Welcome to the Ballroom – Episodes 3-5
Welcome to the Ballroom is finally focusing on the dancing aspect, which is the perfect excuse to look at how the creators are approaching the sport; their dedication in learning the intricacies of real ballroom dancing, and the particularities that set apart everyone’s style – within the show and regarding the creators in charge!
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.: Kazuya Nomura, Yoshimi Itazu (uncredited)
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.: Hitomi Ezoe
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).: Masayuki Honda
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.: Boya Liang
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.: Hideki Takahashi, Mariko Ishikawa
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.: Yuki Igarashi, Chiyo Morita, Kanako Hiroo, Kengo Takehana, Hisako Shimozuma, Ryosuke Kanai, Yuko Yahiro, Maho Tomisaka, Hiroko Kasuga, Aya Yamada, Chikai Takeuchi, Ai Watanabe, Takeshi Ishizuka, Tsubasa Hatajima, Ikuko Haruyama, Yukari Watabe, Katsuhiro Takagi, Ema Suzuki, Tomoko Hamanaka
Shingo Takenaka
I don’t think I’ll be upsetting many people by saying that this show about dancing is at its best when the characters dance. Not only is it regularly spectacular in those moments, it’s also often awkward when trying to bring levity via tired gags. That might sound harsh, but now that the intro is out of the way, the show is focusing on what it genuinely excels at.
Anime depicting real activities, and sports in particular, are often surrounded by comments about the staff attempting to nail its depiction. And that’s true of course, there’s no creative crew that doesn’t want their work to be as good as possible. But the degree of verisimilitude with which they approach it, as well as their ability to produce outstanding animation, greatly depend on the nature of the project. And as it turns out, Welcome to the Ballroom is in a position to put together excellent work. They’re partnered with official dancing institutions, real dancers provide reference footage, its staff took dancing lessons to truly understand the movement, and on top of that they’ve employed gifted artists who can turns those ideas into memorable pieces of animation. This is a bit of a long-winded intro to say that as an overview of these episodes, I’ll be almost exclusively looking at the dancing scenes: they’re what the staff are putting most of their effort in, and these episodes featured the actual start of the competitions. Seems justified!
On an interview I personally wrote for most of Ballroom’s core staff, the 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). Takahiro Chiba brought up sensuality as a new element when comparing his work here to Haikyuu. Although the chief supervision in this case was by Masayuki Honda, the eroticism Chiba brought up becomes more obvious than ever during this samba clip early in the episode. The sequence was animated by Kanako Hiroo and features slight corrections by Boya Liang, who used her first turn on the supervisor seat to accentuate the passionate expressions and fluid timing. This is only a short taste as most of the episode returns to the waltz we’re used to, but the difference is immediately obvious; there’s an almost viscous texture to the movement, and the choreography feels more like a conversation between the couple. Even the wildest depictions of waltz dancing so far were rigid to a degree, with drawings that might be allowed to lose their form but are always meant to evoke solid bodies in motion. This on the other hand is all passion, and passion flows in whatever way it wants.
After that spectacular display it was a bit of a shame to return to the waltz, especially since the relative restraint appears to affect Boya Liang more than it does with Takashi Mukouda. The latter is handling twice the workload by the looks of it, but any comparison would be unfair as we’re talking of a master animator and a very promising young artist. Liang’s work seems fairly compatible with Mukouda’s effort so far, especially the soft smears, but I would like to see her work on an episode fully dedicated to latin dancing. It was her sumi-e brushes that caught people’s attention in Haikyuu!, and that feels like it would be perfectly compatible with the passionate dances. That said, the relative flavorlessness of Tatara’s dancing here has to be intentional to some degree; he was copying someone else’s choreography, and as other characters said it was a bit of a miracle for him to get his partner to dance to begin with. Amusingly enough, the most technically impressive sequence might have been Tatara practicing in the restroom under no pressure. The show’s main animator Shingo Takenaka animated it, as you might have guessed by the attention to the way the clothing moves.
Stepping away from the dancing for a moment, I’d like to note that the episode was directed by Hitomi Ezoe, a recurring name on this site. The enshutsu role on TV anime greatly depends on your management skills, as much as if not more than your creative vision. The fact that she keeps showing up on notoriously high-profile projects like the ones we tend to cover over here (My Hero Academia and Attack on Titan to name a few) serves as proof that she’s very trusted as a production supervisor.
It’s also worthy of note that the storyboarding was split between the 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. Yoshimi Itazu and Kazuya Nomura, director of projects like Robotics;Notes and more recently Joker Game. It was precisely on the latter that Itazu did something uncharacteristic of him by handling an episode of TV anime, so we can consider this Nomura’s way of repaying a favor. No complaints about his solid work, though I have to admit that my favorite work of his this season is the Princess Principal opening – a catchy sequence with a similar rhythm as his Joker Game intro, which incorporates the cast’s femininity and hidden secrets into the steampunk aesthetic via metallic flowers and shadows. Itazu’s contribution to 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. is a bit of a surprise; not because it happened, since we know he’s a very involved 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., but rather because he wasn’t credited for it. The official site and even the man himself revealed that he did work on it, so this must have entailed more than the usual 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. corrections.
Episode 4
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.: Masako Sato
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).: Takahiro Chiba
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.: Takashi Mukouda
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.: Kazumasa Orii, Hisako Shimozuma, Takahiro Chiba, Masayuki Honda
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.: Mai Yonekawa, Sachiko Fukuda, Natsuko Shimizu, Yuki Igarashi, Kanako Hiroo, Chiyo Morita, Ryosuke Kanai, Yosuke Yajima, Norika Maeda, Yuri Hashimoto, Miyoko Shikibu, Ikumi Nishimura, Takahiro Fujii, Saki Konishi, Miho Tanaka, Kazuomi Yamashiro, Naoko Koyama, Satsuki Aizu, Yuka Koichi
Takashi Mukouda, Hisako Shimozuma, Kazumasa Orii
Spurred by Tatara’s performance, the injured Hyodo returns to the dancefloor with more passion than ever. There’s a clear crescendo in his performance; the beginning, animated by the same Natsuko Shimizu who stood out on the first episode’s climax, is energetic but still shows some restraint. That gradually increases in the next part (perhaps animated by Mai Yonekawa?) and by the time Yuki Igarashi takes the pencil, it’s already an ardent frenzy. In a project featuring many realistic animators, Igarashi’s fantasy stands out all the much more. The same Ballroom that obsessed over clothing folds can also allow Igarashi’s spectacular illustration that temporarily does away with Hyodo’s shirt to emphasize his inhuman burning passion.
On that regard I would also highlight the work of the Dogakobo-aligned animator Sachiko Fukuda, who will likely act as a regular animator on this project. Fans are more used to her animation on lighthearted comedies, which might few different but at its core uses the same principles of exaggeration you can see in her work over here. She got to animate the sequence where Hyodo’s aura literally takes form and becomes effects animation, which was a good complement to Igarashi’s take. Coupled with Mukouda’s ever-present corrections, the latin dance left quite the impression!
Episode 5
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.: Keiichi Hara
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.: Shintaro Itoga
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).: Takahiro Chiba
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.: Takashi Mukouda
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.: Satoshi Nagura
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.: Natsuko Shimizu, Sachiko Fukuda, Kengo Takehana, Ai Watanabe, Fujiko Aoyagi, Maho Tomisaka, Yoko Sugita, Mitsuhiro Okumura, Hitomi Sasaki, Tsubasa Hatajima, Yuri Namigami, Akio Kitahara, Yuta Masaki, Kohei Yamazaki
Shingo Takenaka, Satoshi Nagura
Rather than the differences between dancing styles being accentuated thanks to distinct approaches to the animation, this episode stands out because of the individuality; while the general style depends on the rhythm, each performer understandably approaches dancing in their own way, and this episode does an outstanding job at making that obvious. Gaju joins the cast like a lightning bolt, which is the element that his performance seems imbued with as well. For the first time in the series so far, we experienced a dancing sequence that focused first and foremost on diabolic speed. It maintains the show’s attention to body and clothing movement (which could be seen as a con since the adherence to the poses impacts the flow), but the result is spectacular in a new way.
On the other hand, there’s a component of gentleness on the final dance between Tatara and Mako that was nowhere to be seen before. Sure there’s resolution in his eyes, but the newfound chemistry between dancers clearly takes a different form that it did during the passionate latin performances before. The scene as a whole is an easy highlight of the episode, perhaps the show as a whole. This is in no small part thanks to the storyboarder Keiichi Hara, yet another name you wouldn’t expect in TV anime nowadays; it had been decades since the last time the ex-ShinEi Shin-chan ace had storyboarded an episode for television, but since he has a solid relationship with Production I.G nowadays, the studio can keep on flaunting about exclusive theatrical talent. This final scene is particularly memorable, and even the obvious concepts – “I’m looking at you” – were executed brilliantly. Sometimes it feels like from the directional side they’re being a bit too timid to let the performers speak, so I’d love more scenes with this much personality.
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Okay, I’ve gotta say that when I was watching this series, I though “wait, why the hell did I like this manga?” but oh hell, did the last scene get me. Until now, I still ask myself if the second part of the tango in the second part is rotoscoped, it seems inhumanly detailed, how do I even notice if it’s not? By the way, small small, incredibly small tiny little spoiler regarding whether there’ll be more Tango: Though I think we’ll watch Waltz for a while, I’m confident each one is gonna have a lot of personality. There is… Read more »
The show’s general approach is referenced footage, though maybe some training scenes are more free than that. Either way, no roto!
Minor fandom complaint. What’s the deal with so many people insisting that any piece of relatively realistic and natural piece of animation is rotoscoped(not referring to the other comment on this post)? Also, just thanks for bringing some intelligence and thoughtfulness to discussion of animation and animation production. I feel like I’ve been surrounded by people who just want to argue for the sake of arguing and this show has some WILDLY conflicting fan reactions. I’ve been literally told I know nothing about animation for saying I liked the scene you linked as “diabolic speed”. Right after they guaranteed it… Read more »
Oh, yeah, I totally get what you say. Honestly, I wouldn’t have said it was though it was rotoscoped if not for the difference it had with the tango scene before it. I actually convinced myself it was not rotoscoped before lines didn’t disappear and because of the presence of smears. In fact if this is you: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=462357320794831&id=200358253661407 (first comment), then you were the one who convinced me otherwise XD You see, personally, when I see a fluid scene, I hear people say it is rotoscoped, say, the Virgin Soul dancing scene and the one from Tsuki ga Kirei, which… Read more »
Oh oh, and by the way, I am not any of those comments, if it is you, then incredible page you’ve got their n.n
This is definitely a trend, which I’m not sure exactly how started but definitely got worse after it became a bit of a meme with Bahi’s work on Apollon. Some people genuinely accused it of being rotoscoped (even though it doesn’t look roto’d at all, AND the show actually has a lot of that), which amused others so much that it became a running joke. And since it’s a joke not everyone is in, this keeps increasing the confusion.
@Omtarful Yep, that’s my post! It can be pretty difficult to tell if something is rotoscoped these days, to be fair. There are still a number of tells, but they’ve gotten so good at it, that it sometimes does just look like really damn good animation! @kViN That definitely seems to be the origination. But yeah, it’s no longer a joke or meme by most people. I think maybe it’s just people wanting to have something to say, and rotoscoping is the term they are familiar with. When they get particularly aggressive about it, is when I think it becomes… Read more »
As I agree with the dance scenes being amazing I have a lot of problems with the pacing/length of the scenes. The still frames used between the action scenes slows the dances too much and I can’t find myself invested. In episodes 3 at the waltz this hit me at most with this case. I know that animating dance scenes is difficult and takes time, but I would prefer one long dance scene where I could be really drown in it and don’t distracted by the stills. This said I really appreciate the artistic effort put in this anime. Just… Read more »
You’re not wrong, though I can’t agree about the effect it has in the end – I actually think the show is brilliantly constructed in that regard, because it /really/ gets away with its economic approach. It doesn’t even try to hide the stills, but generally makes them carry enough energy that they hold the tension until the next burts of movement, like in Igarashi’s scene: https://sakugabooru.com/post/show/36986 A few weeks ago they revealed that the episodes had ~4k drawings, which led to people being surprised because that’s not above average by any means and yet it feels like a high… Read more »
By the way, what would be an average number of keyframes per episode nowadays?
3.5k~4.5k (drawing counts generally account for layers too), so Ballroom’s perfectly average. First episodes of high profile titles tend to feature many more (HeroAca 8k for a recent example) so this is surprisingly restrained.
Thank you very much!
Yup, that scene with Tatara and Mako is easily my favorite part of the entire show so far. I’m so excited to see my favorite arc in the manga get adapted in anime.
To Kvin: Hey man/woman (or genderless creature), just wanted to wish you happy birthday, you’re a really cool guy /girl (genderless creature) and you also managed to transform the entirity of your followers into hardcore weebs, and that’s something worth celebration. Here’s a pornographic pic exemplifying your dirty nature ♡:
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQnJ8FYy2_yaLlaXp2hcScvJwUFYZyZr9NIk5oczRI4lmRyNm3s