“Nation of Fish” colorization & screening.
About the Film: "The Nation of Fish" (魚の國, 1928) is a wild little gem from the dawn of Japanese animation - just 11 years after the very first anime was ever made! This surreal underwater adventure uses paper cutout animation to create a bizarre fish kingdom, fish swimming around as just heads and bones after being chomped by whales, underwater battles, and visual gags that all add up to a folksy morality tale on not celebrating victory too soon, at least that’s what I gather.
Why I Colorized This: My working theory is this film was only black and white because that's all they had in 1928. The original animators were probably dreaming in technicolor but stuck with grayscale. By adding color, I'm not just making it easier for modern eyes (though that's definitely part of it) - I'm trying to unlock what this underwater fantasy world might have actually looked like in the creators' imaginations. Think of it as digital archaeology meets creative interpretation. There's something magical about breathing new life into a piece of animation that's been sitting in archives for almost a century. These early anime pioneers were absolutely wild with their creativity, and adding color helps reveal just how inventive and strange their vision really was. It's like finally hearing a song that was only ever hummed before.
