136 - Annecy 2026 : Blinkity Kōji
Annecy 2026 wrapped up after a week of encounters, screenings, exhibitions, and emotions. There are always films that stand out for their aesthetic beauty—a beauty that only animation cinema can offer, thanks to the magic of frame-by-frame imagery.
"Haru no Umi" by director Kōji Yamamura is one of those films, and here's why.
Haru no Umi (春の海, "The Sea in Spring") Animated short film | 2025 | Japan | 7'45''Animated short film | 2025 | Japan | 7'45''
Directed and animated by: Kōji Yamamura
Music: Haru no Umi (The Sea in Spring)
Composer: Michio Miyagi
Music performed by: Violin – Kazuki Sawa; Koto – Masateru Ando
A poetic work rooted in tradition
Beyond the film's visual qualities and its animation, this is a work deeply rooted in Japanese artistic and cultural tradition, giving it an inner strength that carries the viewer along in a soothing, contemplative flow.
It is inspired by the Seto Inland Sea—a calm sea, yet one surrounded by turbulent legends. This sea is the subject of myths and legends featuring often terrifying supernatural creatures: the yōkai (妖怪).
But rest assured, there are no monsters or specters in this film—quite the opposite: it offers us a peaceful sea. 😊
The scenes draw inspiration from the "sumi-e" painting style. This art of black ink wash expresses reality by reducing it to pure, essential forms. A few touches of color may occasionally complete the picture. Landscapes are a favorite subject of this art.
The film's music also draws on tradition, featuring a violin version of the koto piece "Haru no Umi", composed in 1929 by Japanese koto player and composer Michio Miyagi.
Where movement transcends the arts
This graphic and musical ensemble carries us into a gentle movement filled with simplicity, inviting us to savor the present moment at the water's surface. Animation cinema and its master Kōji Yamamura transcend these arts through movement.
Representations of aquatic movements evoke the poetry of water:
That of a boat and its oar, reduced to an abstract signature gliding across the water;
That of the water itself, offering us animated abstract paintings.
The skies meet the waters with a bird's flight, offering us a landscape where all the elements are in perfect harmony.
Synchronism: a precise relationship between frame-by-frame image and music
At the opening ceremony of the Hiroshima Festival (HAS) on August 19, the organizers presented a concert blending live performance, animation, and AI around Kōji Yamamura's work Haru no Umi (The Sea in Spring).
Thanks to an AI image-synchronization system, the animation was projected following the tempo and rhythm of the live performance. The system served here to compensate for slight variations inherent to live performance, preserving the synchronism of image and sound.
Blinkity Kōji
Beyond the gentle, contemplative spell that takes hold of the viewer, this aquatic poetry with its graphic vibrations—playing on the borders of figuration and abstraction to the rhythm of sound—inevitably brings to mind Norman McLaren, the great Scottish master of experimental animation and frame-by-frame imagery, so dear to André Martin. McLaren spent several decades at the National Film Board of Canada experimenting with a profusion of frame-by-frame animation techniques. Far removed from a traditional Québécois song about a canoe (1) or a film engraved directly onto film stock set to a jazz piece (2), we are struck by the relationship to music, the synchronism, and the play of forms that Kōji Yamamura offers us.
It was while exchanging with Kōji Yamamura in preparation for this article—a project I had shared with him—that I discovered my "McLarenesque" impressions of 'Haru no Umi' were not merely an animation enthusiast's fanciful notion. They aligned perfectly with the director's own interests, as he confided to me his marked attention to "visual music" and the work of Norman McLaren, which he had been exploring for several decades!
Beyond this marked interest, Kōji Yamamura has directed several short films in homage to Norman McLaren.
Muybridge's Strings — Kōji Yamamura, 2011 — NFB/NHK/Polygon Pictures
As early as 2011, Kōji Yamamura referenced McLaren in Muybridge's Strings, and McLaren's work on the musical form of the canon, using the shapes of a Bach canon.
The film is a poetic and surreal reflection on the passage of time. It blends:
the life of Eadweard Muybridge, with references to his work on chronophotography (following in the footsteps of the Frenchman Étienne-Jules Marey 😊),
and the thoughts of a mother watching her daughter grow up and slip away from her.
The film is built on Johann Sebastian Bach's "Crab Canon" (1747) and Norman Roger's arrangements, echoing its highly mathematical form in which the theme is played backwards, forwards, and then together.
The formal structure of the canon resembles a Möbius strip, as the following film explains in a vivid, educational way:
Kōji Yamamura plays with this form:
in movement (forward, backward, ascending, descending),
in the sets—paradoxical staircases à la Maurits Cornelis Escher,
in time, with backward returns,
—all while visibly relishing the alternation between Muybridge's story and that of the mother and daughter.
The film can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAaMro1Maxc
Norman McLaren's work on the relationships between sound, music, and image naturally led him to explore musical forms, as evidenced by the series of articles published in the 1960s in the "JMC Musical Chronicle".
There is no doubt that Kōji Yamamura's collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada amplified McLaren's influence on the director. We will find this influence later on.
Five Fire Fish (2013)
Kōji Yamamura's first film in homage to McLaren was made using the NFB's iPad app: "McLaren's Workshop." In this black-and-white film, texts, figurative elements, and abstract forms succeed one another in movements that accompany music and sound effects. The film recalls Len Lye's "Free Radicals" (1958).
The film can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmM6Xp4LTRM
Begone Bell Care (2014)
"Begone Bell Care" is a short film by Kōji Yamamura co-produced with the National Film Board in homage to Norman McLaren and his film "Begone Dull Care", on the occasion of the centennial of his birth. To create this tribute, Kōji Yamamura collaborated with his wife, abstract painter Sanae Yamamura, to explore and recreate the collaborative working method of Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart.
The artists painted directly on long rolls of paper, creating a work of visual music inspired by Norman McLaren's film, using the film's music along with new sound recordings.
Begone Bell Care by Kōji Yamamura (2014) can be watched here: https://vimeo.com/98246737
Begone Dull Care (Caprices en couleurs) by Norman McLaren (1949) can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAodHvSdUnk
Synchronism: a precise relationship between frame-by-frame image and music
Oscar Peterson was playing at the Esquire Show Bar in Montreal; Norman McLaren met him so they could collaborate on the making of "Begone Dull Care." Oscar Peterson's performance had to be modified—he had improvised after the first work sessions, thus desynchronizing sound and image. After these compromises, each artist was satisfied with the result. (3)
Blinkity Kōji
My feeling when watching Haru no Umi (春の海, "The Sea in Spring") was spot on: Kōji Yamamura has been strongly influenced by Norman McLaren in his exploration of the relationships between image and sound in frame-by-frame cinema. This influence gives us, with Haru no Umi, a walk at the water's surface where light, the elements, movement, and wildlife converse with music at the borders of abstraction.
Many thanks to "Blinkity" Kōji (4) for his help in writing this article.
(1) "C'est l'aviron" — Norman McLaren, 1944 — watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XAnOL8DKIs
(2) "Begone Dull Care" — Norman McLaren, 1949 — watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svD0CWVjYRY
(3) See Séquences, Revue de cinéma, October 1975, issue no. 82
(4) A reference to Norman McLaren's short film "Blinkity Blank" (1955)
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