Sensei's 2015.04 Update: Just in time for Thanksgiving

[sensei]

Thanks, KLRB. I'm glad to be able to give Kazumi-sama proper due, as Animation News Network doesn't provide full staff details for this series. (IM, who cares? it's a random girly series anyhow.) So while I could see the quality of art from the three AniKyo episodes, I didn't know who was responsible until I found the staff list in Wikipedia Japan and translated it.

Thanks also for looking through the rest. I'm happy to have the Full Moon sketches, whatever they are, and happier to think that they might be survivors from the series' lost production art, even if there's no easy way I can prove it.

[ReiTheJelly]

HOW DID I MISS YOU ADDING "FULL MOON WO SAGASHITE" ART TO YOUR GALLERY?! *oh wait, it's because RS is blocked where I work...* So, although I'm late to the party - congrats on getting those sketches, regardless of where they came from.

[sensei]

Thanks, Rei (and good to see you back and lurking!) The sketches are nice in their scruffed-up way, and if they are fakes, they are darned good ones anyhow. Our pastor asked to have a special angel assigned to our case (who also did neat stuff like finding the things that always get misplaced during such events), and I sorta visualized the being as Meroko. Johns Hopkins is such a zoo that everyone needs a bunny-eared angel running interference anyhow.

[Jadeduo]

Hi Sensei!

Glad you have been feeling better!

Last but most definitely not least in my catchup gallery crawl, thank you so much for the time, attention, and care you put into each update! This one was particularly informative, and your section on Asatte no Hoko will definitely help me with my newest Loveless additions, and go back and edit the old ones to make sure they are more accurate.

I also recently discovered, that Ikuko Itou was the animation director for Episode 55 my favorite episode of Sailor Moon R, also as a matter of course she was pretty famous for it, but during her work on Sailor Moon she would take on certain key cuts as the key animator. As fussy as she was on Hoko no wonder the food scene from episode 55 was done over and over and over again! ^_^ I MUST get my hands on a storyboard from it!

My favorite of the last two updates has most definitely been the new Sakura Movie cel... Of course it is my fave movie too, so that is no surprise.

But the real winner here is the additions you made to your Asatte no Hoko collection. Every piece is well researched and all are lovely in their own right, it is very hard to choose a favorite!

Congrats again!
JD

[sensei]

Thanks for the look, JD. I remember getting a fansub CDR of the first eight episodes of Asatte, and really learning to "know" and care for the characters. It has an interesting narrative motion, very slow on incident, long on psychological exploration, but I loved the animation and the background art. Then the plot takes a big dramatic shift at the end of Ep. 7, and Ep. 8 is dark, scary, contains some huge plot revelations, and ends with a terrific emotional scene. That's all I got at the time, and for a couple of years I assumed that the series ended there. (It would be an effective ending, but a tragic one, and not unfitting for the tensions in the story.) Then I happened to ask my source of the fansub if there had been any more, and she replied, "Oh, I never sent you the last four episodes?"

At the time ANN misidentified the character designer/senior animation director as "Tomoko Ito," and I really didn't understand the "rough/shuusei rough" system that JC Staff used. But I liked the art, and was stopped in my tracks when (while researching an essay I was doing on Princess Tutu) I found a reference to Ikuko Itou talking about Asatte at a stateside con where she appeared. I confirmed the connection on Wikipedia Japan, and ANN has since corrected their listing.

So it's been a good series to learn more and more about. I'd love to teach it some day: it really illustrates a lot of what makes good slice-of-life anime (with a magical twist, kinda like Haibane Renmei) really complex and engaging.

But, yeah -- CCS just has "that quality" that knocks you for a loop when you get a good piece. I'm glad I picked up face-shots of Sakura when they were going for 2500/3000 a shot, instead of getting into 45000 yen plus bidwars for lots of four, as is going on right now.

And thanks for the good words on my rehab. It's nice to have a supportive community to come back to. (We're still bemused that neither of my church's pastors stopped by, phoned, emailed, or even poked me on FB to see if I was still kicking ... too busy reacting to SCOTUS's Satanic Decision, I guess.)

[Jadeduo]

I always look at your updates when I get the time, and it is always worth the time!

That is a funny story, about the fansubs... I might have died if they did that to me on any of my favorite shows! Also... dancing bananas!

It is so hard to identify animators on new shows, because there is not a lot of documentation on who did what and translators don't have any priority on the end credits as it is so it can be super frustrating figuring that out. Recently I have found a few more interesting websites that help with figuring out the animators... anidb.net You should totes check it out, much better than ANN!

*sighs* CCS, I loves! And seriously those auctions are ridiculous, with all the other nice pieces up, why are they going so high? This makes no sense, as I am still picking up nice Sakuras between $30 and $40 so I am aghast as to why those four sets are going so high!

It does suck that the more we get online those personal face to face connections fall by the wayside! But we were glad we could lift your spirits!

JD
And just for you...

[sensei]

After a relatively short "gallery closed" period (I was influenced by the recent "black hole collector" thread), my mid-summer "Dog Days" update is now ready for viewing. Alas, no Inuyasha this year...

It's a relatively focused update, with three cels and sketches from two CGI series. That said, it has its unique pleasures, especially for cel lovers.

I think the crowd pleaser will be this one:


Vampire Princess Miyu: Dramatic Miyu

I've always really liked the design of this series, though I never have watched it all the way through once. But I keep an eye out for portraits of the main character that don't overlap ones that I have, and this one, full of frozen action, fit the bill.

And then, for people who like Toshihiro Hirano's work, you'll like


Rayearth OVA: Umi Under Attack

I like Umi and I love the Rayearth OVA in spite of its narrative incomprehensibility. And so this one, painted to the corners but, quirkily, BLANK in the middle (except for sweatdrops) was a welcome addition.

And if you like Umi's expression, you'll also like my new "Golden Age" cel:


Koala Boy Kokki/Roobear (Topcraft 1984)

Yeah, yeah, it's not much of a cel, but art from Kokki (1984) has been damned hard to find. I only remember one other cel that I've seen in a collection, and I'm not sure if that was a production cel or a repro. cel. (I do remember it had a studio-made frame like those Sanrio made about the same time.)

And it holds a lot of nostalgia for this Boomer, who recalls working on freshman comp. papers while his grade-school daughter was happily watching The Adventures of the Little Koala (Nick Toons' adaptation of Kokki) in the next room. I can even sing part of the theme song:

Friendly day, time to play,
with Roobear and his friends
The fun and laughter never ends.
Koalas lead the way, on a sunny day.
We all love to play.

Plus it intrigues me that while the Topcraft animators were batting out 52 episodes of this grade-schooler series, they were also crafting the scenes of Miyazaki's Nausicaa in the Valley of the Wind, which was in production at the same time and place.

OK, the CGI series updated are (as usual, Rozen Maiden and Asatte no Houkou, no surprises there. But it was a surprise to find that, after a long drought, the market still yielded


a dramatic Rozen Maiden OP1 genga of Shinku casting a spell

And, having gloated (for five years now) over my genga from the dramatic moment in Ep. 12 where the healed Shinku initiates Round Two of the Alice Game with her arch-enemy Suigintou, it was nice to find a lot that included


The A1 from this cut, showing Shinku just after her magical healing, plus


One of the gengas from the end of this cut, showing Shinku, back to her rock-hard self, moving forward toward her opponent.

Plus a fine genga from an earlier episodes, showing Shinku having her costume repaired by her magic-fingered servant and meantime


explaining her raison d'etre to Jun: “To Live Is to Fight!”

The Asatte no Houkou additions are not as dramatic as the last few updates, but they fill some gaps in my knowledge of the series animation. For the first time I got some sketches from Episode 2, overseen by Shinya Hasegawa (Utena) and with animation direction by Kazunori Iwakura (character designer, Ai Yori Aoshi, Daphne in the Brilliant Blue, Nabari no Ou, etc. If you like Karada-chan, you'll enjoy the scenes where


Karada gets her school uniform and then


finds it's way too big for her.

But if you are more drawn to Karada-san, the child in a grown woman's body who copes with the change with remarkable pluck, you'll be drawn to the scenes in Ep. 8 (Hasegawa again supervisor, Ryoichi Oki animation director) in which


she determines to away from home and find a job in the big city, and then


spends a long, weary day coping with resumes and unsympathetic job interviewers.

Plus it's deeply satisfying to get a sketch set from Ep. 2, know that this is one that Hasegawa took charge of, and still take one look at this sketch of


Karada and Hiro in their new home

and say with surprise and absolute certainty,



"Damn! That's by Ikuko Itou!" (Sailor Moon, Princess Tutu, etc.)

So a satisfying summer update on this end. I hope you enjoy it and take time to explore.

[frozentime]

Nice update! I particularly like the Miyu and Rayearth. I think that is one of my favorite cels of Miyu from the TV series I've seen. It has nice intensity, and the character design I tend to favor.

[KinoLRB]

Great update, Sensei. Yes, the Koala/Umi duel expressions are priceless, but my favorite is the Miyu. I love the thick inking around the gold of her eyes. I really need to see the OVAs and original series.

[Quacker]

An amazing update as always Sensei.

The 'Rozen Maidens' are each gorgeous and of course my personal favourites from this latest update, with the "OP credit Shinku" and the "magically healed A1" equally sharing the top billing. Just "Wow!" congratulations on finding & then being able to acquire these pieces. There has been somewhat of a drought of high quality RZ pieces available on YHJ, with only one or two popping up sporadically and when they do, it can turn into a high-bidding contest. I am happy to see you nab some of these and put them into your gallery to share with the rest of us.

The two images of Karada are quite potent; especially the second image as I know that feeling quite well. It demonstrates the level of talent any particular artist has if they are able to convincingly emphasise and portray emotions within their art or provide the necessary supervision/guidance for the more 'junior' artists.

As for your new Cel additions, I swear "Kokki Bear" = Blinky Bill!! He even is even wearing the red dungarees :-p
I have not had the opportunity to watch either 'Vampire Princess Miyu' nor 'Rayearth' despite being informed they are both perennial classics, but the cel themselves are quite striking. Those eyes on the 'VP Miyu' cel are so detailed & distinctive, the white reflective highlights over the amber/gold irises certainly go a long way to grab & hold the viewer's attention. Then there is the movement & highlights detailed in her hair. The 'Rayearth' Umi cel utilises a unique pale colour palette to achieve a dramatic moment.

Thank-you for taking the time to research each of these wonderful additions and then sharing them with the rest of us.

[sensei]

Thanks, frozentime, KinoLRB, and Quacker. I have to admit that I remain a cel junkie at heart, so seeing the Miyu come up and then unpacking it when it arrived were both highlights of my convalescence. And the Rayearth OVA is always a great series to fish around in. I'd love to see an open-eyed Umi from this same cut, though. I've spent several days in my homemade t-shirt that features the cel of Umi merging with Selece (currently also in my gallery banner) and am about ready to set aside some potent craft beer and watch the whole thing through again. Koala Boy Kokki, I'm sure, is based on the Australian classic Blinky--but Nippon evidently stone a march on Topcraft and made the hero of their "Koalamania" series "Blinky."

And yes, I've been lucky with Rozen Maiden (not always!), especially with that genga of her flying joyfully into the arms of her "servant" Jun. There aren't many images of her looking really happy. She's a mistress of snarky, condescending smiles, which is part of the facade that she erects against her inner insecurities. And so to see her smile like this, from the heart, is surprising indeed. Not a surprise is how quickly she reverts to type by the end of the cut.

Asatte will never get as many visits as the above, but in many ways it's really instructive to me to get to "know" the animation process so fully, to the extent that when I get a new sketch set, I instinctively recognize the individual animators and their quirks. And yet there's something unexpected, something new to learn around each corner. And the emotions really are very complex, not at all straightforward happy/sad/worried, just as the perspectives are so rarely profiles or head-on portraits but so often jogged to one side or another. It really has been a long and challenging learning process, whether or not there is much of an audience for "The Art of Living for the Day After Tomorrow."

Quacker, I know I owe you a response to your PM. I will get to it, after I handle the usual two dozen emergencies. And here's the final proofs for my Princess Tutu academic essay! DL: Friday

[Jadeduo]

Hi Sensei!

I wanted to take the time to read through all your fussy notes on Asatte no Houkou before commenting, such an informative update and really so VERY helpful while I am working my way through a stack of Loveless Genga's a couple inches high *unsure if this is an exaggeration or not*

It will be VERY helpful when I am working on this next update, I learned quite a lot about how JC Staff works!

No need to take it, but I would love to see a quirky gallery tour showcases your Ikuko Itou pieces and how you identified them. Short of getting a full set of sketches from her episodes on Sailor Moon *which come up few and far between* It seems if you want to identify her style Asatte no Houkou is the way to go. Although I do contend that the way she draws Jupiter in particular, is VERY distinctive.

Although I love Itou-sensei, I am a huge fan of the last Karada sketch it is quite lovely.

The Rozen Maiden updates make me want to watch this show, but I feel like it would be yet another money pit... The OP is I think one of the loveliest of the lot *personal preference of course!*

The cel pieces are particularly dramatic and heartwarming in turn, many congratulations!

I hope you will continue to feel better and look forward to the Open House next month!

JD

[sensei]

Thank you, JD. I really feel ambivalent about the annotations to AnH, as it's such a (relatively speaking) obscure title and it's barely visited compared with my CCS and MKR galleries. And yet what an opportunity to see how an anime studio really worked! And get not just one sketch by Itou-sama (and the others) but dozens that you can compare and get a sense of individual quirks. So I figure a lot of it is my letter to the future, where I feel sure that sets of paper like this will really be seen as research material and not just as souvenirs.

BTW, I did do the "how I know these sketches are by Ikuko Itou" bit in a Quirky Tour of AnH, which is still live as the first gallery in this section. That "T 2/3" way of writing the kanji for "shuusei" is, for me, absolutely unmistakeable. But there are lots of more subtle signs, especially the relatively broad pencil point of the sketches, compared with Shinya Hasegawa (who oversaw the even-numbered episodes), who used an incredibly fine point and normally revised only the eyes and a few other partial details.

[Jadeduo]

LOL I did go through that quirky tour an did not remember a whole section so I went and revisited it ^_^. And it is kind of a hidden nugget of information in one of the light green thumbs. That is why I had forgotten! Well we should have some lovely cel art coming to our borders from the BWA of the 7 Hankens done by Ikuko Itou-sensei 5 were won by beta-ers! It would be great to do a community exhibit of her art one day!

Jadeduo

[sensei]

Y'know, I really should go back through that Quirky Tour and revise it. There are parts that can stand as is (like the intro to the characters and their various seiyuus). But now I have good info for the first time on Eps. 1 and 2, plus better info on Eps. 8, 10, and 11. It would maybe be clearer to include the names of the directors/animators involved in the titles of the pages. That would call attention to the Ituko Itou info, as well as to that on the other animators. Kazunori Iwakura, AD for Ep. 2 and co-AD for Ep. 11, is nearly as eminent now as the senior ADs Itou and Hasegawa.

Maybe before the Open House???