Moscow to Tokyo, Tokyo to Moscow

How two animation scenes influenced each other.

A still from Toei Doga’s Puss in Boots (1969)

Happy Thursday! Today’s issue of Animation Obsessive is about the ping-ponging influence between Soviet and Japanese animation.

We’ve written before about the impact that films like The Snow Queen (1957) had on Hayao Miyazaki. This story gets more complex, though — it’s not a one-way street. Soviet animators inspired those in Japan, and then Japanese animation entered the USSR. It became a powerful force that those same Soviet animators had to address.

It’s a story that spans decades, and that deals with a clash of styles and sensibilities. There were commercial artists fighting for more artistry, and artists’ artists fighting for more commerce. Many of the greatest ever to work in animation were involved.

And that’s what we’re covering now. Here we go!