Sakuga Thread #1

So here's an attempt at to get some long term Sakuga discussion going here.

Some Links:
The Sakuga Wiki [JP] - http://www18.atwiki.jp/sakuga/
ANN - http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/

English Sakuga Blogs:
http://aninomiyako.wordpress.com/
http://www.pelleas.net/aniTOP/

English Sakuga Twitters:
http://twitter.com/raito_kun
http://twitter.com/Duune99
http://twitter.com/kyouray
http://twitter.com/catsuka

To start things off, here's a Summer Wars MAD with Key animator's listed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpoHxWV3IG0

>>80

The japs were indeed talking about this thread in the 2channel sakuga thread. Briefly.

>>81
Oh really? Now I'm curious--not that I could understand moon.

From what I could gather there was one guy who was really angry and annoyed were were talking about Sakuga. "How dare English people talk about Sakuga!"

>79
Oh hey there! Nice of you to join our little thread. Feel free to comment and share anything you like.

>>83
Somehow I'm not really surprised by that behavior. A shame, really, since we could have some mutual learning going on or something. Oh well, that guy saying Yutaka Nakamura is the cancer killing Bones made me chuckle at least.

Do you know "Kannagi"?
Awesome Anime.

http://www.freenewjapanime.com/_vti_pvt/?p=133

>>83

I'll post a lot, hope this thread builds momentum.

Genga list for Madoka Magica 3

原画：

阿部厳一朗　松本元気　阿部望　伊藤岳史　栗田聡美
見嶋梨香　小川浩司　細山正樹　沓名健一　木宮亮介
鈴木幸江　飯島弘也

岡林愛　飯田恵理子　山元浩　西崎亜希　藤原麻記子
三橋桜子　松林祥世　永富浩司

渋谷英樹　羽坂秀則　麻奥愛佳　北村友幸　斉藤大輔
清水智子　福山映二　武内孝太

Some notable names:

Iijima Hiroya,
Kutsuna Kenichi
Itou Takeshi
Abe Nozomu
Abe Genichirou (SHAFT regular, did great work on Soredemo last season)

This was the highlight cut from the episode for me:

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/6060/1295555349416.gif

I wonder whose part this was? Abe Nozomu?

I still feel Madoka lacks any kind of coherent sense of art direction. And the draftsmanship feels cheap as fuck, but without the appealing roughness of Birdy.

Also, I wasn't here for the P&S 13 discussion, but I will still put in my two cents: the art direction and storyboarding were better than the animation, or rather: the art direction and storyboarding called so much attention to themselves that the animation was completely overwhelmed by how good the overall visual composition was.

That just proves that even kinda average animation can be made to look awesome by excellent storyboards. Storyboards are the skeleton of any production, anyway.

Madoka doesn't feel very unified to me as of yet. That makes the transition from the ordinary setting into magical stylization rough. Unappealingly rough.

http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/aucimg/2/1/3/5/0000562135.jpeg
http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/aucimg/2/1/3/7/0000562137.jpeg
http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/aucimg/2/1/3/8/0000562138.jpeg

http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/aucimg/4/0/6/6/0000544066.jpeg
http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/aucimg/4/0/6/8/0000544068.jpeg
http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/aucimg/4/0/6/9/0000544069.jpeg

http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/aucimg/1/8/8/7/0000531887.jpeg
http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/aucimg/1/8/8/9/0000531889.jpeg
http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/aucimg/1/8/9/0/0000531890.jpeg

http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/aucimg/9/8/4/4/0000529844.jpeg
http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/aucimg/9/8/4/6/0000529846.jpeg
http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/aucimg/9/8/4/7/0000529847.jpeg

>>87

I'm curious as to how you would think Madoka looks cheap. The drawings are on-model pretty well all the time and the framerate is good enough where it matters.


On another note, anyone seen Yumekui Merry 3 yet? The animation was horrible quality, which is a shame after the excellent fight animation in 1 and 2. Such a cheap episode.

The art design in the dream was good again though. Not enough to rescue the episode from a production perspective.

>>90
I really wouldn't go into a JC Staff show expecting solid animation at the quality of Merry #2 anyway...It's pretty much Yamauchi's directing and Kenji Matsumoto's excellent background work that carries the show, at least for me.

>>87
cool story bro

>Abe Genichirou (SHAFT regular, did great work on Soredemo last season)

I loved SoreDemo, I felt the art was much nicer and had a good warm feeling to it compared to Arakawa x2 which most people seemed to be focussed on. While Arakawa was funny, the art felt more 'clinical' to me.

Anyway, I'm probably a minority here but I've been watching Masami Obari's SRW anime and while the animation probably doesn't stand up to the likes of Gainax or BONES, I do feel it still has a lot of energy put into it. Obari has gathered many of his friends from the industry, like Masahiro Yamane, Kabashima Yousuke and Oogomori Yukihito. With a few episodes featuring KeyAnimation from the likes of Takahiro Kimura and Akira Amemiya.

Though what I found interesting was he got Katoki Hajime and Kotobuki Tsukasa to do some key animation work. Why this is interesting is because both of them are not animators, they usually work as mecha designers(and characters for Kotobuki).

While Obari is the chief director, he's storyboarded and directed some episodes himself, and even done some key animation work along the way (1,8,15). I guess this is a perk coming from the art side of animation production as a director can work on the animation himself compared to someone whose only work on the planning or writing side of production.

I just simply love the style of Obari action scenes and the posing he makes. A MAD of some of his works - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK5zbc4d-hU

>>87

I agree that sometimes the character animation and the Gekidan Inu-Curry's stuff doesn't mix well, it's not that they are different artstyles but I think it is more like there is a disconnection of the works, like they worked on them without a correct direction to bode them together well in the final stages of production. I don't know how to put it correctly because my english vocabulary is not very good, but I think it is strange, and I don't know if it is SHAFT intention or not.

>>94
There's hardly any glue that binds the opposing approaches together, is what you're saying, isn't it?

I have no problem with the animation in general, but my only reservation is the transition.

>>95 here

I'm not >>87 by the way.

>>95

Yeah! Something like that. For the record I will say that I like the approach they have made with the art direction, it is only that it seems a little off made sometimes, nothing more.

>>97
I was having the same reservations myself. I also like what they're trying to do with the stylistic approach to the action scenes, but the shift from the ordinary anime aesthetic feels a bit rough around the edges.

Youtube Channel - Kazuyoshi Yaginuma
http://www.youtube.com/user/Highway65Star?feature=mhum

>>94

The problem is that Gekidan Inu Curry's animation and design work is too good and that Shaft's ugly cheapness only looks uglier compared to it.

>>90
>The drawings are on-model pretty well all the time

Not at all. Do you really want me to post screenshots that exemplify how 99% of the time they all look like ass?

>>100

Gekidan Inu Curry can do some really cool stuff, but just because they're "different" for using cut-out animation doesn't make them inherently good. And their stuff for Madoka doesn't fit well, because their art choices are too ridiculous for the tone of the show.

>Not at all. Do you really want me to post screenshots that exemplify how 99% of the time they all look like ass?

I've only noticed a couple of off-model drawings, so if you do think you can prove it then go ahead. Madoka has had a strong lineup of animators so far.

>>91

Yeah but the animation in 3 is well below even their standard, and you've gotta have Yamauchi accept at least some of the blame for that. Good layouts can only go so far..

>>101

A strong line-up of animators doesn't save Shaft's poor clean-up and draftsmanship and flat, cheap-looking post-processing.

Here is the /a/ thread with the Madoka QUALITY, BTW:

http://boards.4chan.org/a/res/45058839

>>103

Generally I agree, and I don't like Shaft. But I'm willing to overlook a few poor drawings if they can provide really good animators for the action cuts. And I don't think the crappy drawings are that pervasive.

So far I think Madoka is coming along well.

>>86

Guess that part was Genichirou Abe (though it's not confirmed at all). It was the only cut that matches his high-profile talent.

>>102
I watched the episode a few hours ago, and I agree that it really does look way substandard. Well, there were only 4 or so key animators in it, iirc, and a whole lot more animation directors. Maybe it just got caught in scheduling problems.

Yuki Yukie was one of two background artists in #3, which had very cool art...She and Matsumoto are awesome.

>>107

Not sure where you heard that, because there were 16 key animators, just not any good ones and probably running at a tight schedule, as you say (but there weren't extra animation directors).

http://wiki.livedoor.jp/radioi_34/d/%cc%b4%b6%f4%a4%a4%a5%e1%a5%ea%a1%bc

(the best resource for episode staff)

>>108
Well, I was watching it at 4 am, so maybe I just misread them. Thanks for the correction though.

Heartcatch Precure 48:

-Two major character deaths
-Almost no recycled animation.
-10 minutes of continuous action sequences
-Animation by Umakoshi, Hironori Tanaka, Naotoshi Shida, Ken Ootsuka and pretty much everyone worth mentioning in Toei.

Both episodes 48 and 49, the final episodes, are Umakoshi episodes.

Some gifs from the Heartcatch episode

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/2131/1295785897810.gif
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/698/1295785878317.gif
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/9417/1295785613372.gif
http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/8549/1295786142975.gif
http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/9991/1295785835901.gif

And this week's Star Driver mecha action was also impressive.

From Twitter:
@liborek3: Some great action on today's Star Driver by Hiroshi Tomioka, Yasushi Muraki and Hironori Tanaka.

@liborek3: Just watched it. Yasushi Muraki probably did the Itano Circus part, Hiroshi Tomioka the swordfight right after it. Tanaka the final attack.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/948/1295804724738.gif
http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/310/1295804996778.gif

Yasuomi Umetsu
http://yasuomiumetsu.web.fc2.com/

>>110
>>112

Two great sakuga episodes right there!

Whats crazy is that Hironori Tanaka is everywhere.

He's working for BONES on Star Driver.
He's working for Toei on PreCure.
He's working for SHAFT on Madoka.
He's working for JC Staff for Yu-Merry

Anywhere else he's managed to pop up lately? The guy is landing work left right and centre.

Hironori Tanaka has been involved in a lot of shows at the same time for a few seasons now. Because he doesn't really do anything but high-profile cuts any more he ends up working on many different anime.

He's probably working on the FMA:B at the moment too.

Its nice he works on so many shows, but I'd like to see him in charge of a show's animation and bring it to life with his own flavour. So far all he's been doing is working off other people's works.

Has Tanaka ever done a solo episode? If not, then he needs to have one. I'm guessing part of the reason he's everywhere is that he mainly works on signature action cuts/OPs/EDs and I guess also his speed.

>>118

he could probably pull of a solo episode, but his talents are better spent on important action cuts and OPs.

It would be interesting to see though. I wonder if he will eventually move on to directing, like many animators. I actually hope he doesn't because he would definitely lead a void.

>>119
True, it will be interesting to watch at least, if only because full solo episodes are rare nowadays. I don't recall whether Michio Mihara did have his own solo in Tatami Galaxy, but he's one of the few who does solos every now and then.

Didn't he direct a few anime episodes in the past? Maybe he does plan on moving up. A few animators don't want to go into directing, but it's only because they're animators to the core. Let's just hope he's one of those.