Animation Appreciation Thread #3

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

Animation Blogs [Eng]:
http://www.pelleas.net/aniTOP/
http://aninomiyako.wordpress.com/

Animation Twitters [Eng]:
http://twitter.com/raito_kun
http://twitter.com/Duune99
http://twitter.com/kyouray
http://twitter.com/catsuka

Previous threads:
#1 http://dis.4chan.org/read/anime/1291816034
#2 http://dis.4chan.org/read/anime/1314681601

I want to move away from using the term "Sakuga" as it often alienates people and can be misleading. There has been a bit of backlash against the Sakuga movement lately, and I'd like to think many people come to this thread to talk about the animation and visual aspect of anime, which is something that often gets overlooked elsewhere. It would be nice if we could get a wider appreciation of visuals in the anime fandom without being seen as elitists.

>>776
>>777
The Doremi style is still quite different. You can see the difference clearly in Heartcatch when some of the animators who were working with Umakoshi on Doremi already fall back to those kind of drawings. Doremi is overall still in line with the general Toei character designs of the late 90s. All the animators who became character designers at Toei during that time share lots of similarities (Fun Fun Phamacy, Yume Crayon and all those kind of series) and that also applies to Umakoshi's work on Doremi, Kasumin and even Jubei-chan. I'm not exactly familar with Toei's older history, perhaps it's the influence of Tadano Kazuko?

The most distinctive change in Umakoshi's style was probably his work on Mushiking, then he followed up with Casshern where he kind of added Himeno/Araki's style in terms of drawings and dynamic to his already own well established style, creating those nostalgic designs in the aftermath.

Mushiking also marks generally a change in Umakoshi's work as animator. He always had that kind of "artsy" style both in layout and drawings but I perceive Mushiking as the one which had most radical change in overall tone.

I also think that Umakoshi and Yamauchi really complement one another, this really hit me when watching Yumekui Merry 1&11 and Peguindrum 18 but that is something that probably harks back to Hana Yori Dango already.

And. This has to be said. Mushiking is probably the most overlooked show in the west aside of Kasumin and Doremi, it's such a shame since all three are really wonderful and feature lots of unexpected and fun animation and are generally nice to watch.