I first encountered the concept of Kamishibai as part of an application published by Accursed Toys and placed on the otakuworld.com website. It was a small application that used simple animations, music files and sound files to create an interactive experience as defined in a very simple script saved in a text file. It was this simplicity that made it so great and some very sophisticated stories embraced the options in its scripting to create a sort of game play reminiscent of visual novels which would later become popular.
I've often thought it a great disservice that no one has managed to resurrect the system as an Android application with updated formats to save wear and tear on file sizes. Instead of BMPs use JPGs or PNGs. In place of MIDI for music use MP3 or OGG. And of course replace those ancient WAV files with MP3s or OGG again. Though you could certain keep the music as MIDI, though there seem to be very little places that use those these days...
Accursed Toys never hid the inspiration for their application. Quoting from their website:
"Kamishibai is an old Japanese tradition in which a storyteller would use an easel with drawings on it to illustrate his or her stories. Children would come around to see these stories, perhaps pay some money. In return, the storyteller might give out candy in a gesture of "okashi" or return. Many manga and anime artists in Japan have drawn much inspiration from these picture plays."
And so with their application they sought to capture the spirit of Kamishibai and open it up to everyone to create their own stories and to share these with others. But really words do not do it justice. I encourage everyone to watch these YouTube videos of performances to really get the idea of what Kamishibai looked and looks like.
The second video contains a story that may be familiar to fans of the anime of the same name. It is IMHO definitely worth searching YouTube to see what Kamishibai performances are available there. There are some real treats among the recordings available there for anyone who enjoys a good story.
And despite the commercial realities of its origins as a way to sell candy it really is about the stories.
Since I'd begun following the fantastic work of Alex Tilkin on his AI generative television channel, How is it Manifested I'd been fascinated and had the nagging feeling that it reminded me of something. Then one day it hit me. Kamishibai!
The How is it Manifested channel on Twitch is one that utilizes generated images, combines this with spoken dialog and adds music to create a narrative. It tells stories in a simple slide show presentation.
Every evening beginning about 8:30 PM Central Standard Time, live generations begin and new episodes are created from prompts submitted by viewers. For a period of time magic enters the world and we view the world through a lens of absurdity and humor. Current and historical events are plundered for their storytelling potential. Fairy tales come to life as fractured and fun house mirrors of the stories we all know.
One of the best things about the channel is the fact that everyone involved seems to have leaned into the limitations that exist. The AI artwork generator used by the system that powers the How is it Manifested channel isn't the highest quality possible art generator. The voices used aren't the most expensive or worse, custom models costing thousands and thousands of dollars. There is no animation besides the simple pan and zooms of the Ken Burns effect on play. Prompts submitted by the users of the channel, the people who make the whole thing work by submitting prompt after prompt night after night to be turned into episodes are often absurdist and nonsensical.
Everyone leans into the limits of the format. Whether it is someone attempting to coax the system into repeatable episodes or trying to trigger all the accents possible in the text to speech software or an attempt to make the system sing a song...all of them lean into the limitations that exist and try to find ways to manipulate their episodes to overcome them any way. It comes together in a manner which feels reminiscent of those interdimensional cable episodes of Rick and Morty.
Definitely give the channel a look some evening and try your hands at submitting some prompts to be made into episodes of your own.
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