We’re still pacing our way through the show’s introduction, judging by how most of this episode was setup for things to come. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing to talk about, however! The state of the production itself is becoming increasingly clear, not to mention the appearance of a surprise star!

Episode 3

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., Episode DirectionEpisode Direction (演出, enshutsu): A creative but also coordinative task, as it entails supervising the many departments and artists involved in the production of an episode – approving animation layouts alongside the Animation Director, overseeing the work of the photography team, the art department, CG staff... The role also exists in movies, refering to the individuals similarly in charge of segments of the film.: Mitsutaka Noshitani
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).: Tomoko Sudo
Animation DirectionAnimation Direction (作画監督, sakuga kantoku): The artists supervising the quality and consistency of the animation itself. They might correct cuts that deviate from the designs too much if they see it fit, but their job is mostly to ensure the motion is up to par while not looking too rough. Plenty of specialized Animation Direction roles exist – mecha, effects, creatures, all focused in one particular recurring element.: Go Sudo, Sachiko Tsuji
Assistant Animation Director: Takayuki Kikuchi, Chie Saito, Asuka Hayashi
Action Animation DirectionAnimation Direction (作画監督, sakuga kantoku): The artists supervising the quality and consistency of the animation itself. They might correct cuts that deviate from the designs too much if they see it fit, but their job is mostly to ensure the motion is up to par while not looking too rough. Plenty of specialized Animation Direction roles exist – mecha, effects, creatures, all focused in one particular recurring element.: Shun Enokido

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.: Erina Kojima, Tatsuya Yoshihara, Yuichi Yoshida, Hikaru Hosozawa, Hiromi Maesawa, Keiko Nagamine, Hiroko Shigekuni, Maki Sawai, Takashi Murai, Ayako Kanemaru, Sachiko Miyamoto, Daisuke Sato, Hisashi Samejima, Yuka Hasegawa

Kazuma Tanaka, Keisuke Hiroe, Takuro Naka, Yukitaka Kimura, Yuki Akutagawa, Sachiko Tsuji, Takayuki Kikuchi

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— Another low-key episode, barring the brief clash between Karna and Siegfried. Let’s use this as an opportunity for some insight into the production as a whole. Character designer Yukei UK Yamada isn’t credited as 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). for the entire series as one might have expected. In fact, he even mentioned that he won’t touch the next few episodes on Twitter before promptly deleting the tweet. This isn’t too unusual, considering we’ve seen the likes of Yoshimichi Kameda opt to turn down the position altogether, in favour of directly supervising specific episodes on their respective shows (Mob Psycho 100 in his particular case). There seems to be a more immediate concern in relation to this decision here, though – the project’s questionable schedule. Sub-character designer Tomoko Sudo stepping in for the position this week, not to mention three assistant animation directors coming in for a quiet episode, feels like a clear sign that it’s less a case of artistic intent and more of an attempt to keep the production afloat; since having a single person as 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). for a project with rushed drawings creates a bottleneck, many modern disasters choose to employ many of them. If Apocrypha manages to maintain a somehow regular rotation with only two of them it’ll be well within normality, but for a while all signs about the production have been a bit worrying. Judging by what we’ve seen so far, I would assume that Sudo will handle episode 4 as well before passing the baton to someone else for a few episodes. We’ll see.

— Tatsuya Yoshihara’s involvement in this episode came as a very pleasant surprise. I would have assumed that the recently appointed director of Black Clover would have his hands full over there, but a pact between brothers made back in May made him come to action director Takahito Sakazume’s aid. A deal that was sealed by Yoshihara simply saying “Sure. :)” in response to Sakazume’s request, but that’s all you need between dear acquaintances. The young mind behind modest digital animation landmarks like Muromi-san, Yatterman Night and even Monster Musume is one I’ve touched upon briefly before, but his background and ties to the 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. movement can’t be understated. We tend to talk about things coming full circle when it comes to friends helping one another out on their respective shows, and this is just one such case; when examining Shun Enokido and Sakazume’s career, you’ll quickly notice that both played major parts in Yoshihara’s directional endeavours ever since Muromi-san. Sakazume himself was a major player on both Muromi-san and Monster Musume, while Enokido’s work became synonymous with Yatterman Night‘s most stunning moments. In that regard, it only makes sense that Yoshihara would return the favour and come along to help them out on their own big project.

— Unfortunately though, his work ended up being the part that suffered most due to ghosting on part of the TV broadcast. The fact that he wasted no time in posting up the genga of his scene might be a sign of how upset he was over his sequence getting butchered like that. Not something one can blame him for, really.

— Let’s not forget that Keisuke Hiroe and Takayuki Kikuchi also worked on this fight, according to Enokido himself. Unfortunately I’m not familiar enough with either to identify which parts they handled, but the flat shapes as Siegfried plummets while being bombarded by Karna feels like peak 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. aesthetic. The raw drawings of Siegfried being roasted within the flames caused by said bombardment before the eventual explosion (highlighted by impact framesImpact Frames: Usually monochromatic or otherwise chromatically stylized drawings hidden within sequences to give them extra oomph. While they tend to flash for a fraction of a second for the most part, some animators choose to flaunt them instead., of course) is a neat touch, too. The ghosting did take its toll here as well, so I look forward to seeing how this looks on the blu-ray release.

— Production-related matters aside, Mordred and Shishigo’s interactions may well be one of my favourite parts of the show so far. The former’s attitude over being stuck in a tomb followed by her reaction to being called King show just how full of character she is. Shishigo continues to prove he’s not the walking cool old man archetype one would expect him to be, either.

— Astolfo’s smile saved my life.

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Opening

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., Direction: Tomohiko Ito
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).: Yukei Yamada
Animation DirectionAnimation Direction (作画監督, sakuga kantoku): The artists supervising the quality and consistency of the animation itself. They might correct cuts that deviate from the designs too much if they see it fit, but their job is mostly to ensure the motion is up to par while not looking too rough. Plenty of specialized Animation Direction roles exist – mecha, effects, creatures, all focused in one particular recurring element.: Hayato Hashiguchi, Tomoko Sudo
Action Animation DirectionAnimation Direction (作画監督, sakuga kantoku): The artists supervising the quality and consistency of the animation itself. They might correct cuts that deviate from the designs too much if they see it fit, but their job is mostly to ensure the motion is up to par while not looking too rough. Plenty of specialized Animation Direction roles exist – mecha, effects, creatures, all focused in one particular recurring element.: Shun Enokido, Takahito Sakazume

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.: Kiminori Ito, Hidekazu Ebina, Endo Masaaki, Onoda Takayuki, Youhei Kozuru, Aika Kawasaki, Takayuki Kikuchi, Atsushi Saito, Kouta Sera, Kazuma Tanaka, Noriyuki Fukuda, Kosuke Iwanaga, Takuro Naka, Kotaro Nakamori, Masakazu Yamazaki

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— For an opening directed and storyboarded by Tomohiko Ito of Sword Art Online and ERASED fame, I’m honestly a bit let down considering his memorable previous work in this regard. The tempo of the song itself had me curious about how the sequence would be built around it, but very little of it is noteworthy. Even the action sequences feel standard at best, which is a shame for a series that prides itself on its spectacular fights.

— That being said, one touch I really like is the shots of each master superimposed over silhouettes of their Servants. It ties neatly into what I assume will be the eventual reveal that Shiro somehow has control over all but one of the red faction’s Servants considering we only see him and Shishigo there. Not so much a hunch as they outright tell us moments after.

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Ending

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., Direction: Tomohisa Taguchi
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).: Hidekazu Ebina
Animation DirectionAnimation Direction (作画監督, sakuga kantoku): The artists supervising the quality and consistency of the animation itself. They might correct cuts that deviate from the designs too much if they see it fit, but their job is mostly to ensure the motion is up to par while not looking too rough. Plenty of specialized Animation Direction roles exist – mecha, effects, creatures, all focused in one particular recurring element.: Hiroko Watabe
Effects Animation DirectionAnimation Direction (作画監督, sakuga kantoku): The artists supervising the quality and consistency of the animation itself. They might correct cuts that deviate from the designs too much if they see it fit, but their job is mostly to ensure the motion is up to par while not looking too rough. Plenty of specialized Animation Direction roles exist – mecha, effects, creatures, all focused in one particular recurring element.: Shun Enokido

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.: Hiroko Watabe

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— Simple, yet I like this one a lot! The focus on Jeanne herself, as well as the parallels between her and her host Leticia, serve as a reminder that this isn’t just a story about the Great Grail War. Rather than the ones that clumsily try to encapsulate an entire series in less than two minutes, the most inspired OP and EDs tend to be the ones with a clear focus, even if they aren’t particularly fancy about it. This may be my favourite GARNiDELiA song, too, so that helps.

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