The Untold Story of the Birth of Aritsune Toyoda's "Time Cannon Project" - A Night of Creation at the Crossroads of Joke and Science (Late 1960s)

The Untold Story of the Birth of Aritsune Toyoda's "Time Cannon Project" - A Night of Creation at the Crossroads of Joke and Science (Late 1960s)

In the late 1960s, the world of Japanese science fiction was filled with the passion of young writers. It was a time of postwar reconstruction and a mixture of hope and anxiety about the future. Sakyo Komatsu, Yasutaka Tsutsui, Taku Baimura, Aritsune Toyoda, and others gathered at taverns in Shinjuku and Shibuya to discuss the future of science and literature over drinks. Time Cannon Project" (1969) was born from such "drunken discussions.

When Toyoda laughed and said, "If we could shoot time, the war would be over," Komatsu replied, "The future itself would collapse. The film depicts the rampage of science and the ridiculousness of human nature, centering on the outlandish setting of a military research institute that shoots time like a cannonball. In the background was the atmosphere of Japanese society, which, despite its faith in science and technology, was beginning to sense its limitations in the run-up to the 1970 Osaka World's Fair.

Toyoda used his knowledge of science and humor as weapons, moving lightly between the boundaries of science and jokes, reality and fantasy. The Time Cannon Project" is a work that symbolizes the free imagination of the times and shows the process of the maturation of science fiction as an intellectual game.