Bocchi the Rock is an outrageous comedy bursting with the bombastic creativity of its young team, and at the same time, it’s also a genuinely compelling coming-of-age story of a deeply dysfunctional girl. This is how its creators have sought to synergize the two sides of the story they found inseparable.
Tatsuki Fujimoto’s storytelling is spontaneous, anarchic genius, so how should one adapt Chainsaw Man into anime? Its team committed to a vision that has made two takes on the exact same story feel quite distinct, so let’s dive into the anime’s production to explain how and why that happened.
Masaaki Yuasa’s Tatami Galaxy stood as a one-of-a-kind masterpiece, so how is Time Machine Blues perfectly recreating its charm 12 years later and under a different director? This is how context does (and doesn’t) affect the creation of such unique anime.
It’s been 20 years since Princess Tutu, which means it’s been over 28 years since its first draft, and many more decades since Ikuko Itoh picked up the interests that would lead to it. Let’s take this anniversary as an opportunity to retell the long history of this lengthy production, and how a personal distraction and her relationship with Junichi Sato led to anime’s most unique, rebellious, and emotive series about the act of storytelling.
The layouts, the backbone of Japanese animation and its keen sense of immersion, are currently shattering. In this long dive, we contrasted the views of industry veterans and fresh faces with our own findings: the death of studio culture and training cycles, the pressure of cynical commercialism, the inherent labor issues, and the attempts to address it all.
10 years ago, director Kenji Iwaisawa absentmindedly agreed to create a movie about a group of school delinquents absentmindedly becoming musicians. The result of its long production process was On-Gaku: an outrageously funny deadpan comedy, which will encourage you to create as recklessly as its team and characters did.
10 years ago, Toei Animation released Nijiiro Hotaru: Rainbow Fireflies, the stunning culmination of a lengthy production to honor the iconic works of their past and the power of traditional animation altogether. A decade later, the loss of projects like this threatens the studio’s future.
Tomohiro Furukawa draws from the philosophy and methods of living legends like Mamoru Oshii, Hideaki Anno, and his mentor Kunihiko Ikuhara. He reconstructs their teaching and his influences from countless fields into a unique thrilling style—that’s Revue Starlight The Movie, and what he calls experience-centric anime.
It’s no secret that Spy x Family is a co-production between Studio WIT and CloverWorks, but what’s the backstory behind that deal, what does it involve, and what are the dynamics, history, and intent of anime co-productions in the first place?
Five years ago, we highlighted a woman who had yet to direct a single episode of anime as one of the most promising young creators in the entire industry. Today, she’s the mastermind behind the most celebrated moments of TV anime—this is Megumi Ishitani, who might genuinely be too good for her job.