Ojiisan no Lamp

Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Wakate Animator Ikusei Project, 2010 Young Animator Training Project, Anime Mirai 2010, Ojii-san no Lamp, Grandfather's Lamp, Project A

Japanese: おぢいさんのランプ

Information

Type: Movie

Episodes: 1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Mar 5, 2011

Producers: None found, add some

Licensors: None found, add some

Studios: Telecom Animation Film

Source: Original

Genre: Drama

Theme: Historical

Duration: 24 min.

Rating: G - All Ages

Statistics

Score: 7.51¹ (scored by 10,128 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1887²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #4797

Members: 20,881

Favorites: 14

Available At

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Resources

AniDB

ANN

Synopsis

When a young boy named Tooichi stumbles upon an old lamp in his grandfather's shed, he mistakes it for a toy and takes it outside to play. When his grandfather discovers this, he reprimands the boy and begins recounting the story behind the artifact—of how a small, traditional Japanese town became Westernized.

In his youth, Tooichi's grandfather, Minosuke, made a living by doing errands and chores for the townspeople. After one errand takes him to a nearby town, he witnesses Western lamps—a technology unfamiliar to him—light up the streets, igniting a spark in the young boy. From that moment on, lamps became Minosuke's passion and profession, changing his and the townspeople's lives forever.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

The Agency of Cultural Affairs of Japan invested 214 million yen ($2.26 million) in "Young Animator Training Project" and entrusted the execution of the project to Japan Animation Creators Association (JaniCA). JaniCA produced four original anime (23 min long with OP and ED sequences) in cooperation with four production studios. Ojiisan no Lamp was one of these four projects. Ojiisan no Lamp also won the 2011 Future Animator Contest.

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Related Anime

Other:

Kizuna Ichigeki, Bannou Yasai Ninninman, Tansu Warashi.

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Minosuke

Main

Kamiya, Hiroshi
Japanese

Yorozuya no Baa-san

Supporting

Tani, Ikuko
Japanese

Lamp-ya no Shujin

Supporting

Ogata, Mitsuru
Japanese

Tooichi

Supporting

Hirata, Mana
Japanese

Setsu

Supporting

Shimizu, Risa
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Takiguchi, Teiichi

Director

Kikuta, Hiromi

Sound Director

Shiratori, Emiko

Theme Song Composition, Theme Song Performance, Theme Song Lyrics

Haketa, Takefumi

Music

Edit

Opening Theme

"Onii-chan (おにいちゃん)" by Crazy Ken Band

Edit

Ending Theme

"Negai Tomosu Koro e (願い灯す頃へ)" by Emiko Shiratori

Reviews

Jun 4, 2022

Svvindler

Recommended

“Lampu!” The cry rings out over rice paddies and wheat fields, echoed by a the retainer of children smiling in his wake. Once a homeless orphan, dependent upon the town chief’s kindness for the roof of a barn over his head at night and forced to run errands and perform odd tasks about the village he called home in order to eke out a living, Minosuke, now a young man, is a lamp salesman. One of the first in his part of the country, he travels with his cart and family, selling oil lamps in a westernizing Japan eager for the ease of a life ... enhanced by the latest technologies coming from across the sea. But technological advancement, once indulged, cannot help but continue at a breakneck pace. Some day, even the prescient and savvy will wake to find their trades no more.

The beauty and terror of technology and the blessings and curses of westernization are both central to Teiichi Takiguchi’s “Ojisan no Lamp,” a stunning 25-minute amateur animated film. The piece was released in 2010 as part of the inaugural round of the Young Animators Training Project, an annual program launched by the Japanese Animation Creators Association and supported by the Japanese government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs dedicated to encouraging the training of budding animators.
“Ojisan no Lamp” may be the work of an amateur rather than professional animator, but it’s nearly impossible to tell. The scenes are gorgeously animated, with a stunning focus on the colors and depths of light produced by varied sources—the sun on bright days and gloomy days, through slats of wood and at twilight; oil lamps large and small, in the home and out of doors; and, finally, electric light—and a patience that somehow seems to extend the film’s short runtime. The story is simply but powerfully told, a meditation on accepting the passing of time and the ease with which one’s trade becomes irrelevant in a rapidly changing society—a lesson much needed during a time of working class anger and knee-jerk attempts to save dying industries, many of which, like coal and oil, actively destroy the planet they’ve so long powered along.
Minosuke shows anger, too—and doubt, and resentment, and a furious need to stop the passing of time and the changing of the world, the only way he can think of saving his business, his family, himself. He lies to his fellows about the benefits of electricity. He goes near mad with fear of the future. He rages against the dying of the oil lamp’s light—until, finally, he is the one who must snuff it out in a tragically symbolic rejection of the past. And yet, years later, he is a grandfather with a standing oil lamp buried in the back of his home, a relic he must explain to his grandson, who has never seen one before. Wistful for the past but having found a way to adapt to the present, Minosuke endures. In a review on The Nihon Review, one blogger writes:

We relate to his reluctance to give up everything he’s loved and accept his own irrelevance. Yet, we implore him to do so, lest he be left behind by the ruthless progress of society. Though everything ultimately ends well for him, we’re still left with a tinge of sadness at the end of it all — unwilling to accept, like Minosuke, than object as beautiful as an oil lamp can be so casually replaced by something as harsh and uninviting as a light bulb, yet knowing, as he does, that such is life — that one must either keep up with the times, or be left behind in the dark.

It’s stunning stuff. And, as modern technology continues its sprint toward the future, with teleportation and genetic editing both now real possibilities, “Ojisan no Lamp” may just serve the purpose intended of its namesake: providing a steady warmth to light the way through an ever-coming dark.

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May 22, 2012

kekekeKaj

Mixed Feelings

Times are constantly changing; old technologies are continuously being replaced by new. Sometimes though, it's not easy to let go of something outdated, especially if it has played a central part in one's life. In essence, this is what happens in "Grandfather's Lamp", when an aged protagonist Minosuke tells his grandson about the role lamps played in his life.

Being one of the 2010 Young Animators' Training Project, the artwork has a simplistic beauty about it and seems to have been done with great care. The shading of the eyes is a little weird - they have these dull colourings that are often used in other ... anime to indicate a lack of consciousness or control. The background music is also very good, gently supporting the quieter moments and weighing in and enhancing the key ones. Judging technical aspects of an anime really isn't my forte though, so I'm gonna quickly move onto the other stuff. :P

The first part of "Grandfather's Lamp" is about how Minosuke, as a boy, came across lamps being sold at a shop in a time when such things are a rarity in Japan. Fascinated by this new technology, Minosuke decided to start selling them in his village, eventually growing up and expanding his enterprises into the city. For a long time, life was great; his business thrived and he started a family with his childhood crush. So far so good. This part of "Grandfather's Lamp" is mostly calm and peaceful, a part that highlights Minosuke's delightful enthusiasm for the lamp, and how it was the foundation to all that was good in his life.

The second part of the tale shows Minosuke's lamp business becoming obsolete; electric lighting started to appear as Japan continued to modernise. Even though Minosuke embraced the technology that was the lamp, he was reluctant to show the same attitude towards electric lights, and did not want to abandon the lamp business his life was built upon. On paper, this had superb potential. It could have been a great story about Japan's modernisation and Minosuke clinging on to the past. Instead, "Grandfather's Lamp" fell on its face in this second part, as it went for impact and drama with a subject that should have been treated slowly and with subtlety. After all, it's not like the adoption of new technology happens over night, and the point where it was treated as such, when Minosuke somehow only discovered electric lights when he was surrounded by them, is the point where the story started to fall apart.

It gets worse. Minosuke's resentment eventually drives him to ridiculous actions that were made more ridiculous by the "Higurashi"-esq dramatisation, and his eventual enlightenment was delivered with all the finesse of an elephant burglar. It seems almost surreal when compared with the quiet, slice of life nature of the first half. Towards the end, as Minosuke finally came to terms with the inevitable and went about preparing for it, there was one breathtaking moment when the gorgeous visuals combined with the swelling music to form a beautiful, poetic scene, but even that was quickly marred by more silliness.

In the end, with its vast potential and solid technical aspects, "Grandfather's Lamp" turned out to be only decent. With better screen writing and direction, it could have been so much more. It just feels like the effort that's obviously been put into the animation is lacking elsewhere.

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Jun 3, 2019

Zeemod155

Not Recommended

This is very cheesy and mellow-dramatic. People have been dealing with new tech out-dating old tech for centuries it's not something that's particularly unique to electricity or oil. Not to say there's nothing particularly interesting about the history of electric technology itself but based on the dramatic implications that this short film's narrative, which it definitely does not earn implies, it's very bare-bones surface-level take is supposed to suffice.

As a result of the shallow narrative that doesn't get explored any more than some broad strokes emotional levels (of which we have about 10 minutes of screen time to soak in) the story feels woefully ...

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Poll: Ojii-san no Lamp Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 )
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by nishant0 »»
Nov 21, 2023 8:47 AM

Ojiisan no Lamp

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