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Animator Spotlight: Hiroyuki Yamashita (Part 2 of 5)
Our second part focuses on a pair of promotions for Hiroyuki Yamashita, examining his style and exploring the way in which he would shape the Naruto series from…
Animator Spotlight: Hiroyuki Yamashita (Part 1 of 5)
Hiroyuki Yamashita is an artist whose contributions to the Naruto franchise are second only to Masashi Kishimoto himself. Join me in this five part series commemorating his career…
Bakuten!! #03 – Production Notes
Storyboard/Episode DirectorYoshiyuki FujiwaraChief Animation DirectorYuka ShibataAnimation DirectorMiki Muto, Naho KozonoAction SupervisionFumiaki Kouta Key AnimationShino Kuzuhara, Miki Muto, Susumu Matsunaga, Yoshiyuki Fujiwara, Miyako Yatsu, Naho KozonoKeiichi Ishikura, Nana Fujiki,…
What Ever Happened? (…To Studio Shaft.)
As a preface: this is by no means a rebuttal against the “Shaft is Dead” rhetoric getting thrown around recently. Is it lacking in nuance and not entirely…
Bakuten!! #02 – Production Notes
Storyboard/Episode DirectorSeishiro NagayaChief Animation DirectorAya NakanishiAnimation DirectorAya Nakanishi, Shogo MatsumotoAction SupervisionFumiaki KoutaKey AnimationAika Kawasaki, Shuto Enomoto, Shino Tsuzurahara, Takuya Yoshihara, Ayumu Ikeda, Toumitsu Ina, Shou Ochiai, Yui Kinoshita,…
Monster Strike MV: Narrating a story through visuals alone.
Today I attempt to dissect the Monster Strike MV directed by Daiki Harashina and animated by the Fukushi team at studio Madhouse.
Keiichiro Watanabe: Jujutsu Kaisen #02
Most of the time I do this kind of analysis on twitter because aside from reaching a larger audience much faster, I also feel less of a need…
Exclusive Interview with Yuu Yoshiyama: Impact frames as surprise boxes?!
Even before their discovery and subsequent artistic recognition within the sakuga community with Star Twinkle Precure, @Agresiel and I got really excited by an aggressive and quite nostalgic…
The key staff of Fire Force season 1
Director side Yuki Yase I won’t talk too much about Yase for two reasons: he’s somehow the director we covered the most on the website but also he’s…
Mekakucity #12 – Yuki Yase’s Particular Thirds
I just happened to be taking a closer look at the career of Yuki Yase on a whim and this scene from Mekakucity Actors managed to catch my…
Winter Production Recap #2: ID: Invaded and Atsushi Ikariya
ID Invaded is a fascinating project in many ways, starting with the way it came to exist! Around 2012-2013, Ei Aoki started planning an original show featuring a…
Winter Production Recap #1: Haikyuu!! To The Top and Sachiko Fukuda
Haikyuu!! returned with a new season and with many aces of the franchise gone, there was some legitimate doubt about the quality of this new season. However thanks…
Yutaka Nakamura X Masahiro Ando: Superaction animation Talk
This is the first of a series of articles dedicated to Yutaka Nakamura, without a shadow of a doubt the best known contemporary Japanese action animator, but at…
Winter 2020: Anime Season in Hindsight and Production Notes
On this blog I commonly find myself writing from a position of anticipating something which has either yet to happen, or conversely reacting to recent events around the…
Sakuga Week in Review #12: 4/1/2020-4/1/2020
Industry legend Keiji Niikura is here to aid his friend Haruka Kadowaki in her quest for uncompromising character acting in a TV anime context, and in the process,…
The Creators of FGO Babylonia #04: Toshimasa Ishii
As explained in an earlier post, it’s not that uncommon to find production-related people climbing to a higher position such as episode director or even series director. Even…
Attack on Titan: omni-directional mobility animation Art Book -Arifumi Imai 1″ Release Commemorative Talk & Autograph Session
This is the transcription of a short but really interesting and light Arifumi Imai talk written by Ynkl, a well-known Japanese sakuga fan always present in these kind…
Sakuga Week in Review #11: Jan. 13, 2020 – Jan. 19, 2020
Pokemon: Twilight WingsKey Animation: ? Geth: With a mere six minutes per month to work with, one has to imagine efficient use of available time is at the…
Pushing through the limits: Yoshihiro Kanno and SAO War of Underworld
SAO: WoU was a production full of surprises and great artists but one of them stood out for the quality and quantity of his works throughout the arc:…
Sakuga Week in Review #10: Jan. 6, 2020 – Jan. 12, 2020
We're back in 2020 and evidently chose a good week to return. @HiMyNameisChair joins me to discuss the blobby goodness of Eizouken, a grotesque morphing scene in In/Spectre,…
Haikyuu!! Season 4: Preview
Director: Masako Sato (佐藤雅子)Assistant Director: Mariko Ishikawa (石川真理子)Character Designer: Takahiro Kishida (岸田隆宏)Chief Animation Director: Yuu Kobayashi (小林祐)Action Animation Director: Hideki Takahashi (高橋英樹) I recently had the pleasure of…
Boruto Year in Review & Animator Spotlight: Kana Ito
Kana Ito is the Boruto series' brightest animation star over this past year, delivering time and again whether it be expressive acting or strong action. Her latest outing…
Sakuga Week in Review #8: Dec. 02, 2019 – Dec. 08, 2019
Some fancy footwork in SAO:A, the short but sweet return of franchise ace Hiroyuki Yamashita on Boruto, and a guest appearance in Psycho Pass from a bonafide legend…
Sakuga Week in Review #7: Nov. 25, 2019 – Dec. 01, 2019
Today we aim to uncover the mystery and/or magic of Kazuhiro Miwa's absurd output on Fire Force, an Azur Lane episode which sparked controversy (none of which is…
Sakuga Week in Review #6 (F/Go Takeover Edition): Nov. 18, 2019 – Nov. 24, 2019
We did something a little different for the week of Nov18– Nov24, seeing as how animation-wise, F/Go Babaylonia stole the show- we each took our own personal favorite…
Sakuga Week in Review #5: Nov. 11, 2019 – Nov. 17, 2019
My Hero Academia #68Key Animation: Sakiko Uda (宇田早輝子) Geth: While it’s not necessarily a competition, one would have to imagine the sign of a job well done if…
I Don’t Know the Names of the Two Characters Fighting, Do They Even Have One?
Don't blink or else you'll miss it! Yutaka Nakamura's latest contributions to the MHA franchise might be stylistically familiar to fans, but few were expecting the legend himself…
Sakuga Week in Review #4: 04/11/19-10/11/19
Hataage! Kemono Michi got its bi-weekly sakuga scene, Yoshihara showed up again to save a key moment in Black Clover, Babylon keeps on being the surprise of the…
The creators of Fate/Grand Order Babylonia III: Shota Umehara
Over the last few years the figure of the production assistant (制作進行, seisaku shinkou) has been widely popularized by Aoi Miyamori, the protagonist of the anime Shirobako. Finally,…
The creators of Fate/Grand Order Babylonia II: Miyuki Kuroki
Welcome to another installment of what is going to be a long series. This time, I'll be covering the extremely talented assistant director of Fate/Grand Order Babylonia: Miyuki…
Sakuga Week in Review #3: 07/10/19-13/10/19
Fire Fist Ace, a high octane goblin smack-down, EVE MV's continuing to kick ass, and many more scenes highlight the last week in animation. Let's take a closer…
The creators of Fate/Grand Order Babylonia I: Toshifumi Akai
The newest offering of the Fate franchise has begun and this time we’re surely in for something special. When it comes to anime, Fate can be pretty hit…
Edge2 Concept Magic Creator’s Talk: Kiyotaka Oshiyama and Shingo Adachi in conversation
HiMyNameIsChair: When you think of Studio Xebec, your mind likely wanders to a number of things: A vast catalogue of ecchi titles ala Love To Ru and Keijo,…
The Road Less Traveled: A look into creative backgrounds found amongst anime industry directors.
A dive into the many different production backgrounds, as well as how those roles may aid (or detract) from the esteemed position at the top!
Yama no Susume Third Season #10: China’s warm emotional theater
China is an artist that we in the sakuga community have learned to know very well for some time now. After all, he broke several records as the…
A brief conversation with Kenichiro Aoki, OPM 2’s main action animator
During the spring season 2019 a name has quickly climbed the ranks of the most popular Japanese animators outside the sakugafan circles: Kenichiro Aoki. His fame is certainly…
Sakuga Week in Review #2: 08/07/19-14/07/19
Horny henshins, Blender-based CGI and the start of the ever historic Pokemon League all headline the last week in animation. Let's take a closer look at some recent…
Fire Force #02 – When Delusions of Heroism Collide with Reality
Let’s dive right into the second episode of Fire Force, discuss those individuals responsible and investigate all the places where the anime has (thus far) soared high above…
Fire Force #01: Breaking the Mold of Shonen Manga Adaptations
The first episode of Fire Force made gigantic waves in the community, becoming the center of many discussions this past week with the quality of the animation at…