No one?

plus the movies

Is Belle any good? Hosoda

14 fkn movies. daamn

Nana 😍😍😍😍😍😍

Awesome supernatural action thriller

Why are delays so late? Do they literally be working until like the day before it releases?

i started it awhile ago but i've been so inconsistent, you're already way ahead of me lol

you would know that if you followed me back on anilist

Animator Spotlight: Yoshinori Kanada

All gifs in order
Galaxy Express 999 (1979)
Toward the Terra (1980)
Adieu Galaxy Express 999 (1981)
Genma Taisen (1983)
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
Birth (1984)
Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
Akira (1988)
Porco Rosso (1992)
Yu Yu Hakusho The Movie: Poltergeist Report (1994)
Mamono Hunter Yohko (1995)
X: The Movie (1996)
Darkstalkers (1997)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Metropolis (2000)
Hanjuku Hero 4 (2005)

Happy Belated Birthday Yoshinori Kanada! Kanada was a giant in the sakuga world and is one of the greatest animators of all time. He would have been 71 🙏

What’s ur anilist ??

Spirit gun !!!

Yoshinori Kanada was and still is to this day a name to be remembered in the anime world. While Kanada doesn’t have the on the street name recognition of a Hayao Miyazaki or the esoteric knowledge kind of a Hideaki Anno he is one of the most important in the pantheon of animators from Japan and you can see the influence of him to this day. Kanada had revolutionized the way animators approach their work, focusing on the idiosyncrasies of the individual animator rather than sticking to the uniformity of form and what was standard. I’m going to tell you the story of the legend and why his animation means so much to so many people in the industry.

Yoshinori Kanada was born on February 5th, 1952, and being born as a post-war baby proved perfect to his upbringing and exposure to Japan’s animation boom in the following years. Mighty Atom more famously known as Astro Boy was the primary inspiration to become an animator for him. Kanada would join the Tokyo Design School and became a contract employee for Toei Animation, and later on Kanada would be brought to work on Mazinger Z in 1971 as a key animator and became an aficionado early on. Though this wouldn’t be the refined zaniness and movement oriented Kanada seen down the line it would be an important step in the right direction.

Kanada would increase the animation medium during this period by essentially innovating on the fly. His main focus was to increase the excitement and liveliness into the very limited 70s animation style without sacrificing it for boring storyboards of the time. No, Kanada would introduce a lot of interesting features like his perspective shots where he included exaggerated posing and different focal lenses. He started to draw impact frames, and was very particular about details with shadows and highlights. Many of these developments came from Kanada studying Shingo Araki’s gekiga style and Takuo Noda.

During the time at Toei, Kanada would be working on Space Battleship Yamato on the side, and then would leave Toei around 1976. From the mid to late 70s Kanada would be working on a ton of opening titles with two really standing out. Gaiking (1976) and Cyborg 009 (1979).

Kanada would also be contributing a significant amount to two Yoshiyuki Tomino projects Invincible Super Man Zambot 3 (1977) and Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3 (1978). Kanada would further increase his impressive resume of key animation giving a certain glow to his animation being the Kanada Light Flare. Its one of the more recognizable trademarks of his animation, and would become a staple for many to come.

A major shift in Kanada’s career would come in the following years. Now there is a ton of information about Kanada, which I wouldn’t splurge into too much since I’m on a deadline. Galaxy Express 999 was a landmark in the visual medium of grand scale action in Japanese animation. While nowadays it might look kind of cheap at the time this was big, anime going movie sized. Along with animator Kazuhide Tomonaga, these two were pushing themselves further than they ever could, and in the case of Kanada he would go even harder where he would display very heavy explosion and laser work sakugabooru.com/post/show/20026 and later in Adieu breathtaking oscillating effects sakugabooru.com/post/show/20281
Kanada would do some work on Mobile Suit Gundam the same year than next year work on Toward The Terra where his three dimensionality of space was pursued, giving a gorgeous cut of violent space action. sakugabooru.com/post/show/21786 . This was nothing new to him as at this point he could probably do this in his sleep.
Kanada would also lend a sick cut on Galaxy Cyclone Braiger the next year.

Now we’re in the 80s. This was the most creative period in his work and some of the most beauteous Kanada animation would come. The first would be in 1983 with Harmagedon: Genma Taisen. This movie would be an interesting meeting of minds. Same director as the Galaxy Express series Rintaro (Shigeyuki Hayashi) would incorporate a lot of the same as that series, but at the same time take a more dramatic shift towards realism in character animation. Animator Takashi Nakamura would be at the forefront of the change, but the also newer Kanada would be here so the movie is at the start of the tipping point for anime as we will see in the following years. This movie also marks the first appearance of the colossal Kanada Dragon an oscillating moving dragon made of fire.

This type of animation was so influential that Takashi Murakami would be inspired to call it Superflat or “post-modern Japanese pop art”. The movie is a gorgeous example of how complex the Kanada Dragon could get, and more would come in the future.

1984. This would be a huge year for Kanada. The first project of Kanada’s doing would be providing animation to Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli debut Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Brought on by producer Isao Takahata Nausicaa would be a big undertaking for Kanada, but he was ready for the challenge. In an interview Miyazaki said.

“The way he shook his booty with zealous abandon that night only confirmed my suspicions. All of the great animators I know have some kind of behavioral quirk that sets them apart.”

Kanada’s space battle days proved useful with the flying vehicle sequences in the movie, and even his famous v shaped explosions would take precedence over any scene involving destruction.

The same year Kanada would write and draw an SF manga Tokuma Shoten’s Motion Comics which would be adapted into an OVA called Birth. Directed by Shinya Sadamitsu Kanada would have essentially full control over this project being an animation supervisor where his style is all over the place. Kanada’s chase scene around 16:30 would be one of the longest scenes he had ever animated. An outstanding 3 minutes and 24 seconds. Kanada had also amassed all of his Kanada school-students to work on the movie to like: Masahito Yamashita, Koji Ito, Shinsaku Kozuma, Toshio Kawaguchi, and Kazuhiro Ochi

Feel free to watch the whole movie if you want.

In the next few years Yoshinori Kanada would continue to work on films with Hayao Miyazaki. 1986’s Laputa: Castle in The Sky would have Kanada show of his Kanada dragon again but this time way more simplified and made out of lightning. Even though Kanada could pull ofd complex scenes of effects and explosions Kanada also could reign in impressive character acting too, though fabric animation wouldn’t escape his touch. Fun fact, during the making of Laputa Miyazaki devised a system assigning chief key animators to supervise individual groups. Kanada was one of the so called Genga Gashira but the system didn’t work though the term Kashira (chief) stuck with Miyazaki, and would remain a nickname for him by Miyazaki. Miyazaki had mentioned that Kanada “lightened the work place” on his projects and “was loved by everyone”.

Kanada the next few years would go to work on Devilman, My Neighbor Totoro, Akira, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Porco Rosso. Akira is an important title and more so to the detriment of Kanada’s influence. During the 80s many animators were very much Kanada-school oriented focusing on movement in frames more so than capturing highly detailed motion, however, when Akira was released the “Kanada-School” animation style would fall out of popularity in favor of the realism school. Though the 90s didn’t wildly abolish his style entirely, it would be less prevalent until later on. Kanada was a well oiled machine in the 90s, though the credits are sparse (particularly doing a lot of work for Studio Madhouse at the time) this is one of the most underrated periods of his career and to the point where we can observe his animation in a close to modern setting, removed by about 30 years.

Some highlights include

• His animation on Yu Yu Hakusho: Poltergeist Report where he provides animation for the climactic scene, and truly proves why he’s the GOAT. sakugabooru.com/post/show/69238
• The scenes he did on Darkstalkers being some of his most dynamic and artistically impressive works. sakugabooru.com/post?tags=yoshinori_kanada+darkstalkers+
• And the dancing Kanada Dragons in X: The Movie are a glorious re-treading on his familiar trademark, giving a more simplified approach, but more sparseness in movement and smaller in scale. sakugabooru.com/post/show/120029

In 1998, Yoshinori Kanada would move on from traditional animation, and start getting into cgi animation. He wouldn’t completely abandon 2d as he would do some animation for Blue Submarine No.6, but the year marked him leaving the industry work primarily on video game productions. It seemed like all hope was lost for the preservation of new animation from his iconic style, however, the same year studio Gainax would release KareKano with a sudden burst of Kanada-esque animation these guy would be penned the “Neo-Kanada” school. Famously containing key animators Hiroyuki Imaishi, Yoh Yoshinari, and Sushio. Without the new Kanada generation in Gainax, and the later founding of Studio Trigger we would have never seen his style make headwind maybe ever again. Out of the new generation, Hiroyuki Imaishi feels like the natural successor to Kanada while simplifying a lot of his complexities. Then there are others outside of Gainax like studio Bones animator Yoshimichi Kameda who I would argue pushed Kanada’s style a few steps further adding his own idiosyncrasies on top of an “older” style resulting in his heavy ink lines and razor sharp timing.

Yoshinori Kanada would work on Metropolis in 2000, which would be significant as a “gathering point” for two directing pioneers Rintaro and Katsuhiro Otomo. The next year Kanada would fill in his layout sheets for the cgi-film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within working with studio Square Enix.

Kanada would supervise animation for Final Fantasy XI and Blade Master. He seemed to have a great affinity for 3d animation with the junior artists at Square Enix having great admiration for his teachings.
One of the great last work’s of Kanada’s traditional 2D animation would be the opening sequence for Hanjuku Hero 3D

It is a remarkable showcase of Kanada’s talent and showed he still hadn’t lost his touch. Kanada’s last official work would be storyboarding for Final Fantasy IV for the Nintendo DS.

On July 21, 2009 Yoshinori Kanada died from a heart attack at the age of 57. His work was celebrated at a memorial on August 30th at Suginami Kaikan Hall with 1100 industry figures and fans attending the ceremony. Of the presenters telling stories many were there. Hayao Miyazaki, Hideaki Anno, Rintaro, Takashi Namaki (head of ANIDO), and anime critic Ryusuke Hikawa all were acquaintances of his and presented stories of him and what made him special. One of the most touching parts of the ceremony was Kanada’s wife Mariko sharing a private video of him singing a song that threw the crowd into laughter. Kanada’s animation had touched the industry on such a grand scale and his sudden passing had shook everyone, though through the memorial Makiko stated she wanted it to be remembered as a ‘reunion more than a send-off’.

Fan Art made by Hiroyuki Imaishi to commemorate Kanada.

Yoshinori Kanada was and still is one of the most influential animators who ever lived. From Kanada’s early years of his career to later on Kanada bloomed with creativity, and that was mainly due his style being specifically designed for creativity to begin with. Everything from his shading, to character acting, to effects, impact frames all culminated into an unmistakable animator who’s only weakness was his lack of limitations. Kanada is still one of the only animators who’s influence in key animation can be felt to this day (only being rivaled by Yutaka Nakamura), and the animators who work in his style take pride in it. Studio Trigger still to this day relishes in Kanada’s animation, and some animators outside them frolic in his style too. It is incredible to this day how just one man can change an entire industry for the better and for that we’re grateful to Kanada. His influence on anime, art, video games, and movies cannot be understated and he will always be remembered as on of the greatest to ever do it.

What are you getting yourself into nobu… simps like you get hurt in the end…