Original anime video pokes fun at Israeli politicians
Two Israeli fans of anime use the Japanese style of animation to get some laughs out of third election day
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
This may the first time that Benjamin Netanyahu, Benny Gantz and Avigdor Liberman have ever spoken Japanese.
The illustrated, anime versions of all three politicians star in episode one of “State of Israel Anime,” a seven-minute video made by business partners Theo Dolev and Akim Dolinsky ahead of the March 2 elections.
Dolev, a fan of anime, the Japanese hand-drawn and computer animation, and Dolinsky, who is half Japanese, came up with the idea around the time of the second election in September 2019. At the time, they made a short video using the opening theme of a Japanese show and related it to Israeli politicians.
The two run Frankendo, a small business handling copywriting, editing and video projects.
The first video was immediately popular, said Dolev, and what really appealed to their viewers was that all the anime characters were “even more cartoonish than the real politicians,” he said.
This time, they had six months to work on a longer creation.
The Japanese-styled video opens on election day, and features typical anime elements, such as a battle between Netanyahu and Gantz, with President Reuven Rivlin as the peacemaker and Liberman in the background as a devilish opponent plotting in an underground bunker.
There’s a version of “Heveinu Shalom” in Japanese, jokes about Netanyahu accepting bribes, shots of the Western Wall, and Liberman robots who look like David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan.
The illustrations, made by artist Ophir Sheriff, are exaggerated in typical anime style, but also look like the personalities being portrayed, not an easy combination, said Dolev.
They also hired two Japanese voice actors to do the voiceovers of the animated characters.
“We had to explain all the inside jokes to them,” said Dolev. “They thought it was all completely fiction. I said to them, ‘Think about politicians that act like high school kids; channel that behavior.'”
Dolev and Dolinsky have already written five episodes of their anime series, and said they won’t wait until the next election to deliver the next episode.
Here’s hoping they won’t have to.
The Times of Israel Community.