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yurimother · 3 years

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Growing up Yurijin: My Childhood Experience with Lesbian Anime and Manga Part I

This article is the first in a two-part personal essay about my childhood experiences growing up around Yuri in an environment where LGBTQ+ identity and culture were normalized. The article was original released exclusively on Patreon in February 2019. You can read Part II on the YuriMother Patreon.

I was recently reading an article by one of the people I admire most in the world, LGBTQ+ manga tastemaker and lesbian icon, Erica Friedman, a person who, in my hubris, I sometimes compare myself to, qualitatively, of course, their achievements far exceed my own. In the essay I was reading, Friedman describes their struggle to find literature that reflected their queen identity in the 1980s. At this moment, it also occurred to me the Friedman had previously spoken about how they discovered anime and manga, which included lesbian elements, more commonly known as Yuri, in adult life, and found an affinity with the genre. Friedman went on to become one of, if not the pioneering individuals in the world of Yuri. As I reminisce on these facts about a person who I so deeply admire and am lucky enough to consider a friend, it occurred to me that, while they adopted the Yuri, I was born into it. Although, funnily enough, my existence as a Yurijin (lit. Yuri Person, an inclusive term for Yuri fans) likely would not have been possible if not for Friedman’s support and love of Yuri, more on that later.

I am rather young. Depending on who you ask, I am either one of the last Millennials or one of the first members of Generation Z, although, like most labels, I find using either one of these titles arbitrary. However, I am always aware of how immense of a blessing my youth is. Yes, being young is fun and dandy, but I am referring to my upbringing's social implications. From a very early age, since before I could even talk, I was exposed to homosexuality as normalcy. I did not think anything of it until I started to grasp the more significant history and circumstance around terms such as “gay” when I was about nine years old. My godmothers are gay women, as are my brother’s. I remember attending their second wedding in 2004, shortly after same-sex marriage was officially legalized where we lived, and I thought nothing of it.

As previously implied, around late elementary school, I discovered that being gay was a distinct identity and had a more serious and complex history around it, one which I learned about but never experienced. I think more than anything, my blessed lack of conflict around sexuality has been my greatest asset. Growing up in a progressive era and the late ’90s and early 2000s, I was never harassed, bullied, or attacked for being queer or talking about LGBTQ politics and media. To this day, I still never “came out” because there was no need to, although I admittedly have never been much of one to put labels on my sexuality. I was always just, queer, and there was never an assumption otherwise. On a side note, there is no possible way for me to express the breadth of my gratitude to the generations who fought for LGBT rights.

The reader needs to understand that, just as I was fortunate to grow up in a bubble that treated where homosexuality normally, so too was I luckily able to experience Yuri at such a young age. By 2010 we were well into Yuri’s third major movement, a period I often refer to as the “Current Era” of Yuri, although “S Revival” may be a more apt description. Sailor Moon had already dominated both Western and Eastern culture (a craze I was ever too slightly young for), brought Yuri into the independent comics market, and exposed audiences to one of the first positive portrayals of a lesbian couple in Yuri.

Additionally, Revolutionary Girl Utena had smashed its way into the anime world, cementing itself as one of the most acclaimed and influential anime works of the 1990s and legitimizing lesbian storytelling in the medium. Most importantly for me, Oyuki Konno’s Maria Watches Over Us light novel series revived the Yuri genre's earliest tropes, known as Class S. Elements of S fiction, such as all-girls catholic schools, piano duets, and temporary lesbian-ish love would permeate the genre for the coming decades. These themes were eventually adopted and intensely exaggerated in the work that set me on the path of Yuri and transformed me into the “Holy Mother of Yuri.”

Furthermore, when I was in the early stages of life, Yuri was beginning to make its way Westward slowly. This expansion was thanks to the publishing arm of Erica Friedman’s organization Yuricon, ALC Publishing. ALC was founded in 2003 and started to publish the first Yuri manga in America, including the Yuri Monogatari series and Takashima Rica’s Rica’ tte Kanji!? A few years later, Seven Seas Entertainment started to published Yuri manga, such as The Last Uniform and Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl. Around this team, thanks to the internet and anime’s growing popularity, anime and manga were more accessible than ever. Although Western Yuri publishing did not take off until the late 2010s, there was just enough of it readily available to create the perfect storm for my Yuri infection.

Shortly after I started to gain awareness of LGBTQ+ rights, identity, and… existence, I was exposed to my first Yuri, although I did not recognize it as such. My middle school library had an extensive collection of manga, including the Tokyopop adaptations of Strawberry Marshmallow. I never read them, but a friend did and talked with me about them. Curious, I went home and searched the title online and found that there were anime videos uploaded to YouTube, with each episode separated into three parts (this event was before I was aware of what piracy was and how harmful it is to creators). I watched all of them with my brother, and we had an absolute blast. To this day, Strawberry Marshmallow is one of our favorite series to watch together and have a huge laugh at.

Although Strawberry Marshmallow had subtle Yuri elements (this was before the 2009 OVA, which contained an actual kiss), I did not recognize them. However, this series led to my brother and I showing each other different anime series, in one of which I was very clearly able to see lesbian representation. I do not remember the exact year, but it must have been about 2010 when, sitting in our mother’s office waiting for her to finish with meetings, my brother pulled up an episode of Studio Madhouse’s Strawberry Panic anime and changed my life forever.

Part II of "Growing up Yurijin" is available to read as part of The Secret Garden series. The Secret Garden is YuriMother's exclusive series of monthly articles, available only for Patrons. If you want to access it and help support Yuri and LGBTQ+ content, subscribe to the YuriMother Patreon.

#Yuri #article #patreon #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtq+#queer #gay #lesbian #personal #wlw #education #essay #yurijin #the secret garden #anime #manga

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liuwdere · 7 years

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Women Directors in Anime Panel - Transcript

Here are the slides and audio. (I dunno why you’d want the audio if you’re reading a transcript, but hey, who am I to judge.)

Prior to the start of the panel proper, I played the Animator Expo shorts “Endless Night” and “Tomorrow From There” so the early comers weren’t stuck sitting around with nothing to do. I then put on the first Kyousougiga PV as a lead-in to the presentation.

Hi guys, and welcome to Women Directors of Anime. I’m Micchy. You can find me on Twitter @liuwdere, where I post very bad content most of the time and also have opinions on figure skating.

To start us off: Who can name an anime director? Anyone, go as basic as you like.

Hayao Miyazaki, the obvious one.

Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Ninja Scroll.

Challenge: who can name a female anime director?

Sayo Yamamoto.

That’s cheating, I showed her name earlier. Well, anyway, point is, they’re a bit harder to think of.

Raise your hand if you’ve seen one of these shows. Looks like just about all of you. Yuri on Ice? I see a few Yuri on Ice fans here. (Audience member: “I don’t know what that is.”) Well, congratulations, you have seen an anime directed by a woman!

Why talk about anime directors? I’ve seen several panels about fictional representations, strong female characters, so I would also like to bring some attention to the real-world anime industry and representation in that aspect of anime. There are a ton of women working as key animators, writers, in-betweeners in anime, but very few have managed to get the higher roles of production. This is not to say the lower roles are not important—they’re super important. With key animators, I’m a huge fan of Megumi Kouno, who key animated Shelter, if you’ve seen that. This topic is kind of arbitrary, but there are some talented ladies out there and I want to talk about them. Also, honestly, it’s also possible to be very comprehensive because there are like, 25 of them.

What do directors do? Basically they oversee anime production. Their involvement can vary; some of them are very involved in the storyboarding, the music choices, the writing, while others are a little more hands-off, a little manager-like. Some directors rise on the production side—they’re good at managing people, good at making sure people have their stuff done on time, and that’s what gets them in charge. Some of them start as key animators and eventually take over the lead visual development. Of course, they are all beholden to the will of the production committee, which is made up of the sponsors and execs in charge of the show, because money—money’s gotta come from somewhere.

Where are all these ladies? If you look through the industry, they tend to be clustered in a few genres. Number 1: kids’ shows and long-running franchises. We’re talking things like Precure, with the Suite Precure, Happiness Charge Precure, and Heartcatch Precure movies. [Yoko Ikeda, Chiaki Kon, and Rie Matsumoto] all started by directing episodes of the show before taking charge of the movie. Cardfight Vanguard G, the second season. [NOTE: This is actually inaccurate; Yui Umemoto is not a woman. Apologies for the mistake.] The File of Young Kindaichi Returns, also the second season. [Both Umemoto and Ikeda] were taking over established franchises.

Where else? We’ve got kids’ shows, and obviously, anime for women. We’re talking shoujo and josei manga adaptations, otome games, what I like to call “manservice” (though this genre classification is really loose), and boys’ love.

With shoujo manga, you’ve got Vampire Knight (anime Twilight), Otome Yokai Zakuro, Nodame Cantabile (a romcom about music students), and Skip Beat. We’ve got Sailor Moon Crystal season 3, Ristorante Paradiso (old man moe), the fifth season of Natsume Yuujinchou (Kotomi Deai taking over from Takahiro Omori), and Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun. (I hear a few shouts, nice.)

Otome games: These are visual novel dating sims where you play as a heroine character and get your choice of pretty boys to date. On that side of things you’ve got La Storia della Arcana Famiglia, Magic-kyun Renaissance, Diabolik Lovers, and its sequel Diabolik Lovers More Comma Blood—directed by two different women, because of course they are. (This is my favorite bit of Diabolik Lovers—you throw her into the pool. Just throw her in a pool.)

Manservice: This is what I like to classify the sports shows, the boy idol shows, the historical romances and stuff. We’ve got Meganebu! (cute boys doing cute things in a glasses club), Hakkenden, Prince of Stride; Free! (with one exclamation point), Cheer Boys!! (with two exclamation points), and Yuri!!! on Ice (with three exclamation points).

Boys’ Love: There’s a conversation to be had here about how women are kind of co-opting gay men’s stories, but that’s a topic for another day; I’m not talking about that today. You’ve got This Boy cycle from Soubi Yamamoto. These are a series of independent films, all short. Doukyuusei from Shouko Nakamura, a lovely story about two high school boys falling in love. And on the trashier side of things we have stuff like Junjou Romantica, World’s Greatest First Love, and Gakuen Heaven. Personally, I recommend Gakuen Handsome.

It’s important to note that even in these genres, most of the anime is still directed by men. Super Lovers—anyone?—that’s directed by a man. And of course, you can find women elsewhere; these are just the genres you’re most likely to find women. After all, who better to make anime for women than women?

Where else are they? If you look towards the edges of the industry—the avant-garde, the experimental animation showcase projects—you can see that some of these projects give younger women a chance to take charge of their own short films. Space Dandy was supposedly directed by Shinichirou Watanabe and Shingo Natsume, but in actuality, they gave a lot of creative reign to the individual episode directors, which is why every episode looks so different. Some of them were women. Panty and Stocking was another case of this. There’s also Japan Animator Expo, a series of web shorts released over several years, which featured quite a few women.

Talking about the women in particular: I’ve grouped them for convenience. I’m going to start with the ladies at Kyoto Animation.

A little about KyoAni: KyoAni is a unique studio in that all their animation is done in-house with a salaried staff. This is the case with most of the industry; most other studios hire animators freelance. Okay, you come in, you draw these few cuts, you go home. The only other major studio to do this—to have a salaried staff—is Studio Ghibli. Kyoani also has a strong focus on training young talent. Their veteran animators will spend a lot of time providing guidance to the younger staff. (Another studio that does this is Studio Toei, which produces Precure.) Both of these factors make it very conducive to nurturing young talent. Two of the names at Kyoani are Naoko Yamada and Hiroko Utsumi.

Naoko Yamada [the first female staff director at Kyoani] is probably best known for directing K-On. What I want you to notice about Yamada is her astute attention to character animation and body language. If you’ve seen any Kyoto Animation shows, you know what I mean; [the characters] act in specific ways, and [the animation is] very shiny, very polished. This particular attention to body language is what eventually got her the directorial position for A Silent Voice, which is about a deaf girl. Obviously [the girl] communicates through sign language, so you can see why the body language would be important there. (Also, [Yamada] likes legs. She has a lotta legs in her storyboards. It’s pretty obvious; you see knees all over the place.)

[A Silent Voice PV]

Going on to another woman at Kyoani: Hiroko Utsumi, who directed Free. It should be pretty obvious that this show was helmed by a woman just from the butts and abs on display [for the female gaze]. I mean, characters in-universe state, “Oh my god, those are really good butts and chests and abs and shoulders.” So that’s a thing.

Here’s where I get a little wibbly-wobbly: What I like to call the “Penguindrum alumni.” This is because there were several women working on this particular show that later went on to head their own projects. To talk about them, I need to talk about Kunihiko Ikuhara. This guy is the infamously eccentric director of Revolutionary Girl Utena, Penguindrum, and Yurikuma Arashi. He’s heavily influenced by the late Osamu Dezaki, with a strong focus on visual metaphor, cinematic language, and very surreal imagery. On one of his projects, Penguindrum, there were a bunch of ladies who were episode directors and assistant directors who later went on to lead their own projects.

The first one I’m going to talk about is Mitsue Yamazaki. A lot of her work is really pretty, but personally my favorite is her comedy work on Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun. Here’s a clip where two boys play a dating sim game and get a little too into it.

[Nozaki-kun - Tomoda]

Another one of these ladies who worked on Penguindrum is Shouko Nakamura. She did a lot of early work at Studio Gainax working on Gurren Lagann and Panty and Stocking. You can see the Gainax influence in her style with loose, relaxed lineart—you could contrast it with, for instance, KyoAni’s polished realism. Last year, she directed a boys’ love film adapted from a manga by Asumiko Nakamura, Doukyuusei.

[Doukyuusei PV].

If you’re wondering which episode she did on Panty and Stocking, it’s the one where Panty’s sex tape gets leaked.

Akemi Hayashi: She saved the human race from the Zentradi in 2009. Actually, no, she didn’t. Fun fact: her name happens to share the kanji from a possible Chinese rendering of Lynn Minmay, from Super Dimension Fortress Macross, which made researching this one kind of hard. (I was like, I wanna find out about this director, but was only getting results for this anime girl. I like Macross and all, but that wasn’t what I wanted.)

Akemi Hayashi for real: She, like Shouko Nakamura, did early stuff at Gainax. You can see her work going way, way back—if you’ve seen the 1997 anime Revolutionary Girl Utena, she did key animation on the opening sequence for that. She’s been the animation director for a number of high profile projects, including Casshern Sins [and] the Rebuild of Evangelion films. She hasn’t had a full TV series or movie debut yet, but she has directed a few short films and the penguin episode of Space Dandy. What I’m going to put on for you next is a short film done for a collaboration project called Ani*Kuri 15: fifteen one-minute shorts from different creators in the industry. Hers was called “Namida no Mukou,” roughly “from behind tears.” Like Shouko Nakamura, she also has a strong focus on fluid animation. I especially like her use of subtleties in facial expression and body language, conveying emotion through that.

[Ani*Kuri 15, “Namida no Mukou”]

Getting to directors who did not work on Penguindrum (which is a ridiculous classification in itself): My personal favorite, Sayo Yamamoto. This lady is super extra: when she was in college, she wanted to work on animation, but the faculty told her, “No, you can’t work on animation.” She said, “Heck, I’m working on animation anyway,” and did. She caught the attention of director Satoshi Kon to work on Millennium Actress. Stuff happened and she didn’t end up working on that, so her first work at Studio Madhouse was some animation on Trava, which later became the basis for the movie Redline, if you’ve seen that. There she got noticed by Shinichiroh Watanabe, director of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. She was brought on to be an episode director on Champloo, and that’s where she says she first got creative control over her project. [Yamamoto] has also directed a lot of opening and ending sequences; if you’ve seen the first ending sequence to Attack on Titan, that was all her: the sketchy charcoal drawing, that’s her.

Yamamoto’s one of those creatives that has a strong influence over story direction as well as the visuals. For instance, she has a fixation on the femme fatale character, as well as gender and sexuality in general—especially female and queer sexuality. You’ve got Michiko and Hatchin, which is about Latina women, one of them a lesbian. The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, literally an entire series about what makes the femme fatale—Fujiko Mine, the femme fatale character in the long-running franchise Lupin III—what makes her tick, and why is she bad? That show is about interrogating that.

Yuri on Ice also addresses sexuality in a way that’s a little more subtle than her previous works—YOI is a lot lighter, less gritty than the “sex and murder” tone of Fujiko Mine. Part of this is because it is a collaboration with manga artist Mitsurou Kubo. But you can still see hints of this fixation on sexuality and femininity in [for instance] episode 3, where Yuri literally works to channel his inner Fujiko Mine. There’s also a queer character in Fujiko Mine, so yeah, gender and sexuality is a big thing in Yamamoto’s work.

Also, butts. Sayo Yamamoto isn’t that open to giving interviews, but from people who work with her, we have reports that yeah, she was very insistent that they draw butts very well. She says figure skaters have such nice butts you can put things on them, and was really insistent that the staff draw them all. Also, she is on record saying that she liked the scenes in Lupin III where Fujiko took her shirt off—make of that what you will.

Beyond her fixation on butts and sex, she also has a focus on fairy tale imagery and sketchlike charcoal/pencil drawings. This is the ending sequence of Rage of Bahamut (which is getting a sequel this season, I’m so excited) and it’s quite gorgeous.

[Rage of Bahamut ED]

Wasn’t that pretty? (Audience member: yes.) As much as I would like to talk about Sayo Yamamoto all day—I will seriously talk about Sayo Yamamoto all day if you let me, so don’t let me—next we have Rie Matsumoto.

Rie Matsumoto is a director who started at Toei, animating and directing episodes of Heartcatch Precure. (If you don’t know what Precure is, it’s basically My Little Pony, but magical girls and Japanese. That’s the kind of fandom it has. Maybe a little less bad, but not the point.) At Toei, she directed the original promotional video for this series called Kyousougiga, which became a web series and eventually a 10-episode TV series. Then she went AWOL for a few years, later reappearing at Studio BONES directing Blood Blockade Battlefront. (She’s also really cute, I think. [Audience member: It’s true.])

Matsumoto’s another one of those creators with a strong storytelling stamp as well; she has a hand in writing a lot of these works. She as a creator is eclectic as hell. Kyousougiga is like a dozen shows in one, about nostalgia and regret and salvation through platonic love and depression and narcissism—it’s great. Some of the themes that reappear across her work, especially in this original part of Blood Blockade Battlefront, are family bonds, salvation through familial love. In Blood Blockade Battlefront she basically added an entire subplot that was about two siblings reconciling with each other, because that was [the story she wanted to tell]. That’s not even in the manga at all.

For Blood Blockade Battlefront, the artist of the manga [Yasuhiro Nightow] had only one request to the anime staff, and that was to make an opening sequence worth seeing a hundred times. That’s a pretty daunting task, but Rie Matsumoto was like, “heck, I’ll do it.” I’ll let you decide whether she succeeds or not.

[Kekkai Sensen OP]

Every frame of that thing has so much, the composition’s superb. Matsumoto is not directing the second season, unfortunately; she says she’s told the story she wanted to tell and no longer has interest in telling more. Someone else will be taking charge of that second season!

Here’s Soubi Yamamoto, another one of my favorites. No relation to Sayo Yamamoto. Soubi Yamamoto is unique in that she’s basically entirely independent. Most of her work she wrote, directed, and animated almost all by herself—kind of like Makoto Shinkai, director of the current hit Your Name, as well as Five Centimeters Per Second, Garden of Words, if you’ve seen those.

Yamamoto’s really young. Her This Boy series: This Boy Can Fight Aliens, This Boy Caught a Merman, This Boy Suffers from Crystallization, and This Boy is a Professional Wizard. They’re all standalone, thirty-minute shorts. She made the first one of those when she was 22. (She’s like, 27 now. Really young.)

Characteristics of her style: When you see a Soubi Yamamoto thing, you know it’s Soubi Yamamoto. It’s got a saturated color palette, limited animation (since it’s basically just her), on-screen text and manga-like textures/aesthetic. She also has a pretty large hand in writing most of her shorts. You see themes of loneliness, isolation, the difficulty of maintaining interpersonal connection—and boys kissing, there’s quite a bit of that too. What she did not write was MEGANEBU, her one and only TV series to date. This is about a bunch of guys in a glasses enthusiastic club. It’s about as dumb as it sounds. In this scene one of the characters is trying to go to club and is sidetracked by a praying mantis.

[Meganebu, episode 5 - about 3:00-4:30]

The rest of the episode escalates from there—he brings out a suit of armor and a flamethrower just to get past this bug. It’s pretty great.

Atsuko Ishizuka. She was the first [female] staff director at Studio Madhouse. In 2008, the head of Madhouse Masao Maruyama said of her that she was probably the most talented young director in the industry at the time. She’s managed to get a foothold in the otaku market with No Game No Life and several other reasonably successful properties.

She’s also very fond of very, very bold color design. Personally I think she goes a little overboard with it most of the time, but in this 2009 show Aoi Bungaku I think she handled it well. This show is an anthology of adaptations of Japanese literature. Ishizuka directed episodes 11 and 12, “The Spider’s Thread” and “Hell Screen,” both based on short stories by Ryuunosuke Akutagawa. (Has anyone seen Bungo Stray Dogs? Yeah, it’s that guy. He’s actually a real person.) Hell Screen is about a painter who’s commissioned to decorate the tomb of an emperor with his glory, but when he’s faced with the suffering and strife that’s going on in the country he paints a picture of suffering instead. This is the scene where he finally breaks when his daughter is burned before his eyes. [Its exquisite use of color] is really gorgeous; y’all should watch it.

[Aoi Bungaku, episode 12. No link, sorrymasen.]

Aoi Bungaku has unfortunately never been licensed because the market for adaptations of Japanese modernist literature is kind of small. (Its audience is me, mostly.)

Moving on, we have Eunyoung Choi. Choi is a longtime collaborator with avant-garde director Masaaki Yuasa. If you’ve seen Tatami Galaxy, Ping Pong, Kick-Heart (which aired on Toonami a while ago, I think)... they also did an episode of Adventure Time together. Most of Eunyoung Choi’s work has been with Yuasa, so you see their styles kind of merge, with loose lineart, flexible animation, favoring dynamic motion over consistent character models. She did direct the ninth episode of Space Dandy herself (Yuasa came later in the second season with the fish alien episode). This is the episode where Space Dandy and the crew go to a planet where all the living things are plants.

Interesting to note that Choi is Korean, and not Japanese; if you look at the edges of the industry, with the ‘artsy’ projects, you can see a bunch of non-Japanese people. Kevin Aymeric, French background artist; Michael Arias, a director from America; Thomas Romain, French mech designer; Bahi JD, Austrian animator; a lot of them work on the same projects because they’re all buddy-buddy with each other.

So she’s directed this lovely but trippy episode of Space Dandy. [It’s a unique style on display here.]

[Space Dandy, episode 9, about 15:30-17:30]

That was Eunyoung Choi. Here’s another lady: Ai Yoshimura, who directed Oregairu, Blue Spring Ride, Dance with Devils, and Cheer Boys. She’s pretty good at handling moments of intense emotion: in Blue Spring Ride there are so many scenes where you can just feel the atmosphere dripping with romantic tension. (Sometimes it’s bad.) But my personal favorite thing of hers is Dance with Devils, which is basically an anime Broadway musical about a girl and demon boys. This show had the brilliant idea of making Cerberus a mashpotato dog. And he has a musical number. You guys should see it ‘cause I love this show to death.

[Dance with Devils - Loewen]

This show also has wonderful numbers like an extremely wannabe rap and a song called “Emo Liar.” It’s “I Won’t Say I’m In Love” but with anime boys and more screaming. Anyway, that show is great and I feel like everyone should watch it, but that’s just me.

I feel like I should mention the most prolific director in the entire industry, [Chiaki Kon]. I don’t think this is even a complete list of her work. Here I have Golden Time and Sailor Moon Crystal. Season 3, since the first two were directed by someone else. She, uh, sure does put out a lot of work. Not a lot of it’s very good, but there sure is a lot of it! Props to her for getting so many jobs. I mean, as much as I love Nodame Cantabile, those two seasons are not good. Also Junjou Romantica. I’m not gonna say anything about Junjou Romantica, but… Junjou Romantica.

Literally everyone else: I of course did not have time to get to everyone. A couple of names I like on here:

Noriko Takao directing Saint Young Men, which is about Jesus and Buddha chilling in an apartment in Tokyo, and it’s pretty great. That will probably never get released over here because fundies.

Kotomi Deai directing the second season of Silver Spoon and the fifth season of Natsume Yuujinchou. She took over Silver Spoon from SAO director Tomohiko Ito, who was currently then busy with SAO.

Sayo Aoi directing The Merman In My Bathtub. See, there are actually two gay merman anime. I just think that’s incredible.

I also really like [Mitsuko Kase’s] Ristorante Paradiso. It’s the kind of show you watch if you’re really into older men. Like, if you want to sit back after work, chill and watch reasonably attractive older men do their thing, that’s the show for you.

(I have seen basically everything on this list. Some of it’s pretty bad. Some is actually decent. Not [Yukina Hiiro’s] Chu-bra. Nnngh, we don’t talk about Chu-bra.)

The anime industry today is obviously changing. There’s more anime produced now than ever before; we have dozens of new shows every three months. Go back a few decades, we had a dozen new shows a year. With that boom, the women’s share of the market is definitely growing. You see this with a lot more anime directed at women: the idol shows; the sports anime,which are intended for younger boys but have a significant female following anyway (hot guys); Touken Ranbu, which is more of a thing over in Japan than here; Osomatsu. With that, we have more female-led projects than ever before.

Of course, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. The wages in the industry are terrible. Animation is a really hard job! It takes a lot of skill, and they get paid almost nothing for it. Also, the industry is kind of a boys’ club and has been since the beginning. On the bright side, a lot of these women are really young and will probably do good work in the future, so I’m gonna beg you guys to support them by watching through legal channels. (I’m shilling for good friends at Crunchyroll.)

I then went through a few resources and places to watch the good cartoons, concluding with the same two Animator Expo shorts from before the panel for the people who showed up later. Thanks for playing!

#women in anime #anime boston #transcript #long post #very very long post

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mysticdragon3md3 · 7 years

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thoughts during Yuri on Ice ep9

4:22 PM 2/3/2017 "If you're in trouble, just hug him"???? Yakov?????!!!??? I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Victor really doesn't think. From the very beginning, he was already proving that he doesn't really have a grasp of what a "coach" really is or supposed to do. Even as recently as ep7, Yuri still needed to explain---yell at Victor, what he should be doing as a coach. *sigh* If Victor's flighty brain didn't also make him so free-spirited and lovable, I'd hit him over the head with that Makkachin tissue box. I'm beginning to think Victor honestly believes that ice skating only functions with the ingredients of a skater on the ice and a coach on the side of the rink. He really thinks that Yuri just needs someone labelled a "coach" just standing at the sidelines while Yuri skates? Oh. My. Gawd. Yuri was just yelling at you an episode ago, that your job is to have faith in him and bolster his confidence. You can do that even while you're away from the actual stadium. Yuri even told you to go to Japan while he stays in Russia to continue performing. He can perform without you there physically! As long as Victor is there emotionally/spiritually for Yuri, he's fine. And yet, Victor hands off Yuri to Yakov, thus, severing Victor's emotional presence from Yuri. *sigh* Victor really doesn't think, does he? This lovable, idiotic fool...

Oh, wait. Victor does go on to say, "Even if I'm not here, I'll always be with you in spirit." But does Victor really understand that? Really? While he's handing Yuri's delicate heart off to Yakov's harsh demeanor...as "support"?? ~_~;

At least Yakov agreeing to take on Yuri, quells any suspicions that he might sabotage Yuri, to help advance Yurio. Not that the show has proven he's that dastardly, but without many gaps in his characterization filled in, the brain does tend to assume the worst. I like the idea of Yakov wanting Yuri to fulfill his potential just as much as Yurio, so that they can have a proper showdown without any interference tainting the expressions of their true skills. Like a martial arts anime or a sports genre manga.

It's strange for Emil to skate to the theme "Cyberpunk: I've ceased to be human". He's so cheerful and human-feeling. Does this mean he's going to super-focus on technical skating? It's strange that he'd throw away his emotions, when the series' themes thus far, have been advocating emotions as a strength, in skating. (I expect Seung-gil Lee to come up short, despite his technical skill, because he lacks emotion. He seems to serve as a contrast to the series themes.)

And now Sala is severing her emotional ties with Mickey. Everyone's getting separated from their emotional anchors in this episode. Victor and Yuri separated geographically and as skater-coach pair. Emil separated from his emotional strengths. and Mickey separated from his deluded purpose to protect Sala. Well, he's actually just attached to this image in his head he has of Sala, more than looking at the actual Sala, anyway. I've seen it all before in Revolutionary Girl Utena, where Kaoru Miki---"Miki". Coincidence? Anyway, in Utena, Kaoru Miki was trapped in his own "princely savior" complex (the entire Student Council all were, in that series), where he specifically only knew his own identity in relation to protecting his sister Kozue. So he subconsciously built her up as this perfect and pure treasure to be protected, always in danger of being the victim, so that his psyche could secure himself in the identity of the "rescuing prince". But in reality, his sister didn't need saving and wasn't pure, and was actually sometimes the victimizer, not the victim. But Miki couldn't see that, otherwise, he wouldn't know who he was. He wouldn't be able to maintain the Stronger identity and position of the rescuer. Maybe then he'd have to confront the fact that he was actually the rescuee, in need of saving. Maybe Sala's brother Mickey also can't deal with his Weakness.

"I was able to focus on skating and come this far because you were with me. Dont' leave me alone, please!" It's strange that Mickey's words to Sala sound more appropriate to the blubbering and weak-willed bouts we've seen more often from Yuri, at this point. Mickey's Weaknesses here seem most obviously intended as a contrast to how far Yuri has progressed in emotional Strength. I hope the rest of Yuri's scenes in this episode show him Stronger than Mickey with Sala in this scene.

Even now, Mickey is thinking only in terms of obtaining Sala's full focus. He's thinking of other types of men she might like and implying that maybe if his personality were like theirs, he could have kept her. Even though her need to be independent and to see him become Stronger by finding his own independence has nothing to do with her "falling out of love with him". He really isn't looking at her at all.

Or maybe Emil's unemotional skating program's title is supposed to demonstrate his ability to separate himself from his emotions (his characteristic cheerfulness) and still be able to be himself. Though all those falls he was taking, while Mickey was watching him, thinking Emil might be an example of what a "successful" man is, enough to get Sala's attention, showed the delusion Mickey was having, in the idea of following Emil's example (of cheerfulness). So if Mickey can't imitate Emil or any other man in order to get Sala back, what can he do? He must be so lost right now. And right before he has to skate!

He's skating to "Serenade for Two". Ouch. She's not even at rink side.

"Sala, are you watching me somewhere out there?" I expect to see a contrast with Yuri later skating and not thinking such things. Yuri should skate with full confidence that Victor's presence is with him. Yuri shouldn't look out, wonder, or hope that Victor is watching. He should feel with bulletproof certainty that Victor's spirit is with him. Mickey's purple costume reminds me so much of Yuri's "Yuri on Ice" costume, that it seems more obvious that Mickey is going to serve as a parallel contrast to Yuri later. If they're going to be equated in costumes, then their differences in actions should really stand out.

"I can tell, even when we're apart." Really? You sure don't act like it. But I guess Mickey is only really seeing the "Sala" in his head, and not the real Sala standing in front of him, anyway.

The thing I like about this whole "incest" motif between Mickey and Sala is that she actually tells him to stop obsessing with her, get a life, and let her have her own. So many anime use incest for fanservice and never once have I seen the sister forcibly, physically, make the brother stop letting this continue. If she's a tsundere, she'll get mad, but just kind of stay sprawled and limp, wondering what the heck her brother is doing. Like Bakemonogatari. Or more often, the sister is waaaaaay too handsy and the herbivore brother doesn't have the guts to shove her off of him, even though it makes him visibly uncomfortable. Like Bungo Stray Dogs. Or even more often, the series treats the incest pair like the canon OTP or at least the background pair to root for. The Irregular at Magic High School, .Hack//Legend of the Twilight, Tenchi Muyo, Tenjyo Tenge, etc. I once went to a anime convention panel where a Japanese panelist explained Japanese cultural reflections in anime, and he explained the ubiquity of incest as the desperation of heterosexual males to be near females, in their society of such strictly separated genders. "So having a girl in your house, so close to you everyday, is an exciting thought." Ug. Stop it. Good on Sala for grabbing Mickey by the chin and telling him to get a life and that she had a life outside of him! Personally, I chalk it up to the writer and director of "Yuri on Ice" being female, females who are probably just as sick of the incest trope as the rest of us otaku.

On the other hand, if Mickey does well, even while his costume draws a parallel with Yuri, then maybe the contrast will be of Yuri doing badly, while separated from Victor. O~O! ;o;! Nooooooooo!

"What should I do with my feelings?" I think it's really important that Mickey phrased this in a way that implies that he does realize there are other things he can do with his feelings besides being obsessed with his sister.

"I can feel lost love in Michele's skating." Don't look so happy to have a comrade in misery, Georgi. Mickey is "mellow" and sad right now. Ah, well. Maybe a few drunken drinks together and messy crying about their ex'es will finally get both of them over it. We can only hope.

"Sala, this is the last time that I skate for you." Wow. Mickey is accepting this "break-up" pretty quickly. Good for him. ^-^

"This is my real love. Farewell, Sala." So are they saying Mickey took breaking up his obsession with Sala well, because he's considering honoring her wishes to have him stop obsessing over her, as another expression of his love?

Oh wow. Sala is really crying. I guess she was the one who was more attached. Or maybe just attached enough to let it last this long. It's pretty healthy for her to have recognized the stagnancy, broken it off, and is already into her grieving phase. Even if she didn't want to be the object of her brother's obsession, I'm sure their bond was still the most important to her.

"That was the coolest program I've seen from you so far. You thought of me when you were skating right?" "I'm sorry for saying such mean things earlier. But I'm glad I did! We're better apart, after all!" Thank you, Yuri on Ice!!!! If this was any other series, the sister would have gone back to the brother, as if they were reuniting lovers. Thank you for maintaining the growth of the characters and a demonstration of superior emotionally healthy relationships! ^O^ Just because Sala wants to see Mickey do well and can feel happy that he thinks of her and loves her, doesn't mean that she wants to go back to being his obsession. In fact, those are the same reasons she wants him to be independent of her. And he just proved that learning to become independent makes him Stronger. He had the best program performance ever! It's just healthier for a person to not have illusion-based obsessions, and to be an independent person in a relationship, vs co-dependent.

And I guess if Mickey/Sala was representative of anything in this series, it was the dangers of co-dependency. Now, let's see our series’ main protagonist couple avoid that obstacle, by contrast.

What's with Seung-gil? He seemed so freaked-out right before he stepped onto the ice, and now the camera's first glimpse of his performance is of him falling? Why is he so freaked-out? Was he intimidated by someone? Not by Mickey's awesome performance, was it? Was Seung-gil so nervous because Mickey's program was flawless? If so, then it just might prove my theory that Seung-gil is supposed to represent the importance of emotion (emotional expression) during skating, by being too unemotional and failing.

Yurio's statement is really surprising. He sees JJ and Yuri as his strongest competition. Almost takes the doubt out of Yuri's close-ups while he's nervous. But more like the audience knows he has earned more confidence, but Yuri himself doesn't know it.

Oh my gawd. Seung Gil is actually crying. I guess he's the type to stay stoic until the very last second.

Wasn't Victor supposed to choreograph Yurio's senior debut? I guess Yurio is ok with just the Agape program.

Are Yurio's jumps at the 2nd half of the program really low now?

Alright. that's better.

I want to say that Yurio gets really motivated when he's angry, but that didn't work out too well when he preformed Agape. But maybe it's only because Agape is the opposite of his nature. Maybe here, his anger will make the 2nd half of his program go even better.

I love seeing that focused expression on Yuri's face, like when he was preparing to skate against Minami. But during his stretches this time, he got distracted by Yurio superseding himself. I hope Yuri doesn't get mired in self-doubt in the middle of his Yuri on Ice program. Especially after all this inner monologue from Yurio, explaining that Yuri's program is already intimidating to Yurio's chances of getting into the Grand Prix.

I like how Yuri's lack of response to Yurio's brag about getting first place so far, made Yuri seem very focused and unfazed. But then the camera goes watery, like Yuri is going to cry and really is mired in self-doubt. I really expected some kind of inner monologue, where Yuri says he's either focused or crumbling. But there was nothing. I like that the direction is keeping us guessing. Now I really want to see how Yuri feels, through watching his performance.

I just realized that both Yuri and JJ are preforming to music composed just for them, to encapsulate themselves. But whereas "King JJ" makes JJ seem arrogant, "Yuri on Ice"'s somber, wavering, and frail, hopeful journey doesn't seem self-centered at all. It's just a story.

"I popped it." Is that bad or good? This is what I meant when I said before that this series doesn't do as well as other sports anime, when it comes to explaining the sport sufficiently, by the time of the performance, so we can understand the tension and stakes during the performance. Even with the reaction shots, it took the commentator explaining "His second jump turned into a single" for it to be clear that Yuri messed up.

"Until Victor came into my life, I could never openly say that I'd win gold, but I never skated with the thought in my mind that I'd lose anyway." There's something lost in the wording of Yuri's internal monologue. I guess I don't understand. Is he saying that Yuri's ambitions about skating were never strong enough to win gold nor to lose, as if he didn't have enough passion in his skating, before Victor appeared? Is he saying that Yuri always wanted to win, but never was ambitious enough for gold? Maybe never had the self-confidence to aim that high? Or that Victor made Yuri finally able to express aloud his pre-existing (maybe muffled) strong will to win? Then he says, "Truthfully, I wanted to win gold at last year's Grand Prix Final, too." So I guess...Yuri is saying that he always had a strong ambition to aim high, but it wasn't fully expressed until Victor boosted his self-confidence? Now we're getting all these flashbacks of Victor boosting Yuri's confidence, so that's a confirmation.

"I was able to come this far because Victor believed in me." And now we get an answer to Yuri's first line in his inner monologue: "I don't want them to think everything Victor's taught me has been a waste." So the thing Yuri feels that Victor taught him the most was belief in himself. Which is a nice call back to the opening theme's lyrics. ^-^

It's nice that Yurio is cheering for his rival to do well.

But I actually kind of like that Yuri messed up a little during the first half of his program. "Yuri on Ice" is supposed to represent his skating career, right? At the beginning, Yuri was making all these missteps because of his lack of self-confidence. So in the second half, which is supposed to express after Victor became his coach, it would be appropriate to show then, all the (bolstering) influences that Victor has had on Yuri.

It's funny. Yuri seems to preform better when he's huffy about something. Before, he was angry at Victor for not knowing that all he needed was for Victor to have more faith in him than Yuri had himself. Now he's huffy at the idea of Yurio demonstrating impressive stamina, when everyone keeps saying Yuri is supposed to be the one defined by stamina. "Idiot! I have more stamina than him!"

"Whether Victor were with me or not, it would still feel just as tough." "I'm the only one who can skate this program with this much appeal." I like when Yuri's inner monologe starts becoming more confident. ^_^ It's like when he first began to understand how to be in-character for his Eros program: His performance is going to suddenly become something amazing.

"I'm the one who loves this program victor and I made the most in the whole world!" There's a slight variation in the violins here that strikes well, while Yuri is thinking about his announced theme for the year: finding Strength through Love.

JJ is the only one not watching Yuri's performance. Even though everyone else is captivated by the 2nd half of his program. I wonder what that says about JJ and how it's going to be built upon later in the series. (Just saying he's self-centered is too easy. I mean, he is. But there can still be more than that.)

Aw, Yuri touched the ground. But the direction tried to deflate it with the side comments from Mila. "When you think of how it could've been with Victor here, you really want to see that, right?" This show keeps doing this thing every once in a while, where emotional response and anticipation from the audience are advocated as more important than technical performance. But it's hard for me to completely buy that, when so much more of the series (screentime) has been dedicated to showing them work out and practice so that they can nail the technical aspect. Only very rarely, like when Minami skated or Yuri skated during the all-Japan competition, did the series mention that enthralling the audience's emotions, as a performer, was more important than technical execution. Sure, they threw in Seung Gil to exemplify how technical merit without emotion can't win, but I don't think that theme was emphasized enough in relation to the whole sport or to contrast Yuri specifically. Yuri and Seung Gil only had 1 interaction so far: when Yuri was one of the few to see Seung Gil cry, while he passed by him. I don't know. As a sports anime, this show just isn't as effective for me. I still prefer to watch it as a character study. That, this series does well.

I wonder what Yakov would say if Yuri told him aloud that Victor's coaching style is just like Yakov's? LOL Maybe then Yakov might start to accept Victor as a coach instead of just "playing coach". At least Yakov knows Yuri never practiced for failed jumps because of Victor's old habit to do the same.

Aw! ^u^ Yuri is so huggy! ^.^!

"I'm no prince. I'm already a king!" Yeesh. Talk about a complete foil to Yuri's characteristic unconfidence!

And here we get that other layer besides the arrogance he's been superficially portrayed with so far. It's good to hear JJ thinking of his family, girlfriend, and country, while he skates.

"This isn't enough love!" So if JJ is Yuri's true foil in the series, and his definition of "love" is getting cheers from the audience...I guess that contrasts with Yuri expressing "love" as support from his closer circle of family and friends. Interesting. Let's see where this goes.

It's kind of weird how instantly enthusiastically Sala always jumps to any guy who isn't her brother. Says a lot about how much he smothered her. -.-;

"Is this a hugging competion?" Oh, Emil... ^_^ Poor Seung Gil and Yurio. LOL But I thought Yuri confirmed that he has progressed to the next stage, just barely above Mickey, because of he placed 2nd at the Cup of China. Why is he practically saying farewell to everyone, like he was the one leaving? ...Unless this shows his character growth, by Yuri saying "bye" to everyone else who isn't advancing, or rather, just everyone who shared this experience of the Rostelecom Cup with him. Saying bye more to the Rostelecom Cup, than to people? Maybe? Well, Victor did say to hug when he was stressed. ^o^ "I'm this close to the peak of my competitive figure skating career. I really want the gold now. The Grnad Prix Final will be my last chance." Yeesh. So final! So the hugging really was about Yuri thinking his career is near its end and he won't be able to be there again. o_o

End credits over the last scenes? A mid-season break for a short 12 episode series? o.o???

Aw, birthday pirozhki! ^.^ How does Yurio know Yuri's birthday? Is it on their official public stats? Wow, Yurio really is playing to the rival-friend motifs. Or maybe he just wants to see Yuri say that his grandfather's food is better than the Katsuki's? LOL Naw. It's even better. He just wanted to show off his grandfather's katsudon pirozhki to someone! Particularly to someone who knows a good katsudon. ^_^

Oh, good. The fluffy one survived.

There's the hug he really wanted.

Oh, don't say it's like a marriage proposal. In an airport? Do you know how cliche that is?! This is much better than that old cliche. ^-^ "I wish you'd never retire." Now that sounds more like a marriage proposal. ^_^

7:05 PM 3/7/2017 The problem I have with this show, is that I don't care about the characters---Well, until Yuri reappears on screen. I can't take my eyes off his performances. But the series takes so much screentime on other characters, that just haven't had the time for me to build any significant attachment to. So I find myself not caring.

The whole reason I've been postponing finishing this series, is because it takes so much time for me to write reactions and watch at the same time. But because I don't care enough for all these side characters (and caring about characters is *really* important to me, even more than plots), I didn't want to just zip through watching YOI without remembering my emotional reactions. If I didn't jot them down as they happened, then I know I'd look back on this series and not really care overall, because my horrible memory wouldn't remember being effected by this series. But I know I care about Yuri, and Victor is a lot of fun, so I don't want to finish this series, thinking that it was the same as if I didn't watch anything.

#md3 watches yuri on ice

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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Discover the History Behind the Anime Creators Going to Crunchyroll Expo!

Behind every anime is a team of people working their butts off to create something special. These teams are usually led by a Director, an Animation Director, a Character Designer, and even a CEO, producing from above, and at Crunchyroll Expo this year, you’ll be able to meet some of these elusive faces in panels or at signings, and you may even be able to ask them questions!

But even the most dedicated fan might not know every amazing name on our guest list. So, to get you prepared to meet these anime creators, let us go through and learn a little about each one!

Masahiro Suwa

Masahiro Suwa started out in the anime industry around 2003. At the time, he was under contract with Tanto, an anime outsourcing studio, for video inspection work and in-between animation. Suwa’s first credits were on anime series such as Honey and Clover and Happy Lesson: The Final. While at Tanto, Suwa has tasked with checking the in-betweens on Makoto Shinkai’s The Place Promised in Our Early Days film.

In September 2007, Tanto closed its doors. By this time, Suwa had become a key animator for the studio with his last credits for them being for anime series’ GR -GIANT ROBO- and Over Drive. After, Suwa worked closely with anime studio Xebec. Xebec had led the production on many shows that were outsourced to Tanto and when the studio folded, Suwa was given the opportunity to work on Xebec-led series and outsourced projects such as Kanokon and Evangelion 2.0 as a key animator and second key animator.

Suwa’s big break came as an animator director and key animator on the Manglobe produced series The World God Only Knows. He continued to work with Manglobe on a number of series as a key animator, such as Gangsta. and House of Five Leaves. During this time, Suwa also started working with Bones as a key animator, with credits on Bones-led series such as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and as an animator director on Blast of Tempest. Suwa worked his way up to become the chief animation director on Chaika –The Coffin Princess- and its sequel series.

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During the production of Under The Dog, Masahiro Suwa was asked to join Kinema Citrus as a key animator to work on the OVA. Since then, he’s helped out with the character designs on Made in Abyss, was one of the chief animation directors on Scorching Ping Pong Girls, and of course, was the character designer and chief animation director on The Rising of the Shield Hero.

You can find him at these events:

Live Drawing with The Rising of the Shield Hero character designer Masahiro Suwa Saturday August 31 at 10:15 AM (w/ producer Junichiro Tamura)

The Rising of the Shield Hero - Special Panel Sunday September 1 at 12 PM

Terumi Nishii

It wouldn’t be a surprise if you’ve never heard of Terumi Nishii, but she is an animator that has touched many famous works over the years. You’ll be surprised to find out that multiple anime series and movies share a special bond thanks to her.

Terumi Nishii’s first credits in the anime industry were usually found next to Studio Cockpit. After graduating from Osaka College of Design, she started working with Studio Cockpit as an in-betweener, with her first known credit being Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie. She was quickly promoted to a key animator position on Pilot Candidate and her career bloomed.

During her time at Studio Cockpit, Nishii racked in credits as a key animator on hit anime like Pokémon 3: The Movie, Angelic Layer, Initial D: Fourth Stage, Love Hina and many more.

After parting ways with Studio Cockpit, Ishii’s big break came on Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime, where she was the Chief Animation Director. During production, she was also an animation director and key animator on cult-classic MUSHI-SHI in 2005. She would return to the series nearly a decade later for MUSHI-SHI The Next Passage in the same roles, along with helping an assistant animation director and 2nd key animator for the episodes she wasn’t in a main role for.

At the start of her career, Nishii worked closely with Hisashi Kagawa, who took her under his wing alongside Mitsuko Baba. They all worked on Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie together and because of this and her love of the Utena franchise (of which she made doujinshi of), Nishii was asked by Kunihiko Ikuhara to create the character designs for Peguindrum.

Since then, Nishi has been the lead character designer and animation director on a number of works. These anime include Servant × Service, Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya, and part 4 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable.

You can find her at the following events:

Demonstration with Character Designer Terumi Nishii Friday August 30 at 1 PM

Animation Director & Character Designer Terumi Nishii Career Perspective Saturday August 31 at 2:25 PM

Live Demo with Animation Director & Character Designer Terumi Nishii Sunday September 1 at 11:15 AM

Yuzuru Tachikawa and Yoshimichi Kameda

It’s hard to talk about Yuzuru Tachikawa and Yoshimichi Kameda separately, as they’re a team that has threads of animation that lead back to episode 341 of Bleach. With Tachibana on direction and storyboard, and Kameda on animation, this super sakuga team have worked together on Death Parade, FLIP FLAPPERS, Kill la Kill, and the aforementioned Bleach. Their biggest hit to date though has been the jaw-dropping Mob Psycho 100.

But let’s turn back the clock a little and see where they came from, starting with Yuzuru Tachikawa. Tachikawa started out in the anime industry working for Madhouse in 2006. His first credit was for Kiba in setting production. He must have made a good impression because his first directorial credit was for the final episode of the same anime series.

Tachikawa’s final credit for Madhouse before moving onto freelancing was for Kobato. where he was an episode director and animation director on three episodes. Whilst freelancing, he was courted by Pierrot to work on Bleach. The first episode he's credited for on the shonen series was the May 2010 episode, “Ichigo Dies! Orihime, the Cry of Sorrow!”, the 271st episode of the series, as a storyboarder.

Obviously impressing the producers and directors on the long-running show, Tachikawa got his chance to direct his own episode the very next year, episode 319. Tachikawa’s work on Bleach is said to be what got him noticed by the anime industry at large and led to more and more projects.

One of these projects was directing episode 12 of Steins;Gate, a fan favourite episode of the series, along with being a storyboarder for episode 7 of Sword Art Online. But it wasn’t until a collaboration between Tachikawa and Madhouse for the Anime Mirai project that Tachikawa would be blasted into the stars. The collaboration turned into the original short anime film Death Billiards in 2013, which morphed into Death Parade in 2015, Tachikawa’s directorial debut. He is credited as the original creator, along with storyboarding and being a unit director on the show's banger of an OP.

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This industry clout let Tachikawa work on some of the biggest projects of the decade. This included working closely with Shinichiro Watanabe on Terror in Resonance as a storyboarder, episode director, assistant director and many more roles in the hit show. Tachikawa also worked on Yuri!! on ICE, Lupin the Third - The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, One-Punch Man and the biggest Detective Conan film of all time, Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer.

After being popular within the industry for over a decade, Tachikawa’s mainstream popularity came from best-boy series, Mob Psycho 100. Tachikawa worked closely with Kameda to craft one of the most visually appealing series ever created. With Tachikawa on direction, storyboard and overall looking over the series, and Kameda on character design and all the animation roles, together they created a show that goes beyond 100%.

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Yoshimichi Kameda, on the other hand, is an animator at heart. After not being accepted for a job at Studio Ghibli as an animator, Kameda went on to a vocational school wanting to study more than just animation and hone his skills. On that front, he failed. At school, he mostly created animations, using cuts from Gainax series as references. His love for the company and the people who started Gainax grew and when Kameda graduated from vocational school, he applied to be an animator at Gainax.

Kameda applied three times to the studio by sending them a giant box of his creations from school. The boxes were returned to Kameda all three times, with the second returned box having a note that read “At this time, we’re really sorry…”

Not being dismayed, Kameda applied for the studio AIC as they worked closely with Gainax as an outsource studio on their projects. This led to his first credits being for video work on Pumpkin Scissors and in-between animation for Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy. During his time working for AIC, Kameda wasn’t able to fully flex his animations muscles – even if he did get to work on Gainax’s Gurren Lagann – and moonlighted under a pen name.

This pen name let him work as a key animator on Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, where he caught the keen eye of Bones producers and was asked to freelance at the studio as a key animator. Since then, Kameda has been able to soar through the anime industry. He’s moved up the ranks to become a character designer and animation director on projects such as Paroru no Miraijima and Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Treasure Island, has worked as an action animation director on One-Punch Man, and was even a guest alien designer on Space Dandy Season 2.

Kameda was finally granted his wish to work with the superstar animators of Gainax Past when he was asked to be a key animator on Hiroyuki Imashi’s Kill la Kill at Trigger and Hideaki Anno’s Evangelion 3.0 at Khara. I wonder if they remembered his giant box?

You can find both industry legends at the following panels at CRX:

Mob Psycho 100 II OVA Premiere Saturday August 31 at 4 PM

Mob Psycho 100 Director Yuzuru Tachikawa Career Perspective Sunday September 1 at 10:30 AM

Mob Psycho 100 Character Designer Yoshimichi Kameda Career Perspective Sunday September 1 at 12 PM

So, who are you interested to meet this weekend? Let us know down below!

>>> Get your tickets for Crunchyroll Expo now!

------------

Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs the YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza and posts photo of his travels on Instagram.

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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