A few days ago, the stunning trailer for Hades served as an introduction to Studio Grackle. We had an opportunity to chat with the person who directed it: animator and now studio founder Spencer Wan. He opened up about their origins, production methods, and the creative and labor goals behind it all. They’re a team to keep an eye on, now and even more so in the future!
KyoAni’s renowned quality is built upon a special culture and many years of cultivating talent in different creative departments. Today we’ll focus precisely on their animation, with a lengthy roundtable featuring their active character design and chief supervision crew up till the arson. Shouko and Kazumi Ikeda, Futoshi Nishiya, Miku Kadowaki, and Akiko Takase had an in-depth conversation about their experiences at the studio, the differences between the role of a chief animation director & a regular supervisor, their mentality…
It’s time to examine Kyoto Animation’s present and future with an interview featuring their current creative leader and the up-and-coming star who looks up to her! Naoko Yamada and Haruka Fujita speak frankly about their beginning at KyoAni, what’s it like for people who aren’t good at communicating verbally to direct anime (a job that’s all about conveying information to staff and viewers!), the role of music in anime, and more.
Today we’ll cover another indispensable part of KyoAni: their energetic Osaka branch Animation Do, as seen through the eyes of their two series directors at the moment. Enjoy this sincere dialogue about directorial worries, studio dynamics, and how much they screwed up as newbies!
One year after the devastating arson attack on Kyoto Animation, we’ve decided to share a series of articles shedding light on what makes them such a unique existence in the anime industry. For starters, here’s a roundtable talk from 2017 featuring many of their series directors, where they have lighthearted yet in-depth discussions about their creative methods and mindset, but especially about the attitude they feel you need to be a proper anime project leader.
Here’s part two of the Koe no Katachi / A Silent Voice staff roundtable, featuring representatives of various aesthetics departments at KyoAni talking about all the unique processes they had to come up with to produce such a stunning film.
If you’re in the mood for obsessively precise character acting, we’re here to offer the translation of a long roundtable with A Silent Voice’s director Naoko Yamada and some of the individuals who commanded the movie’s animation production, where they reveal many details about its making.
Haruka Fujita, who was the sole project leader for the first time with Violet Evergarden Side Story, shared her experiences pre-production, the actual animation process, and the positive outlook she kept all the way through.
To commemorate the end of JoJo Part 5‘s anime, we’re looking back on the previous series and sharing a short but sweet interview with its character designer Terumi Nishii, where she went over her experience with the franchise as a fan and as a creator. Credit to Kalai Chik for reaching out to Nishii and holding this exclusive interview.
In what is a surprisingly rare move within the industry, CloverWorks has been conducting interviews with its own staff in order to bring a bit more awareness to both the talent working under them and to highlight what their jobs entail. It only makes sense to start something like this off with a bang, and there’s no pick more appropriate than renowned animator and character designer Masayoshi Tanaka himself when taking that in mind. Read on for a look at…