costume was denied and the rights to Bill Conti as well as Electric Light Orchestra 's music was consequently not sought. However, a LaserDisc featuring Daicon III & IV Opening Animation was unofficially released in Japan as bonus material to a ¥16,000 art book of the animations. This LaserDisc

1600-419: The camera's sound recording head in a similar manner to Super 8. The only difference was that film manufacturers initially had to manufacture the film with a rebated area for the sound stripe. This was because the pressure plate ensuring good film registration was part of the camera and not the cartridge. The sound film had to be the same overall thickness as silent film which the camera could also accept. Although

1664-453: The camera's sound recording head. The camera would also accept non sound cartridges, but silent cameras could not accept sound cartridges. One major advantage of the Super 8 system was that as the camera pressure plate was a part of the cartridge, it could be moulded to the profile of the stripe(s) on the film. Projectors also appeared on the market which took advantage of the balance stripe next to

1728-401: The character designs, storyboards, early rough animation, backgrounds, effects animation, and the finished cut. The film ends proper with the girl bowing to the audience as "The End" is displayed on the screen. Originally, the productions were intended to be shot in 16mm film, but both were shot in 8 mm film instead and were completed only the morning before their debut. In order to pay off

1792-477: The co-axial design of Super 8, the Single 8 cartridge featured one spool above the other. Single 8's film format being identical to Super 8 means that everything written above regarding projectors for Super 8 applies equally to Single 8. Cameras also appeared for the Single 8 system that were capable of directly recording to pre-striped film which was presented in an oversize Single-8 cartridge which provided access for

1856-475: The controls. As the landing gear retracts, Daicon departs for the far reaches of the universe. The Daicon IV Opening Animation begins with an abridged, 90-second retelling of the Daicon III Opening Animation set to "Noah's Ark" by Kitarō from the album, Silver Cloud . After this, "Prologue" by Electric Light Orchestra is heard, while the lyrics appear against a starfield and an outline of

1920-613: The courses necessary for a university degree, and he joined a group of SF fans and went into its activity. He lived on a monthly allowance from his parents who did not know of his dropping out. In the same year, he saw Star Wars while dressed as Darth Vader . In 1981, his group promoted 20th Japanese SF convention (aka Daicon III), and he put "DAICON III Opening Animation" on the screen. Okada and Yasuhiro Takeda and their group established "Daicon Film" as an anime producing team and commissioned undergraduates of Osaka University of Arts to produce DAICON III and IV Opening Animations for

1984-475: The debts of the productions, video copies of the animation were sold. Lawrence Eng declares this as the first example of original video animation (OVA) predating Dallos . Kazutaka Miyatake of Studio Nue originally designed the mecha that appears in the Daicon III clip chasing the little girl for a Japanese edition of the military science fiction novel Starship Troopers in the early 1980s. In 1981, at

Daicon III and IV Opening Animations - Misplaced Pages Continue

2048-486: The director and Anno and Akai as animation supervisors. Despite the questionable legal status of the works, the production of Daicon III resulted in debts that were repaid by selling video tapes and 8 mm reels of the production, the profits of which went to the production of Daicon IV . In 2001, the anime magazine Animage ranked the Daicon animations as the 35th of the "Top 100" anime of all time. The Jet VTOL ship from Ultraman 's Science Patrol descends out of

2112-655: The early 1990s but continued to manufacture the film, which was sold via independent film stores. Black-and-white 8 mm film is still manufactured in the Czech Republic, and several companies buy bulk quantities of 16 mm film to make regular 8 mm by re-perforating the stock, cutting it into 25 foot (7.6 m) lengths, and collecting it into special standard 8 mm spools, which they then sell. Re-perforation requires special equipment. Some specialists also produce Super 8 mm film from existing 16 mm or even 35 mm film stock. When Eastman Kodak first conceived

2176-482: The earth. Using a booster concealed in her backpack, the girl flies up into the sky and evades Gomora's blast, with the mecha flying after her. They continue their battle in mid-air. A blow from the mecha sends the girl falling, imperiling her cup of water. At the last moment, she has a vision of the Science Patrol and regains consciousness. She snatches the cup before it crashes to the ground. Resuming her battle with

2240-405: The edge and the perforations. The image to sound distance was much shorter for the Super 8 system at just 18 frames. At first, the magnetic stripe had to be applied after the film was processed and recorded on a suitable projector. In the 1970s, cameras appeared which were able to record live sound directly onto pre-striped film. This film was loaded into oversize cartridges that provided access for

2304-463: The end of 1984, with the project of Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise , Daicon Film was dissolved and established as an animation production company Gainax. The process from Daicon Film to the establishment of Gainax can be seen in detail in the Wings of Honnêamise production progress series that was exclusively serialized in the monthly magazine Model Graphix at the time. The Daicon III film

2368-539: The end of Daicon III. However, they regretted the loss of the experience, skills, and teamwork they had cultivated in running the event, and started an independent film project to cultivate a well-trained staff with the goal of holding another Nihon SF convention, Daicon IV, in Osaka two years later in 1983. Daicon Film was formed at that time. Okada sold Daicon Film's video and goods at his science fiction goods store "General Products", and sold more than 3000 videos that cost more than 10,000 yen. The profits were used to pay for

2432-761: The format faded when Kodak introduced Kodachrome, as this was only available in the Double 8 mm format. The first single-run 8 mm film was offered in 1935 with a Bell & Howell movie camera Filmo 127-A called Straight Eight. Single-width 8 mm film revived in the United States by Bolsey-8 in 1956 and continued for some time outside the United States, with Germany Agfa Movex 8  [ de ] between 1937 and 1950s and Soviet Union KOMZ Ekran movie cameras and Svema offering reversal film in 1960s. Introduced in 2011 by Nicholas Kovats and implemented by Jean-Louis Seguin, this format uses Standard 8 film in

2496-406: The former had larger spindle holes. Therefore, it was not possible to mount a Super 8 spool on a Standard 8 projector, and vice versa. The Super 8 format was designed from the start to accommodate a sound track (one of the few film formats to do so). This track would occupy the area between the edge of the film and the image area. As in the double 8 system, a second stripe was sometimes added between

2560-587: The height of a 16 mm frame, so there are four times the number of frames in a given film area, which is what makes it cost less. Because of the two passes of the film, the format was sometimes called Double 8 . The frame size of regular 8 mm is 4.8 mm × 3.5 mm, and 1 meter of film contains 264 pictures. Normally, Double 8 is filmed at 16 or 18 frames per second. Common length film spools allowed filming of about 3 to 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 minutes at 12, 15, 16, and 18 frames per second. Kodak ceased sales of standard 8 mm film under its own brand in

2624-491: The mecha, she catches one of its missiles and hurls it back at it, causing a huge explosion. The destroyed mecha launches a rocket, summoning Godzilla with the Ideon symbol. The song "Runaway" by Bill Conti (from the soundtrack to the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only ) emphasizes the action as King Ghidorah and Gamera chase the girl while she flies through the air with her jet-propelled backpack. A Star Destroyer ,

Daicon III and IV Opening Animations - Misplaced Pages Continue

2688-486: The organizing body of Daicon IV, were practically the same organization. Originally, Daicon IV was supposed to be fifteen minutes long, but the difficult production resulted in the cut time. The film officially credits a production crew of twelve people. Yamaga directed the production, with Anno and Akai as animation directors. Tōru Saegusa did the artwork and the animations were done with Yoshiyuki Sadamoto , Mahiro Maeda , and Norifumi Kiyozumi. Professional animators from

2752-1073: The perforations by recording and replaying stereo sound. Projectors appeared in the late 1970s that featured the ability to play films with an optical soundtrack. The image-sound separation for the optical format was 22 frames. These were never popular in the English speaking world and are consequently very rare in those countries, but they did enjoy some popularity in the Far East and Europe mainly because optical prints were cheaper. Sound prints in Super 8 were plentiful and considering that they were very expensive by modern-day standards, sold in appreciable quantities. A two-reel print (running approximately 17 minutes) cost around $ 50 with feature films costing at least $ 150-plus. A few prints were also released with stereo sound. In Europe, optical prints were also popular and were appreciated for their often superior sound quality. In theory, magnetic prints should have been superior, but Super 8 magnetic prints were often poorly recorded after

2816-512: The picture was processed, due to high-speed, mass production techniques. An optical track, on the other hand, could be printed at the same time as the image and in equivalent quality. Another version of Super 8 film, Single-8 , was produced by Fuji in Japan . Introduced in 1965 as an alternative to the Kodak Super 8 format, it had the same final film dimensions but with a different cassette. Unlike

2880-417: The production lacked timing sheets. Osamu Tezuka did not see the opening film at Daicon III, but was shown the film by Akai and Yamaga later that night. After watching the film, Tezuka remarked "Well, there certainly were a lot of characters in the film. ... [T]here were also some that weren't in the film". Akai and Yamaga later realized the omission of Tezuka's characters; they were subsequently used in

2944-498: The production of the next film. Daicon Film went on to produce the 8 mm tokusatsu films Aikoku Sentai Dai Nippon , Kaiketsu Noutenki , and Kaettekita Ultraman . These films, as well as Daicon III Opening Animation , were widely featured in the anime magazine Animec , and Daicon Film gradually gained recognition. In 1983, Nihon SF Taikai was to be held in Osaka again, and it was the fourth SF convention in Osaka overall, Daicon IV. Daicon IV Executive Committee and Daicon Film,

3008-436: The production, the direction was not professional, but Takeda attributed Okada as the producer, with Yamaga directing, Akai doing character animation and Anno as the mecha animator. Takeda also said other individuals were involved and were used to trace cels or paint cels as needed, but still credits Yamaga, Akai and Anno with the production itself. Filming was done by a camera on a tripod and frames were called out by Anno because

3072-426: The rebated stock was more expensive to manufacture, a balance stripe on the opposite side of the film was rendered unnecessary and offset the cost. Fuji later developed a thinner film that did not require rebating, but the balance stripe was required because the thickness of the sound stripe was almost the same as the film base. A number of camera companies offered single-width 8 mm film in magazines or spools, but

3136-471: The short from an 8 mm print; the announcement was made with the permission of Daicon Film. 8 mm film There are also two other varieties of Super 8 – Single 8 mm and Straight-8 – that require different cameras but produce a final film with the same dimensions. The standard 8 mm (also known as regular 8 or double 8) film format was developed by the Eastman Kodak company during

3200-426: The sky toward Earth, as a school girl, carrying her randoseru , observes from behind a tree. The Science Patrol offer the girl a cup of water and ask her to deliver it to "DAICON". The girl salutes and races away, but she quickly experiences trouble as Punk Dragon blocks her path. He summons a mecha from Starship Troopers , and it and the girl begin battling. The girl tosses the mecha aside and Gomora rises from

3264-433: The sole exception of the 2017 iteration). At Fanimecon, Yamaga said, "[The openings are] a source of pride and something you want to strangle." Akai, who wants to produce better films, stated, "I don't want to see them for a long time. Just thinking about them sends shivers down my spine." Lawrence Eng stated that without the Daicon animations, Gainax might never have existed. In 2001, the anime magazine Animage ranked

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3328-408: The spaceship Daicon passes in the background. The film proper begins as "Prologue" segues into " Twilight ", the song which follows it on the album Time . The girl from the previous animation is now an adult, wearing a bunny costume . She fights off a multitude of Ultra Series monsters and aliens and mobile suits then jumps into a throng of Alien Metron and tosses them aside. She is then in

3392-401: The spools (the design of the spool hole ensures that the operator does this properly) and the same film is subsequently exposed along its other edge, the edge left unexposed on the first pass. After the film is developed, the processor splits it down the middle, resulting in two lengths of 8 mm film, each with a single row of perforations along one edge. Each frame is half the width and half

3456-406: The techniques, and in order to reduce costs, they tried to use inexpensive industrial celluloid , which is not normally used. They were referred to Animepolis Pero, an anime hobby store chain, but they found that the cost of the cels were too expensive, so a single cel was purchased and taken to a vinyl manufacturer in east Osaka , where they purchased a roll for 2000 yen. After cutting and preparing

3520-514: The topic as an adjunct instructor at University of Tokyo from 1996 to 1997. He is considered the foremost authority on otaku and in addition, in a tribute to his own otaku-ness has been crowned "OtaKing" amongst his colleagues and fellow otaku. Okada was admitted to Osaka Electro-Communication University to learn to use computer in 1978, but he could not obtain any credits in the first year because he had forgotten to hand in his course registration form. For this reason, he stopped completing all

3584-449: The transfer to another film format for which projectors were already available. Toshio Okada Toshio Okada ( 岡田 斗司夫 , Okada Toshio , born July 1, 1958) is an anime producer, author, and lecturer . He is a co-founder and former president of the production company Gainax . He is portrayed by actor Gaku Hamada in the 2014 TV Drama Aoi Honō based on the autobiographical manga by his fellow Kazuhiko Shimamoto . He

3648-474: The transformed SDF-1 Macross appear, along with an exploding VF-1 Valkyrie variable fighter from Macross armed with a Gundam -style beam saber. An air battle unfolds in an otaku coffee shop. The girl is then seen in a world filled with American comic superheroes. A host of machines and characters (from The Lord of the Rings , Conan , Narnia , Pern , and others) fly past her into space, including

3712-479: The vinyl cels, they discovered that the painted cels would stick together when stacked and dry paint would peel off the cels. To keep costs low, they made their own tap to punch holes in the B5 animation paper used in the production. The work was carried out in an empty room of Okada's house where their business was also operated. While other people were present, the work was shared and Anno, Akai and Yamaga worked full-time on

3776-502: Was being produced by them. Their activities in Tokyo became a stepping stone to their later professional careers. In addition, Akai's hometown friend Maeda, and Sadamoto, Maeda's senior at university, joined Daicon Film, and the core members of Gainax came together here. The production facility for Daicon IV was in a dedicated studio in a building called the Hosei Kaikan that was owned by

3840-408: Was displayed on the top page of Gainax's official site. In 2021, Daicon Film regrouped to produce a remaster of Daicon III , featuring involvement from an unspecified member of the short's original staff. The announcement was first published on Twitter by Kineko Video (then known as FemboyFilms), a fan group who had previously received a cease and desist notice for their own restoration attempt of

3904-484: Was inspired by and uses the Electric Light Orchestra theme and the lead character from the Daicon IV film. In episode 5 of Gainax's FLCL , titled "Brittle Bullet", Haruko, wearing a red bunny suit, flies in on a bass guitar and yells "Daicon V!" before attacking a giant robot with a slingshot. Since 2008, Otakon 's AMV contest opened with a video inspired by and using clips from the Daicon IV film (with

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3968-421: Was never an optical system. A few sound prints appeared for use in Double 8 projectors. In 1965, Super-8 film was released and was quickly adopted by many amateur film-makers. It featured a better quality image and was easier to use mainly due to a cartridge-loading system that did not require reloading and rethreading halfway through. To easily differentiate Super 8 film from Standard 8, projector spools for

4032-480: Was reported on in Animec magazine which resulted in requests for the film to be released publicly. In order to pay off the debts from producing the film, the decision was made to sell 8 mm reels of the film and videos. Additional original artwork and the storyboards were included in the release. The sale paid the debts and the profit would be used to produce Daicon IV . Due to copyright problems an official release of

4096-470: Was sometimes added to the opposite edge so that the film piled up evenly on the spool, but was never used for sound. The sound to picture separation was the same dimensionally as 16 mm film, and as that format is 28 frames, that meant that the Double-8 system was 56 frames. The proximity of the sound stripe to the perforations caused some problems in keeping the film in close contact with the sound head. There

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