Sensei's 40.476 K update, part 3 (Sasami and Hyper Police)

[sensei]

I've managed to process and upload the nicest parts of the paper side of my big Halloween SMJ box-o-joy now. There have been big additions to my Sasami: Mahou Shoujo Club and Hyper Police galleries, the last of which has now been divided into three galleries to accommodate the new images.

Highlights:

From Hyper Police:

• A very glamorous image of (the other) Sakura who's been knocked unconscious by an outlaw and desperately needs some TLC from a time-traveling samurai who's voiced by the same seiyuu as Duo Maxwell and Genjo Sanzo.
  Sakura waking up a little later, minus her clothes. It's interesting to see from the sketches that the studio toned down the suggestion of nudity quite a bit before the episode was filmed, and now you can see the animator's first thoughts. Nothing explicit or racier than other ecchi bits in HP (which ran very late at night on Japanese TV), but ... interesting.
  
  Also: Two very nice rough sketches by the up-and-coming guest animation director for Ep. 18, a certain Tatsuya Ishihara, some years before he did The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: one sketch is a magical image of Natsuki hearing the Koi bells (Koi bells are ... oh, hell, just watch the episode, it's magnificent).
  The other is a nice image of Batanan, Natsuki's werewolf love interest, and a leonid bounty hunter friend.
  
  And don't miss Natsuki playing with the bullet fairies (bullet fairies??)

From the under-the-radar Sasami, the interesting bits are:

• Some very pretty images of Misao, one of the main characters, in a moment of uncharacteristic happiness after her part of the plot has finally been resolved. Some of these include
  Some extraordinary roughs showing an impressionistic but very effective approach to portraiture.
  Also, the best images I've seen yet of the exuberant magical girl Anri and her less demonstrative classmate Tsukasa. Anri seems especially popular in Japan, judging from the prices that the resin cast action figures of her command.
  Finally, a very impressive set of Sasami portraits during an emotional moment, including this touching image of her wiping away a tear. (Have you ever noticed that magical girls' eyes are bigger than their hands?)

Enjoy!

[Keropi]

Everytime I see that Anri/Tsukasa sketch Anri saying:

"Oh...Tsukasa-sama!"

...pops into my head.

I hope you end up liking the series considering you've already purchased these sketches from it.

[sensei]

Somebody looked! [Six hours of scanning, five hours of screencapping and description-writing, and four hours of uploading seem somehow less of a foolish waste of time.]

Thank you, Keropi! I'd love to get a sense of the personalities that go with the visual side that I've collected. It's awkward that the artwork is mostly from the end of the series while only the first episode is easily available in fansubs. There are series that I collect even though the art is better than the storytelling, but something tells me that this will be worth a watch.

[otakusin]

OMG Sensei, that Sakura from Hyper Police ---->

To be honest I have I never once looked at any art from the anime (well now that I know your sig is HP I guess that was my first look). Today for the first er second time I popped in to look at the art... was I ever surprised!! Kudos on such wonderful finds, then again you always do have a good eye

[redwolf]

• A very glamorous image of (the other) Sakura
  
  Sakura waking up a little later, minus her clothes.

Somehow, I think you meant these two links to lead to different places.

Regardless, it inspired me to keep clicking on the next gallery item to figure out what you meant to link to...wonderful set of Sakura you've acquired! While I agree with you that this rough genga looks nicer, her final expression is more interesting. Well drawn pencil definitely has more depth potential than the finished image (more simple lines for ease of animation).

Also, some truly beautiful art in your 11/2 update, especially the shadowed OAV Hikaru, your TnN wishlist, and the colorful PPGZ genga. Thank you for sharing your updates.

[sensei]

Thanks, Redwolf, for pointing out the formatting problem. My Ctrl + C sticks sometimes, and without knowing it, I end up pasting the same item twice, and then not watching for the problem when proofing. Anyhow I fixed, and the links now go to the right places.

Thanks to you and to Otakusin for having a look at the Hyper Police sketches. They are less immediately compelling than the cels (which are, unfortunately, darned uncommon) but very interesting as Studio Pierrot always thought twice and three times about its animation. That's another reason why I'm keen on TnN and Saiyuki (two more Studio Pierrot productions) and respectful of Bleach (yet another). Hyper Police may not be the finest anime series out there -- the plot is all over the place -- but there aren't many that had as inventive a sense of character design and action.

Otakusin, you'll be interested to know that the image in my sig is based on a Tatsuya Ishihara image, though this one is the gengaman's workup rather than his original artwork. Still, there aren't many throwaway images like this that are so memorable.

S[/i]

[RoboFlonne]

Beautiful HyperPolice and your Sasami is my favorite!!!

http://sensei.rubberslug.com/gallery/in ... mID=221736

[sensei]

Thank you, RoboFlonne! AIC really did a thorough job on Sasami, as they did on the other Tenchi Muyo spinoffs and of course AMG. Even as a seasoned magical girl, they're very careful to portray her and the others, even at the end, just as little girls. But even everyday little girls (as Lewis Carroll saw) are custodians of powerful magic.

[RoboFlonne]

Thank you, RoboFlonne! AIC really did a thorough job on Sasami, as they did on the other Tenchi Muyo spinoffs and of course AMG. Even as a seasoned magical girl, they're very careful to portray her and the others, even at the end, just as little girls. But even everyday little girls (as Lewis Carroll saw) are custodians of powerful magic.

Is it subbed! I'd like to download it!!! Now! I want to watch it!!!

[sensei]

I've only seen the first episode, and so I'm judging just by the quality of the art. But Funimation has licenced it, so we should eventually be able to see it in a commercial North American release.

[RoboFlonne]

I've only seen the first episode, and so I'm judging just by the quality of the art. But Funimation has licenced it, so we should eventually be able to see it in a commercial North American release.

Oh wonderful!!!

You haven't moved or anything? I'm still working on your christmas present!!!

[Cenbe]

Somebody looked! [Six hours of scanning, five hours of screencapping and description-writing, and four hours of uploading seem somehow less of a foolish waste of time.]

I'll say somebody looked! Thank you, thank you Sensei! The time and care you've invested is well evident and certainly appreciated. I for one didn't realize how much time it would take when I started a gallery a little over a month ago. Sheesh, what a time-sink! Anyway, I feel like I'm at the feet of a Master whenever I look at your gallery. It's always so informative and inspiring!

I particularly love the roughs from Sasami; gorgeous! So skillful and effortless, as if they were just tossed off almost unconsciously. Thanks again!

[sensei]

Sorry ... maybe I was feeling just a tad self-pitying. Cels are easy to post up, and they're immediately compelling. Sketchwork is a lot harder to appreciate, and so it takes much longer for me to see clearly what I've got, and to track the images back to their contexts (which isn't easy with Sasami!) and then to put together a presentation that will make sense of the art. It's more like textual editing than displaying (and I know the first of these all too well from having spent -- well, longer than I'd like to admit -- doing an MLA-approved textual edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne's business letters. )

I appreciate your comments, Cenbe, and I hope that my approach is influencing the way that others display artwork, so that someone who knows little about a given series can come by and use the gallery as a way of learning about it and appreciating its aesthetics.