is a 2004 Japanese

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

created for the popular

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

program ''

Minna no Uta , literally ''Everyone's Songs'' (English title: ''Songs for Everyone''), is a five-minute NHK TV and radio program which is broadcast several times daily. The program started on April 3, 1961. It is one of NHK's long-running programs. The pr ...

'' by director

Atsuko Ishizuka is a Japanese animator, storyboard artist and director. She began her animation career after joining Madhouse in 2004. Career Ishizuka's journey to becoming an animator was rather unusual by industry standards in Japan. Unlike many of her cont ...

and Studio Madhouse.

Production

''Minna no Uta'', a showcase for independent Japanese animators and musicians presented on the

public broadcasting Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

network

, had taken notice of Atsuko Ishizuka while she was still in college. Initially a student of graphic design, Ishizuka had taken to animation and produced several short films entirely on her own before being hired by Madhouse. It was shortly after being hired that ''Minna no Uta'' contacted her to direct a music video for their program. Convinced by the ''Minna no Uta'' staff, Madhouse promoted the low-ranking Ishizuka (then a production assistant) to director, and lent the studio's resources to the production. After production was completed, the music video was shown on ''Minna no Uta'' broadcasts from the beginning of October through November 2004. Its success later prompted NHK to order another short from Ishizuka and Madhouse, ''Sen no Hana Sen no Sora'', in 2005.

Animation Style

The film is animated in Ishizuka's "moving sketch" style, giving the short the look of a hand drawn and colored pencil work. The animation and designs are not smooth or 'cleaned up,' giving them a rougher feel. This is stylistic continuation of Ishizuka's earlier solo works ''CREMONA'' and ''Gravitation'', and has traditionally been a style more often seen in independent world animation rather than studio-produced anime. The animation itself was done by Madhouse veteran Yoshinori Kanemori. Despite the appearance, ''Tsuki no Waltz'' was done in much the same way as Madhouse's normal anime, using the technique of digital ink & paint for the coloring. Great care was taken to disguise and cover these modern productions aids and ensure that the film look as hand-crafted and individual to Ishizuka's style as possible.

Music

The song of the same name which the short was animated to was composed and sung by the young musical vocalist

Mio Isayama Mio Isayama (諫山実生, Tokyo, 7 June 1980) is a Japanese singer. Biography Mio Isayama debuted as a singer in 2002 under the EMI Music Japan label with the song for NHK's program ''Minna no Uta''. Since then, she has had two other songs ...

. The song was later released as Isayama's 8th single on December 1, 2004. The lyrics were penned by

Reiko Yukawa Reiko (れいこ,　レイコ,　麗子, 怜子, 伶子, 玲子, 令子, 礼子, 禮子, 冷子) is a feminine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese women's basketball player *Reiko Aylesworth (born 1972), an Ameri ...

, long known in Japan as a prominent music critic, and the arrangements were by

Jun Abe Chronology in ''Creaturers.'' is a Japanese street photographer and educator who lives and works in Osaka. As of autumn 2014, he has produced six books of photographs of people in cities, including ''Citizens: 1979–1983'', which won the Societ ...

, known for composing the music of the popular anime '' Kodomo no Omocha'' and ''

Fruits Basket , sometimes abbreviated , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Natsuki Takaya. It was serialized in the semi-monthly Japanese manga magazine , published by Hakusensha, from 1998 to 2006. The series' title comes from ...

''.

Reception

According to Benjamin Ettinger of AniPages Daily, Ishizuka received "literally thousands of posts on the BBS at her home page" after ''Tsuki no Waltz'' was aired. Ettinger himself called the film "probably among the best pieces made for the show ''

'' in the last few years." The film was also popular enough to receive a home video release.

DVD release

As is the case for most of the ''Minna no Uta'' shorts, ''Tsuki no Waltz'' was not originally intended for home video release. Nevertheless, on March 30, 2005, its popularity among fans of the program warranted the short's inclusion on the ''Minna no Uta Best Hit Collection'' DVD (Catalog No.: TOBF-5372).

References

External links

Atsuko Ishizuka's Homepage - ''Tsuki no Waltz''
{{Authority control 2004 anime OVAs Madhouse (company) Music videos Anime based on Alice in Wonderland Animated music videos Television shows based on Alice in Wonderland