Best Animation of the Week - Summer 2016 Week 9 (x-post r/AnimeSakuga)

BOW DOWN ANIMATOR PEONS! YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR YUTAKA NAKAMURA IS BACK TO SHOW YOU HOW IT'S DONE!!...ahem… Sorry lost control there for a second. We’ve reached week 9 of the summer season and there’s a lot of good sakuga to talk about so let's get to it.If you want to read my last post you can find it here. Curious about what sakuga is? I recommend checking out the subreddit r/AnimeSakuga as well as this great panel on the subject. Also I will spoiler tag some of my analysis of the animation, but know that the links may contain out-of-context SPOILERS if that bothers you.Matching last week we have Japanese animators showing up on American TV. This time it's Takafumi Hori on Steven Universe. Hori is one of Trigger’s best animators and is apparently a big fan of the show. Thankfully he did not disappoint delivering some touching scenes along with cool action. Next up we have Nishiki Itaoka showing off his impressive camerawork and cool effects on Mahoutsukai Precure. Seven Deadly Sins keeps up its track record of great openings with the new 4 episode series, the highlight being [this dynamic action sequence] animated by the great Hironori Tanaka. Though I also love this sunset sequence with the cast and the effects during this part of episode 1. There was also some surprisingly good digital effects work during this week’s Hybrid x Heart Magias Acadmey Atraxia (you can see Takumi Sunakohara’s genga on his tumblr). Tales of Zesteria had a dragon fight this week as well as an encounter with this troll-like Hellion. And finally, Dogakobo keeps up the good work with one silly practicing clip and another well animated NSFW scene.But to the surprise of no one, the real star for this week is Mob Psycho 100. Yoshimichi Kameda himself served as the Animation Director this episode and these past two weeks of more visually restrained episodes now make sense in the context of the complete sakuga-fest episode 8 turned out to be. For me this is without a doubt the best episode yet and the most impressive in terms of animation. The fight was brutal and exciting thanks to the hard work of the animators. I mean just watch this one minute section and try to keep track of the number of different techniques being brilliantly executed. Variable timing, background animation, slow-motion, debris/effects, character acting, extreme squash and stretch, the list just keeps going. I love when Mob loses it especially the creepy cut at :16. It really looks like it was shaded and animated with colored pencils or something similar.There’s a crazy amount of good cuts in this episode whether we’re talking about impact frames, background animation, or great use of smears. And even the non-action cuts feature more movement and character acting than you’d expect from an anime. But of course there’s the elephant in the room I referred to in the beginning, the long-anticipated arrival of Yutapon himself to Mob Psycho. Given that he works full-time at Bones it was only a matter of time until he showed up but goddamn what an entrance. Everything from :04 to :12 is one continuous shot in a way that’s quite similar to his One Punch Man scene though I’d argue even more impressive. At :23 on the dot we get a seamless transition from the painted background to an animated background, Nakamura further experimenting with his impact frames by adding starlight, a shot of the cosmos, and even a one frame eclipse to the impact. Oh, the shot of Mob’s flowing featureless face at :25 is also a winner, absolutely loved it. Nakamura put the finishing touches on what was already a terrific episode making this one of those episodes I believe sakuga fans will be remembering fondly for a long time to come.So that’s why I think Mob Psycho 100 had the best animation from Summer week 9. Do you agree or disagree with my choices? I'd love to hear what animation stood out to you from the simulcasts, so post your thoughts in the comments below. http://ift.tt/2bP19oM

I Hope FLCL 2 is a Sequel the Same Way Diebuster is for Gunbuster

This thought came to me while I was driving earlier today. Allow me to explain:Kazuya Tsurumaki, director of FLCL, was also the director of Diebuster the 2004 sequel to the Gainax classic Gunbuster. At a glance to two series seem to have little in common. While Gunbuster maintained detailed realistic animation and featured several hard-sci-fi concepts such as time dilation, Diebuster changed all that for far more cartoony visuals and a focus on super-robot storytelling. As a fan of Gunbuster I was very confused after watching the first episode of Diebuster. It seemed so divorced from the original series. However as Diebuster goes on not only does its plot tie more back to the original, it becomes clear that the two shows share the same beating heart despite their many differences. The soul of both shows is:The strong relationship of the two main female characters.Hard Work and Guts! Overcoming the impossible through perseverance and passion.Diebuster gave us something new and unique while simultaneously holding on the same core themes of Gunbuster. This method of creating a sequel is extremely risky because one wrong decision could make the whole thing backfire, but when its pulled off right you can create a unique work that surpasses the original (which I believe Diebuster did). Similarly with FLCL, I don't want them to attempt the same story as before just with a female protagonist. It was executed to near perfection in the original; any attempts to copy it will just end badly.Instead I want them to give us a story that's radically different from what came before but still retains the core of FLCL, which I would argue was about Naota's coming of age and his journey to understanding what maturity really means. There are a million different ways to tell a coming of age story and in the crazy world of FLCL I'm sure the writer Hideto Iwai can come up with a unique idea.I feel the same way about the animation too (but not the music. The Pillows for life!). The fact of the matter is FLCL 2 is not going to look like FLCL even if they do their best to imitate that style. It was made over 15 years ago and most of the members of that dream team (Imaishi, Yoshinari, Sushio) have moved on to other projects. I'd much rather see Director Katsuyuki Motohiro experiment using the advances in animation that have occurred in the intervening years. Lets see the new generation of digital animators go to town on some of the inevitable crazy scenes. And maybe an episode later embrace a more realistic style similar to what Motohiro has done on Psycho Pass. FLCL already was a playground for animators to take the wheel, lets keep it that way and let them give us a different kind of crazy.Am I alone on this? I honestly don't know. http://ift.tt/2bXbxhE

Re:Zero OST - "Wishing" by Rem - Theishter Piano Cover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyms7GPP4BI http://ift.tt/2aI9qwI

Best Animation of the Week - Spring 2016 Week 12 (x-post r/AnimeSakuga)

It's week 12. The Spring season is wrapping to a close and we have some great animation to go along with it. Here’s my take on what we got this week. If you want to read last week’s post you can find it here.If you’re wondering what sakuga is, I recommend checking out the subreddit r/AnimeSakuga as well as this great panel on the subject. Also I will spoiler tag my analysis of the animation, but know that the links may contain out-of-context SPOILERS if that bothers you.So let's get this out of the way right now: the anime with the best animation this week was the finale of Concrete Revolutio. There were a number of other fantastic cuts this week but it terms of sheer volume of sakuga it wasn’t even close. Before I dive into ConRevo I’m going to cover the other amazing animation we got this week. We got this rotation from Kiznaiver, more Nozumu Abe battle effects in Haifuri, and Nishiki Itaoka continuing his strong work on the Precure franchise. Chengxi Hyung continues to prove his talents in this smear-heavy fight from Naruto Shippuuden as does this unconfirmed animator on Kabaneri. Kuromukuro also delivered a fight scene through not nearly as smooth as some of the earlier fights in the series. And Toei even managed to produce a good looking Sailor Moon Crystal episode with a transformation scene and some cool beam attacks.Meanwhile, Takafumi Hori gave us this beautiful background animation alongside Luluco’s Gainax Pose in a clear reference to Yoh Yoshinari’s famous Gurren Lagann scene(here’s the key animation for the Luluco cut). Toshiyuki Sato delivered wonderfully insane action on Luluco, which capped off an episode chock full of Trigger’s energetic talent. The Asterick War had its final episode this week and Takashi Torii did not disappoint with this dynamic action scene strengthened by well-integrated moving CG backgrounds. Say what you will about the show itself, but it does have moments of great action.Lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the other awesome animation sequence from Bones this week, All Might vs Nomu from My Hero Academia. I encourage you to check out the multitude of animators listed for these scenes on sakugabooru. A lot of them are young webgen animators and you can see their styles bleed through in the loose drawings and dynamic camerawork of this cut. I especially love the animation of the air currents around his fist in this awesome punch and the way they animate the dark shading across All Might’s body. But as amazing as that punch was, in my opinion we got one even better in Concrete Revolutio.That would of course be Yutaka Nakamura’s amazing contribution to the finale. I predicted in my week 9 post that he was probably busy working on a cut for the finale and it seems I was right. The mix of white black and grey colored impact frames right before the punch and the blue frames right after the punch are such a cool and unique way to emphasize the impact. Also got to love the ConRevo That cut alone would be impressive, but there’s such an abundance of greatness in this episode. Hironori Tanaka delivers a fast and loose fight scene (although I could’ve done without this face) which contrasts nicely with Kenta Yokoya’s polished but less dynamic sequence with Jiro’s fire dragons.This is as good of a time as any to talk about what those fire dragons were inspired by, Yoshinori Kanada’s legendary sequence from the 1983 film Genma Taisen (Harmagedon in English). If you can ignore the awful 80s music, the first four minutes of this video shows off the scene which would come to be parodied and reused in anime for decades and known by the name “Kanada Dragon”. If you want to know more about Kanada I recommend this article but its not an exaggeration to say that he is one of the most important and influential Japanese animators of all time. He influenced multiple generations creating what we now call the Kanada School of animators and directors who have integrated elements of his style into their own. Gainax and Trigger in particular are immersed in his exaggerated style, especially Hiroyuki Imaishi who took Kanada’s rapid exaggerated pose changes to their furthest extent. So next time you see that distinctive flaming dragon pop up in an anime, remember the man who started it all.Anyways, we get more Kanada Dragons in this Takashi Hashimoto cut. If you’re noticing that the fire feels more fierce in this cut, that’s because Takashi Hashimoto is THE preeminent explosions animator working today and thus a master at dealing with flame animation. The fire columns in the first two seconds of the cut are particularly smooth. Then there’s Yasushi Muraki’s mecha animation and Chihara Sato’s dual Kanada Dragons scene. She’s drawn a very good Kanada Dragon in the past and even included an old school yellow screen flash at :08 for good measure. Lastly there’s this cool scene from Hideki Kakita and Sakiko Uda. I’m not positive, but I believe Uda did the mecha section while Kakita did the explosion given the unqiue explosions he’s drawn in the past.Bones did not hold back this week and Conrete Revolutio Episode 24 was surprising me with awesome and unique animation at every turn. We’ll see how next week goes but it’ll be hard for anyone to dethrone the ConRevo finale as the best animated episode of the season.So that's why I think Concrete Revolutio had the best animation from this past week's anime. Do you agree or disagree? I'd love to hear what animation stood out to you from this week's simulcasts, so post your thoughts in the comments below. http://ift.tt/28JFJfv

Anime That Are Defined by a Single Scene?

Every season there are shows people talk about while the anime is airing, but are soon forgotten about after they're over. It could be because they were bad shows or maybe they were just mediocre/cliche. Then there are shows that are still talked about years after they've ended in large part due to one standout scene. As a whole these anime may be great, terrible, or anything in-between, but they have to have a scene that has endured the test of time and defined the series for many people.Here are some examples that come to my mind. SPOILERS IN THE VIDEOS!When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace: Hatoko's RantSchool Days: The EndingMaoyu: "I Am Human" SpeechTerror in Resonance: The Ferris Wheel SceneHellsing Ultimate: The Major's "I Love War" Speech http://ift.tt/24sJBEC

Funniest Blu Ray Extra Ever - Owari no Seraph

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Clannad and Deus Ex Machina: The Truth Behind The Girl And The Robot [SPOILERS]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE_xiK2a3sc http://ift.tt/1OY1lyj

[SPOILERS] Supposedly This is What Was in the Madoka Concept Movie from the Madogatari Event

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MUST WATCH "Cruel Angel's Thesis" Piano Duet!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpQqUDgi3iY http://ift.tt/1kNYwrK

Kyoto Animation and K-ON Director Producing A Silent Voice Film

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