{"id":2253,"date":"2009-06-26T04:13:33","date_gmt":"2009-06-25T19:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/halcyonrealms.com\/?p=2253"},"modified":"2019-11-22T14:12:17","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T05:12:17","slug":"animes-love-affair-with-railway-tracks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/halcyonrealms.com\/anime\/animes-love-affair-with-railway-tracks\/","title":{"rendered":"Anime’s Love Affair with Railway Tracks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\n
\nIts probably not too much of a stretch to describe Japan’s railway tracks as the life-lines of its major cities, especially Tokyo – everyday millions of passengers are transported by trains that run along these tracks, spread over the city not unlike giant blood vessels that instead of Hemoglobin, carry human inhabitants that sustain the hulking metropolis. Train stations ( and therefore railway tracks ) are so ubiquitous and form such an integral part of Tokyo’s unique urban landscape its little wonder they’ve come serve as the backdrop of many an anime film.<\/p>\n

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(above) Poster design for Mamoru Hosoda’s award winning anime “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time”, depicted with the film’s protagonist Makoto standing at a railway crossing – an important location in the film where a major plot element occurs. The background art and design of this poster is actually based on a real railway crossing in West Tokyo, ( Nakai station on the Seibu Shinjuku line) very close to where I live. ( more pictures below )<\/p>\n

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(above) Some background plates from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time Background Artbook.<\/a> (review coming soon). Besides the railway crossing, the area around it is also based on actual shopping malls and streets in Nakai – the list of locations can be found in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time Notebook.<\/a><\/p>\n

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(above) Range Murata, concept designer of “Last Exile” and “Blue Submarine” shares his affinity for railway crossings in his illustrations. Check out some of his gorgeous artwork in this previous post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Shinkai Makoto – director of “5 Centimeters”<\/a>, and background art extraordinare.<\/p>\n

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\n\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

\"Garden<\/a><\/p>\n

The director’s affection for railway tracks and train station platforms continue in his films Garden Of Words<\/a> (above ) and the smash hit Your Name. ( below )<\/p>\n

\"Your
\n\"Your<\/p>\n

Below are some pictures of the railway crossing near my house in Tanashi, West Tokyo on the Seibu Shinjuku line, taken on a rainy, sleepy afternoon. The station\/railway crossing featured in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is located on this same line.<\/p>\n

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\n\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

(above) Motion censors used to detect human traffic – the boom barriers on either side of the crossing will only shut if no motion is detected. (below) Mechanism that controls the boom barrier.<\/p>\n

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\n\"\"
\n\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

(above) Commuters waiting to cross as a train passes by. (below) The emergency stop button.<\/p>\n

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\n\"\"<\/p>\n

So the next time you visit Tokyo and come across one of these railway crossings, take a moment, relax, and enjoy the sights – I also recommend a visit to the crossings at Daikayama Station, or the one in Shimokitazawa.<\/p>\n

Any railway crossings in your country ? What are they like ?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18,15,10],"tags":[1679,165,558,564,170,305,34],"class_list":["post-2253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anime","category-illustration","category-japan","category-photography","tag-anime","tag-artbook","tag-girl-who-leapt-through-time","tag-railway-crossings","tag-range-murata","tag-shinkai-makoto","tag-tokyo"],"yoast_head":"\nAnime's Love Affair with Railway Tracks - Halcyon Realms - Art Book Reviews - Anime, Manga, Film, Photography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Anime's Love Affair with Railway Tracks\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/halcyonrealms.com\/anime\/animes-love-affair-with-railway-tracks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anime's Love Affair with Railway Tracks - 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