#animeoctober

[shungi23]

Dakaretai Otoko Ichii ni Odosarete Imasu PV3 They are so hot!!😍😍😍😏😏😏 damn !!!!! We are just at 2 days!!!

[atomicpowered]

(Day 31)

Now Y’all KNOW. You all /know/ how much I love mob psycho. As much as there’s many other anime made for me on this list Mob Psycho is the culmination of many of these concepts and trends I enjoy in one singular adaption of ONE’s manga. Just to lay it out Mob Psycho 100 is one of the best adaptions of a manga or other source I’ve ever seen. The amount of love the staff put into this project streams out from it at every angle. 

If somehow you’ve not watched this anime or read the manga yet (basically a crime) Mob Psycho 100 is the work of mangaka ONE who did the story and art. Unlike the other manga he’s much more famous for One Punch Man there was no adaption of this one by crazy good artist Yusuke Murata. This, among other things ends up working out really great for the mob anime. It’s my opinion that the OPM anime fails to capture how great Murata’s art is and because of the constraints of the TV anime world they end up falling a little flat in some respects. Still the OPM anime is pretty great, with it’s nice directing, very super hero color palette and silky animation cuts in basically every episode. It even just got announced for a season 2! Surprising nobody as it hit world wide acclaim, the anime breaking records, the manga one of the best sold in America as well as Japan. But Mob smashes the hell out of OPM (which I still love to death). Because Mob does not have the very detailed and drafted Murata art we end up getting an anime that isn’t afraid to use ‘uglier’ styles of cuts to get the acting across.

 The simple designs of the original manga transfer excellently to the screen, bones just enhancing them. 

although I honestly can’t tell the difference??? :^)

For a quick plot run down Shigeo is a young boy in high school, called Mob by his mentor “best psychic” and general malcontent Reigen Arataka (mob literally meaning a ‘mob character’ i.e. someone in the background with no characteristics) he tries quite hard in school but ends up bullied and tossed to the side anyway. 

Although Shigeo does have something that sets him apart from the other Mob-like characters, he’s is the wielder of an intensely powerful psychic power. But it’s something that ends up giving him no shortage of grief as even with this power he’s bad at everything else in his life and just desperately wants to make friends and live a normal high school life. Because of this power he needs to keep his distance, and this makes him easy to ostracize from groups, as he’s terrible at social cues. Shigeo is taken advantage of those that realize what powers he does have, feared by others, and ousted from where he really thinks he wants to be. This causes him stress, and eventually this stress does need to go somewhere. 

Many of my favorite animators reappear at many different parts in this anime, including some I’ve not talked about before on these posts. It is a perfect melding of old and new concepts of how anime works, all headed by a guy I’ve immediately fallen head over heels for Yuzuru Tachikawa. 

Tachikawa’s history is a funny one, back in the day he was a relentless Gainax fanboy and applied three times to be in their studio and failed every one! Resolving to get better he ended up going freelance and getting a big break by directing Death Billiards another great anime by Madhouse. Yuzuru is a self styled “bad dude” and really ends up contrasting ONE’s very pure ideals that get put to the fore in his manga. Their interview they did together is quite telling on what kind of guys both ONE (whom I’ve talked at length about) and Tachikawa are. Before Death Billiards though there was another project Tachikawa worked on that I have to mention as it has a ton of bearing on how he approached Mob. He got to work on another of my favorite anime ever Kill la Kill and on his time there absorbed a lot of the aesthetic that made it SO excellent. The intensely funny character acting, the framing of scenes, the thick as HELL pencil work that you can actually see the grit on, all lifted from Kill la Kill. Tachikawa with the help of a truly amazing staff took the feeling of the manga and instead of aping it gave it their best to make something that stands on it’s own in terms of feeling. They married dozens of different anime techniques to pull this off, making picking scenes to show off of this anime quite difficult. 

Joining Tachikawa on the anime are veteran animators as well as fresh faces such as Miyo Sato. Her technique of paint-on-glass animation employs oil paints and literal glass that she paints every frame on for a blended look that is INSANE to look at! And that’s just one of dozens of incredibly talented people!

Musically we also have the great Kenji Kawai one of my top 5 OST producers doing the funky soundtrack! The OP by MOB Chorus is also sung by the president of BONES studio in the chorus as well as many others on the project!

I’ve talked about ONE’s truly excellent panel work before, and to emulate the feel of that work in the anime Tachikawa employs color and framing that make me so excited to look at. Please, PLEASE Watch or read Mob Psycho! 

Thanks everyone for joining me this month as I showed off 31 different anime I really think you should watch! I had a great time writing everything up and I hope you all got a few new items to add to your backlog! I might visit this concept of showing off anime and manga more at some later date but every day was a trip and a half to find the time to write these out let me tell ya. 

[atomicpowered]

(Day 30!!)

Hyouge Mono is a real hidden treasure about the intense draw of material desires. 

Yes this is another anime where Nobunaga makes an appearance and yes I know you’re probably like “why do they keep pushing this guy so much?” but honestly if George Washington was a crazier morally bankrupt bastard like Nobunaga I’m sure we’d see him more than we do already. Tonally though Hyouge Mono is straight historical fiction but with a heavy emphasis on the historical part! We follow Furata Sasuke a real deal actual dude and retainer to the Nobunaga clan as he clowns around, climbs the social ladder and wrestles with his intense love of the tea ceremony.  

All the historic figures make an appearance in this anime, the whole Nobunaga clan, their extended family, Ieyasu, Hideyoshi, if you’ve watched any sengoku period anime they’re all there. But this anime makes a point to keep it pretty realistic. 

What makes it funny is the central point Sasuke and his legendary goofs as he almost dies many times trying to balance his military career and the fact that he loves THINGS. Anything of great artistic merit or historical significance immediately gets lusted over by him to the point where he actually steals various articles of great import. Tea pots, stirring spoons, nothing escapes his grabby hands and discerning eye.  

This anime actually reminds me of some kind of jdrama than an actual anime, it’s bonkers. I really love it. It’s a little dry if you’re into anime where a ton of stuff happens but if you enjoy history I think you’ll be really into it. I’m sure me and the other 10 people that watched this while it was airing will appreciate it.  

[atomicpowered]

(Day 29)

Kekkai Sensen is another miracle type anime that I’m really not sure that it’ll get another season. That doesn’t detract from my strong recommendation though! Far from it, it actually just makes me want to show it off even stronger than ever! If you were following me for a while I also have a previous post on lots of why Kekkai is great. THIS one going into a large contingent of the various reasons, it’s only very very mildly a spoiler so feel free to check it out. 

To boil down that post Kekkai Sensen has a wonderful very alive setting of New York City which feels more New York than many other pieces of media, despite the fact that it’s overrun by monstrous outer dimensional beings. 

Kekkai is set in Hellsalem's Lot, the renamed, re imagined New York after that previously mentioned overrunning of ‘demons’ or essentially otherworld immigrants. Very true to life NY doesn’t let something as simple as that keep them down even though their precious city is now taken over by these beings. Encased in a bubble the New Yorkers and these demons are forced to live and work together, and like any other group of people you get all different kinds. Everything doesn’t go swimmingly all the time though, despite being people these demons also work on a lot of different rules and biological inconsistencies, or they actually are just bad guys, and because of this there’s always some kind of catastrophic event happening in the city. 

Enter our protagonist Leonardo Watch who obtains a great power that he doesn’t want at the expense of his only family through a great accident. He travels to Hellsalem’s because of the rumor that only the odd occupants of the city could help him with this power. Immediately like any other naive country boy the city swallows him up and he gets caught up in an underground shadow organization entirely through many goofs.

In that post I linked above I also go into the director of the series Rie Matsumoto whom I love to death and Kekkai is her anime through and through. The crazy story is made even better by her crazy visuals and style, she works in total symbiosis with the plot. She storyboarded large chunks of it and also is credited for the excellent sound design. Another thing I mention at length is the unparalled OST made by the newcomer Taisei Iwasaki. Kekkai is his first anime credit and let me tell you if he goes on to continue the trend he sets up with Kekkai he will be one of the best anime music producers ever. Whom I failed to mention in that previous post was Nightow Yasuhrio. His other big anime was the famed TRIGUN that captured the feel of the old west and wonderful protagonists. Also of note are the wonderful wonderful OP and ED by Bump of Chicken and Union Square Garden. Both visually great and total ear worms they really show off why this anime is special, I have a special love for the ED which I can’t hold myself back from just posting here. 

Kekkai Sensen much like TRIGUN has an extended cast of truly awesome characters, a totally slick setting, and a neat plot. I hope to hell and back it gets another anime treatment. In the meantime please check it out! 

[atomicpowered]

Big O was another toonami production this much is also true but considering all of you are like 12 you probably weren’t alive when this was actually airing so once again I think I get a free pass. 

Big O is actually pretty simple when you boil it down. Take batman out of his suit, stick him in a giant robot, and make him a “negotiator”. I am not kidding, this show was directly inspired off one episode of the truly excellent early 90′s batman the animated series cartoon. One of the best western cartoons we ever got. 

Roger Smith must use the giant robot The Big O to fight other robots called “megadueses” while also trying to unravel the mystery of why everyone lost their memories in the city that he resides in. Many episodes are haunting in their direction, just a plain old giant robot fight this is not. 

Warner brothers used to outsource a lot of their animation to different studios in the 90′s, shows like tiny toons would be animated by as many as ten separate studios giving the cartoon an odd look even to the relatively low standards that populated that decade. Batman was no exception but early sunrise and TMS entertainment (one of the oldest and most venerable studios even today, responsible for AKIRA among other ambitious projects) were responsible for some truly great episodes. In scenes with Mr. Freeze for instance studio sunrise would airbrush the frost on to his helmet by hand in every cell. Practices and attention to detail like that almost ended up bankrupting the studio during this time! You can always tell if sunrise worked on an episode because they made batman’s ‘ears’ super pointy. 

Anyway after batman sunrise fell so in love with the show they decided to make their own batman, with blackjack and hookers. They took many of the excellent design elements found in the cartoon and simplified them even more. The dark city of Gotham became the dangerously brutalist styled Paradigm. The simple Brunce Timm aesthetic became even more simple with the blocky and attractive character design. 

Also did I mention the giant robots because the Bio O is one of the coolest slickest, most fucking bombastic robot designs in my opinion. It is ballin’ by a mile and a half. 

[atomicpowered]

(Day 27)

Listen I totally know that Space Dandy aired on Toonami and what a fun time that was, but I think not including it on this month is kind of a crime considering it’s a lot of my most favorite things together. 

Space dandy is super simple, it’s cowboy bebop but more lighthearted.A bounty hunter, except this time our protagonist is not the cool slick spike but more of an idiot, and instead of bounties it’s alien captures. It’s like a long lost dorky brother to Cowboy, the reason for this being same director of course! Also a lot like Bebop depending on what episode you watch you will get an entirely different feel of anime, although this anime tends more towards mushroom samba than any other episode of it’s brother. 

Anyway small list of what I like: 

A: it’s got a good dub, both dub and sub are pretty great so you can’t go wrong

B: Many MANY of the creators and animators that I’ve talked about this month  had their own episode to play around on in this show. Space Dandy if you haven’t seen it is a totally experimental anime that had a different tone and story every episode. The animation was all over the place, the look and feel of every ep was so different and so cool it was like SHORT PIECE or AMAZING NUTS, except that there ended up being a plot thread in the end. Since every episode had guests you really got this fruit salad of great pieces of animation! One of my favorites Yutaka Nakamura had huge rolls in many episodes. He’s one of the best animators out there and his work is always very noticeable!  

If it’s godlike understanding of 3d form, debris that have cube shapes, or pure black and white single impact frames it’s probably him. Also he’s been totally smears happy lately! 

Also my boys bahi, yuasa, and more besides were also on a ton of episodes to my intense joy.

If you like anime from a background aspect where you’re invested in the big movers and shakers in the industry this is a must watch. Dandy and the entire anime will grow on you I’m sure, it’s like a box of secret chocolates. 

[atomicpowered]

(Day 26) 

I mentioned Redline in another rec and for good reason. This is possibly one of the best anime movies out there. 

My recommendation on this anime (movie) is going to actually be pretty succinct all around. I’ll start with you are actively not doing yourself a favor sleeping on watching this movie. You are going to get some of the best over all visuals ever EVER. Shit gets SO crazy, shit goes SO nuts you’ll feel like you’re racing alongside our intrepid protagonists.

For this anime movie is a racing movie. Not just any kind of racing flick, but wacky races on speed, literally. 

You get colorful protagonists, they go on a race, someone wins the race. The plot is simple A to B stuff. It’s what’s on the WAY that matters! This movie is just a giant bag of fun, with goofy somehow touching story and more shocking twists than you can shake a stick-shift at. 

The movie took seven years to finish from prepro all the way to release, and with my boy Koike doing a large chunk of the movie all on his lonesome. You are not going to get better visuals than this for a LONG LOOOONG time. Some parts are animated so well they look like CG just because everything is so smooth, so rich, and so well drafted. Every key is a work of art and Koike’s standard style of very dark shadows and flat coloring makes everything POP like a comic book. And we haven’t even got to the OST yet which is a pure 11/10 it cannot be beaten, driving vocals and heavy (KILLA)  beats, thumping base, and at least a track dedicated to every racer.  

I would highly suggest grabbing this movie at the highest resolution you can, watching it with the biggest screen you can get your hands on, and blasting it as loud as it can go. It is an adrenaline filled experience. 

Also check out TRAVA, which is a sort of prequel to this movie which is ALSO pretty amazing to boot! 

[atomicpowered]

shimi

(Day 24)

Sakamichi no Apollon or Kids on the Slope is another anime that works with it’s OST powerfully to create something super great. Directing the adaption is Shinichiro Watanabe (Champloo, Cowboy Bebop) and while this is the weakest (due to a few small story contrivances) of the three that’s still a huge compliment. 

Music focused anime have the pressure of actually having to make music that is moving for the parts where it’s moving. Unlike manga that only has to imply it. To do this in Sakamichi they took Yoko Kanno out of whatever cave she holed herself up in and plonked her in front of a piano. What she created was worthy of the title of one of the best musicians of anime (right up there with Yuki Kaijura). Especially a challenge Kanno had to mimic the jazz styling of post war japan. But you have to remember she created the Cowboy Bebop OST so she was up to the challenge. 

Kaoru Nishimi is a classically trained pianist. Introverted and concerned only with his studies he meets Sentarou, a known delinquent. Sentarou isn’t much for attending class but what he does like to do is play jazz drums, when he notices Kaoru is a pianist he attacks Kaoru with his love of jazz until Kaoru agrees to participate in Sen’s jam sessions in the basement of a music shop. Kaoru takes to jazz and in the process not only frees his piano playing but also loosens up and begins to live for the first time in forever. Rocky times do rear their head as love and life get in the way of Kaoru and Sen’s passion for jazz as it’s a tumultuous time for not only them but the country as well.

Sakamichi ended up great for an adaption, Watanabe did a great as the director and the musical interludes of which their were many were always amazing! My favorite had to be episode 7 where a lot of things came to a head for Sen and Kaoru. 

Sakamichi is a quick anime, only 12 episodes, although it’s not a full adaption it does come to closure rather well. It’s right up there with anime like Beck and Samurai Champloo which live their soundtracks beautifully.