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go listen to the famous hatsune miku if you are so angry

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anybody on this website ever hear about ken ueno

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out of respect for my personal hero and inspiration, the procrastination witch, i decided to wait until a week after the new seasons started airing to post anything about it

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any info on your next EP?

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interesting translation choice

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holy shit look at this car

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please join the O M N I B A L L club

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thank you tanaka

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hugtto #33 marks the long awaited return of haruka kamatani, both to precure, not having worked on the franchise since gopri, and in general, as this is her first credit since the end of tiger mask last year. admittedly, my exposure to work is pretty limited at this point, but between her presence on kyousougiga, her general reputation as an exceptional talent as well as rie matsumoto’s most direct successor within toei, and both junichi sato and yuta tanaka enthusiastically promoting her work in advance of the episode airing, it was pretty easy to set my expectations high, and they were met

before digging too deeply into the visuals, i do want to point out series lead writer fumi tsubota’s role; she’s made sure to directly handle the script of this episode and all the previous henri episodes, and theres a commitment to doing something with the character that makes each new episode that builds on that foundation feel really special and exciting; its one of the best things in a show with a lot of best things. in particular, the conversation between emiru and henri this episode was incredibly thoughtful, saying just enough to be heartwrenching and heartfelt without belaboring the point. excellent stuff

my initial impression of the episode following a first watch was of that delicacy, but rewatching it to prepare for this post its clear how much kamatani decided to underscore that tenderness with grandeur, and we’re all very fortunate that she’s good enough to make it work so well

her clear penchant for dramatic hand imagery, the sweeping changes to the color of a scene to reflect shifts in tone and emotion, the retroactively conspicuous recurring shots of the back of henri’s legs before the show makes it clear its trying to tell us something with that, the sweeping, dramatic framing that at times took my breath away; kamatani’s storyboard is the intricacies of tsubota’s script writ large and infused with a tenderness and playfulness that makes the episode soar; every bit as eager to drop some characters being goofy in the background as it is to center closeness and intimacy between the characters 

the final result is enchanting; its just a really excellent episode of anime and i can’t stop thinking about it and i can’t wait to see what kamatani does next

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if you pay me i will

in theory i could use the excuse of “shares staff with precure” to talk about basically any anime but i promise to only use this power for good and never evil

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in theory i could use the excuse of “shares staff with precure” to talk about basically any anime but i promise to only use this power for good and never evil

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going to take a brief detour to talk about an entirely different show (and also franchise) for some words about aikatsu friends #23 (if akira takahashi gets to work on both hugtto and aifriends then i get to post about aikatsu episodes i like on my precure blog)

the episode is directed, storyboarded, and written by takahiko kyogoku, a director whose previous works you may well have heard of, but i think the episode on its own stands as a testament to his talent and the sort of sincerity he can bring out when given the opportunity

beyond kyogoku’s strong abilities to stage and frame a shot, what really stood out to me here is the consistent attention to lighting; its no coincidence how frequently maika is lit from behind while her face is comparatively shadowed in an episode about her worrying about falling behind the people around her and letting everyone she cares about down, especially not in contrast to the later scene between her and ema where she begins to resolve her worries; the overcast weather creates a defined lack of that element in the scene helps signify her refocusing on that relationship and what it means to her

its a fairly simple trick, but it establishes a clear visual language that the episode manages to pay off on. its just really kind anime about girls caring about each other, and thats something i’ll always be here for

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smile precure #19 (storyboarded and directed by munehisa sakai, animation directed by ken ueno) isn’t particularly breaking new ground for precure in its subject manner; theres been a handful of episodes across previous series about grieving and loss and trying to remember somebody who’s been gone for a long time, so it falls on sakai’s storyboard to truly set this episode apart, and i feel that he succeeds admirably

somber shots of empty environments set the tone, and the art team arrives in full force to back it up, giving us lots of striking bits of background art, and the focus on emptiness and stillness is complemented by an much more sedate pace than usual, the camera lingering on single angles for quite some time as we see characters move through their environments and daily routines with a well accustomed ease or rain pooling on plants, both animated with the same level of care. this combined with a clear understanding of volume and depth throughout the episode create something that feels special and looks unlike every episode of smile that came before it

which isn’t to say that the whole episode is quiet reflection; when the time for the weekly fight arrives, the technique that characterized the first half of the episode is put to great use, resulting in something that is at once engaging and easily readable (and with some excellent work from yuuichi hamano and kenji miuma)

i can’t say that i found no fault with the episode though; ultimately i feel like the script struggles (and ultimately fails) to find a conclusion to yayoi’s reflection about her father that lives up to what the episode sets up. the final sequence does some clever recontextualization of the repeated visual ideas that pop up throughout, but im not sure its enough to make it entirely work for me? still an episode that’s very impressive on its own merits though 

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returning to the precuresplashstar favorite pastime of “ken ueno appreciation” with smile #9; his distinctive linework and knack for expression do a lot to carry an episode that could have felt much flatter in his absence

which of course isn’t to say that longtime toei employee hiroki shibata’s storyboard is without its strengths;  the escalation of yayoi’s inner monologue and imagination as her april fools joke spirals out of control is fun, but i think it very much relies on an animation director like ueno to work as well as it does

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A Place Further than the Universe (2018)