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.
Kyoto Animation’s rebuilding process is allowing the most self-sufficient anime studio to foster in-house production in new ways, all while raising new generations of storytellers in animation—and Tsurune: The Linking Shot is a perfect example of it.
Fans and critics alike love to associate qualities and flaws to anime studios, but to which extent does that hold any water? Have companies managed to build an in-house style of their own, and do they want to do that in the first place? We’d like to address misconceptions in this regard while explaining the potential of studio culture in the anime industry, as illustrated by the very curious tale of one of the biggest anime series of recent times:…
This week’s episode of Violet Evergarden is a chance to highlight all the detail and care put into the background elements, to make it feel like we’re only experiencing one of the many stories going on in this world. And as usual, it’s time for some notes about the production itself too, like the unbelievably small group of staff members who have contributed to the series so far.
As the finale of this month’s Hyouka coverage we’d like to share this look into one of the aspects that make it such a special show: the recurring fantasies in an otherwise grounded series, which each episode’s staff was given immense creative freedom for. The results were unique aesthetics applied to sequences that articulated the inner feelings of the characters much better than dialogue tends to do.
Today’s Hyouka post is rather lighthearted but nonetheless interesting: short comments by all the episode directors regarding their feelings on the material that they personally handled. Sadly only the ones for the second half of the series were published in Otona Animedia, but it’s still enjoyable, brief insight by the creative team. If you want some more of that, megax also translated comments by each episode’s staff as they published them on the official site. They were quite fond of…
Summer activities such as the beach, Comiket, existential dread and the deeply uncomfortable sense of non-belonging. But the animation’s fun and there are good news for KyoAni!
It’s time for another look at TV series and particular episodes handled by outstanding staff, likely to become highlights of current anime over the next month. Quite a lot of variety!
Welcome to a new regular feature on the Sakuga Blog! After buying all sorts of magazines and scrutinizing social media, we’ll be pointing out episodes of ongoing anime with interesting staff and thus lots of potential for you to look forward to; the best episodes don’t happen by chance, as all productions try to give the strongest material to their most capable people. Things do fly under people’s radar all the time of course, but these are some episodes you should…
I hope you like anime industry lessons and wondering about the roles of artists and audiences alike.