By popular demand, we’re starting a new column for shorter commentary on animated works and their craft, as well as news and general industry happenings. To open things up: parallels between Hayao Miyazaki and Masayuki Yoshihara’s new films, the quiet theming amidst the bombast of Frieren #06, and much more!
Our yearly animation awards have once again gathered animators, directors, producers, writers, translators, fans, and everything in between to pick the greatest contributions to anime and the world of animation in general for the year 2021—enjoy!
What if an overlooked action expert directed a thrilling episode, effortlessly switching between momentousness and hilarity? What if a generational animation talent invited his best peers to his animation direction debut? What if that wasn’t hypothetical, but the latest episode of Tropical Rouge Precure?
Our surprise for today is an exclusive interview with Yuki Hayashi – once Toei Animation’s ace, and now a highly regarded freelance animator. He talked about his lengthy experience at the studio, what pushed him to pursue animation, his working relationship with the one and only Rie Matsumoto, future plans, and a whole lot more!
We’re back to highlight another rising anime star, perhaps one of the most exciting ones we’ve tackled. Someone whose talent, ambition, and unwillingness to back down has allowed him to shine as animator, supervisor, and even immediately make a splash in directorial duties after giving them a try. There’s no ceiling for Koudai Watanabe’s potential!
Anime has a long tradition of cultivating plenty of its most brilliant talent, those individuals that fans point at to illustrate the possibilities of Japanese animation, in TV shows for kids. Let’s explore the factors that cause this and a bit of a curious exception through the fantastic latest episode of Precure.
We return to our series about up-and-coming anime creators with perhaps the character animator who is generating the most excitement within the industry itself: the mysterious soty, whose work you might have started to enjoy on Toei anime under the name Keisuke Mori, but also on all-star congregations of talent using his pen names on other productions. Let’s observe not only his extraordinary skill, but also the unique animation culture he inherited.
This long feature on Precure as a franchise comes to an end with an extensive look at its production. I hope you’re ready for some magical girl animation history.
As of late I’ve been talking about mainstream and family anime properties that don’t get all that much attention in the west. One of the few franchises that does have a bit of a fanbase is Precure, the everlasting kids show. Most fans don’t have much of an interest in a show openly aimed at young girls, but its sincere positivity and the fact that it’s one of the last strongholds for magical girls have made it gain a bit…
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…