Animated Revue: Spring

The lazy Tompei is still asleep past 10 o'clock and even at 11 o'clock. He finally wakes up at 12 o'clock at the deafening sound of the angry clock. Hungry, Tompei walks to Sarukichi's house and grabs food Sarukichi has harvested. The next day, while Sarukichi is working in the hills, Tompei beats Sarukichi's two children who are staying at home and tries to steal things from Sarukichi's house. Sarukichi, who is alerted of the situation via telephone from his children races home, is infuriated at the cruel Tompei and punches him so hard he falls down.

The story is based on the traditional, Japanese myth of Urashima Taro; in which a fisherman is transported from the seashore into a fantastic underwater world on the back of a giant turtle.

An adaptation of Aesop's fable The Ant and the Grasshopper but with a slight change. We have a diligent family ants versus a drunken lazy frog, a bourgeois butterfly and grasshopper couple. As winter comes, the frog, butterfly, and grasshopper are ill and starving.

Animated short features bunnies and tanuki having wacky hijinks while going skiing.

A group of animals take part in Olympic sports.

A man and his young son travel through the countryside to take their donkey to a horse auction. Unfortunately every person they pass has a different opinion on how this should be accomplished, leading to disastrous results when the dim-witted father abandons common sense in an attempt to please everyone.

Sports Day at Animal Village. Japanese animation short.

An old man with a huge lump on his face encounters a band of Tengu in the mountains.

A Yasuji Murata version of the classic Japanese story Saru Kani Gassen.

Very early animated short from Japan featuring a cast of anthropomorphic animals.

A train conductor goes about his duty. All the characters are animals in human form. Hippo ladies in dresses try to jam into cars and other passengers pull jokes and cause havoc.

Momotaro takes to the ocean to fight a shark.

A miller and his son clumsily attempt to transport a donkey.

During the late Kamakura period, there lived a famous swordsmith known as Masamune whose renown as a swordsmith was so great that even long after his passing the term “Masamune” was used to describe any fine sword. Even today, the Masamune Prize is awarded to swordsmiths of outstanding skills in their craft. In Yasuji Murata’s cutout animation The Monkey Masamune a humble messenger is rewarded with the gift of a Masamune sword when he saves the life of a monkey and her child.

A group of animals want to end the violence of the wolf.

A family of mice dance to entertain a cat that disrupted their festivities after returning home early. (Source: MyAnimeList.net)