Pikadon (Japanese: ピカドン Hepburn: Pikadon, "atomic bomb"[1]) is a 1978 Japanese short animated documentary war film anime,[2] produced and directed[3] by Renzo Kinoshita.[4]

Pikadon
Screenshot from movie
A screenshot from the film.
ピカドン
Directed byRenzo Kinoshita
Screenplay bySayoko Kinoshita
Produced byRenzo Kinoshita
Daizaburo Hayashi
Toshihiro Komori
CinematographySatoru Isobe
Music byReijiro Koroku
Production Nova
Production
company
Studio Lotus
Release date
  • 1978 (1978)
(Annecy International Animated Film Festival)
Running time
8 minutes
CountryJapan

Plot

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The movie starts with depiction a normal morning in Hiroshima.

Although there is no protagonist, most focus is centered around a child playing with a paper plane. At the same time he throws his paper plane from his balcony and it falls, the atom bomb detonates, unleashing an unprecedented amount of destruction over people.

People burn to death, survivors’ skin melts. This scene ends with the view a small burned figure near the genbaku dome, presumably the child who was playing with a paper plane earlier.

Last sequence of the work shows the boy throwing his plane again, the paper plane flying instead and passing over modern-day Hiroshima as a shadow.

Legacy

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This work is reported[by whom?] to be shown at Japanese schools as a reminder of the nuclear bombings. It is considered an obscure short film.[by whom?]

References

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  1. ^ jisho.org Japanese-English dictionary ピカドン. Consulted on December 12, 2019.
  2. ^ "Pica don - Court-métrage (1979) - SensCritique". www.senscritique.com (in French). Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  3. ^ "Pica-don (ピカドン, 1978)". nishikataeiga.blogspot.cl. Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  4. ^ "Pikadon (1979) - A short animated film showing the nuking of Hiroshima in terrifying detail. Still shown in Japanese schools today as a rememberance(sic) of the bombs being dropped. • r/ObscureMedia". reddit. 26 October 2017. Retrieved 2018-03-10.
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