Akiyuki Shinbo in the Early 2000s [Dissecting SHAFT Prologue]

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Akiyuki Shinbo in the 90s [Part 2]

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Akiyuki Shinbo in the 90s [Part 1]

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On the Fourth Day of Kurisumasu My Imouto Gave to Me: Shinboliciousness From Dance in the Vampire Bund Episode 7

Dance in the Vampire Bund was very much a mixed bag, and a confusing one at that. Episodes ranged from interesting to seemingly pointless, and the production quality was all over the place. And yet, that’s easily forgiven because the direction and animation of Shinbo/SHAFT gave it a unique and worthwhile quality that made it a memorable experience. No matter how “flawed” it was, it’s still a show I can see myself rewatching in the future since there’s nothing else quite like it. Plus, it had one of Yuuki Aoi’s best performances to date.

The Oonuma Shin Brand of OP/ED

Warnings for this post: there’ll be a lot of youtube embeds, and to get the point of the post, you’ll have to watch most of them. This post features some presumptuousness on my part; I’m going to say things like “this is Oonuma’s doing” or “this is Shinbo’s doing” or “you can see Shinbo’s influence on Oonuma here”—obviously, I can’t prove any of this to be true, as I’ve never met Shinbo nor Oonuma. This information is what I personally believe to be true, but you should formulate your own opinions based on the evidence.

I have a distinct mental image of Oonuma Shin and Shinbo Akiyuki as directors, and of SHAFT as a studio. Each has a definitive and irreversible influence on the others, and tracing whose original ideas are whose could very well be impossible. However, I have a lot of fun imagining all the guys at SHAFT as they come up with ideas to put into each new show. I also have a helpful device that makes this post possible—Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, the first show that Oonuma directed away from Studio SHAFT. I already know what Shinbo is like away from the studio, so now I feel I have a pretty good sense of what each of the three parties contributes to the work they’re involved in.

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The Maturing Shinbogasm: Bakemonogatari—Dance in the Vampire Bund

Dance in the Vampire Bund is a showcase of Shinbo’s maturing as a director. His career has followed a strange and interesting path up until now, and hit a sort of new stride in 2009’s Bakemonogatari before leveling out into Bund.

Say it with me: "SHINNNNNNBOOOOOOO!!!"

Responding to Some Amazing Hidamari Sketch Posts by Cuchlann (Part 2)

(Part 1) On the title: long and silly story short, this is a response to a post by Cuchlann, not a post by 8c. Anyway, everything I said last time about taking too long to post on Hidamari, other people got there first, blah blah, only this post is about a year old and only surfaced to me now. Well, let’s open it up!

Responding To Some Amazing Hidamari Sketch Posts by 8c (Part 1)

One of the greatest sins of my blogging career has been that I’ve never properly posted about Hidamari Sketch (and similarly, one of the greatest sins of my anime-watching career has been that I never watched any of it past the first season/read more than 1 volume of the manga) – Both of those in spite of considering it one of my alltime favorite anime, it having formally introduced me to favorite director Akiyuki Shinbo, and it being a large part of re-introducing me to anime. Well, you know what they say, the early bird catches the worm – I kept my mouth closed so long that someone else spoke out before me, and now I’m actually glad that I never said anything, because 8c knocked it out of the fucking park!

Lighting in Bakemonogatari Episode 1: A Tribute to VOFAN?

Hey that looks kinda like...

When Bakemonogatari started, a lot of praise was given to the show’s spectacular background art, not so much because of the detail or style of the backgrounds, but because of the extensive lighting techniques. Some people have commented on the way that Bakemonogatari would not have been possible without modern technology, and many see it as a bridge into the future of what anime will look like. Of course, it being a SHAFT anime, most of the series doesn’t quite live up to the splendor of the first episode, but there’s something I feel the need to point out: I think there’s a good reason that this in particular was the show to use those new techniques on, and that reason was VOFAN.

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu is Shin Oonuma's Redemption (Episode 2)

Yes, please.

When people talk about anime made by studio SHAFT, they often toss around the name of it’s chief director, Akiyuki Shinbo. After all, Shinbo’s influence as a director has the biggest effect on the creativity of SHAFT anime, as proven by the fact that his style has largely been retained from his time before going to SHAFT. However, a lot of people give him too much credit, when SHAFT is more like a body with singular goals with him at the head, rather than him dominating the creative influence. Shin Oonuma would have been proof of this. Oonuma is one of the important members of SHAFT, who co-directed Pani Poni Dash, along with other SHAFT anime. Oonuma got his personal directorial debut with 2007’s amazing ef ~a tale of memories~, but somehow, his influence was overshadowed.