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
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