Yeah. The last solo episode I saw was Hiroshi Tomioka's episode of Ookami-san (#2) (solo key animation that is).
As for Hironori Tanaka, afaik he hasn't directed anything (other than his Blaz Blue game opening). The closest to that would probably be Ookami-san episode 3, which he storyboarded and was animation director for (as well as some key animation).
Ookami-san was an interesting series from an animation perspective!
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Anonymous2011-01-24 3:38
>>121
Ookami-san, huh...I never did pick up that show, but I did hear of Tanaka's work in episode 3. I also remember seeing a bit of his and Tomioka's work in some MADs I watched. But I fear that the show was inconsistent in terms of the animation and direction...
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Anonymous2011-01-24 16:46
>>118
Tanaka did actually two solo episodes so far. They are not exactly stellar ones, mostly because of the shows itself, but if you want to see more of his usual style they got all of that, though in small quantities. Anyway, he storyboarded and drew all of the keys for Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka's episode 3 and School Days' episode 6. Both episodes have their fair share of good cuts, particularly Akane-iro, and a strong and effective storyboard. However, I wouldn't watch them completely only for Tanaka's episodes, the payout is simply too small considering the rest of those shows and just making it past the first two episodes is a difficult enough challenge.
And yeah, Ookami 3 did have more key animators aside of him but since he was also the key animation supervisor and storyboarder it does overall have the feel of his work. I was actually under the impression it was a solo episode until I took a look at the credits.
>>120
Episode 7 of Tatami was a Mihara Michio episode. Though it certainly did have a different flavour than usual. I expected a crazy and fast episode, especially in a show like Tatami, yet it was almost the complete reversal being more subtle and low key.
Why not just watch those episodes and ignore the rest of the show? I do that shit all the time: I do it with Naruto, I do it with One Piece, I did it with Soul Eater, I did it with Heroman and probably with a bunch of other stuff. I'll be honest with you guys: when watching TV anime, I just skip all of the badly directed or animated, dull episodes. I have no time to watch boring shit that is both badly written and badly animated, which describes most TV anime.
Don't know if it was animated by Horiguchi or not but they animation style looks like her.
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Anonymous2011-01-25 3:46
>>123
>Episode 7 of Tatami was a Mihara Michio episode
So he did have a solo episode somewhere in there. He's had a solo episode since Kemonozume, so it seems he likes doing those and Yuasa likes to give them to him. I was actually thinking of episode 3 of TG since Mihara was also there, but he had Yasunori Miyazawa and Shingo Yamashita with him, if I recall correctly.
>>124
Believe me, I'd like to do the same, but since I'm a completionist at heart, I'm a little reluctant. I did watch that Naruto x Uniqlo special though, and it was fun. It was great seeing Matsumoto, Matsutake and Hiroyuki Yamashita do their thing in 6 minutes.
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Anonymous2011-01-25 3:48
>>123
>Episode 7 of Tatami was a Mihara Michio episode
So he did have a solo episode somewhere in there. He's had a solo episode since Kemonozume, so it seems he likes doing those and Yuasa likes to give them to him. I was actually thinking of episode 3 of TG since Mihara was also there, but he had Yasunori Miyazawa and Shingo Yamashita with him, if I recall correctly.
>>124
Believe me, I'd like to do the same, but since I'm a completionist at heart, I'm a little reluctant. I did watch that Naruto x Uniqlo special though, and it was fun. It was great seeing Matsumoto, Matsutake and Hiroyuki Yamashita do their thing in 6 minutes.
Nice to know that, thanks. I thought he hadn't done any solo episodes. I might have to watch those episodes, and skip the rest of them, as >>124 recommends. His storyboard for Ookami #3 was truly impressive, to my mind.
I think Ookami-san is truly worth watching. I enjoyed it for the characters as well as the animation. Actually, aside from Tanaka and Tomioka, Aoi Saya's episode #9 was really great. It was definitely above average for JC Staff, that's for sure.
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Anonymous2011-01-25 6:41
I just watched Star Driver 16 and liked what I saw! Anyone else seen it yet? Do you have any comments on the animation? I wrote up this:
Sakuga thread conclusions on Star Driver #16 (in order of occurrence):
First half of the circus: Fujii Shingo
Second half of the circus: Muraki Yasushi
The clash between the two mecha: Tomioka Hiroshi
Tauburn transformation: Ootsuka Ken (confirmed from his twitter)
Conclusion to the battle (after the 19min mark): Tanaka Hironori
>>129
So, I did get it right, except for Ootsuka and the first half of the Circus. I was thinking the circus was done solely by Muraki, and I didn't know where to place Ootsuka.
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Anonymous2011-01-25 8:39
I dunno how you guys can spot people's styles like that. I can sort of spot basic ones, usually from animators with very distinct styles.
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Anonymous2011-01-25 8:45
>>132
Some of it is just pure guesswork. Some MADs even make mistakes about that. But those guys with very distinct approaches are very easy to spot, even if sometimes they're corrected.
One of Ohira's bits in Howl's was corrected, but you still know it's his work.
It's funny seeing Ken Ootsuka's cut in the FMA movie after just talking about him! He had such a minor cut in that movie haha. It's going to be really interesting to see what BONES' current generation of animators can do for the Brotherhood movie. I'm hoping for something special from Yoshimichi Kameda.
TV-anime usually makes things easier than movies or OVAs, particularly certain studios. Bones really fosters individual styles, so they're usually fairly easy to pick. This week's Star Driver was helped by Ken Ootsuka's twitter posts, because he named his own part, and also said when Shingo and Yasushi were appearing. There was some uncertainty on Shingo's part still.
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Anonymous2011-01-26 2:19
If the animation director is really trigger-happy when it comes to correcting drawings, then it could be quite difficult picking out specific cuts. Fortunately some ADs don't really correct stuff heavily in some movies, like Ken'ichi Konishi's job in Tokyo Godfathers. It also depends on the specific style of the animator. That's why it's really pointless correcting a shot by Shinya Ohira.
Coincidentally, Konishi will also be AD for that new FMA movie...
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Anonymous2011-01-26 12:00
Ghibli movies tend to adhere to a strict and uniform art style. But then we've been having many late night anime where key animators are given free reign to express their talents. It just comes down to the people in charge.
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Anonymous2011-01-26 12:31
>>137
It seems as if Miyazaki does every design in his own movies. The fact that Takahata can't draw helps his movies find a little distinction.
>>139
I haven't watched that yet, but I heard Satoru Utsunomiya did some uncredited work on there.Well he should be easy enough to spot.
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Anonymous2011-01-27 10:01
Looks like Utsunomiya did do some work on that short, if I'm not mistaken.
The part where the boy was playing guitar until the part where the girl drops some coins into the can and the other scene where the MC stands up from the bench looks eerily like his work.
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Anonymous2011-01-27 10:10
So Atsushi Nishigori is directing Idol Master anime.
I'm really surprised to see Touko Takao's name in the staff list.
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Anonymous2011-01-27 11:06
>Touko Takao
Wow, looking him up on ANN, he seems to be a KyoAni exclusive. Though I hear its A1 Production who are animating the new Idolmaster show.
Yes and it's very unusual for KyoAni's director like her to work in an anime by another studio especially in an important position like a series director(シリーズ演出, the same position as Yamakan in Haruhi 2006).
I'm curious that is she still with KyoAni or not.
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Anonymous2011-01-27 12:42
Wait, Takao is a woman? woah. Then again, not surprising, KyoAni hire a lot of female animators than other studios.
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Anonymous2011-01-27 17:22
It seems like there's a good chance she has left KyoAni because just having her go out and do one show as series director is so unusual for that studio. Hopefully we'll find that out soon.
They've really picked two staff here from other studios with a lot of potential (IMO). Interesting having two chief animation directors too.
And you're right, I actually went and checked. For some reason I could've sworn he wasn't a series director, not sure where I got that into my head.
Often series directors are credited as シリーズディレクター too, such as for SHAFT shows, which all seem to have series directors now.
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Anonymous2011-01-27 21:49
The staff for Idolmaster is weird:
Director and Character Design: Atsushi Nishigori (P&S S2 is rumored to be coming, he is character designer)
Series Director: Touko Takao (KyoAni-exclusive director)
Chief Animation Director: Iizuka Haruko (Tamayura is starting soon, she is character designer and Chief Animation Director) and Takata Akira (Natsume S3 is rumored to be coming, he is character designer and Chief Animation Director)
I know it is authentic, but it's still weird. I wouldn't expect this people to meet each other, at least not now.
I enjoyed Working, both on an animation level and it made me laugh too.
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Anonymous2011-01-30 21:31
On the topic of Working!!, I noticed the brief discussion earlier in the thread (when I wasn't around). People were saying the scene in #13 was rotoscoped (traced-over), which seems like a strange thing to say. That cut was done by Shin Wakabayashi, who is very adept at human motion, and it's just his usual style.
The detailed cut decomposition of the Working OP is a pleasant surprise (would like to see official twitter posts like that more often), but didn't reveal much worth talking about.
Also, has anyone seen Fractale 2 yet? It was surprisingly animated. The first scene with Nessa is a great example. Full of small movements that really brang her character to life. I'm looking forward to seeing Ordet's contributions..
Also, agreed with you about Fractale.
I think its animation has KyoAni-ish feel to it but the movement is not as detailed as KyoAni's animation, though.