Prêmio de Animação Sakugabooru 2023

Chegou a hora de dar uma última olhada em 2023 com o Sakugabooru Animation Awards. Reunimos diretores, animadores, designers, produtores e fãs apaixonados para compartilhar suas obras de animação favoritas e mais ressonantes do ano passado – e de outros anos, francamente! Resumindo: hora do Sakugabowl!

Inscrições: — Franziska van Wulfen
— ちな
— jamal
— Kerorira
— Relux
— Blou
— Fede
— Akihiko Sudo/Kasen
— Geth
— Ken 🍁 Yamamoto
— Maki
— Natasha
— Kevin

Franziska van Wulfen

Designer de personagens, animador, Vtuber, Astarion Liker [Twitter] [Sakugabooru Tag]

Melhor episódio: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off #03 Os pontos fortes e singulares de

Scott Pilgrim sempre residem em sua interação divertida entre a mundanidade de uma pequena cidade do início dos anos 2000 e seus vôos para a lógica fantástica dos videogames. O que é realmente real, o que é apenas metáfora; não importa, desde que sirva para explorar o estado emocional dos personagens com efeito dramático total. O Episódio #03 incorpora esse princípio por completo. A atmosfera aconchegante e sonolenta do café e da locadora de vídeo colidindo com a dor crua de Roxie e Ramona brigando no cenário de vários filmes. Curiosamente, esse contraste se torna mais perceptível na abordagem de seus layouts. Layouts (レイアウト): Os desenhos onde a animação realmente nasce; eles expandem as ideias visuais geralmente simples do storyboard para o esqueleto real da animação, detalhando tanto o trabalho do animador principal quanto dos artistas de fundo. realmente nasceu; eles expandem as ideias visuais geralmente simples do storyboard para o esqueleto real da animação, detalhando tanto o trabalho do animador principal quanto dos artistas de fundo. que pode ser encontrado neste episódio, dando a sensação de que esses personagens realmente frequentam um espaço físico real, apesar de terem um design de desenho animado. Esse realismo é então destruído pelos cenários planos da luta, que por sua vez se concentram totalmente nos personagens e em suas emoções. Forte tanto na animação quanto na estética, mas principalmente na abordagem, esse foi o episódio que me fez aderir totalmente ao programa.

Melhor Programa: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

Frieren é o raro tipo de show onde você pode apontar para quase qualquer parte singular da produção e encontrá-la em perfeita sinergia com a visão e a atmosfera do resto do projeto. Cada escolha é deliberada e proposital, ao mesmo tempo que mantém a qualidade e consistência da produção; é o tipo de adaptação com a qual a maioria dos materiais originais só pode sonhar.

O personagem titular, sendo um elfo impossivelmente velho, vê o mundo de maneira muito diferente de nós, meros mortais, representando um desafio de capacidade de identificação. Como descrever então uma experiência de vida tão fundamentalmente diferente? Embora as paletas de cores suaves e a abordagem lenta da narrativa certamente sejam uma grande parte disso, é difícil imaginar Frieren tendo o mesmo impacto se não fosse tão forte em seu departamento de animação em particular. O que deixou a impressão mais forte não foram tanto as sequências de ação certamente impressionantes, mas sim a animação dos personagens. Há algo tão compreensível e tátil em muitos dos movimentos menores cuidadosamente representados. Cada ação minúscula e aparentemente sem importância de repente se torna preciosa, algo que tanto Frieren quanto o espectador aprendem a observar e apreciar.

Em uma indústria onde muitas vezes há pouco espaço para animações delicadas de personagens como essa, Frieren é uma delícia absoluta.

Melhor abertura: Magical Destroyers OP ( link)

Sempre serei um fanático por uma abertura que também facilmente se transforma em um videoclipe muito legal. Embora a introdução de Magical Destroyers seja sem dúvida um pouco mais de estilo do que de substância, talvez seja muito boa no departamento de estilo! Com seus belos desenhos nítidos, composições ousadas e até mesmo o uso divertido de mídias mistas, ele rapidamente explode em uma sobrecarga de imagens impressionantes, auxiliadas por uma música cada vez mais desorientadora, tornando-a uma experiência lindamente surreal de abertura.

Melhor Estética: Helluva Boss

Trapaceando um pouco aqui, já que Helluva Boss não é estritamente falando um programa de 2023, no entanto, é uma produção independente que lança apenas alguns episódios um ano eu queria fazer uma menção. Embora a abordagem deste programa do que estou carinhosamente apelidando de maximalismo ousado de desenho animado não seja do agrado de todas as pessoas, ele sem dúvida se desenvolveu em sua própria voz visual única, mais ainda este ano do que nunca. É extravagante, é barulhento e não faz rodeios, dando a cada cenário e design de sua versão do inferno um sabor muito distinto; não apenas no que diz respeito aos planos de fundo, mas também às paletas de cores de uma forma mais ampla. É certamente emocionante ver um grande projeto como este prosperar na esfera da animação independente ano após ano.

Melhores designs de animação: Bungou Stray Dogs (Nobuhiro Arai)

Sempre adorei A abordagem divertida e elegante de Bungou Stray Dogs para seus designs bishounen. O show agora está em seu 5º tribunal, isso certamente não mudou. Impressionantemente versáteis, os designs de Nobuhiro Arai se prestam a acentuar a frieza dos personagens, ao mesmo tempo que os deformam sem esforço em caricaturas bufões absolutas de si mesmos em um piscar de olhos. Nem é preciso dizer que isso é perfeitamente adequado para a abordagem de Takuya Igarashi tanto para ação quanto para comédia. Embora possam não ser os mais fáceis de animar, certamente são sempre impressionantes e divertidos de posar. Sem mencionar que apesar de serem designs adaptativos, eles têm um toque único, sem perder a essência de seus já bastante atraentes homólogos de mangá originais.

ちな

Animador, Storyboarder, Diretor, Escritor, bom em tudo? [Twitter] [Sakugabooru Tag] Melhor Episódio: Jujutsu Kaisen #44 (S2 #20 )

No meio de uma série de episódios tensos e cheios de animação intensa, é preciso um tipo especial de direção habilidosa para poder dar um passo atrás naquela animação de sangue quente e trazer risadas inesperadas.

Em resumo, este é o episódio de comédia número um do ano.

Obrigado, Yuji Tokuno…

Melhor Filme: Detetive Conan: Black Iron Submarine

Parece que os filmes do Detetive Conan dos últimos anos têm rostos mais nítidos do que nunca.

Em particular, os filmes de Conan dirigidos por [ Yuzuru] Tachikawa são ótimos porque as histórias se apoiam relativamente mais no suspense – semelhante nesse aspecto aos velhos tempos, quando Kenji Kodama as dirigia.

À medida que vemos cada vez mais filmes de animação de alta qualidade, os filmes de Conan não apenas elevaram o padrão quando se trata de valores de produção, mas também continuam dedicados a focar no puro entretenimento, para que eu possa relaxar e aproveitar. eles.

Melhor videoclipe Neko to Wakai se na (link)

Eu estava ansioso por este desde o ano passado, e foi tão bom quanto eu esperava.

Sem restrições por uma aparência de animação cel normal, com alta-animação de qualidade, diálogo interessante e sua coesão narrativa como um curta-metragem, Neko to Wakai se na deve ser o MV número um deste ano em todos os aspectos.

Melhor Estética: Filme Fate/Grand Order Memorial 2023 (link)

Excelentes visuais que tocam o coração da aparência da animação cel. Há um contraste adorável entre os designs simples/texturas foscas preferidas por animadores talentosos e as luxuosas armaduras/ornamentos de metal. É tão delicioso assistir que quase esqueço o quão difícil deve ser para as pessoas que têm que desenhar tudo. Mesmo como membro da indústria, é muito divertido ver isso chegar tão longe.

Melhores designs de animação: Kusuriya no Hitorigoto/Diários do Boticário (Yukiko Nakatani)

Quando recebi a oferta para dirigir um episódio, vi as fichas de modelo de Nakatani-san e imediatamente pensei: “Eu farei isso!”

Há um forte apelo universal em seus designs, com todos os aspectos como novidade, nostalgia e habilidade técnica combinadas. São designs ousados ​​e charmosos que agradam a todas as pessoas de todas as gerações.

As folhas de design dão a sensação de que cada personagem ganha vida. São ótimos designs que estimulam minha mente como diretor e me fazem querer capturar essas pessoas na câmera.

Como animador, espero poder desenhar assim algum dia.

Prêmio Obra Não Contemporânea: As Aventuras de Tintin (2011)

Assisti pela primeira vez este ano. Todos os truques e reviravoltas da narrativa podem ser aprendidos e é muito interessante para começar. Spielberg é o mestre em criar emoção. Eu gostaria que ele tivesse continuado nessa direção para fazer mais trabalhos animados…

Descoberta do Criador: Seiko Yoshioka (link) [Seiko] O trabalho de Yoshioka-san em Frieren é realmente excelente. Seus painéis de arte postados no Twitter têm uma atmosfera maravilhosa. Criar cenários para mundos de fantasia foi algo que enfrentamos em Detarame na Sekai no Melodrama (link), então eu sei melhor do que ninguém o quão incrível isso é…

Então, não apenas para ela, mas para todos os criadores e fãs de anime, um feliz ano novo!

jamal

Supostamente no mecha [Twitter] Melhor Episódio: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off #03

Desde a estreia de mokochan na direção de Heike Monogatari, há dois anos, tenho como missão acompanhar tudo em que eles trabalham. Embora eu nunca tivesse imaginado que a terceira coisa para a qual eles desenhariam storyboards seria uma nova entrada na franquia Scott Pilgrim, o episódio está cheio de surpresas, como sempre.

Uma das características mais intrigantes de seu trabalho anterior é como eles tiram o máximo proveito dos desenhos estáticos, portanto, testemunhar a cena de luta corpo a corpo de alta energia que eles construíram foi uma experiência emocionante. Os cortes de Azoura, apresentados no início do confronto entre Ramona e Roxie, tinham uma aura maravilhosamente feroz como resultado do espaçamento errático que aplicaram. As manchas agressivas usadas na cena do acidente de avião também fizeram um ótimo trabalho ao caracterizar Roxie, retratando-a como uma personagem que tem tanto medo de mudanças quanto raiva disso. No entanto, até certo ponto, o trabalho de mokochan ainda mostrou o seu apreço pela quietude na forma como vários tiros na luta foram mantidos por um pouco mais de tempo do que se poderia esperar para transmitir a força e a emoção que cada combatente está a colocar nas suas acções. Essa abordagem também se estendeu a momentos mais alegres, como visto na jam session entre Knives e Kim. Apesar da natureza caótica deste episódio, apreciei as decisões da direção que foram tomadas para permitir que as emoções acaloradas dos personagens brilhassem.

Talvez meus cinco minutos favoritos de anime deste ano venham do’mundo do cinema’.’cenas que foram apresentadas na proporção de 21:9. Como resultado de estar num contentor 16:9, o espaço reduzido fez com que todos os cortes de ação rápida parecessem ainda mais espontâneos, uma vez que foram capazes de se mover para os cantos do enquadramento aparentemente muito mais rápido. Isso, além de todos os outros elementos que mencionei, criou um episódio cativante que me fez começar a entender todo o apelo de Scott Pilgrim como um híbrido de ação e comédia romântica um pouco estranho.

Menções Honrosas: Tsurune: The Linking Shot #05 e #12 também poderia estar aqui, mas achei que seria uma escolha melhor não transformar minha lista de indicações em’The Tsurune Awards’! Ambos os episódios roubaram meu coração e mostraram a rapidez com que o diretor Takuya Yamamura aperfeiçoou suas habilidades nos últimos anos.

Melhor Programa: Tsurune: The Linking Shot

A segunda temporada de Tsurune parecia um nível técnico superior em quase todos os aspectos em relação ao primeiro. A direção de Takuya Yamamura parecia ainda mais engenhosa do que antes, com ênfase em adereços e elementos não pertencentes aos personagens para ajudar na narrativa. Isso veio no momento perfeito, já que esta parte da série se concentrou fortemente no conceito de artes marciais ‘ikiai’, que é muito melhor transmitido visualmente. Com novos personagens também veio uma nova equipe que contribuiu com novas abordagens para a visão do anime. O décimo primeiro episódio, que foi o primeiro da série a ter storyboard de Minoru Oota, foi um destaque para mim porque foi capaz de trazer uma ideia única (ou seja, uma sequência cel de harmonia) para a mixagem, ao mesmo tempo em que sincronizava com o direção movida a hélice de Yamamura. O mesmo pode ser dito sobre os dois primeiros episódios com storyboard de Tatsuya Ishihara da série, que até conseguem se harmonizar em alguns pontos. Tsurune: The Linking Shot apareceu tanto como uma sequência refrescante quanto como um anime independente por causa dessa abordagem.

Algumas das áreas de crescimento mais notáveis ​​foram no trabalho de câmera e no uso de fundos 3D. A animação de Taichi Ishidate no início e no final do show é um exemplo de como esses momentos-chave foram feitos para parecerem ainda mais envolventes; rastrear a trajetória das flechas desde o momento em que elas saíram do arco do sujeito proporcionou uma visão mais forte e física da convicção e da paixão que foram colocadas no tiro, acrescentando uma camada extra de personalidade aos envolvidos. Outros momentos, como fazer a câmera emular o fluxo metafórico da sinergia na forma de vento, demonstraram o esforço determinado de Yamamura e companhia. para dar ao público uma ideia das emoções indescritíveis que muitas vezes tomam conta dos jogadores de kyūdō. Isso funcionou bem para mim, já que a quietude que ocupa grande parte da linguagem visual do programa às vezes era difícil de entender.

Mesmo que tenha sido apenas por coincidência, esta sequência do programa pareceu bastante auto-referencial para A trajetória atual e o futuro esperançoso da Kyoto Animation. A própria existência desta continuação pareceu bastante agridoce, considerando a infeliz conexão da série com o incêndio criminoso de 2019 e a perda de alguns dos membros principais da produção, incluindo o supervisor Yasuhiro Takemoto e o diretor de animação Yuuko Myouken. Embora a última coisa que eu quisesse fosse banalizar um assunto tão sério, era difícil não ligar alguns dos seus conteúdos à situação do mundo real. A forma como quase todos os personagens principais passam pelo processo de aprender que têm pessoas que os apoiam, mesmo que seja de longe, foi particularmente comovente quando levei em consideração os últimos anos. A capacidade de The Linking Shot ser tão otimista em relação à tragédia e às conexões feitas entre outras pessoas apaixonadas ressoou muito além dos limites da história para mim. O anime resume o que significa voltar ainda mais forte do que antes, tanto do ponto de vista narrativo quanto de produção.

Melhor Vídeo Musical: Detarame na Sekai no Melodrama (link)

Como um grande fã de obras modernas que usam proporções fora de 16:9, a China tem sido meu diretor preferido de animação em 4:3 desde que Just Call It Love foi lançado em 2020. Detarame na Sekai no Melodrama foi uma bela continuação que usou imagens e técnicas que remontam a títulos inspirados em Kenji Miyazawa, como Revolutionary Girl Utena ou Spring and Chaos. O exemplo mais reconhecível disso foi a homenagem à estética de Shichiro Kobayashi no programa anterior. A direção de arte de TJ capturou extremamente bem o charme da trajetória do falecido artista; Quase pude sentir a pressão das pinceladas usadas para criar os gradientes nas paredes, pisos e tetos, o que contribuiu para a autenticidade da arquitetura e da peça como um todo.

A imperfeição era um tema recorrente. que se incorporou aos outros componentes visuais do videoclipe. As linhas delicadas que compunham os designs dos personagens de Moaang não apenas imitavam as imperfeições naturais que surgiriam ao colocar um lápis no papel, mas também ajudavam a transmiti-los como seres sensíveis. Embora os designs não parecessem buscar o realismo, suas expressões sutis e o desenho leve usado para construí-los certamente fizeram com que o amor das meninas umas pelas outras parecesse genuíno.

Como provavelmente é. já conhecido, a característica definidora de um trabalho para mim era a proporção em que a animação está contida. A China demonstrou como está em contato com o apelo do 4:3, combinando-o com cortes de salto ligeiramente inconvenientes e composições cortadas para emular o ambiente descontraído sensação que vem com o vídeo doméstico. As cenas que apresentavam os dois personagens juntos pareciam ainda mais íntimas como resultado da caixa de pilares de ambos os lados. Detarame na Sekai no Melodrama fez um trabalho fenomenal ao reconhecer o apelo artístico dos títulos aos quais prestava homenagem, ao mesmo tempo que trazia novas ideias para o nicho contemporâneo de anime 4:3.

Menção Honrosa: A arte de Bani-chan em The Greatest Living Show (link) estava literal e figurativamente fora deste mundo, a tal ponto que nem tenho certeza se tenho as palavras certas para fazer justiça. O videoclipe é um digno sucessor de 1001 Nights, de Yoshitaka Amano.

Melhor Filme: The First Slam Dunk

O Menino e a Garça não chegou rápido o suficiente até a ilha sombria onde moro, então não pude levar em consideração todos os filmes de peso do ano ao tomar minha decisão por este prêmio. Dito isso, dos poucos filmes novos que tive a oportunidade de assistir, The First Slam Dunk foi o mais memorável e ousado do ponto de vista visual. Esta foi a primeira vez que senti que o trabalho 3DCG superou as respectivas seções 2D. Embora minha experiência com animação de personagens 3D no espaço de anime seja bastante limitada, acho que a razão pela qual gravitei muito mais nessas seções é o quanto elas foram emprestadas de muitas sensibilidades existentes que são padrão para anime 2D. As decisões estéticas tomadas, como a composição plana e pouco intrusiva e os contornos arrojados que foram aplicados aos designs dos personagens, ajudaram a evitar que a mudança entre as duas abordagens parecesse um choque para o meu sistema. Além disso, o timing mais familiar do movimento fez com que as cenas mais intensas do filme parecessem ainda mais rápidas. The First Slam Dunk me convenceu do potencial que o 3DCG tem no espaço de anime e me levou a ter a mente um pouco mais aberta sobre o que pode ser feito com ele.

Prêmio de Trabalho Não Contemporâneo: Junkers Come Here

De vez em quando gosto de fazer um esforço para assistir a uma coleção de shows feitos por determinados diretores ou animadores para ter uma noção melhor de seu estilo e, espero, obter algum contexto para seu trabalho futuro. Devido a outros compromissos deste ano, ainda não tive a oportunidade de mergulhar em mais uma daquelas tocas de coelho, mas coincidentemente consegui assistir a três obras que Jun’ichi Satou esteve envolvido na criação: Mahou Tsukai Tai! (1996), Tamayura: Hitotose e Junkers Come Here, minha escolha para este prêmio. O filme apresenta animações de alguns dos melhores animes, de Mitsuo Iso a Osamu Tanabe e até Takashi Nakamura. No entanto, a maior parte da razão pela qual o filme ocupou continuamente tanto espaço na minha cabeça este ano é por causa de como ele conseguiu ficar parado, o que achei que o tornou ainda mais emocionante como um filme realista.

A paciência que Satou empregou em sua sequência foi fascinante de observar, uma vez que era uma maneira tão direta, mas eficaz, de retratar a paralisação de Hiromi como uma vítima impotente de onze anos do casamento em ruínas de seus pais. Como consequência do estilo sem pressa do filme, os momentos surreais e mais cinéticos, incluindo a sequência especial de vôo de Manabu Oohashi, pareceram mais gratificantes. Junkers Come Here tem um grau de ineficiência que eu gostaria profundamente que pudesse ser trazido de volta ao cenário de anime contemporâneo (embora eu não tenha tanta esperança de que isso aconteça).

Mesmo que eu estivesse vagamente ciente de que Keisuke Hiroe esteve envolvido em muitos projetos comerciais de alto nível nos últimos anos, nunca tive tempo para investigar o que eles estavam fazendo. Tudo mudou este ano por causa de seus créditos de direção no videoclipe de Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, bem como na sequência de abertura de My Happy Marriage. Dado que o seu portfólio de animação tem uma tendência pronunciada para projetos orientados para a ação, achei bastante surpreendente ver como as duas peças que dirigiram tinham uma ênfase tão forte em ações fundamentadas, considerando que muito do seu trabalho anterior foi sobre desafiar o limites de peso e forma. Hiroe teve a chance de mostrar seu alcance este ano e não decepcionou; Tenho esperança de que teremos a oportunidade de testemunhar mais do que eles são capazes como diretores em um futuro próximo.

Kerorira

Animador, designer de personagens, o estúdio individual mais rápido do mundo [Twitter] [Sakugabooru Tag] Melhor Episódio: Tengoku Daimakyou #10

Este O ano foi repleto de ótimos episódios, incluindo o da China para Kusuriya #04, o de Nobuhide Kariya para Frieren #10 e o de Kazuto Arai para Jujutsu Kaisen #37. , mas foi outro que pessoalmente me deixou mais impressionado: Tengoku Daimakyou #10.
A direção de Kai Ikarashi brilha por toda parte. E com a animação de Tetsuya Takeuchi que se aproxima mais do estilo de Ikarashi do que o normal na mixagem, o resultado é um nível de cool sem precedentes.

Cada cena está repleta de ideias divertidas e sutis. E combinado com a qualidade do trabalho original, é claro, foi o episódio que pareceu mais completo como um todo independente!

Melhor Filme: O Menino e a Garça

Ver o logotipo do Studio Ghibli no início de O Menino e a Garça me encheu de uma excitação incrível, pois percebi que estava realmente prestes a testemunhar um trabalho totalmente novo do estúdio.

Tenho certeza de que as opiniões serão divididas sobre este assunto, mas pessoalmente, saí do teatro me sentindo positivo!

Melhor Abertura: Tengoku Daimakyou OP (link)

Quando o vi pela primeira vez, fiquei impressionado com o tremendo senso artístico de Weilin Zhang que emana de a animação e a direção visual.

É realmente maravilhoso, com sua variedade de ideias inovadoras e detalhes visuais!

Melhor final: Undead Unluck ED (link)

A mais recente obra de arte de Taiki Konno. A beleza e a escolha de cores em cada quadro são exatamente o que você espera.

Melhor Estética: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

Os gradientes azuis de um lindo céu sem nuvens; florestas abundantes; edifícios que contam histórias de costumes, visões religiosas, estilos de vida de seus habitantes, etc. A série ainda não terminou, mas no nível de narrativa visual já é insuperável. Claro, você não pode ignorar a direção de Keiichiro Saito, mas os designs conceituais de Seiko Yoshioka desempenham um grande papel em dar vida ao mundo de Frieren.

Melhores designs de animação: Onii-chan wa Oshimai! (Ryo Imamura)

Os designs de Ryo Imamura parecem que deveriam ter existido antes, mas são revolucionários por si só!

Seus designs levaram ao nascimento de uma série de novas formas de simbolicamente expressar personagens, e também me sinto fortemente influenciado por ele. Eles traduzem habilmente formas 3D texturizadas e realistas em um espaço bidimensional.

Tenho certeza de que muitas pessoas que seguirão anime no futuro terão estudado os designs de Imamura pelo menos uma vez.

Prêmio Trabalho Não Contemporâneo: Kodomo no Omocha

Kodomo no Omocha é um dos primeiros trabalhos de Akitaro Daichi como diretor, que recebi prestes a ver pela primeira vez este ano. Tem um ritmo incrivelmente bom, com os monólogos alegres de Sana Kurata conduzindo o ritmo.

Vai de uma enxurrada de piadas malucas até cenas de coração puro, e essa montanha-russa de emoções é totalmente viciante. Puro e bom entretenimento.

Relux

Do sakugaSakuga (作画): Desenho técnico, mas mais especificamente animação. Os fãs ocidentais há muito se apropriaram da palavra para se referir a exemplos de animação particularmente boa, da mesma forma que um subconjunto de fãs japoneses faz. Bastante essencial para a marca dos nossos sites. tipo [Twitter] Melhor Episódio: Jujutsu Kaisen #40 (S2 #16)

Meses de constante controvérsia e discurso certamente infligiram intenso cansaço de Jujutsu Kaisen aos telespectadores, aos não-espectadores incapazes de evitar o assunto e, especialmente, a qualquer um que esteve envolvido em trazer cada episódio para a televisão semanalmente.. Dito isto, entre toda a desgraça e melancolia existem vários triunfos tornados possíveis apenas pela força dos indivíduos apaixonados que continuam a superar circunstâncias tão desfavoráveis. No final das contas, foi o número 16 de Itsuki Tsuchigami que chegou ao topo da minha lista no mesmo momento em que arrancou lágrimas dos meus olhos apenas com seu poder de animação.

Os esforços de direção de Tsuchigami, embora pouco frequentes, atingiram consistentemente todos as batidas certas para incendiar meu cérebro. Foi Mob Psycho 100 II #11 que garantiu sua posição como um dos diretores de ação mais promissores da indústria. Mais tarde, seus esforços para FGO Camelot 2 de Kazuto Arai resultaram em um confronto climático que não posso deixar de assistir regularmente até hoje. As oportunidades para projetos como esses são poucas e raras, mas era difícil não se perguntar se ou quando seu próximo episódio de ação completa chegaria. Na verdade, esse momento veio em meio à catástrofe de produção mais divulgada em anos.

Quase todos os personagens apresentados no número 16 são consistentemente fora do modelo, de uma forma que sempre adoro ver nos meios mais episódios marcantes. O sombreamento é deixado no mínimo e os recursos são definidos acima de tudo pela arte linear, uma abordagem totalmente dependente do desenho do número surpreendentemente pequeno de artistas participantes (pelo menos em relação aos créditos dos episódios circundantes). Essa filosofia minimalista também se aplica ao design de cores e ao pós-processamento do episódio. Isto é, até o inferno explodir na parte B.

O par de sequências de ação que servem como peças centrais para cada metade são tão bem construídos quanto se esperaria de Miso, mas não são exclusivamente obra dele.. Nakaya Onsen, mais ou menos dirigido por unidade e animou sozinho a luta de Megumi com seu filho e pai abusador de animais, enquanto o confronto explosivo da maldição foi mais um esforço colaborativo entre Miso e Sou Miyazaki. Miyazaki, é claro, elaborou vários cortes de ação em potencial para Miso revisar, simplesmente porque eles poderiam ser legais. Os cortes concluídos foram tão legais quanto os eventos na tela foram quentes.

Não deve demorar muito depois da sequência de artes marciais do coelho que a maioria dos espectadores percebe que está prestes a ter algo especial, e os 2 minutos de Miyazaki da loucura mais do que selar o acordo. Embora a presença de Onsen fale por si neste ponto, a aparição de Miyazaki marca a primeira vez que ele se solta completamente em uma produção de anime para TV. Foi gratificante ver seu trabalho caracterizar o clímax de um episódio como esse depois de acompanhar por algum tempo seus projetos de web e MV. Na verdade, foi sua interpretação da icônica sequência Birdy Decode de Shingo Yamashita que causou o derramamento de lágrimas mencionado anteriormente na primeira visualização. Depois de 15 minutos de seus artistas favoritos tocando exatamente de acordo com seu gosto pessoal, uma demonstração fiel de reverência ao seu projeto de anime favorito de todos os tempos é demais para aguentar.

Ação à parte, há graça em quanto menos momentos bombásticos também foram tratados. Masami Mori conclui uma batalha barulhenta com uma aceitação silenciosa do fim. Entre todo o espetáculo está uma visão coerente que permanece distinta do resto da temporada, e na vanguarda está a produção aparentemente irrestrita de vários artistas cujo trabalho já vivi.

Menções honrosas:

Jujutsu Kaisen S2 #05 é uma pura vitrine das proezas artísticas de Takuya Niinuma e Souta Yamazaki, bem como da experiência em storyboard de Shota Goshozono enquanto ele entrelaça o estado mental decadente de Geto no episódio. apresentação momento a momento. Tengoku Daimakyou #10 é um episódio de Kai Ikarashi e, em todos os sentidos, ele continua a arrasá-lo com o elemento adicional da magistral direção de animação de Tetsuya Takeuchi. Direção de animação (作画監督, sakuga kantoku): os artistas que supervisionam a qualidade e consistência da própria animação. Eles podem corrigir cortes que se desviam dos desenhos demais se o considerarem se encaixar, mas o trabalho deles é principalmente para garantir que o movimento esteja parecido, sem parecer muito áspero. Existem muitas funções especializadas de direção de animação-mecha, efeitos, criaturas, todas focadas em um elemento recorrente em particular. verá o ano todo. Melhor show: One Piece

Eu assisti a vários animes sazonais agradáveis ​​este ano. Tengoku Daimakyou e Sousou No Frieren são experiências imersivas com valores de produção louváveis. Bungou Stray Dogs conseguiu manter sua consistência artística habitual, ao mesmo tempo em que trazia uma história verdadeiramente insana para uma conclusão satisfatória mesmo antes de seu material de origem. A equipe apaixonada de Saga S2 S2 trouxe o melhor em uma ficção já instigante. Apesar de tudo isso e muito mais, percebi ao considerar minha seleção que nenhum deles ressoou o suficiente para escrever um endosso apaixonado para o Bowl ™.

O que me sinto ansioso para discutir é um A PEDER é excepcionalmente climática 2023. Eu estaria mentindo se afirmasse que o programa não encontrou pontos difíceis e lutas por toda parte, mas considero que uma parte insubstituível da experiência de anime de longa duração. A Metamorfose de produção rápida liderada pelo diretor de diretorias da série: (監督, Kantoku): a pessoa responsável por toda a produção, tanto como tomadora de decisão criativa quanto supervisor final. Eles superaram o resto da equipe e, finalmente, têm a última palavra. No entanto, a série com diferentes níveis de diretores existe-diretor-chefe, diretor assistente, diretor de episódios da série, todos os tipos de papéis não padrão. A hierarquia nesses casos é um cenário de caso a caso. tatsuya nagamina e significativamente auxiliada pelo produtor de linha tetsuji akahori , juntamente com inúmeros outros colaboradores inspirados, é o que permitiu esses espetáculos frequentes até este ponto. Quando a conclusão do wano arco finalmente chegou, ele foi empurrado para o seu limite absoluto e chegou mais forte do que nunca. queria se destacar também. Uma série de batalhas climáticas consecutivas em larga escala normalmente seria uma sentença de morte para um longo corredor e, embora não fosse um passeio suave, serviu como a chance perfeita de fazer todas as paradas e dinheiro em todos os favor. Nos últimos 4 anos. A celebração da animação que foi os episódios de estréia do Gear 5th, a celebração de Sakugasakuga (作画 作画): Tecnicamente desenhando fotos, mas mais especificamente animação. Os fãs ocidentais há muito apropriados a palavra para se referir a casos de animação particularmente boa, da mesma maneira que um subconjunto de fãs japoneses. Muito integrante da marca de nossos sites. Episódios que foram ryosuke tanaka e Katsumi Ishizuka #1062, Nanami Michibata Esforços individuais de artistas como Tu Yong-CE e Vincent Chansard, tudo isso falou com o desejo sem limites da equipe de continuar empurrando e evoluindo. Através de todos os altos e baixos, estou ansioso para tudo o que vem a seguir. Aquelas raras experiências de teatro que deixam você atordoado quando os créditos passam. Como alguém totalmente não familiarizado com o material de origem e menos do que conhecedor em relação à arte do jazz, o que me levou a um assento em frente à tela grande era o conhecimento que o diretor Yuzuru Tachikawa iria absolutamente entregar. Sem surpresa, ele fez exatamente isso, mas fui pego de surpresa quando todos os outros aspectos deste filme passaram a me atingir mais do que um caminhão em alta velocidade.

O filme está cheio e é sobre jovens. Se você já derramou tudo de alcançar um sonho em particular, está representado aqui. Se você se encontrar sem direção e começando a se ressentir do que você acreditava ser o seu caminho, está representado aqui. Não importa a sua situação, acredito que os espectadores saem do outro lado se sentindo um pouco mais otimista sobre essas coisas. Compensado por peças irreais de animação 2D quando conta: as performances. Embora experimentar o Blue Giant nos cinemas não é mais uma opção, recomendo assistir apenas com a maior tela e o melhor sistema de som que você pode acessar. Permita que a trilha sonora de Hiromi e as emoções dos personagens o consumam. Viva isso. Absorva. Torne-se azul. Torne-se gigante. Satisfantando o trabalho narrativo e convincente do personagem ao mesmo tempo. Além disso, parece excelente. O garoto e a garça é um filme que eu gostei e apreciei, e francamente não estou qualificado para analisar. Melhor abertura: Destruidores mágicos op ( link )

Eu gosto quando Kenichi Kutsuna faz as coisas. Seus Magical Destroyers Abertura apresenta todas as qualidades que eu já gosto em seus projetos de formato curto, mas com 30 segundos de indescritível ???? Apresentado no final e uma música que milagrosamente se encaixa na conta. Este caso é o que torna o OP tão excelente (assim como o final de Taiki Konno para o mesmo show). O primeiro minuto é recheado com tiros impressionantes e seria facilmente um pioneiro por conta própria, mas o colapso dramático que se seguiu de tudo o que acabei de descrever realmente traz esse OP para outro avião.

Menções honrosas:

A estréia de Weilin Zhang foi exibida na mesma época em Tengoku Daimakyou e, da mesma forma, fez suas próprias coisas. O que ele fez é muito bom. O morto-vivo de Riki Matsuura OP não poderia ser um melhor ajuste, dada sua própria história de carreira e a da equipe como um todo. É uma carta de amor, e o destinatário realmente funcionou nela. Melhor final: Jujustu Kaisen S2 ED1 ( link )

Descrevendo a vida cotidiana alegre de nosso elenco sempre sofredor se tornou uma espécie de tradição Jujutsu Kaisen ao longo de sua corrida, e devo dizer que a opinião de Yojiro Arai é facilmente a minha favorita. Se nada mais, o motivo teria que ser que simplesmente parece incrível. envolvendo a filtragem para torná-la mais harmoniosa. Um nome herdado do passado, quando as câmeras foram realmente usadas durante esse processo. e fundo sozinho. Mudamos dos personagens contidos por fronteiras brancas sólidas para belas fotos ambientais e, em seguida, para os personagens existentes naturalmente dentro desse ambiente. Muitos desses fundos são notavelmente profundos e em camadas com paralaxe aplicada inteligentemente simulando um efeito convincente da câmera. A dinâmica entre caracteres e desenvolvimentos futuros está implícita por meio de indicadores visuais sutis e paralelos menos sutis. cortes rápidos. Suponho que não tenho escolha a não ser continuar assistindo mais. Vanguard: Will+Dress S2 ED1 é a combinação de desenhos de Kai Ikarashi, Kou Yoshinari, mebachi e fotografia real (撮影 撮影, satsuei): o casamento de elementos produzidos por diferentes departamentos para Uma foto final, envolvendo filtragem para torná-la mais harmoniosa. Um nome herdado do passado, quando as câmeras foram realmente usadas durante esse processo. Que eu sempre quis sem saber. Precisa de mais EDs como esse para existir. Nanami Michibata produziu um excelente retorno ao formato ED para uma peça e com a supervisão de Masami Mori , nada menos. Mais do que tudo, fico impressionado com uma estética retrabalhada tão atraente/coerente em seu final de estréia. Melhor estética: Frieren: além do Journey’s End

Este ano, fomos abençoados por mais de uma história focada em uma longa e muitas vezes desviada jornada por ambientes inspiradores e com personagens com dinâmica constantemente divertida. As paisagens citárias pós-apocalípticas de tengoku daimakyou e o cenário de fantasia de Frieren compartilham poucas semelhanças, mas nenhuma seria tão eficaz sem a estética coerente que construa um mundo que vale a pena ser imerso em imersão em imersão em imersão em imersão.

A direção de arte de Yuji Kaneko é sempre uma linha de base forte para trabalhar, especialmente em um ambiente como o de Tengoku. A partir daí, é Kentaro Waki ​​ envolveu a fotografia (撮影 撮影, Satsuei): o casamento de elementos produzidos por diferentes departamentos em uma imagem acabada, envolvendo a filtragem para torná-la mais harmoniosa. Um nome herdado do passado, quando as câmeras foram realmente usadas durante esse processo. que com bom gosto traz o melhor nessas origens e se mantém quando necessário. Uma das minhas seqüências favoritas do ano, a luta de monstros no segundo episódio, fez uso de escuridão completa e luz limitada de uma maneira que seria simplesmente impossível sem o toque de Waki.

Em vez de lutas de monstro, no entanto, Grande parte do tempo de execução de Tengoku é ocupada pelos pequenos momentos da caminhada um tanto sem rumo de nossos pares por um Japão destruído. O valor de entretenimento de tais momentos depende não apenas de escritos encantadores, mas do apelo do meio ambiente pelo qual eles estão se movendo.

O caso de Frieren é o mesmo. Apesar de se entregar à luta ocasional ao estilo de Shonen, o valor de Frieren se origina principalmente em suas interações, temas e mundo. Cada montagem estendida incorpora todas essas coisas. Uma aparência granulada e desbotada é combinada com cores geralmente de baixo contraste que se libertam e pop quando o momento exige.’Subshings for Storytelling. E Takahito Sakazume sintetizou o que considero o visual mais atraente da franquia por 30 segundos. O que imediatamente veio à mente ao ver a opinião de Torii foi uma estrela sagrada de Milos , um filme em que os desenhos de Kenichi Konishi quase sozinhos definiram o que procuro nos CDs. Design de cabelo/forma arredondados, contagens de linha baixa e forte volume definido pelo desenho de desenho, em vez de detalhes excessivos. Embora esses projetos possam ser limitados a um comercial, eles existem como prova de que, apesar de ser relativamente novo no trabalho de anime, ela já sabe o que está acontecendo. P> Eu estraguei isso antes, mas não há trabalho animado que eu adoro fazer mais do que Tetsuwan Birdy decodge . Esse fato é estabelecida apenas a cada relógio anual. Birdy representa um grupo de criadores idiossincráticos no topo do jogo e em um cenário que permitia um nível sem precedentes de auto-expressão. É em programas como Birdy que o anime demonstra seu potencial como meio de artistas.

O primeiro relógio de episódios como 02 #07 e #12 é uma experiência reveladora. De repente, grande parte da inspiração por trás dos ambiciosos esforços modernos se torna clara. Neste último, uma combinação dos storyboards de ação de Norio Matsumoto e a animação irrestrita de Shingo Yamashita resultou em 30 dos segundos mais importantes da animação de ação dos anos 2000. E Birdy, isso não é um programa que pode ser feito hoje. É por todos os meios um produto de sua época e dos indivíduos específicos envolvidos. Remova qualquer membro da equipe-chave e ficará com um produto irreconhecível e potencialmente grandes diferenças na atual indústria de anime. um nível único. Narrativamente, a primeira temporada não é nada de especial, mas as consequências desses eventos são travadas perfeitamente em 02 e formam uma história original genuinamente convincente para combinar com a lendária produção. Sem mencionar, toda anedota dos bastidores é tão divertida quanto o próprio show. Estava longe de ser suave, mas todo mundo deu tudo de si e mais. estilos cada um se encaixa. O show facilita inerentemente a experimentação e a expressão, começando com os desenhos facilmente moldados da Chimo. Birdy é uma vitrine de talentos únicos e uma obra de arte bem construída por si só. A reestruturação permitiu que certos artistas evoluíssem junto com ela. Na época, a experiência de Fastho na indústria era limitada e a BAN de Ban era inexistente, mas sua inclusão era tática. Dirigindo 1006 foi outro membro da equipe promissor com o nome de ryosuke tanaka .

Em vez de manter o episódio limitado devido ao seu conteúdo sem importância, foi usado como algo de um campo de treinamento. A direção de Tanaka e as fortes exibições de muitos desses jovens artistas provaram que o experimento é bem-sucedido. cortes. Quando os eventos climáticos de 2023 chegaram, eles seriam confiados com várias sequências de alta prioridade (incluindo uma grande contribuição para o 1062 de Tanaka) e enfrentaram repetidamente o desafio com resultados cada vez mais impressionantes.

Inicialmente confundindo sua árvore recente-A sequência de morphing relacionada para animação tocada por Masami Mori trouxe a percepção de que o par havia percorrido um caminho notavelmente longo. Isso está longe de ser o único exemplo de crescimento semelhante ao WANO progrediu, e vejo isso como um grande benefício do formato de longa duração. Cada membro de uma equipe tão ambiciosa empurra os outros a alcançar alturas maiores, e observar que o crescimento coletivo como ocorre é inspirador. Seu antigo avatar, já que é fofo [ twitter ] Melhor episódio: Frieren: Beyond’s End # da jornada # 07

Isso pode parecer uma escolha estranha, considerando o número de episódios de alta qualidade que Frieren nos tratou. Este não apresenta uma equipe de estrelas como a maioria dos outros episódios; De fato, o episódio #07 é terceirizado para uma entidade relativamente desconhecida. Não concedeu um Gravitas Especial por ser um clímax de ação de um arco como o episódio #09-am, já que é a introdução ao mesmo arco! E, no entanto, é exatamente isso que me atrai a este episódio. Na superfície, não temos uma vitrine exuberante de animação, mas os olhos mais atentos reconhecerão que toda cena eleva o script para criar algo memorável. Naoto uchida , criou um episódio cheio de ângulos complexos , Shots fluindo naturalmente com o diálogo, e particularmente envolveu camerawork . Nunca parece muito ou muito pouco, o episódio é perfeito do começo ao fim. Esse é o tipo de excelência silenciosa que eu anseio no cenário de anime da TV hoje em dia. Embora pareça que o número de espetáculos incríveis aumentou ao longo dos anos, a qualidade média parece ter diminuído bastante. Não vou me enganar a pensar que esse episódio é indicativo de uma tendência, pois Kojima praticamente dedicou sua carreira a criar sua própria equipe com seu próprio pipeline, ainda estou feliz em vê-lo prosperar onde muitos, incluindo estúdios inteiros, falharam. _blank”> link )

Na mesma linha, Spy x Family S2 de abertura de S2 não é necessariamente um espetáculo de derrubar o queixo, especialmente pelos padrões de uma figura como idiossincrática Como Masaaki Yuasa. O OP é animado pela equipe encarregada do próprio programa, como você certamente pode dizer pela abordagem um tanto estéril da animação e arte de personagem-de novo, pelo menos pelos padrões de Yuasa. No entanto, o conceito é tão forte que não importa muito no final do dia. Todos os cortes são divertidos em um nível conceitual e têm idéias simples para apoiá-las, como a paleta de cores pastel ou os planos de origem. Combine isso com a música animada de Ado e você recebe uma peça que traz alegria sempre que assiste. Vanguard: Will+Dress S2 ED1 ( link )

Depois de abrir sobre a importância de Boas idéias e diretores singularmente, fortemente focados, mudei para uma peça que é o oposto total disso. De fato, esse final nem sequer tem um diretor creditado. Simplificando, este DE é a reunião de três artistas extremamente idiossincráticos fazendo suas próprias coisas. E embora não haja como negar a natureza eclética deste DE, ele ainda se reúne como uma peça surpreendentemente coesa. A coisa toda soberbamente. Os 3 estilos não se chocam, mas se complementam de uma maneira que maximize seu apelo. Improvable Ed, mas só podemos agradecer por ter sido feita.

Melhores designs de animação: ultrapassar! (Masako Matsumoto)

Há dois anos, dediquei esta seção a destacar os designs de personagens diretamente desenhados pelos animadores, em oposição às adaptações de propriedades ou ilustradores existentes que fornecem rascunhos originais. Desta vez, eu me pego elogiando um desses casos, que é elevado pela execução Masako Matsumoto ;/Strong>, novamente ao lado de Takako Shimura .

A filosofia de Matsumoto permanece a mesma, se não mais refinada com os anos. Seus projetos são elegantes, com foco nos formulários e curvas que são típicos dos designers de personagens do animador. Não são apenas os rostos, mas também o resto do corpo que são bem construídos, até a maneira como Matsumoto desenha membros . Seus projetos permanecem atraentes, mesmo quando ela não está supervisionando diretamente; Isso nem sempre é um dado, especialmente com a tendência de aumentar cada vez mais a contagem de linhas ao longo dos anos. Matsumoto faz parte do (infelizmente) círculo raro de designers de personagens carismáticos em uma indústria em que ilustradores e mangaka estão claramente assumindo o controle, e só espero que ela continue projetando programas originais em Troyca por um tempo.

Prêmio de trabalho não contemporâneo: Noein #01

Ao assistir a esse episódio, a cada minuto seguinte apresentava mais evidências para o seu caso: Kishida é um deus. Acontece, talvez, sem surpresa, que sua adoração semelhante ao culto seja totalmente merecida. A animação é um trabalho de equipe, com certeza, mas a presença de Kishida domina tudo na tela. Seu rascunho está transbordando em cada corte. ângulo mestrado da câmera , A grande variedade de expressões , há muito amor e apreciar neste episódio. Se você não assistiu ao primeiro episódio de Noein, faça um favor a si mesmo e vá assistir agora; Ou depois de ler todas as outras entradas nesses prêmios, se você também não fez isso!//twitter.com/farfromani”Target=”_ Blank”> Twitter ] Melhor episódio: kusuriya no hitorigoto/The Apotecary Diaries #04, Kubo não me deixa invisível #11 , Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End #14

China e o episódio de Moaang de Kusuriya teve a interessante peculiaridade de ser um episódio de alta qualidade, histórico pesado, mas bastante imparcial e simplesmente elegante; Atributos que parecem antitéticos com os tempos atuais, pois continuamos gratificando altas contagens de desenhos e Sabunga-Fests apenas pelo bem, o tempo e os recursos investem nesses shows. Comparado mesmo com o um tanto recente detarme na sekai no melodrama , Este novo esforço Parece muito mais maduro, talvez até um abridor para uma nova”era”de lente menos juvenil de seus esforços de direção.

Quanto a kubo-san #11, não não Espere que Hirofumi Okita seja um diretor tão cuidadoso. Ele mostra quando se trata de avaliar as proporções entre os elementos CEL e BG na tela ou na criação de iluminação meticulosamente precisa, mesmo em como ele impôs idéias bastante difíceis, mas simples, aos sakkans. Tudo resulta em um episódio maravilhosamente saudável e já atemporal! Isso me lembrou o mais tranquilo Sakugasakuga (作画 作画): Tecnicamente desenhando fotos, mas mais especificamente animação. Os fãs ocidentais há muito apropriados a palavra para se referir a casos de animação particularmente boa, da mesma maneira que um subconjunto de fãs japoneses. Muito integrante da marca de nossos sites. Fests do final 00’e o início dos 10′, exceto com composição de ponta, e alguns desenhos que mostram as sensibilidades mais ilustrativas e arriscadas de uma nova geração de artistas.

Frieren #14 foi um lembrete tão grande de quanto um excelente diretor de espaços tridimensionais é bom e velho ponte , especialmente depois do que parece milênios de dr. Stone deveres Kantoku. Eu particularmente apreciei a maneira como eles compataram o FXFX: abreviação da animação de efeitos-água, fogo, vigas, esse tipo de corte. Um pilar da animação 2D japonesa. animação; Eles encontraram a mistura perfeita (pelo menos minhas sensibilidades) entre a composição centrada na CEL e o comp de FX para cenas de ação, enquanto ainda lidava com os tons mais justos nas cenas da vida cotidiana com o máximo cuidado para que esses não caíssem também. Também foi incrivelmente interessante ver o elemento Sakkan Ping-Pong-ing entre a velha guarda e a nova geração de animadores não japoneses entre Hirotoshi Arai e Eri Irei. A produção de Arai, em particular, me lembrou o tipo de elegância que costumávamos ver em Sakkans dos shows de koji matsunari . Talvez nada

Isso seja mais uma votação de protesto do que qualquer outra coisa. Tudo sobre, caramba! Precisamos lutar contra nossa guerra para limitar a influência de todos esses burocratas corporativos que só querem que sejamos felizes e produtivos fazendo suas próprias histórias. Deveríamos ser capazes de contar nossas próprias histórias também, não apenas as deles! Nesse reino, acho que só encontrei ultrapassar! ser uma oferta verdadeiramente interessante, o que é preocupante por várias razões; Primeiro de tudo, tenho medo de carros velozes. Eu realmente apreciei o tempo cômico, combinado com tantos cuidados de supervisão de animação que foi capaz de evocar situações incrivelmente realistas, mas saudáveis, que gentilmente me colocam nos sapatos de Mitsumi. Shima e ela eram tão fofos juntos, graças ao esforço combinado de desenhos, dublagem e um roteiro bastante inteligente e não convencional que reverteu as tropas de monólogo usuais. Eu realmente luto para enviar personagens juntos (especialmente personagens retos), mas esses dois são feitos apenas um para o outro. Strong> ultrapassar! , Frieren . O pecado afirmando que a maioria da produção de Hayao Miyazaki é composta por contos bastante desapegados. Muitas vezes, os interesses pessoais e as referências culturais do diretor são destronadas por um desejo genuíno de criar histórias em movimento destinadas a crianças e seus pais. No entanto, fiquei agradavelmente surpreso ao descobrir que Kimitachi é um filme incrivelmente nerd.

Não quero dizer isso apenas por seus padrões, mas genuinamente nerd; Quase parece ouvir o cara dizendo:”Bem, todos vocês se expressaram muito sobre o tipo de coisa que você gosta, e eu vou fazer o mesmo!”À medida que experimentamos referências e acumulações incrivelmente amorosas para as obras de yoshie hota , natsume soseki , Daijrou Morohoshi federico Fellini , fusao hayashi, e o kojiki . Sinto-me como pessoas de fora, muitas vezes acabamos criando uma imagem muito austera e mal-humorada de Miyazaki só porque ele encontra a subcultura de anime que ajudou a formar estrangeiros. Há uma outra coisa dos colegas nerds, mas Kimitachi demonstrou que ele está loucamente apaixonado pelos autores formativos de sua juventude. Experimente como certos elementos do filme rimam com Miyazaki mais velho funciona da mesma maneira que Soseki retratava seu próprio haiku juvenil em kusamakura com significado novo. O verdadeiro truque mágico, no entanto, foi retirado quando ele apresentou magistralmente por que isso é uma”adaptação”. em direção a um personagem importante. Experimentar isso me deu uma alegria tão incrível e me fez sentir como se o anime ainda possa realizar o tipo de cenários estranhos e poderosos que permanecem inexplorados em todos os meios. É algo que ainda podemos alcançar se confiarmos nos criadores para contar suas próprias histórias, em vez de recarregá-las para adaptar fielmente o popular Shounen Garbo du Jour. É triste que o anime da TV pareça discordar muito sobre essa idéia. Abertura: A antiga noiva do Magus S2 Op2 ( link )

Um resultado surpreendentemente excelente, apesar da sempre perigosa separação de tarefas de direção; Desta vez, entre o sólido Ekonte de Yuki Igarashi e o Kazuaki Terasawa trabalha de supervisão. Eles foram capazes de expressar a psique interior de Chise, jogando um jogo de contrastes usando mídia mista. Embora essa claramente não seja uma nova direção em si, pois a dupla da INU Curry pode atestar (risos), sinto que essa peça foi capaz de superar definitivamente a divergência de gráficos de movimento simples <-> em movimento que muitas vezes coroa esses trabalhos, misturando-se a mais e mais influências de diferentes formatos visuais. Graças a mais alguns cortes editados e compostos cinematográficos, uma representação mais intrigante do teatro se tornando um leitmotiv de toda a abertura e alguns cortes de ação de maneira inteligente, a trágica condição de Chise recebe uma profundidade mais emocional. Ele acaba transformando a sequência em uma jornada muito intrigante que você não deve pular. tipo de coisa que eu queria ser capaz de desenhar quando tinha 15 a 16 anos, então acho que chegou bem perto de casa (risos). Também me vi desfrutando das semelhanças entre a eclosão dos painéis planos semelhantes a mangá e as miniaturas medievais. Esses caras gostam de algo, é isso que eu sinto! > Kusuriya no hitorigoto. O trabalho utiliza o departamento de cores/shiage do controverso Osakan Studio. O trabalho deles aqui é capaz de fornecer uma sensação mista de calor e frieza distinta ao mesmo tempo, graças ao uso de Iroshitei incrivelmente selecionado que faz um uso frequente de rastreamento de IRO. While the OG Shingo Suzuki and his fellow Kazumasa Yokomine handled the storyboardStoryboard (絵コンテ, ekonte): The blueprints of animation. A series of usually simple drawings serving as anime’s visual script, drawn on special sheets with fields for the animation cut number, notes for the staff and the matching lines of dialogue. and direction, I was particularly impressed by learning that the color designs were done by two relatively inexperienced artists in Kouki Koeda and Xueran Zhang, who debuted on in-house productions only that temporada. The care for the proportions of the sakkan team really helped giving believability and character to the family of cats during the climax. Big props to them too!

Honorable Mentions: Magical Destroyers, Oniichan wa Oshimai! , Shingeki no Kyojin The Final Chapters, Cardfight Vanguard Will + Dress S2, Watashi no Shiawasena Kekkon.

Best Music Video: Detarame na Sekai no Melodrama (link)

Maybe it’s a bit fetishistic rather than just inspired by cel-era anime, and too reliant on older concepts and leitmotivs compared to a lot of other China-directed works, but I appreciated the more unconventional takes on the girls’ anatomy on Moaang’s side—especially in the practice scene. Their chins were quite interesting too, they seemed almost bean-shaped but in a lovely way, and I loved the compact silhouettes they end up creating once the camera grows apart from them. On the directorial side, the particular interest in the color red and its variations was also note-worthy, as it felt spacious and rich in a broader way than the director’s work with the more complex palettes of Heike Monogatari and Ai to Yobu Dake. However, what stole the show for me was the almost subconscious correlation between the birdcage and the beams that sustain the school (representing the system?), empowered using quite different field depths from cut to cut.

I know reading of me praising China every year may be getting boring. Believe me, I would love to find some other obsession, but they just refuse to slow down in their greatness.

Best Aesthetic: Oniichan wa Oshimai!

It’s very difficult to accept this due to my archenemy working on that cartoon, but It’s pretty much impossible to find another TV anime that was able to pull up an aesthetic rulebook that I feel will be as influential as Onimai’s. In particular, I feel the way the color and compositing departments were able to mimic the fatter, deeper, and slightly more violent pen strokes typical of Ryo Imamura’s sketches into shiage paint was something that can move the cel layer as a whole into a dimension of new aesthetic possibilities. It showed how we in a not-so-distant future could fundamentally change the look of the cel layer into something more prone to represent volume and especially anatomical volume, without having to rely on such high line-counts but just technology and some good-ass sakkan.

Maybe it was born to be horny I feel like it’s fated to be more that. This seed will grow into something majestic one day.

Honorable mentions: Jujutsu Kaisen S2, Frieren, Tengoku Daimaikyou, The Concierge, Gridman Universe—again, especially the Ikarashi scene.

Best Animation Designs: Pokemon: Paldean Winds (Takashi Kojima)

Takashi Kojima has been at the top of the game since his early sakkan days, but his most recent output is able to stylishly represent all sort of characters of different ways of life and physicality in appealing, interesting, yet a bit whimsical ways. I’d say that this is especially true when compared to his less recent design work on titles like Flip Flappers and Kiminami.

I could make this point about Heike Monogatari, which was a more complete experimentation of his visual ideas, but the designs of Pokemon: Houkago no Breath are uniquely interesting in how they toy with a similar line-count while retaining more realistic proportions, which better fit the lens of the world portrayed by Yuki Funagakure’s art direction. Other than that, I really appreciated the way some features of the hair for all co-protagonists differed in both silhouette and shading to better fit their partner Pokémon’s features in either shape-language or volume—rather than going for less subtle similarities like possessing similar colors, which allow to play with complimentary tones.

Honorable mentions: Shield Hero Season 3 with Franziska Van Wulfen-sama designs; I feel they do really represent a possible happy future for anime, only time will tell.

Non-contemporary Work Award: Shiawase Sou no Okojo-san

Shiawase Sou no Okojo-san is such a visually inventive show, able to present absurd situations and melodrama in ways akin to shoujo manga, but with a clear-cut late-night anime vibe that helps make the Takahiro Kishida output feel at home. In a way, it almost feels like a spiritual prequel to Yama No Susume with how three-dimensional spaces are portrayed, although with a bigger use of “pure” cel scenes, but has such a feminine (perceived) elegance that places it at a distance from the more otaku-centric output of late night anime. An incredibly cozy yet seductive watch that experimented with some rather curious visual tropes.

Creator Discovery: Saori Den

Don’t get me wrong, I was aware of the existence of this incredibly talented artist way before this year, but now I feel like I’m way more aware of Saori Den’s qualities and her quirks as a director compared to her enshutsuka days. Her compositions oftentimes work with unconventional center-right and center-left subjects, which are bound to leave as strong of an impression on the viewer as the peculiar timing of her multi-plane slides. She really made me re-evaluate how impactful a line of dialogue can be by adding a subtle motion of a different animation layer than the mouth, or when not showing the mouth of a character at all, which won’t even result on a more demanding workload than the usual serifu/flip flap mouth. Her constant use of POV hand shots created with just a still frame or a single cel moving aren’t as baroque as Ei Aoki’s more animated ones, but are quite more flexible and easily splash-able into more situations. I would bribe all around in order to get her some of her enshutsu instructions or kantoku bible!!!

Honorable Mentions: Yume Bakui, G-ko, the real potential of Mahmoud Moftah, Aaron Rodriguez, and Idlkllr.

Akihito Sudou

Animator, Storyboarder, Episode Director, Person With Good Taste [Twitter] [Sakugabooru Tag] Best Episode: Tengoku Daimakyou #10

A veritable threat of an episode that fuses Kai Ikarashi-san’s overwhelming artistic talent with idiosyncratic animation.

This episode depicts the inner workings of Junichi as a character, and it leaves a lasting impact on the audience, as if gouging their hearts out.

Best Show: My Love Story With Yamada-kun at Lv999

Directed by Morio Asaka.

The conversations between characters have a snappy, pleasant tempo to them, and I was able to enjoy the story throughout all of the episodes without ever growing bored.

Best Movie: Gridman Universe

Akira Amemiya’s first time directing a theatrical work, for the Gridman series at Trigger.

The dry approach of the TV series remains intact, and there’s a lot of fanservice for the long-time Gridman fans. I remember clearly how satisfied the audience looked leaving the theater when I went to watch it.

Best Opening: Spy x Family S2 OP1 (link)

Storyboarded and directed by Masaaki Yuasa, I was impressed by the wealth of animation ideas present.

The art style, with its exaggerated silhouettes and perspective, makes you remember the primitive joys of animation.

Best Animation Designs: Skip and Loafer (Manami Umeshita)

The wonderful designs from Manami Umeshita, who served as character designer and chief animation directorChief Animation Director (総作画監督, Sou Sakuga Kantoku): Often an overall credit that tends to be in the hands of the character designer, though as of late messy projects with multiple Chief ADs have increased in number; moreso than the regular animation directors, their job is to ensure the characters look like they’re supposed to. Consistency is their goal, which they will enforce as much as they want (and can)., were the first things that left an impression on me when watching the anime.

In my opinion, the soft designs help to further accentuate the pure-hearted nature of the characters.

Geth

Always Purple [Twitter] Best Episode: Kusuriya no Hitorigoto/The Apothecary Diaries #04

A lot has already been said around the internet about why Kusuriya #04 is so special—on this very blog, even! So, to keep it succinct, I appreciate the extent to which this episode goes to craft a complete, personal work, as it is exceedingly rare these days to have as much drawing incongruence as this does with the surrounding anime. Moreover, the skill on display to emphasize characterful movement is second to none. It’s the best animated episode of the year.

Best Show: Tengoku Daimakyou

The 2023 calendar year marked the least number of currently airing anime I have watched since becoming a habitual seasonal enthusiast back in 2016. In terms of concrete numbers, this year I finished 18 of these things between TV, film, and OVA. Still a decent amount (kvin seems to think I’m still qualified!), but regardless, it’s about a 50% drop from last year. While it’s true that the state of TV anime has deteriorated significantly in just a few years, it would be unfair to attribute this sudden decline in interest entirely to that. The truth is, I simply have less free time. And when you have less free time, you tend to reserve it for unique and interesting stories. Tengoku Daimakyou is both of those things. I was enamored by the mystery established in the first episode and quickly took to the manga, binging until catching up. Overall, it’s not without its flaws, but even a flawed story told well can be fun to follow, and that’s exactly what it was for me.

Best Movie: The Boy and the Heron

As someone who goes out of their way to have zero expectations for basically everything in my life, I cannot say it has ever paid dividends quite to the extent that it did with The Boy and the Heron. Without delving into spoilers myself either, I would encourage anyone who is able to see it with as little knowledge of the material as possible. Hyperbole has always followed Hayao Miyazaki wherever he goes, but in this case, it truly was an unforgettable experience. The actual greatest to ever do it.

Best Opening: Hikari no Ou OP (link)

The directorial works of Kenichi Kutsuna regularly find their way into my yearly awards. I most appreciate the fact that there is a certain intangible wisdom that can be felt resting beneath the surface. Especially for anyone with a vested interest in the craft side of this hobby, that purposefulness tends to be extremely alluring. Part of Kutsuna’s genius is his being abundantly comfortable with breaking convention. For instance, I had an interesting discussion with Shengmeng Chen recently where he pointed out the lack of a book slide within the snowy field cut in Vlad Love’s OP. He thought it must be a mistake since, with the character walking across the screen, it feels a bit uncanny to not have the background slide in the opposite direction. Instead of guessing as to Kutsuna’s motives, I consulted my copy of the doujinshi dedicated to this OP that he released at a previous Comiket. It’s full of insights, and sure enough, he mentions intentionally keeping the background fixed so that it would feel misaligned. All this to say, Kenichi Kutsuna’s opening sequences are a reminder of the incredible minutiae intrinsic to animation.

Returning to Hikari no Ou, this OP reinforces the degree to which flora and greenery are a staple of his work—both in and of themselves and also as a means to depict full cel backgrounds. The presentation is so confident that it foregoes the need for robust animation, which is fortunate, or perhaps intentional, considering he was working with a much more modest crew than his previous OP. As a historian and scholar of sakugaSakuga (作画): Technically drawing pictures but more specifically animation. Western fans have long since appropriated the word to refer to instances of particularly good animation, in the same way that a subset of Japanese fans do. Pretty integral to our sites’brand., Kutsuna also managed to fit a reference to the iconic Record of Lodoss War OP.

On a final note, this may not even be the last time Kenichi Kutsuna directs an OP for Hikari no Ou, as the series is returning in the new year. Regardless of whether he reprises his role, though, we can only hope he once again publishes his thoughts and creative process!

Best Aesthetic: Skip and Loafer, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

These two series sharing an award make a lot of sense since they’re designed similarly: simple, unobtrusive filtering, and colours that agree with each other. This tends to be the winning formula as far as I’m concerned. Skip and Loafer in particular makes great use of pastels for fun and creative cutaways, which was also a major factor in my selecting Cool Doji Danshi for this award last year.

Keiichiro Saito may have inherited Shingo Natsume’s production line at Studio Madhouse, but Frieren’s art direction ended up with Sawako Takagi of Studio Wyeth rather than Studio Pablo (ACCA 13, Sonny Boy). There are few background studios remaining that are capable of painterly brilliance, such as those on display regularly in Frieren, so, more than any of the other blessings the series has incurred, it’s fortunate to have landed in very capable hands.

Best Animation Designs: Overtake! (Masako Matsumoto)

There weren’t any designs this year that genuinely floored me, but Masako Matsumoto’s interpretation of Takako Shimura‘s original illustrations on Overtake! caught my atenção. It certainly helped feed my bias when her skilled supervision enabled the cast to move perpetually and gratuitously throughout the premiere!

Non-contemporary Work Award: Eureka 7

This is an easy category for me to write about since I have an ongoing, massive thread on Twitter chronicling my first full experience with Tomoki Kyoda’s mid-’00s landmark anime. If you have been following said thread, then I don’t need to tell you that it has been a frustrating rollercoaster-like undertaking as I witness one of the most expertly crafted anime repeatedly fail to connect the storytelling pieces in a satisfying or even coherent way.

Eureka 7 was made at a time when Masahiko Minami’s Studio Bones had found a comfortable footing. With strong ties to reliable supporters such as P.A. Works and DogaKobo, the studio was able to ensure consistent, quality animation even across their longer productions. Moreover, the high-end talent pool they had access to grew with each production, to the point where it could be argued that Eureka 7 is their most ambitious in that regard. With Eiji Nakada and Kenichi Yoshida responsible for mecha and character, respectively, the series’ animation was under the leadership of two of the greatest craftsmen to ever do it. In addition, the ancillary departments such as photographyPhotography (撮影, Satsuei): The marriage of elements produced by different departments into a finished picture, involving filtering to make it more harmonious. A name inherited from the past, when cameras were actually used during this process., art, music, and colour design were all riding in harmony along the same trapars. It’s a damn well-put-together anime, which makes it all the more tragic that its attempt at narrative is without focus. A major contributing factor to this is the fact that Eureka 7 was originally planned as a two-cour series and later stretched to four. It isn’t known exactly how late into the planning phase their quota doubled, but the multitude of aimless episodes speaks for itself. Perhaps there is a 24-episode cut of Eureka 7 out there that tells the succinct story of romantic techno-environmentalism that it so desperately wants to be, but until then, I’ll continue to appreciate the otherworldly craftsmanship that went into the design of this great series.

This is far from a proper discovery award, as Hirokazu Sato has been on my radar for a long time; truth is that I had a semi-viral tweet of their sneezing animation on Ganbare Douki-chan (2021) that I impulsively deleted a while ago. So rather than that, consider this my attempt to direct some deserved attention towards one of the three main animators for Undead Unluck, a series with no shortage of impressive animation (despite the art direction’s unfortunate inclination to spoil their efforts). Also in that role are two action veterans, Kazuhiro Miwa and Hiroyuki Okaji, who happen to be somewhat household names among the animation-enthused, so it’s fair to say Sato is at risk of being overshadowed.

In any event, the focus of my aforementioned deleted tweet was the Tetsuya Nishio-like efficiency in their animation. Sato often draws in a clean way that emphasizes shorthand movement. It’s worth noting that this Nishio comparison is purely observational, and it’s entirely possible Sato isn’t consciously aware of the sakugaSakuga (作画): Technically drawing pictures but more specifically animation. Western fans have long since appropriated the word to refer to instances of particularly good animation, in the same way that a subset of Japanese fans do. Pretty integral to our sites’brand. lenda. If only their Twitter gave off the impression of being even remotely approachable! (lol)

Ken 🍁 Yamamoto

Animator, Storyboarder, Director, Aikatsu Respecter, A Leaf [Twitter] [Sakugabooru Tag] Best Episode: Jujutsu Kaisen #37 (S2 #13), The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady #03, The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls U149 #04

Jujutsu Kaisen #37 is an episode that feels extremely well-realized, with its vision clear-cut from the start. Episodes 40 and 41 by Miso-san [Itsuki Tsuchigami] were great as well, but my personal belief is that the low-brow nature of commercial anime is its greatest charm, so this is more to my liking.

Similarly, there’s Tenten Kakumei #03. By their very nature, commercial anime makes it very difficult to depict beautiful subjects in all their beauty (I think only a very limited number of titles, such as [Isao] Takahata’s Princess Kaguya, even makes an attempt). The standard approach is to construct visuals using artistic iconography to some degree. This episode has a very high level of directorial sense, composing shots using framing and spacing as iconographic devices. With Tsurugi Katou-san’s hand-drawn effect animation (I believe) on top, it’s full of the charms of commercial anime, and just a plain good-looking episode.

As for the last one: the animation, storyboarding, and direction are all amazing so just go watch it. Even if you don’t know anything about iM@S, you’ll fall in love with Momoka-chan. Also, Arisu makes some good, dumb faces.

Best Show: The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World

So good that every other commercial anime belongs in the past now. It’s been burned into my memories as the greatest work of visual entertainment out of countless works. This is the first name that would come to mind when asked about the all-time best things I’ve seen in my life.

Just when I felt myself getting sleepy at the long-winded exposition at the start of episode #01, the sudden encounter with his buff friend perked me up a bit, and by the time the main character was running in what looked like a parody of Get Out, it had completely captured my heart.

From there, I could do nothing but watch as I was overwhelmed by the drama of the main character, Ray White, regaining emotions appropriate for his age; the drama of his friends and acquaintances as they grow and develop; the endless barrage of surreal gags. Tão incrível. This might be the first time as an adult that I thought of a work of media as just pure fun from the bottom of my heart.

Since this is an animation blog, on a visual level, [Nobuhiro] Muto-san’s episodes, 5 and 11, are easily the best, with the timing for pans and tracking shots clearly on another level. You also get to witness [Tomonori] Kogawa-san’s AD work , and very rarely there are cuts mixed in where you feel the efforts of young animators, so personally I enjoyed it a lot on a visual level. However, it might take some time to adjust if you’re too used to watching dull anime from recent years with loads of post-processing and overly detailed cel art.

I can infer that most likely that there were some unfortunate circumstances with the schedule or whatnot, but the episode directors must have done a pretty good job, because stuff like the timing of the drawings and emoting is all on point. It really is an incredible anime.

By the way, the manga adaptation is really fun as a hot-blooded battle manga along the lines of s-CRY-ed, with really good art, so I recommend it as well.

Editor (Kevin’s) note: The manga is fun as hell, genuinely one of the most expressive things I’ve read lately.

Best Movie: Aikatsu! 10th Story ~Mirai e no Starway~, Girls und Panzer Das Finale Part 4, Detective Conan: Black Iron Submarine

I can’t think of a better treat for original fans who have since become adults than the Aikatsu 10th Story movie. I cry every time I watch the scene of Ichigo repeating the same words over and over like a bird singing, accompanied by birdsong in the background. Fans of the series should definitely, absolutely, and by all means watch it.

As for Girls und Panzer Das Finale Part 4, I’d describe it as Mad Max: Fury Road but with cute girls and tanks. Hands down this year’s best in terms of entertainment. By far the most fun movie this year, despite not having watched the previous parts of Das Finale.

Finally, there’s the latest Detective Conan film. To borrow the words of Naoto Uchida-san, it’s very well-constructed. There’s not a moment of boredom, and the way especially in the first half, it goes from action to car chase scenes is just plain awesome.

Best Opening and Ending: A whole lot of them The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls U149 OP: Cute, cheerful, the best. From the character introductions, the producer POV, to the very U149-ish answer to the series staple of having everyone show up and dance for the chorus, it’s all amazing. The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady OP: Love the way they compare and contrast the two main characters, the way they hold hands in the past and present, and the beautiful art filled with felicidade. Onii-chan wa Oshimai! OP: Too good. Miton-chan’s long rotation shot, for example, would be hard to pull off without really good animation, but it’s really, really impressive. The song is fun, too. Tonikaku Kawaii S2 OP: I only watched episode 1 of the first season, but after watching this OP, I bought all the volumes of the manga. Sequences that thematically touch on the long passage of time are always up my alley, no questions asked. Rokudou no Onna-tachi OP: Extremely high level of precision in the key animationKey Animation (原画, genga): These artists draw the pivotal moments within the animation, basically defining the motion without actually completing the cut. The anime industry is known for allowing these individual artists lots of room to express their own style., AD corrections, and in-betweensIn-betweens (動画, douga): Essentially filling the gaps left by the key animators and completing the animation. The genga is traced and fully cleaned up if it hadn’t been, then the missing frames are drawn following the notes for timing and spacing.. The timing and action for the action part where the bike goes flying in the chorus is really cool. I often look back on it as a reference. The level of care shown here must be really difficult to pull off in modern times. Gotoubun no Hanayome ∽ OP: Seeing all the unexplained light effects flying around makes me appreciate the brute force of Hiroto Nagata-san (storyboards/director) introducing his own field of expertise. The part in the intro with all five having the same eye color, as well as the juxtaposition of all five of their torsos while running, are both visual effects you could only pull off for this show, with these quintuplets. Eu realmente gosto muito disso. Dekoboko Majo no Oyako Jijou OP: I was impressed at the decision to parody the OP2 of the 2000 Saiyuki anime today. Animation-wise, Alyssa shifting her weight in the walk cycle loop in the first verse is good, and the shadows on Giriko’s crossed legs in the pre-chorus is beautiful in a stylish way that reminds me of [Kazuchika] Kise-san. Fate/Samurai Remnant OP: Nakaya Onsen is unbeatable when you let him make awesome sequences. Undead Unluck OP, as well as the ED: It takes the motifs present in the manga and expands upon them in an interesting and very fun way. The classic style in which it introduces the characters with the action during the chorus is the ideal way to show off the atmosphere of the original manga, and I like it a lot. Tenpuru ED3: Filling up 90 seconds with just walk cycle loops, a number of cuts as punctuation, and different backgrounds is super neat and I love it. Best Aesthetic: Hirogaru Sky! Precure

Hirogaru Sky Precure is, in fact, good.

Best Animation Designs: Skip and Loafer (Manami Umeshita), Bungo Stray Dogs (Nobuhiro Arai), Tenpuru (Masako Katsumata)

Skip and Loafer‘s designs are simply beautiful. [Manami] Umeshita-san, who was in charge of them, once did key animationKey Animation (原画, genga): These artists draw the pivotal moments within the animation, basically defining the motion without actually completing the cut. The anime industry is known for allowing these individual artists lots of room to express their own style. for me on The Promised Neverland S2 OP (if I may brag). I was blown away by how good she was, so I’m happy to see so many people enjoy her work.

As for Bungo Stray Dogs, the characters’ faces and silhouettes are leagues above when it comes to how pretty they are. I have enough fun just looking at those faces, but when you combine that with [Takuya] Igarashi’s direction, it makes me want to draw really cool drawings. Not that I can draw them.

Meanwhile, Tenpuru‘s designs are stylish, cute, and surprisingly classy for a fanservice anime. It felt weird being able to watch it with my mind at ease.

Non-contemporary Work Award: Bakusou Kyoudai Let’s & Go!! WGP

At the time, I enjoyed watching it off of recorded videos I had sent to me from Japan. In terms of animation, it’s fun watching all of the Sunrise/IG/Tatsunoko/Xebec people going wild, and it’s a very 90s anime in how well-made it is. It’s a work that I aspire to reach.

Creator Discovery: Masahiro Takata

With the resources available to him, Masahiro Takata tries to create the best anime possível. In the modern anime industry, where manpower and time are both lacking, yet the demands keep increasing without end, his work embodies the attitude that is needed the most.

Iceblade Sorcerer and Dekoboko Majo really served to open my eyes, and in my mind, I now see everything as either pre-or post-Iceblade Sorcerer.

Maki

Professional Homo [Twitter] Best Episode: Oniichan wa Oshimai! #01

With a complex storyboardStoryboard (絵コンテ, ekonte): The blueprints of animation. A series of usually simple drawings serving as anime’s visual script, drawn on special sheets with fields for the animation cut number, notes for the staff and the matching lines of dialogue. that took far longer than director Shingo Fujii anticipated, immediately drawing cries of panic from the storyboardStoryboard (絵コンテ, ekonte): The blueprints of animation. A series of usually simple drawings serving as anime’s visual script, drawn on special sheets with fields for the animation cut number, notes for the staff and the matching lines of dialogue. artists for the following episodes, and as the only episode of the series to have character designer Ryo Imamura as solo sakkan, Onimai #1 was a bombshell. There are so many things to highlight: Fujii’s layoutsLayouts (レイアウト): The drawings where animation is actually born; they expand the usually simple visual ideas from the storyboard into the actual skeleton of animation, detailing both the work of the key animator and the background artists., the fantastic opening sequence with work by Miton, FukurouP, Kaori Imai, and Yuki Matsubara; Ann Nakai’s dress-up portion; Miton’s work on the lingerie scene; Kay Yu’s comical acting; basically all of Imamura’s corrections…. It’s all brough together under Fujii’s directing—a knockout of a first episode, and one that perfectly draws the viewer in to the rest of the series. My personal highlight would be Ann Nakai’s sequence; I absolutely love the movement of the fabric and the cartoony comedy of Mihari’s reaction, as well as small bits like how Mihari’s hair gently blows up then settles as she quickly crouches down.

Honorable mentions: Uma Musume Pretty Derby Road to the Top #4, Tengoku Daimakyou #8, Oniichan wa Oshimai! #12.

Best Show: Oniichan wa Oshimai!

Really the only choice for me. I loved this show from start to finish; beyond simply being a collection of pieces made by all-stars (though it certainly was that), I loved the way first-time director and first-time character designer Shingo Fujii and Ryo Imamura—both by all respects ace animators, trying something new for the first time here—approached both the content and the production. In the BD booklet interviews, Fujii discusses how it was part of their production plan to have Mahiro’s physical acting be more masculine at the beginning of the series, and to slowly bring out more feminine movements over the first number of episodes, which ended up subtly building up both the language of the show and the gradual shifts in Mahiro’s character over time, making the decision in the last episode hit all the harder—in a way that it never did in the manga.

Of course, with Fujii and Imamura heading the show, and with Toshiya Otomo (Yama no Susume, Mushoku Tensei) as animation producer, a dazzling lineup of their friends and other young animators were chomping at the bit to work on the show with them. Of note is how the flexibility built into their production plan allowed for some of the scenes that attracted the most attention, like the bathing suit scene in #03 that Miton was in charge of and which garnered a huge reaction online. When discussing the scene it was pointed out to Fujii that Kaede’s chest was, at the character design stage, not anywhere near as large as it’s depicted here, Fujii says that while Miton had already drawn it particularly large during the genga stage, he gave the OK to make her bust even larger, since that fit the directorial vision of it being seen from Mahiro’s perspective. Gotta love it.

I could go on and on about this show—the cuts and changes in content that elevate it over the simple (but of course still good!) gender-bender comedy of the original manga; the research the team did into transgender issues to nail certain aspects of Mahiro’s character; the way Fujii and Imamura used it as an opportunity to train newbie animators; how the 250-cuts-or-less per episode limit that they imposed helped to bring out the slower pace that ended up being so characteristic for the series; and of course, Mahirochan kawaii. There’s far more to talk about, but I’ve already written a lot, so I’ll leave it here. I look forward to seeing what Fujii directs next! 😉

Best Movie: Hibike! Euphonium: Ensemble Contest

This may be cheating since this is technically an OVA (that just so happened to earn more than some of the more hyped-up movies of the year in its limited theatrical run—Eupho strong); but man oh man was it absolutely wonderful to take in that Kitauji air once again. With Taiichi Ogawa taking up the post as assistant director in addition to Tatsuya Ishihara reprising his seat as director, and with a whole slew of both new and familiar faces in the trenches, this was exactly the return that Eupho fans had been waiting for, showing off exactly how far KyoAni has been able to come since the tragedy of the arson in 2019. Filled to the brim with that inspired, natural character acting that’s like a calling card for the studio (I obviously couldn’t help but fall in love with Kanade’s shadowboxing) and, in classic Eupho fashion, showing us Kumiko’s growth as she becomes used to her role as the newly appointed club president, it was the perfect transitory interlude between the previous film and the upcoming third season. (Thank you for the Minami Middle content. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you…)

Best Opening: Tengoku Daimakyou OP (link)

This probably needs no introduction. Weilin Zhang’s OP for Tengoku Daimakyou is an instant success on all fronts, with a lineup that most would kill for. Moaang, soty, and Shingo Yamashita is like a rotation from my dreams; I particularly love the intensity of Hakuyu Go’s running sequence, which echoes the conflict that’s core to Kiruko’s character. All of it is unified under Zhang (who did the composite himself), with an aesthetic that’s ideal for the strange, emotional-but-funny-but-wow-that’s-fucked-up space that Tengoku Daimakyou ocupa. I had been a fan of the manga for a while, and I could not have asked for a better intro for this series.

Honorable mentions: Oniichan wa Oshimai! ED, Uma Musume Pretty Derby Road to the Top OP, Shounen yo Ware ni Kaere, live performance by Tsukino Mito and Lize Helesta atにじさんじ 5th Anniversary LIVE「SYMPHONIA」.

Best Aesthetic: Little Goody Two-Shoes

Okay, yes, this is a video game, but hear me out: Little Goody Two-Shoes was my surprise of the year—an exquisitely done RPG Maker-style horror game with an exceptionally realized nostalgia-bend of an aesthetic; admittedly two things that are laser-targeted toward me in particular, as I both am of a Certain Age and have loved RPG Maker horror games for years now. Produced by a 5-person Portuguese team (AstralShift), who previously released Pocket Mirror ~ GoldenerTraum, LGTS‘ aesthetic hits a home run on all fronts for me. Whether it’s the environments that evoke storybooks or, perhaps, 90s adventure games, the absolutely gorgeous hand-painted backgrounds that harken back to classic World Masterpiece Theater shows like Anne of Green Gables and Heidi: Girl of the Alps, or the nostalgic mini-games being presented as literal arcade cabinets, this is a game that knows exactly how it wants to present itself to the player. And yes—it is indeed gay.

It’s a gorgeous, incredibly impressive game that has clearly had endless amounts of love poured into it; it borrows from classic anime in spades, but none of it ever feels heavy-handed or too close to what it’s borrowing from, which is a testament to how seamlessly integrated the aesthetic is to its entire experience. I found myself constantly surprised and delighted as I found my way into new and entirely different environments or discovered new visual elements over my playtime. I haven’t even touched the character designs or the opening movie—the latter of which was produced by Studio Nostalook, whose 2021 Dua Lipa music video didn’t do all that much for me personally, but whose work here I feel hits just the right notes. By the way, did I mention that the character sprite work is excellent too?. LGTS is easily my pick for the best aesthetic of the year; probably the past several years, even. I must say, it’s by far my favorite work in general to come out of the larger ‘anime nostalgia’ trend of the past decade or so.

This one is definitely cheating, since Minoru Ota has been around for a while, with his first credit as an inbetweener on Nichijou’s episode 0. (As an aside, he also did a favorite scene of mine in Liz.) However, what I want to highlight here is how, with Ensemble Contest, he has succeeded Hiroyuki Takahashi in his role as Eupho’s instrument animation director, a role that Takahashi held—and was outrageously good at—through both the K-On! and Eupho series up until now. (Note that Ota actually worked alongside Takahashi on Violet Evergarden, as they were jointly in charge of the accessory settei there, a role he reprised in both Haruka Fujita’s Violet Gaiden and the 2020 movie.)

Not content to simply accept the torch from his predecessor, he’s also intentionally bringing his own touch to the series. This comment of his from August shows how his approach might differ from Takahashi’s technical precision; for Ensemble Contest, he says that he worked particularly on developing the ‘radiance’ of the instruments even further than previous entries in the series, which is evident immediately, with the textures of Kumiko’s eupho in the very first scene dazzlingly dancing as she plays. I—along with I think most Eupho fans—am overjoyed to see Ota take up the mantle of instrument AD, and I cannot wait to see his work develop even further in the upcoming third season.

Honorable mention: I’d also like to use this space to mention Ann Nakai, who, despite being a complete newbie when starting work on Onimai, consistently produced seriously stunning work as part of the show’s core team. I became a fan immediately, and am really looking forward to seeing more of her in the future!

Natasha

Ah, Satan [Twitter] Best Episode, And Also Creator Discovery: Jujutsu Kaisen S2 #01 And Shota Goshozono

Ever since 2011, I have been in search of a creator who matches the imagination, skill, and mind of horror-lover Masashi Ishihama. Very few people match his unabashed love for the dark and the surreal, and his knowledge of how to evoke fear in the medium of animation. It’s come in blips and flares throughout the decade, but Jujutsu Kaisen‘s second season was where I really saw that potential arrive through the eyes and hard work of Shota Goshozono, who also happened to storyboardStoryboard (絵コンテ, ekonte): The blueprints of animation. A series of usually simple drawings serving as anime’s visual script, drawn on special sheets with fields for the animation cut number, notes for the staff and the matching lines of dialogue. what I consider one of the most striking pieces of horror of 2023. So, let me merge categories and quickly explain why this was such an impactful episode for me, and how it allowed me to discover a talent I’d been looking for.

JJK S2 episode #01 sets the tone for a 90’s-esque X Files investigation with warped perspectives, lengthy cuts, cinematic layoutsLayouts (レイアウト): The drawings where animation is actually born; they expand the usually simple visual ideas from the storyboard into the actual skeleton of animation, detailing both the work of the key animator and the background artists., and the usage of analog home video and distorted narration clips. Combining a blending of 3D camera work with masterful sound design, Goshozono creates an episode that has filled me with the same kind of dread I haven’t felt since Ishihama’s work on Occultic;Nine or From the New World.

Goshozono’s talents extend beyond this episode, but there’s been enough coverage of Jujutsu‘s strained production conditions for me to comment any further. This has been a wild ride, pairing the mindset of efficient storyboarding against unmatched levels of rushed scheduling demands, with flashes of genuine auteur craftsmanship. At the end of this tunnel, though, I see a bright future for someone as talented and resourceful as Goshozono.

Best Show: Vinland Saga S2, Pluto

It feels a little unfair to weight the likes of Vinland Saga and Pluto against other titles; they are built after all, on the sinew, muscle and bones of what I personally consider to be two of the best mangaka of recent decades. But beyond the inherent excellence of the material, both shows do a solid job of briefly elevating their respective manga, and cover themes that I’ve yet to see covered in recent anime.

Episode #17 of Vinland Saga in particular, showcases the effects of toxic masculinity, the insurmountable loss of war and discrimination, and the endurance of love across these moments of brutality. In a year where these topics become increasingly relevant, Vinland Saga feels like a slow balm; it eases that pain, but doesn’t cure it—on the contrary, it reminds me of why these topics are so critical to discuss in the first place. Pluto, for similar reasons, is here, with not-so-subtle references to the Iraq war and a discussion on the ever so fraught relationship between humanity and technology.

Honorable mention: On the other side of the spectrum, Skip and Loafer is unabashedly earnest and warm in everything it chooses to have dialogue about, and those dialogues are often refreshing. Charming character designs and a bright colour palette serve as a fantastic backdrop against an unconventional coming-of-age story, and it would be an understatement to say that this show was a much-needed bright half-hour in my life for three months.

Best Movie: Spider-man: Across the Spiderverse

I admittedly didn’t get much of a chance to see many of this year’s film darlings (namely Suzume and The Boy and the Heron) but somehow, I also know that even if I had, the neon-streaked and dazzling Spiderverse would still remain glued to the back of my eyeballs.

Into the Spiderverse was already an ambitious feat; putting animation and its connotation as a medium, not just as a source of family-friendly adventures, but back on the map for the world. Across the Spiderverse plants that reminder firmly into the ground, albeit not without severe consequences. Every character comes with their own personality that’s deeply embedded into distinctive animation styles, rules, and design. Then layer on the aspect of multiple worlds, all blended with references to art in reality, blended with CG composite as much as real materials (xerox machines, Indrajal comics, screen tones, etc). What you get is a product of dazzling proportions, and a story that utilises the often-stale trope of the multiverse as an honest celebration of diversity.

Perhaps the most memorable part of Spiderverse, personally, was not just the movie—it was the culmination of hundreds of artists on Twitter showcasing their individual efforts to bring a scene to life, often during the time of the pandemic when collaboration was hindered, if not impossible. Spiderverse is possibly the year’s most innovative achievement, and a reminder of not just the limitless potential animation has, but that of diverse creators bringing together their experiences and perspectives into a medium that can be bold as much as beautiful.

Best Opening: Tengoku Daimakyou OP (link), One Piece OP25 (link)

If I had to choose any singular anime as the one that dominated 2023, it would unmistakably be One Piece; having finished the immense Wano arc in both the manga and anime, and landing the first successful live action anime adaptations we’ve seen in years. Nothing feels more celebratory of these feats than the 25th opening, which marks the rise of Megumi Ishitani as not just a fan-favorite in the world of One Piece animation, but as a full-fledged opening maestro in her own right. A montage of detailed compositions, threaded together by evocative symbolism, shows not just how inventive and thoughtful of a storyboarder Ishitani can be, but also how she fundamentally grasps the soul of One Piece this year.

Tengoku Daimakyou‘s opening is also a banger in every sense, but for different reasons: it’s, to me, a highlight of how impactful Shingo Yamashita has been on the world of webgenWebgen (web系): Popular term to refer to the mostly young digital animators that have been joining the professional anime industry as of late; their most notable artists started off gaining attention through gifs and fanmade animations online, hence web generation. It encompasses various waves of artists at this point so it’s hardly one generation anymore, but the term has stuck. arte. Weilin Zhang takes careful measures to highlight that inspiration with an opening that nostalgically dazzles but also makes his own mark. Vivid colouring, a usage of silhouettes, and an emphasis on the basics of highlight, shadow, and shape—these are all classic Yamashita moves, but Zhang takes them to a new level to create chaotic and yet controlled energy in this opening, paired with an equally raw song.

Honorable mention: I can’t leave out how much I adore Masaaki Yuasa‘s Spy x Family opening. Spy x Family has had the fortune where every opening highlights the versatility of the show’s strengths—it’s sometimes a fun thriller, sometimes a beautiful appreciation of the mundane—and Yuasa adds to the mix by emphasising the warmth of a seemingly dysfunctional and wacky family. Shin-chan inspired designs, silly retro pop art backgrounds, tight sequencing, and snappy animation, all create a zany opening imbued with Yuasa’s signature charm.

Best Aesthetic, And Also Best New Medium: Alan Wake 2

Continuing on the horror train that I started me entry with: I admit, I’m biased when it comes to this selection. Alan Wake is one of my favourite games of all time, though in my heart it’s registered less as a traditional collection of interactive mechanics, and more as an experience. Alan Wake 2 ramps that concept up to 100%, but to give clarity as to how or why would also rob everyone of the much-deserved chance to “play” this new….thing for themselves. So, I won’t do that, but I will end this bit on: Alan Wake 2 is possibly my favourite experience this year that pushes the envelope of art engagement, storytelling, and the ever-evolving medium of video and audio.

Aesthetically, it’s stunning. It combines unmatched technical fidelity with striking art direction to create immersive landscapes of nonstop tension and intrigue. It both is deeply inspired by film noir and the 90s era of television, and challenging of it, with moody environments that pulse with volumetric fog, ray-traced and puddle-ridden streets, glossy neon flickering signs in dim alleys, and chromatic aberrated shadows, itching to destroy your soul. I have never been drawn in by such a grand metanarrative survival story that’s so clearly in tune with its own aesthetic; if there’s one flaw to this, it’s that I could wipe what I’ve played so far of Alan Wake 2 from my brain and experience it fresh again.

Kevin

Me [Twitter] Best Episode: Tengoku Daimakyou #08, Kusuriya no Hitorigoto/The Apothecary Diaries #04, The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls U149 #11

If there is any recipe to put together something likely to be remembered as the episode of the year, it would likely entail the overlap of significant narrative developments with memorable delivery—not the only way to achieve success by any stretch, but arguably the most straightforward one. Multiple episodes of Tengoku Daimakyou hover around that continuum, with Kai Ikarashi and Tetsuya Takeuchi’s #10 oozing charisma like no other episode this year, and several others landing genuine setting-shifting reveals alongside still impressive craftmanship. The one that resonated the most with me, though, is more akin to a side story; one that does make fascinating implications about the world, but a shift in focus nonetheless. It’s not the loudest showing in such an outrageous series, yet it hits like no other. And that is episode #08, the first full storyboardStoryboard (絵コンテ, ekonte): The blueprints of animation. A series of usually simple drawings serving as anime’s visual script, drawn on special sheets with fields for the animation cut number, notes for the staff and the matching lines of dialogue. by Haruka Fujita ever since she left Kyoto Animation.

It would be an understatement to say that she understood the assignment. Acting as the storyboarder but not sticking around to oversee its execution can get in the way of having one’s vision properly realized, especially if the production is done at a studio they don’t actually work for. But Fujita didn’t remain an outsider—not to the making of this episode, and certainly not to this story. She left a simply ridiculous amount of notes for the staff who had to eventually bring to life her boards; a genuine study of the characters across the entire series, explanations about the imagery that she herself had come up with to embody the recurring themes, and amusingly, even some notes expressing regret that she couldn’t stick around to direct the episode.

The result is nothing short of stunning. The elegance we’ve come to expect from Fujita makes an entire episode about death feel ethereal, and yet still so personable through her detail-oriented storyboarding. The episode is Tengoku Daimakyou at its most touching, and due to the show’s structure and Fujita’s gentle delivery, it’s bound to age like fine wine. While other episodes made a stronger splash—because they’re damn good, mind you—I feel like this is the one that will have the strongest legacy. It’s a given in my heart, at the very least!

If elegance is the name of my favorite episodes of 2023, there is only another one I’d put on this level; or rather, there’s one episode and an entire series, but I can show love to that show in the next category. Truth to be told, I don’t even have to say much about Kusuriya #04 either, mostly because I’ve already done so already.

The series as a whole is already one of my favorites this year, but its winning formula of procedural mystery and amusing character interactions transforms into something entirely different for a special episode led by China and Moaang. As funny as ever, but so much more deliberate in its framing. Acted with precision rarely seen on TV, which allows it to convey details that normal episodes would have to speak out loud—or simply fail to convey. It’s one of the most lavish episodes you can treat yourself to this year, with thought put into every little motion. And yet, it also stands out for its mindfulness of animation economy, for its ability to dance around limitations elegantly. It accidentally sparked a debate about shortcuts in animation around the industry, but I feel like debating works like this purely from an angle of “concessions” and “shortcuts” is giving too much credence to a quantitative, simply boring view of art. The choices of what should be drawn in detail have an aspect of guidance of the eye, and in a broader way, an austere beauty that is resonant before it’s smart.

This episode accomplishes all of this while retaining the intangibles to convey a story about love in a way that goes beyond all those specific, material details. It’s easy for this type of meticulous, detail-oriented direction to veer into overcalculated and cold; something that can have its uses too of course, but would have clashed both with the tenderness and bursts of fury that we witnessed in this episode had Chinashi not kept everyone’s emotions in the foreground. Outrageously good work spearheaded by one of the greatest (still!) young duos in anime.

My final shout-out has to go to The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls U149 #11; directed and storyboarded by Atsushi Kobayashi, who has also been doing brilliant work on the likes of Vinland Saga S2, but also in an active conversation with the imagery that series directorSeries Director: (監督, kantoku): The person in charge of the entire production, both as a creative decision-maker and final supervisor. They outrank the rest of the staff and ultimately have the last word. Series with different levels of directors do exist however – Chief Director, Assistant Director, Series Episode Director, all sorts of non-standard roles. The hierarchy in those instances is a case by case scenario. Manabu Okamoto already established in the first episode. In my experience with the Imas franchise at large, I’d never bought onto Arisu’s character in the way others seemed to, but she finally clicked for me over the course of this episodes. They refuse to embrace a cheap twist about her parents having loved her all along, and instead empathize with a child prone to misunderstand the situation, and eventually shatter her misconceptions about adults in a way that lifts a load from her shoulders. The way Sheng Meng Chen’s animation abstracted her feeling of alienation is one of the most stunning moments of the year, but it’s also one that would only land in an episode that carefully depicts her psyche, and in a show that has set the foundations for that.

Honorable mentions: Basically every episode of Tsurune: The Linking Shot. Nobuyuki Takeuchi’s surprising (but not entirely) solo episode #09 of Kawagoe Boys Sing. Hirofumi Okita building the best, most authentically crowded city of 2023 for Kubo-san #11, not for its own sake but to contrast it to the world of two that the cute couple loses themselves in. Makoto Kato’s most stunning episode to date, Overtake! #09, for making me have an excellent awful time that is canceled out by just as uplifting of an ending. And, while its greatest episodes are in the first arc—#05 in particular—I must shout out Jujutsu Kaisen S2’s team for their work on episode #16. At a point in the production where the struggles they faced were tremendous, and even accounting for the prioritization of the episode, the degree of realization of Miso’s vision is truly amazing. It’s a sad context, but also one that emphasizes just how great of a feat they accomplished. Kind of like Zom 100 #01 in that way—another banger!

Best Show: Tsurune: The Linking Shot, Overtake!, Vinland Saga S2

The first season of Tsurune was a very enjoyable experience, a solid directorial debut Takuya Yamamura. It was archetypical in its sports narrative beats, but applied to a contemplative activity like kyudo, which made for interesting contrast. At the end of the day, though, its simplicity made me assume that it had a certain ceiling; and that might have made me assume something similar about Yamamura himself. The Linking Shot, to put it plainly, has pierced through those assumptions.

Besides presenting a new group of rivals with compelling conflicts of their own, this second season manages to peel away layers from preexisting characters and reveal a degree of internal complexity that you could have guessed from their first adventures. Their struggles, as well as those of the new rivals, tend to have the shared trait of contrast; sometimes it’s between social standings, a major theme across this series, and sometimes simply a clash in personalities. The team put lots of thought on how to translate that not just into the storyboards—most of them drawn by Yamamura himself, who got so carried away he nearly singlehandedly handled them all—but into the aesthetic of the show itself.

Carrying over the theatrical production energy they’d built up when making the (not really) recap film that preceded season 2, the team reformulated the show’s aesthetic and landed on something noticeably more complex. Again, this isn’t intricacy for its own sake, but an attempt to embody that idea of contrast into the world they inhabit; for example, art directorArt Director (美術監督, bijutsu kantoku): The person in charge of the background art for the series. They draw many artboards that once approved by the series director serve as reference for the backgrounds throughout the series. Coordination within the art department is a must – setting and color designers must work together to craft a coherent world. Shouko Ochiai didn’t just increase the level of detail in the backgrounds to better showcase the gap between fancy equipment and weary, scrambled together tools depending on the school, but also emphasized the contrast in right about every BG. That implied further collaboration with the digital department and a bigger workload for them, hence why photographyPhotography (撮影, Satsuei): The marriage of elements produced by different departments into a finished picture, involving filtering to make it more harmonious. A name inherited from the past, when cameras were actually used during this process. director Kouhei Funamoto went as far as coding applications to make the more involved process speedier for everyone. The story of The Linking Shot’s production is one of deliberate choices and collective, cohesive greatness.

This extends beyond anime itself, but there’s always been that idea that brilliant directors are necessarily tyrannical figures who are justified in their harsh behavior, because that’s just what genius is like. Though professional relationships are up to the people involved above anyone else, I have to say that I appreciate cases like Tsurune and Yamamura that strongly refuse that conclusion. In every interview with the team, the representatives of each department explained that a big reason why they were able to raise the bar was the director’s inadvertently motivational attitude. Yamamura would constantly swing by other people’s desks, praise their accomplishments, and also motivate them to share their own ideas; he would do so in a way they compared to a dog happily swinging its tail, or perhaps an excited kid. Though the ingredients were always there for an excellent show, I don’t think that its thesis could have permeated it so thoroughly without that extra push, nor would the quality have risen so much. I really hope Yamamura manages to bring that attitude to new projects in the future.

It’s only been a few days since we published a lengthy write-up about Overtake!, so I don’t think I have it in me to reiterate why it’s one of the best shows of the year; if you’re interested in confident scriptwriting that doesn’t hold your hand as anime tends to clumsily do, and bold direction that underlines those subtleties, you should simply give it a try. So instead, let me talk briefly about something else I recently did and am in the process of digesting still. After dragging my feet for so long, I finally watched Vinland Saga, and I couldn’t not give a nod to one of the best anime of the year. I’d initially stopped watching the first season after a couple of episodes, feeling some friction with the material I already loved, but I’m happy that a friend pushed me to watch this together.

The adaptation headed by Shuhei Yabuta dares to be in an actual conversation with the original work’s themes, making adjustments that may appear minor but come together to assemble the team’s own interpretation of this series. In an era where the demand for faithfulness often prevents adaptations to actively engage with the worldview of the original works, Vinland Saga is refreshing, and proves you can do that without the type of major rewrites that fans are so scared of. Someone yell at me to write about this show at length when I’ve got time, because this is a fascinating topic. I don’t have a secretary to issue these reminders, you know.

Honorable mentions: If we had a Rawest Anime Of The Year category, that would have gone to Uma Musume Road To The Top; and maybe we should add it after all, since it’s getting a spiritual successor bound to be even more aggressive in the next few months—maybe too soon given the schedule, but that’s a discussion for another day. I considered way too many episodes of The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls U149 as potential favorites not to give it a nod as one of the best shows, especially since it does stick its landing very nicely; a story about kids, and even brattier adults, submerged in an often cynical entertainment industry but still emerging with a positive outlook.

Best Movie: The Boy and the Heron, The First Slam Dunk

It couldn’t be any other way: my movie of 2023 is Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron. I’ve written at length about the movie from the angle of Miyazaki’s often dreamlike, empowering physics, and how a movie that examines his own legacy feels weightier on a literal and figurative sense. I’ve read multiple writeups approaching it from different directions and finding just as much depth to it, and can even intuit the space to tackle it from many other angles. The Boy and the Heron feels like hanging out with a passionate friend over a drink, hearing a story that gets lost in one tangent after the other but that keeps you engrossed through the vast knowledge and whimsical turns. Except, in this situation, your friend also happens to be arguably the greatest director in anime history. It’s insane that this movie exists. So, rather than trying to make sense out of its abnormal existence, let me instead praise the most entertaining movie I’ve watched in 2023—while also ranting about the state of commercial anime, through the state of the biggest studio in the industry.

The current Toei Animation is uniquely depressing. That’s not because their cynicism is unlike what we see in other creative industries, nor because the studio’s inner workings are more reprovable than the norm in the world of anime, but rather because they’re in a position where it’s easy to see the potential for something greater—something they stifle themselves. While we constantly condemn the anime industry’s inability to properly train younger creators, Toei has built a very impressive mentorship regime; one that can only raise a small fraction of the manpower they need to keep such a large studio running, but still a very thorough, deliberately slow process to absorb all the knowledge one needs to become a capable animator or director.

When they get to that stage, though, their personal voice is either silenced or forcefully channeled through someone else’s worldview. The studio’s evolution towards a model where everything is sustained by large franchises that have spanned for decades upon decades can’t possibly be walked back, but even in that stage, they always used to make room for passion projects on the side. This is particularly important for the younger, most creative members at the studio; ones who would need an escape valve to avoid burnout, as otherwise their job is to keep returning to the same established works—which often have narrower artistic constraints—over and over.

Toei themselves understand that, hence why this has traditionally happened, and why just a few years ago they announced a program for their younger staff to create original works. Megumi Ishitani is now known across the world for her contributions to One Piece, but her short film Jurassic! precedes those contributions. Much like her Geidai graduation film Scutes on my mind, it’s built around her love for dinosaurs, and could have been the start of something larger. That didn’t happen, and despite being billed as the first of multiple showcases of young talent, it was never followed up.

Toei has never stopped raising brilliant creators, but we’ve gone from a place where Rie Matsumoto and Yuki Hayashi could unleash their unique ideas onto Kyousougiga, to a studio that convinced Koudai Watanabe to pursue independent animation instead—bless Hanabushi’s work, don’t get me wrong—and that has kept Haruka Kamatani in the awkward position of being a clearly exceptional director, but one whose name remains obscure to even many dedicated fans, as she’s never done something truly of her own.

This is all to say that there is no one more skeptical than Toei Animation’s reliance on nothing but iterative franchises, reboots, remakes, revivals, and any other word you can apply to marketable series of old being revisited. Add to that the choice to pursue 3DCG animation, and trailers being bafflingly misrepresentative, and I think you can guess how I felt about The First Slam Dunk before watching it. Now, here’s an important detail, though: that movie is goddamn excellent.

As has been the case for the most interesting Toei revivals, The First Slam Dunk doesn’t just seek to deliver more of the same; and it’s especially not here to deliver a lesser version of the exact same thing you’ve already seen. Although it doesn’t incorporate its relationship with the fanbase explicitly into the narrative like Looking for Magical Doremi, nor builds everything around the idea of time having passed for everyone and everything like Otona Precure: Kibou no Chikara recently did, the movie still interrogated what it means to return to Slam Dunk after all this time. The series was a genuine phenomenon, directly responsible for an uptick in interest in basketball for entire countries, but enough time has passed that a straightforward sequel wouldn’t have the same impact—and let’s not even consider a remake.

The solution was to indeed return to the manga at a point after the original anime had ended, but not so consecutively to make it a regular sequel. And more importantly, to reconstruct the story in a way that shifts the lens of the protagonist from the fiery Sakuragi to Miyagi, temperamental in his own way. By focusing on his story and that of his family, the movie has an excuse to reintroduce the rest of the cast as well, who appear ever so slightly different from a point of view unlike that of previous Slam Dunk. It’s a movie that will feel familiar to preexisting fans, yet constructed as an onboard point for new generations. I can’t imagine the writing process was easy; despite having the foundation of a great manga, there are countless adjustments to make it a self-contained experience, and you need to play loose with time in a movie that is both about exactly one match of basketball and the entire lives of some people. Fortunately, the result is the most exciting singular game of basketball you’ll see.

The First Slam Dunk is an event movie to me. Though I’m not used to cheering during movie screenings—no judgement for those who do, as long as it’s agreed upon that it’s fine—I consider myself lucky to have first seen it at a special stage; well over a thousand people packing a large theater for the Catalan dub premiere, featuring the original dub actors and their fun stories about having aged so much since then that their children now kicked them out of the basketball court for their sorry display. Once the movie itself started, it came time for alternating cheers, laughter, and tense silence. Though I’ve experienced it in silent environments too and it remained as entertaining of a movie, the collective ectasis during the movie’s cathartic end to the match felt like the right way to experience it. It’s no wonder that it has been granted one of the longest screening runs in anime history.

The movie also ended up being a lot more technically interesting than the first trailers made it look, but I’ll save this talk for whenever the bluray release is out and we can point at specific scenes. I think I’ve made my point regardless: despite Toei’s obsession with the marketable past being such a depressing topic, The First Slam Dunk is a genuinely excellent movie.

Honorable mentions: Gridman Universe is a beautiful culmination of not just this story (for now!), but also of the relationship between the franchise, its creators, and the fandom. I’m not sure whether other people would count it as a movie or not, but the theatrical OVA Hibike! Euphonium: Ensemble Contest is a beautiful return to form; without being all that significant of an advancement in the overarching narrative, its thoughtful acting—leaning on the team’s accumulation of carefully depicted gestures of the past—makes a series that had been missing for a while feel immediately familiar and charming.

Best Opening/Ending: Shounen yo Ware ni Kaere, live performance by Tsukino Mito and Lize Helesta atにじさんじ 5th Anniversary LIVE「SYMPHONIA」

If you think I’m being cheeky with a choice outside the realm of actual openings, let me assure you that there is a genuine argument to give it these honors. Many of these performances have traditionally been accompanied by intricate, fun VFX recreations of iconic anime intros and outros. There is an interesting relationship with the performers themselves too, as they will often be involved in the creative pre-production; this is particularly true of Tsukino Mito, my one and only president, who is known for being very involved in the conceptual stages of the imagery, and has essentially drawn anime-like storyboards for all sorts of creative endeavors. Even beyond the aspects that directly track to anime craft, there’s some fascinating innovation going on in these events. The live augmented reality effect—now with more reciprocity with the projection of live comments—still feels like actual witchcraft to me, and its combination with actual props and traditional tricks like fog machines makes for an interesting blend. Plus, it’s inherently funny to combine virtual people with real pyro.

That specific performance is elegant with its imagery, and as impressive of a technological feat as the rest, but the truth is that it’s here because it’s the one that made me scream the most; especially as the two of them started dancing while singing. Is that enough reason to give it this award? The song is the second opening for Penguindrum, so I say it is. If you don’t like it, make your own list.

Honorable mention: Okay, fine, my favorite regular opening is Megumi Ishitani literally going full circle with her One Piece opening, flexing his composition skills while toying with that visual motif.

Best Ending: My Happy Marriage ED (link)

Shiori Tani is the type of artist you can tell holds a masterpiece within herself before the opportunity to unleash it actually comes. Her contributions to other people’s visions at studio Kinema Citrus are already great in their own right, and My Happy Marriage is no exception, but the real glimpse of her potential wasn’t so much in the actual episodes but the ending sequence; one she redesigned the series for, co-animating it alongside Ayaka Tsuji. As if shedding its skin, the series is distilled into a beautiful sequence that elegantly hits the same notes. While I do enjoy the show a lot, this is the type of ending that makes you wish for this separate interpretation of the story. The real wish, though, is something else: for Tani to be granted the canvas she deserves—and Tsuji too, for that matter!

Honorable mention: The second Gundam: The Witch from Mercury ending is a beautiful mix of its well-known external influences with the show’s own visual language, of commercial artists with more alternative figures. It slaps. Also, Attack on Titan The Final Season FINAL CHAPTER ED: Good! Excelente! Love it!

Best Aesthetic: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Skip and Loafer

This year I’ve gravitated towards aesthetics that play an active role in the storytelling; meaning, something more involved than the inherent power that they always have over the feeling of any given work. I could easily highlight Tsurune: The Linking Shot for reasons I’ve already exposed before, so instead let me shout out… two shows I’ve also written about at length, but that definitely deserve that honor.

It goes without saying that one of those is Frieren, an anime that is as beautiful as it is thoughtfully conceived. The harmony in the colors—with a palette designed by Harue Oono—and the painterly, textured background art led by Studio Wyeth’s Sawako Takagi would be enough to depict a soothing, physically aging world, but it’s Seiko Yoshioka’s work on a conceptual level that I believe takes it to the next level. As I’ve written about at length, it was her duty to imagine Frieren’s setting beyond its original boundaries. What are the fauna and flora like in every corner, and how do they evolve day to day, season to season, year to year? What are the customs of the people in this world, and the objects they’ve built for those customs and daily necessities? How does their faith physically manifest? In essentially every episode of the show, there’s a detail answering these questions that was added through her extensive design work and collaboration with series directorSeries Director: (監督, kantoku): The person in charge of the entire production, both as a creative decision-maker and final supervisor. They outrank the rest of the staff and ultimately have the last word. Series with different levels of directors do exist however – Chief Director, Assistant Director, Series Episode Director, all sorts of non-standard roles. The hierarchy in those instances is a case by case scenario. Keiichiro Saito. Together, they’ve arrived at a breathtaking, noticeably lived-in world which perfectly embodies Frieren’s themes.

Although the ways in which it enrichens the narrative experience aren’t so easy to pinpoint, I also think that Skip and Loafer’s aesthetic excellence is as important as any other aspect to its storytelling. Series directorSeries Director: (監督, kantoku): The person in charge of the entire production, both as a creative decision-maker and final supervisor. They outrank the rest of the staff and ultimately have the last word. Series with different levels of directors do exist however – Chief Director, Assistant Director, Series Episode Director, all sorts of non-standard roles. The hierarchy in those instances is a case by case scenario. Kotomi Deai has earned a reputation for her exceptional eye for color, and here she reunites with color designerColor Designer (色彩設定/色彩設計, Shikisai Settei/Shikisai Sekkei): The person establishing the show’s overall palette. Episodes have their own color coordinator (色指定, Iroshitei) in charge of supervising and supplying painters with the model sheets that particular outing requires, which they might even make themselves if they’re tones that weren’t already defined by the color designer. Yuko Kobari for perhaps their best work yet. The ability to interpret the tones implied by the source material makes the series come across visually as gentle as it’s written, and when it comes to more precise shifts in color for the sake of a narrative point, the whole team responds properly. Skip and Loafer is a beautiful adaptation in a way that feels natural and effortless, and yet when you compare it to so many other shows out there, it’s clear that what they’ve achieved isn’t something you can take for granted.

Honorable mentions: I may not condone the apocalypse, but if it were to happen, can we arrange it so that Yuji Kaneko oversees its art direction? His work on Tengoku Daimakyou is but a reminder that if you want a beautiful wrecked city with overgrown vegetation, he’s the person to look out for. Also, in a less visible way and from a different angle, Nekotomi Chao raised the aesthetic bar for the Oshi no Ko anime with her color scripts and direction, which very often coincide with the most poignant moments in the show. While the series on the whole isn’t up to my taste when it comes to art direction and colors in the way that all the previously mentioned ones are, Nekotomi’s sense is always a homerun for me.

Best Animation Designs: Onii-chan wa Oshimai! (Ryo Imamura)

Whenever designs really speak to artists, you can notice a spike in fanart that doesn’t merely track to the overall popularity of the title. And when specific stylistic traits of animation designs enamor the audience in that way, then you see them carry over onto all sorts of drawings; aspiring animators, other folks in the industry, and regular fanartists will start applying them not just to drawings celebrating that title, but even personal art as well. In the same way that all sorts of people embraced Kerorira’s geometrical shapes, stark profiles, and even his painting tendencies after the Bocchi madness, I’ve noticed quite a few artists being fully on-board with the traits Imamura chose for Onimai’s designs, like the short dyed lines to give volume in an organic way. Also, Kaede, cute.

Honorable mention: There is no Oshi no Ko without Kappe. This is no hyperbole: the project quite literally owes its existence to her push to adapt it, and the entire production rested on the shoulders of one of the fastest and more impactful chief animation directors you’ll find in the anime industry. Beyond just how much work she did, though, is the arguably more important fact of what she accomplished. For Oshi no Ko’s very special first episode to land, and for the following ones to live up to it, the performers in the story need to be overflowing with visual charisma—something inherent to Kappe’s design work and intricate art. Also, she made Arima Kana cuter, which successfully widens the gap that makes her a funny pitiful existence.

Non-contemporary Work Award: Detective Conan

Any time you see someone asking a question in that format, the question is going to be Of course you jackass, you just described a common occurrence. I don’t think I’m particularly unique in choosing Detective Conan for that purpose; it has built up a ridiculously large backlog, its format leans itself nicely to it, and it just so happens to be one of the most popular series in the goddamn planet. Although Conan being enjoyable is not exactly surprising to me, since I’ve been watching it since I was a child, I’d been ignoring the TV show for long enough to think that it would be a good idea to rewatch the entire thing, however episodes a day I’d stay awake for. And let me tell you: it has been a great idea.

Conan isn’t only good, it’s also the type of franchise that has lasted for long enough to face changes in technology, distribution, and culture, so you get to experience how creators react to those—from its writing, having had to adapt the mysteries to a world where everyone has cellphones, to all sorts of visual changes due to the evolution of anime’s craft. The switch from 4:3 to 16:9, and the more granular evolution to embrace digital elements have forced this team to adapt their ways of expression; the show is simply not directed, framed, and certainly not animated in the same way as it once was, and a rewatch highlights every single one of those new steps.

Mind you, sometimes those are inarguably missteps, but the series finds ways to recover and reform an identity that remains appealing despite the limitations of an endless production. Even as someone who naturally gravitates more towards cel and rounder, more stylized design work like the one in the early stages of the show, I find the sharper linework with heavy lineweight variation of modern Conan to be an interesting way to capture the appeal of Gossho Aoyama’s artwork. I even find the many original cases in the series, every one goofier than the previous, to be pretty entertaining. Conan is just fun, yall. Probably the best batting average when it comes to OP/ED song selection for a long runner too!

Creator Discovery: Jeon Jinkyu (Sakugabooru tag), Danny Cho (Sakugabooru tag), The Fact That Morio Asaka Still Kicks Ass & Other Fun Directors At Yamada-kun Lv999

When it comes to the sheer surprise factor of encountering a creator whose work you were completely unprepared for, a couple of animators from very different fields have particularly stood out to me this year. I always keep an eye to GEIDAI ANIMATION students as it’s undoubtedly Japan’s leading program when it comes to mentoring alternative artists, and so this year I’ve once again encountered multiple individuals with resonant work that boldly steps into places that commercial animation forbids. And, out of them all, it was Jeon Jinkyu’s The House of Loss—produced by the legendary Koji Yamamura—that left me most speechless. Immersive, deeply uncomfortable, capable of giving a physical dimension to the feeling of alienation, and again embodying the potential only independent works hold. I only remembered to breathe back after it was over, and it still took me an extra few seconds to be able to do it normally.

Within the commercial animation space, my best discovery came attached to a realization: studio Dogakobo may employ some sort of dark magic. Back in their sakugaSakuga (作画): Technically drawing pictures but more specifically animation. Western fans have long since appropriated the word to refer to instances of particularly good animation, in the same way that a subset of Japanese fans do. Pretty integral to our sites’brand. heyday, the studio’s exuberant character animation made a lot of sense; they did excellent scouting beyond the regular premises of the industry, at a time when that wasn’t so common, and had quickly built a reputation for their bouncy, cute animation that attracted like-minded artists. But in many ways, those days are long gone. Key individuals behind that scouting process, such as everyone’s beloved Shouta Umehara, have left Dogakobo. Their brand has shifted from their original position, and the studio is stuck in an overproduction cycle that never helps. So, exactly how do they manage to keep raising one exceptional character animator after the other, at a rate that is far above industry standards? Black magic, I’m telling you.

Within that character-centric paradigm, Danny Cho burst into the scene with a stronger dash of fantasy; still with a knack for acting, but mixing in effects-heavy abstraction to make those potent emotions into something larger than life. His role in Oshi no Ko simply makes no sense for a newbie, who normally would have no place in animating so many pivotal scenes—but if there’s one thing that remains from Dogakobo’s golden age, is that if a youngster shows promise, you let them swing with all their strength. Really looking forward to what he can accomplish in the future, because his potential appears to be tremendous.

The sweetest surprise of the year, though, has been the realization that a historically significant director hasn’t lost his tocar. Morio Asaka is an all-time great and the director of some of my favorite shows of all time, but I’ve been rather critical of the way his modern output had gradually slid into an inelegant reliance on genre markers. Be it due to the gaming theme or whatever other reason, his approach to My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999 has felt incredibly fresh in contrast to preceding works, making it into one of my favorite shows this ano. His layered style allowed for playful delivery, encouraging other directors to do the same; Koji Sawai is a big veteran, but the framework Asaka built enabled his most inspired storyboards to date. Watching a creator whose best days you thought were behind rise back to their peak, encouraging others to do the same, is a feeling like no other.

Honorable mention: You, the reader, for surviving another year & another endlessly long awards presentation.

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