Some heats once pregnant with celestial fire,

Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed,

Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.

–Thomas Gray

Animation. The transcription of movement into intervals of space. When one draws like an animator, one feels that time almost breaks down...it makes one wonder how exactly the concept of 'time' is relevant to animation. Is time the spacing of objects across drawings? The duration for which frames are shown? From of these questions I draw an answer like water from well, that time is the medium of animation: the painter has canvas, the writer paper (or computer, as it is trying to become the medium for everything) but the animator has time. What could be more sublime? Animators may draw on paper, yes, but animating, moving, that is to walk with Chronos.

What other art can claim such a fundamental relationship to force of nature? What other art is not concerned with capturing or repeating, but with temporality itself? What a splendid art! Animators should be proud and humbled, to take a law of the universe as their alphabet and paint.

Yes, animation...I want to become an animator. Sometimes I feel guilty about it, that I'm running away from a greater dream or indulging in folly. It could be: I often make incorrect decisions. Nevertheless, an animator.

And not just any animator, mind you. An animator who can work quickly with fluidity and subtlety on the most difficult, complex character designs. An animator who can draw things at many angles, pull off technically challenging shots. An animator who does it traditionally, draws on paper and not computer, because paper is quieter and more demanding but stronger, too. Brevity would have been better, if only this here was the first and last line of the prologue, but let me explain myself succinctly at last: I want to animate at Kyoto Animation.