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.
We’re back with another lengthy Sarazanmai piece that focuses on Kunihiko Ikuhara’s unique storytelling, including shortcomings that the team is aware of and is attempting to address in an interesting, thematically-appropriate way. As usual, plenty of production & staff details and all sorts of fun speculation too!
Sarazanmai coverage is back with an extensive analysis of Kunihiko Ikuhara’s storytelling practices, the contributions of other creators involved, the meaning hiding behind certain recurring imagery, the state of the production, and some speculation fueled by endlessly rewatching this fascinating cartoon.
Sarazanmai marks the return of Kunihiko Ikuhara, one of anime’s most brilliant and socially conscious directors. While it’s still too early to unravel his many playful mysteries, we had to take our time to detail his team’s unique directorial approach and address some deeply rooted misunderstandings about the production.
With the Spring 2019 anime season already underway, it’s time to ask the usual question: where are the most interesting creators hiding, and which are the productions to look out for? Let’s find out what this new wave of anime is all about, delving pretty deeply in some cases.
One of the keys to Kunihiko Ikuhara’s success is his ability to surround himself by creators who fit his aesthetic but also thematic needs, no matter the artistic field those people belong to. So while his upcoming TV series Sarazanmai is still a ways to go, there’s a lot we can infer already, and much to analyze about the way he operates.
The second episode of DARLING in the FRANXX is also very much rooted in studio Gainax tradition, but its awkward budding sexuality and mecha happenings have a different flavor under the expert hand of one of the most interesting female creators who matured at the studio in the 00s: Shouko Nakamura. Get ready to catch up on the ways she polished up those unique skills, since that provides lots of hidden context to this episode.
Today we’ll explore the many unique ways anime depicts itself: how fascinating directors like Kunihiko Ikuhara and Satoshi Kon have toyed with the subject matter, the iconic anime production series throughout the years like Shirobako and Animation Runner Kuromi, as well as more recent meta titles like Anime-Gataris. There’s a lot of effort put into details that usually go unnoticed, and conceptually it’s a very interesting theme as well. Enjoy this post filled with many flavors of love towards anime!