While most anime studios are scattered indistinctly in Tokyo, regional branches and rural studios with distinct cultures are becoming more common. Let’s dig into how their bonds with local communities develop, their affinity for mentorship, and KyoAni’s ever-evolving training systems.
Both in the original manga and in its anime adaptation, Yubisaki to Renren / A Sign Of Affection combines extensive research and ingenious creative choices to respectfully, charmingly depict the world of its deaf protagonist. This is the story of a beautifully abnormal production.
Overtake! wasn’t first conceived as studio Troyca’s 10th anniversary project, but over many years of development, it came to naturally embody the studio’s current strengths: a beautiful mix of grounded, naturalistic writing with punchy, confident delivery.
Gridman is a series where creators and fans are not separate entities, but rather intertwined and constantly co-evolving groups. We’re due a retrospective about the production of its latest film Gridman Universe, the franchise altogether, and how the staff navigated that unique situation.
While fans tend to think about production circumstances as black and white, Frieren exemplifies what success tends to look like in the real world: a result of resourceful management, delegation of the right tasks to the right people, and ingenuous solutions to tricky situations.
Hayao Miyazaki’s storytelling is built upon the dreamlike, empowering physics of the animation that builds his worlds. This offers a fascinating contrast with his latest film The Boy and the Heron, one noticeably burdened with weights—physical, psychological, of life, and of Ghibli’s legacy.
At its absolute best, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 is a focused effort to fully realize its directors’ ideas, from the grandest action to the least perceptible details. But at all points, it’s also something else: a fight against an asphyxiating schedule. Let’s catch up with one of the biggest, coolest, but also most troublesome productions of the year.
As the anime industry fails to properly train new generations of creators, “convenient” technological advances (whether good or not in their own right) have accelerated the loss of technique, fundamentals, and knowledge among the workforce. This is how veterans and newcomers face an already devastating issue that only stands to get worse.
Hibike! Euphonium Ensemble Contest is the belated comeback of a series that has come to represent its team’s understanding of animation as a fundamental step in the writing process, and also one that exemplifies how Kyoto Animation buck negative anime industry trends in meaningful, sometimes amusing ways.
The first episode of Zom 100 is one hell of a showcase of inventive, fresh, and very bombastic animation and direction, all packaged together with clear intent. It’s well worth looking into the team behind it and its rising star of a director, but also into the risks in their approach.