Syeda Amtul

Saudi Gazette

 

JEDDAH — The Consulate General of Japan held a cultural and technical lecture entitled “Evaluation of Expressions and Techniques from Traditional Art to Otaku Culture Sunday here.



The lecture was attended by prominent members of the society who were interested in art.



In 2015, Japan and Saudi Arabia will mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.



Deputy Consul-General of Japan Koji Naito  delivered the welcome speech in which he introduced the visiting lecturer, Hiroyuki Hayashida, to the audience and praised the cultural contacts between Japan and the Kingdom.



Hayashida is a Japanese cultural envoy from the Agency of Cultural Affairs, who graduated from the Fine Arts Faculty, Tokyo University of Arts.



The Japanese artist specializes in computer graphic design and visual effects (VFX) and has experience of more than 25 years in the fields of animation, movies, commercials and computer games designing.



One of his prominent computer games is the famous series of “Final Fantasy” games.



Hayashida, who has won many prizes in Japan and abroad in the fields of digital games, animations and graphic design, has also penned articles for specialized digital arts magazines.



In his lecture, Hayashida evaluated the expressions and techniques from traditional art to Otaku culture.



He said: “Animated characters and games have a number of fans who are called 'Otaku' in Japan. 'Otaku' is derived from a Japanese term for another person's house or family. This word is often used metaphorically as an honorific second-person pronoun. In this usage, its literal translation is 'you.'”



He added that “Otaku” culture including animation have become immensely popular not only in Japan but around the world, and the animated characters have recently made it to the posters and flyers prepared by the Japanese Government, such as the call for parliamentary elections or calling young people to join the Japanese Self Defense Forces, among others.



He also made a comparison between the Japanese and Western animation styles, where he explained that the Western style uses full animation by using 24 frames per second which is very much like natural movies, while Japanese producers prefer limited animation by using from 8 to 12 frames per second which looks like cartoons.



This is due to the limited budget and high costs compared to Western one which enjoys huge budgets.



The Japanese style make up the use of low frames by some special methods like exaggeration of the body and its movement through using lines, making dimensions and sizes of the animation appear larger, which are funny and far from reality but have an influential touch.



Later, Hayashida talked about the role of computer graphics in Japanese advertisements, briefly explaining about the process of production. Ahmed Al-Obaikan, a prominent businessman, presented a memento to the guest.