The 24th edition of the Animix Festival will open on Tuesday, August 6, at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, with a rich program that includes animated films, comic workshops, book sales – and Japanese Manga artist Makoto Tanaka.
Tanaka, who first became interested in Israel after watching the Netflix show Unorthodox with Shira Haas in the lead role, recently released Bring Them Home, a Japanese manga adaptation depicting the suffering of Israeli citizens held hostage by Hamas since October 7, and their families, via the personal story of Noa Argamani.
Tanaka was able to meet Noa’s father, Yaakov, and interview him for the publication, thanks to Israeli Embassy in Tokyo spokeswoman Mor Eliyav.
“I was overwhelmed by Yaakov’s great love,” she told The Jerusalem Post. In the manga, she drew his meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and included his message that, despite his personal pain, he still believes “we can coexist with the Palestinian people.”
Argamani was rescued by the IDF in June during Operation Arnon, named in honor of Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora, an officer of Israel’s elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit who was fatally injured during the operation, which rescued her along with three other hostages.
THE HORRORS of the October 7 Hamas terror attacks, as well as the nearly super-heroic tales of Jewish survival and courage against them, are explored in a soon-to-be-released French anthology titled In the Heart of October 7. Published by Delcourt, the anthology includes works by twelve local artists – from Uri Fink to Shay Charka – offering highly personal, and sensitive, histories.
Charka, for example, linked the heroic defense Aner Shapira offered fellow Nova party-goers – he tossed back Hamas-thrown hand-grenades until one exploded in his hand, killing him – to the Talmudic hero Avouka who hurled back the massive rocks fired by the Roman catapults to break the walls of Jerusalem during the siege.
In the comic, when Shapira offers his life to save others, the bird painted on the fortified shelter where he took his last stand soars to the air: the sort of poetic imagination only this medium allows.
“Comics are a highly personal medium,” Fink told the Post. “They are not produced in a factory, and this is why they are so interesting.”
Fink, for example, decided to draw Hamas terrorists as red-eyed fanatics in balaclavas. “I do not want to draw them as human beings,” he dryly added, “so it is nice of them to keep their heads covered.”
Other cartoonists drew them as human wolves, some decided to use Arabic script with French translation to present the readers with how it feels when a fanatic hurls insults at his victim.
The anthology presents the diversity of Israeli society and how Hamas terrorists harmed anyone with the misfortune of being where the massacre happened, Jewish or not.
Michel Kichka drew the story of Youssef Ziadna, a Bedouin driver who risked himself to save lives during the Nova attack. Some of Ziadna’s own family members are currently being held by Hamas in Gaza.
Serving as the Head of the Israeli Cartoon Association, Fink arranged free drawing workshops for families evacuated from the South following the Hamas attack. Thanks to Dorit Daliot, a literary agent and French-to-Hebrew translator of note, the idea to share Israeli perspectives with the world will now reach the French market. Delcourt’s chief editor Leslie Perreaut will discuss graphic novels with the local audience in French with Daliot offering Hebrew translation during the festival.
An exhibition of political cartoons, also curated by Fink, will share different perspectives on the war beginning on Saturday, September 28, at Saint-Just-le-Martel, a commune in west-central France.
This year's edition of Animix
THIS YEAR’S edition of Animix includes a delight for children of all ages, a morning screening of brand new episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants coupled with a brief lecture by the festival’s animation curator Ben Molina. The famous Nickelodeon character celebrates 25 years since it first aired – and Ido Mosseri, who gave it life in the Hebrew version, will be there.
“The secret of SpongeBob’s success,” Molina noted, “is his charming oddity.”
The curator said that the character lives in a pineapple and works as a burger-flipper, yet wears a tie to work.
“It seems too bizarre to imagine,” he told the Post, “yet it was.”
Returning to Shira Haas: She will inhabit the role of Israeli Superhero Sabra in the upcoming Marvel Universe Film Captain America: Brave New World. Tanaka said she is personally disappointed by the decision to tone down the origins of Haas’s character.
Rather than being an Israeli agent, Haas will play the role of a US agent who is also Israeli.
In the fictional world of comic books, Sabra also enjoyed a good working relationship with the Arabian Knight – an Arab superhero yet to be included in the Marvel Universe.
Tanaka told the Post she had been reading manga every day since the age of three, the one exception being the day she gave birth. In a manner of speaking, it was suggested she is “made up of manga.”
Her suggestion to readers curious about the art form is to pick up a copy of Tenshi Nanka Ja Nai (I’m Not an Angel) by Ai Yazawa. She noted that, ever since she first read the manga as a teenager, the values of its heroine – to live honestly and fully – provide her with ongoing inspiration into adulthood.
The 24th Animix Festival will open on August 6, at 8:30 p.m. in a festive event with Makoto Tanaka and Ilana Zafran, The festival concludes on Saturday, August 10. Tel Aviv Cinematheque, 5 HaArbaa St. Call *6876 to book. Visit https://www.animix.co.il to learn more (Hebrew only).
