Flashbacks to watching that flop of a film on HBO and renting it from Blockbuster later on

Finally!

Animator Spotlight: Shinsaku Kozuma Pt. 2 (The Return)

All gifs in order
Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul (2017)
Fate/Apocrypha (2017) first cut likely by Toya Oshima, rest is presumed Kozuma, except for the last cut
Dororo (2019)
The God of High School (2020)
Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (2021)
My Hero Academia (2022) heavy character REDRAWS by Noriko Morishima
Chainsaw Man (2022)
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Episode 7 (2023)
Jujutsu Kaisen Episode 23 (2023) first cut by Nothing Yukun
Dandadan (2024) Layout only

After Kanada’s death we get a grey period from around 2009-13. It is unknown whether Kozuma was employed at Enix around this time, or was taking a break from everything entirely. What we do know is Kozuma’s first initial return to anime was in 2015 on the last episode of Ninja Slayer from Animation a limited web spoof series directed by Akira Amemiya at Trigger

Still maintains his fun wonky drawings after all these years, and is one of the last documented instance of him drawing on paper.

Kozuma frequently would find old friends in this new era. Seems to me he surveyed spaces and found the right people at the right time. Mr Osomatsu and Seraph in the End were the next series he’d show up on, still using puffy solid smoke effects, but with more polish and detail.

It would not be long until Kozuma was assigned a big role for his seniority, and he got one on Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul his first show with Studio Mappa

Now Kozuma has admitted that he is not a fan of realism before. but the opening scene in Episode 1 contains his most grounded effects animation ever, and is some of his strongest animation in general. Kozuma’s involvement on this episode was made possible by director Kouji Sawai, an ex Tatsunoko Production staff member who worked with him on Captain Tylor, see also the prolific Norio Matsumoto handle this scene

All Kozuma
Jarring cgi aside, the entirely a***og dragon by Kozuma is completely captivating and convincing. His fire effects sound like fire, but move like an energy beam with the physics of molasses. Very auteur



The Red Dragon scenes in the anime were most of the time brought to life with cg, but Kozuma would draw several scenes bringing the hand drawn goodness that the series needed. Episode 4 saw more work on the beast, also reuniting him with Atsushi Wakabayashi, who was the AD and SB. The comp here really sells the scale of Kozuma’s scenes

He’d continue several more insert shots along the show, and you can see him on every episode for the opening, drawing pulsating shapes

By the end of the year, Kozuma was asked on by a young animator Toya Oshima to participate in the historic Episode 22 of Fate Apocrypha

Directed by Hakuyu Go, an animator best known for his cinematic yet abstract boards, Go was able to bring the cream of the crop of the new gen of action animators. I’ve gone into names in previous spotlights before, but its important to note that all of these guys were prepped and wired for climactic action of this nature. Unlike his involvement, on Episode 58 of Yu Yu Hakusho, Kozuma only delivered on four cuts. I don’t blame, cause given the amount of work he’d face next I would not blame him.

Kozuma 1:29-1:31, he shows up later here

Kozuma did some brief KA on Cutey Honey Universe likely brought on by another ex Captain Tylor director Akitoshi Yokoyama and Oshima. This was also Kozuma’s first work back at Ashi Productions in over 25 years, which is unfortunately now a shell of its former self. Nothing to sensational in the show itself. It is cool however to see Kozuma do an eye catching intro in an OP like this

Dororo was a rather curious production. Seeming like a byproduct of Masao Muruyama’s short lived tenure at Mappa, perhaps also due to covering legacy adaptations I don’t blame them.

Kozuma’s involvement in another Mappa show could be due to production assistants wanting to keep him in rotation, but its safe to assume the series direction by Kazuhiro Furuhashi played a small role. Kozuma given his status was given very important scenes.

He had some minor parts in the start of the show with an old man walking

Kozuma until 0:18

and then a creature attack on Episode 5

Kozuma 0:40-end
Kozuma normally rejects giving characters or effects any sense of volume when given a flat board. Many of the shots here let him play around with his exaggerated timing rather than emphasizing strong motion.

Episode 10 you see Kozuma draw water the same way he’d draw fire.

The moth scene in Episode 15, directed by the late great Osamu Kobayashi is another wonderful example of how Kozuma excels at creature animation in this era.

The character designs take a backseat to detail, with Kobayashi giving Kozuma complete reigns to get wild with his very strange effects animation.

Episode 22 Kozuma depicts wind in a similar fashion, and we get to see his fun crowd designs, which have now evolved into silly circular shaped heads.
This also marked his first time co-animating a scene with Yoshihide Ideue a young Mappa regular.

The next stop for Kozuma came on the God of High School, one of two shows in 2020 directed by Sunghoo Park

This show is best known for horribly mangling it’s source material into a 12 episode format, but I will not be covering that here. Kozuma was often assigned a brunt of effect’s heavy scenes, but often no full on fights. He opens on Episode 2 with a big swinging energy kick with admittedly better finishing animation. Janky dragon on 3, and Episode 4 is a good look into Kozuma’s mind.




While this episode’s SB is credited to Chie Nishizawa, this is all too Kozuma for him to have little to no involvement.

Kozuma then does some wicked effects animation on 6, and we get some interesting creature? animation on 12

Kozuma void demon shots, unfortunately the comp is so terrible that its hard to read
Fortunately the genga exists

Though Kozuma could not participate on Jujutsu Kaisen he was able to participate in the prequel film Jujutsu Kaisen 0

Like God of High School this was another film made on a time crunch, with some reports estimating it taking four months to finish. This would also mark Park’s last involved project in the series. Kozuma was placed on the epic finale of the film with Ideue assisting. Ideue handles Yuta, and Kozuma for Geto.

Kozuma in the back half, with the nuke explosion, full scene, non interpolated
Perhaps due to quality constraints both animators were given heavy duty touch ups by arguably the best animator of the 21st Century, Hironori Tanaka. While their effects remained unmolested you can really see Tanaka adding boat loads of additional detail to the character art.


Kozuma’s cursed explosion at the end is one of his best drawn sequences ever, given more impact thanks to strong camerawork, and an assortment of rounded and cubic shapes.




Fun fact, Fuminori Kizaki who was an AD on Poltergeist Report and Island of Assasins assisted with this film. Another throwback connection for Kozuma

After doing some minor explosion fx, collabing with his wife Morishima on My Hero Academia, Kozuma arrived on Chainsaw Man

I would highlight some of Kozuma’s scenes here, and this cut is admittedly pretty good, but this series was met with difficulties. Not just from fans, but a dismayed staff too. Now the Mappa production line had been overworked for around 2 years by that point, but it was getting to a boiling point by this series, with high demand by series director Ryu Nakayama. I cannot speak to Nakayama’s nature on the show, so I will let Kozuma.

In a now deleted tweet Kozuma stated:

“This version of Chainsaw man wasn't what we wanted to make. That's right.
It's the real truth.
I'm saying this as the guy who lost his temper and got into it during Episode 1, there's no question about it”

Most animators under strict deadlines usually vent online, but for a guy as reputable as Kozuma complaining about a director’s vision would normally get anyone fired. Thankfully Kozuma retains his status at Mappa til this day, but it’s always a risky maneuver. Episode 1 has Kozuma opening with the reveal scene of the Zombie Devil. While it is an effective scene Kozuma’s style is sadly missing, likely due to heavy redraws, on top of what I’m guessing was already detailed art. The only thing that remains is his timing (sort of). Episode 2 has Denji encounter a Bug Demon with the third cut showing some traces of his style. It’s hard to know exactly what Kozuma did on 8 and 9, but his work definitely was corrected to shreds in the blood bath scene on 9

The next show that had another tricky schedule was Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 while despite having issues, was a more successful venture thanks to new series director Shota Goshozono aka Gosso

A main unstated motto going forward at Mappa would become simplifying character designs. More opportunity for movement, and a better environment for staff. Not only that, but a prevailing creative lineup of the best in the new school meant Kozuma could rake in some more creative cuts. His home video montage on Episode 1 is charming, and the degrading VHS style comp elevates his animation

We then get an introductory cut of Gojo at the very end, I believe Gosso did everything except the knives (Kozuma) with Chief CAD Sayaka Koiso smoothening things out.

Episode 6 was the start of the big mecha extravaganza fight between Mahito, and Mechamaru with Kozuma opening with a powerful energy blast

Kozuma then appears in the start of the Gurren-Lagann pilled last stand homage sequence at the end of 7. In an episode filled with new gen Kanada school animators like Kosuke Kato

Awesome hand animation

Fair to note Yooto’s following scene goes very hard, he was credited as AD alongside Naoki Miyajima. Yooto’s own style is reminiscent of Koji Ito.

Kozuma does a brief bit of smoke fx at the end of the wild endeavor that was Episode 17, and really shows off with advance creature effects on the final episode with “Geto” opening a void of yokai

A strong end, and telling of what’s to come in the next arc

For the rest of 2023-24 Kozuma appeared erratically on shows like, Pluto, Dungeon Meshi, Oblivion Battery, and My Hero Academia. One notable appearance was Dandadan where Turbo Granny’s soul is sealed within a stuffed beckoning cat

Kozuma’s strongest bit of character acting possibly ever? Despite being mostly LO work, the 1st KA looks great, and finishing/second KA feels very well realized.
Here in the layout stage can see how Kozuma would have drawn the scene. At this stage in his career he has switched to digital citing ease of use, and practicality when it comes to cell layers. I do love how he treats each individual body part as an autonomous boxy shapes, and then gives the illusion of somewhat real human stability from there. Proto webgen animators like Satoru Utsunomiya and Mitsuo Iso have also explored this kind of approach, but were hinging more on realism. Just an interesting observation.

Kozuma since, has done minor work on Lazarus, and did about 20 seconds of effects KA on the Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc film

With Tatsuya Yoshihara at the helm, and Shota Shigetsugu on action direction one can only hope that this team will be present in the next season of the series. Kozuma appears right after Beam and Denji take down Typhoon with him illustrating fire and smoke billowing out of several buildings. Kozuma’s clumpy geometric smoke stands out against the more pragmatic detailed designs of pretty much every other animator in the last battle sequence of the movie. A minor but welcome appearance.

Kozuma’s most recent animation was on a music video for an artist called King Gnu called So Bad, directed by Yooto

Kozuma 0:12-15, presumed for 3:43-end
Ironic the song lives up to its title

That my friends is Shinsaku Kozuma. While probably not one of the most influential animators of the original Kanada school generation (I’d argue Yamashita, Ito, and Obari have him beat), he still remains the last one with the most visibility especially in popular anime, and sakuga circles. From his evolution of a direct follower of Kanada with his friend Yamashita in the 80s, to a showy action and character auteur in the 90s, to boarding one of Japan’s most successful video game franchises at the dawn of the century, to recuperating his legend status on the biggest anime series in the world the last 5-6 years, Kozuma has lived multiple lives. A truly remarkable animator, who even at his age is showing no signs of stopping.

He is slated to appear on Episode 1 of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 the start of the Culling Game Arc

In his 2024 interview, Kozuma has said

“Goshozono has what it takes!”

Shinsaku Kozuma Artwork