Daicon III
In 1981, at the 20th Nihon SF Taikai (nicknamed "Daicon III" because it was held for the third time in Osaka), an 8 mm animation was shown. Nihon SF conventions are usually organized by university students in the vicinity of the host city, and Daicon III was also organized by university students in the vicinity of Osaka, including Toshio Okada and Yasuhiro Takeda. At the request of Okada and Takeda, the animation was actually produced by Hideaki Anno, Hiroyuki Yamaga and Takami Akai, all of whom were students at Osaka University of Arts at the time and would later become professionals.[6] Anno and his team were not so enthusiastic, but Yamaga took the initiative to promote the project. Takeda explains in Notenki Memoirs that Anno had experience in paper animation, but never worked with animation cels. Since they had no professional skills or know-how, they went to professional animation studios to learn the techniques, and in order to reduce costs, they tried to use inexpensive industrial celluloid, which is not normally used. They were referred to Animepolis Pero, an anime hobby store chain, but they found that the cost of the cels were too expensive, so a single cel was purchased and taken to a vinyl manufacturer in east Osaka, where they purchased a roll for 2000 yen.[4][7] After cutting and preparing the vinyl cels, they discovered that the painted cels would stick together when stacked and dry paint would peel off the cels.[7] To keep costs low, they made their own tap to punch holes in the B5 animation paper used in the production.[7]
The work was carried out in an empty room of Okada's house where their business was also operated.[7] While other people were present, the work was shared and Anno, Akai and Yamaga worked full-time on the production, the direction was not professional, but Takeda attributed Okada as the producer, with Yamaga directing, Akai doing character animation and Anno as the mecha animator.[7] Takeda also said other individuals were involved and were used to trace cels or paint cels as needed, but still credits Yamaga, Akai and Anno with the production itself.[7] Filming was done by a camera on a tripod and frames were called out by Anno because the production lacked timing sheets.[7]
Osamu Tezuka did not see the opening film at Daicon III, but was shown the film by Akai and Yamaga later that night. After watching the film, Tezuka remarked "Well, there certainly were a lot of characters in the film. ... [T]here were also some that weren't in the film". Akai and Yamaga later realized the omission of Tezuka's characters; they were subsequently used in the Daicon IV animation.[7] According to Toshio Okada, the theme of water in the opening represented "opportunity" and Lawrence Eng, an otaku researcher, describes the theme as, "... making the best use of one's opportunities while fighting against those who would seek to steal such opportunity away."[4]
The team behind the animation that gathered for the SF convention was supposed to disband and cease its activities at the end of Daicon III. However, they regretted the loss of the experience, skills, and teamwork they had cultivated in running the event, and started an independent film project to cultivate a well-trained staff with the goal of holding another Nihon SF convention, Daicon IV, in Osaka two years later in 1983. Daicon Film was formed at that time.[8] Okada sold Daicon Film's video and goods at his science fiction goods store "General Products", and sold more than 3000 videos that cost more than 10,000 yen. The profits were used to pay for the production of the next film. Daicon Film went on to produce the 8 mm tokusatsu films Aikoku Sentai Dai Nippon, Kaiketsu Noutenki, and Kaettekita Ultraman. These films, as well as Daicon III Opening Animation, were widely featured in the anime magazine Animec, and Daicon Film gradually gained recognition.
Daicon IV
In 1983, Nihon SF Taikai was to be held in Osaka again, and it was the fourth SF convention in Osaka overall, Daicon IV. Daicon IV Executive Committee and Daicon Film, the organizing body of Daicon IV, were practically the same organization.[8]
Originally, Daicon IV was supposed to be fifteen minutes long, but the difficult production resulted in the cut time.[4] The film officially credits a production crew of twelve people. Yamaga directed the production, with Anno and Akai as animation directors.[6] Tōru Saegusa did the artwork and the animations were done with Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Mahiro Maeda, and Norifumi Kiyozumi. Professional animators from the animation production company Artland, including Ichiro Itano, Toshiki Hirano, Narumi Kakinouchi, Sadami Morikawa, and Kazutaka Miyatake, also collaborated.[6]
