Before, Jin-Roh’s official release in 2000, Evangelion co-director Kazuya Tsurumaki made his directorial debut on FLCL, bringing on Gainax staff in tandem with Production IG. A show super varying in animation styles.For example you’d have IG animators like Tetsuya Nishio do a whole segment in his more realistic Okiura sensibilities and the proceeding scenes were followed up by Kanada pro Hiroyuki Imaishi making for insane visual whiplash. In fact this six episode OVA was more of a spotlight for the new kids Imaishi and Sushio, as Yoshinari would have a somewhat smaller role.

Tsurumaki on the first episode would help Yoshinari reign in a lot of his idiosyncrasies after working on Jin-Roh where he was still in the mindset of animating things 1 to 1 as presented and drawing “plaster like figures” as described by Imaishi. Tsurumaki insisted on a more spectacular approach

Yoshinari from 0:47 to 2:12

One thing interesting to note here is Yoshinari smoothing out his art style, and also taking a more grounded approach to his fight choreography while still meshing in comical exaggerated elements. The shot of the Arm Robot and Canti standing on the bridge would heavily lean on to his art style going in with the two of them having whole sections shaded in black.

something not apparent in Yoshinari's own storyboards

It’s dramatic, and adds a sense of dynamism without being to heavy on details something Yoshinari admits he stresses about too much. Other elements that hadn’t been present in Yoshinari’s work are dirty brush pen lines something that he had never done before.

Yoshinari’s mechanical design for Arm Robot

On Episode 3, he’d do some pretty wacky fight animation, animating on multiples for comedy another thing he hadn’t done. sakugabooru.com/post/show/221876\. The third robot that sprouts out of Ninamori’s head was designed by Yoshinari with mechanical design direction under Hideaki Anno.

The most famous scene he’s known for in FLCL, is Maroko running on the giant robot in Episode 5

absolutely insane animation from Yoshinari from 1:04 to 1:15

From this point on I am going to primarily focus on Yoshinari’s Gainax and Trigger only releases with few exceptions here and there if they are worth mentioning. After FLCL Yoshinari would hop onto Mahormatic: Automatic Maiden another collaborative effort between Gainax and another studio. This time Studio Shaft. This continues the trend of Yoshinari delving deeper into his art style seemingly being uncorrected, and allowing him to expand upon it. On Episode 1 Yoshinari does that entirely, and with some brilliant compositing lets his presence shine. Hideaki Anno and Shoji Saeki were in charge of the storyboards here, though it looks all Yoshinari. sakugabooru.com/post/show/184589




Doing black shading in such a dark sequence normally wouldn’t be attempted, but the atmosphere and aesthetics totally warrant it and Yoshinari does it so well. Yoshinari would go on to do some character acting cuts afterwards in future episodes.

On Episode 11, Yoh would bring on his brother Kou to help with a quick fight scene where its very obvious to see the character differences between the two brothers sakugabooru.com/post/show/189419\. The close up shots of Mahoro animated by Kou taking on a very detailed isekai/moei appeal whereas Yoh simplifies everything.

The next Gainax show warranting mention is Abenobashi, Yoshinari would only animate 2 scenes in the series, and again bring his brother on for one scene. Following that he’d work on the follow up Mahoromatic series once again focusing more on character acting. Fast forward a few years later, and we get Dead Leaves the directorial feature of Hiroyuki Imaishi. A non-Gainax feature though bringing on a lot of Gainax people, it showcased Imaishi’s talent as the ultimate Yoshinori Kanada connoisseur that he is. Featuring some of the most bizarre and wild animation of the 2000s, and Yoshinari was in the thick of it all
sakugabooru.com/post/show/120895

Following Dead Leaves the next big project would be on Kazuya Tsurumaki’s Diebuster or Gunbuster 2 a sequel to the 1989 OVA directed by Hideaki Anno. Running from 2004-2006 the six episode OVA would feature larger than life intergalactic conflicts brought to life by the big three, Sushio, Imaishi, and Yoshinari. The scenes he does in the show get him closer to the future works of Gurren Lagann, as you can see here sakugabooru.com/post/show/225520.

In between Diebuster, Yoshinari would work on Mamoru Hosoda’s One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and The Secret Island. Despite production being credited at Toei Animation, many of Gainax’s star key animators appear. Imaishi, Sushio, Honda, and Yoshinari were all brought on board. Sushio in particular revamped the character designs to better fit Hosoda’s aesthetics, simplifying everything and removing shading almost entirely. Yoshinari’s 1 cut on the movie is comparable to his cut in Eva episode 23, where similar to there he does this insane body horror transformation cut with multiple characters of the main cast coming out of the Baron’s flower.

After Diebuster concluded Yoshinari worked on a number of projects in 2006. Doing Muv-Luv Alternative animation cuts with his brother, also penning character designs to Valkyrie Profile 2. Then everything changed the next year.

It is 2007, and time for the release of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

The series marked the directorial debut of Hiroyuki Imaishi, and the pinnacle of Yoshinari, Sushio, and Imaishi’s talents combined. Yoshinari turned his talents up to 11 here and transcends action animation. Going beyond the standard norm of his past works, and evolving into an unadulterated behemoth of animation. Not only would he go beyond what he was capable on the animation side, but also provide superb mechanical designs to the show, distinguishing himself as an awesome concept artist and mech designer.

There is so much animation by Yoshinari that can be talked about, but first I want to cover the mecha designs. The Gunmen suits a surprising bold in appearance. Borrowing a lot from Masami Obari mecha of the 80s and 90s yet with Yoshinari’s designs makes them feel noticeably more modern and timeless.




The influence of Tsurumaki, Mignola, and even somewhat Genndy Tartakovsky play into the designs and Yoshinari expands on the process saying

“Artistically speaking, the animation looks very complex, but the truth is that during the design phase, it's actually very easy to animate. When the whole design was being created, we had motion in mind. So, despite the fact that it looked difficult, it wasn't that difficult to animate.”

For the two Gurren Lagann movies new designs were implemented for added eye candy, and essentially being an abridged series of events from the show. Yoshinari went into even more detail then previously designing Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann , Solvernia, and Yoko W Tank.

Now lets breakdown the animation. Yoshinari deserves all the praise in the world for even reaching at least some of the deadlines on this show, because the final payoff in every scene he does is beyond perfect. Episode 1, has this absolutely insane shot that is totally a Captain Harlock reference.



sakugabooru.com/post/show/224903
The following cuts in the episode are equally as crazy with Yoshinari defining his effects animation a little more. One thing to notice here is that the characteristics of the attacks revolve around the spiraling shapes. Even where those shapes aren’t present in action Yoshinari keeps a strong sense of linearity and point of origin with the drills which helps elevate the material.


Yoshinari was the best animator on the staff at that point, and this creative decision ingeniously supported Imaishi’s vision.

Several episodes later on 11, we get some fantastic character acting on Simon with Yoshinari, and melding it with action sakugabooru.com/post/show/181770\. In the same episode there is an insane explosion once the villain of the episode is defeated.



These star shaped explosions are so unconventional for an animation, but Yoshinari makes it work. One thing to highlight is how the explosions all emerge from a fixed point. First starting off as a cross shaped explosion then eventually becoming more deformed and symmetrical with each successive detonation. What I admire about this too is Yoshinari doesn’t pollute the screen with the explosions or debris. They all originate from one spot. It is eye-grabbing and dynamic, and this unique way of going about the effects made Yoshinari standout among every KA on the staff.

Though every cut he does in the latter half is great it’s really the final encounter with the Anti-Spirals that makes the show version with Yoshinari be mind-boggling. sakugabooru.com/post/show/202854\. Every cut here is absolute perfection. An insane storyboard like this normally would be attempted by more than one animator, but Yoshinari isn’t just one animator. I feel like Imaishi drew this storyboard and had tailor made for Yoshinari, like he knew he could do it, and he did. The pure escalation and scaling down of the gunmen after each attack from the Anti-Spiral is so interesting, and once again plays into the fastidious linearity of a Yoshinari scene.





Devolving from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Super Galaxy Gurren, to Arc-Gurren, Gurren Lagann, to just Gurren. Afterwards a punch then a number of explosions portrayed in different colors, looking like blooming flowers.

In the movies this becomes even more insane with Yoshinari reaching the peak of his powers during the Super Giga Drill Break. This is easily some of the most breathtaking mecha animation ever put to paper.

Drill break sequence is all Yoshinari, plus explosions afterwards, great finale

Now for the second Gurren film
Yoshinari is in charge of the Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann sequence and goes insane with the details. This initial transformation shot of the Super Gurren is so fluid and fast, giving Naotoshi Shida a run for his money.

And the subsequent shots of Super Gurren and the Anti-Spiral have Yoshinari doing all the flame details on 1s which he didn’t have to do, but he did it.


Sushio would close out the latter half of the fight between them later on.

Yoshinari afterwards followed up on the Gurren Lagann: Parallel Works shorts. On Episode 8 doing work that’s already perfect, and even experimenting with paper drawn montage art similar to his work in Evangelion’s final episode sakugabooru.com/post/show/190992\. He’d also do KA on a music video for Yoko

In-between Yoshinari’s Gurren Lagann era he’d assist his brother with the White Album, an inhuman venture by Kou where he animated on every episode. Kou helped with 4 episodes and helped animate the 4th ending for the show sakugabooru.com/post/show/117386.

The follow up to Gurren Lagann, called Panty and Stocking (directed again by Imaishi) is this crazy romp of a show that was largely influenced by American cartoons like Drawn Together and Powerpuff Girls, which is pretty rare for Japanese anime and is usually the other way around. Yoshinari provided some concept art


and did the first “REPENT MOTHERFUCKER” scene sakugabooru.com/post/show/197461\. From there on he’d cover a few episodes, directing storyboarding ADing Episode 11’s B section, and helped with the finale.

While Letter to Momo was being made Yoshinari helped on a Pokemon movie along with other Production I.G. members just to fill their time. More importantly he’d assist on the OP of The Idolmaster directed by Gainax’s star character designer Atsushi Nishigori though this wasn’t a Gaianx affair instead being A-1 Pictures. Marking the tumbling collapse of Gainax, following his departure from the company. Yoshinari’s work on the opening is great, though due to heavy correction by Nishigori a lot of his timing is cleaned up. The cut still looks great regardless

Yoshinari and Nishigori at 0:55 to 1:19

Idolmaster is important to mention cause on Episode 17 it would mark an unofficial emergence of Studio Trigger. The following year Imaishi, Yoshinari, Sushio, Nishigori, Akira Amemiya, and basically half of Gainax’s staff would leave to join Studio Trigger. An animation company founded on the merits of Yoshinori Kanada and keeping alive the energy and spirit of late 2000s Gainax. Gainax members Masahiko Otsuka, and Hiroyuki Imaishi would be the primary co-founders, and the first initial OVA after some video game promo work was Little Witch Academia.

Litte Witch Academia was the official debut series of Yoh Yoshinari, a series made in mind as being a metaphor for the anime industry as a whole while working within the construct of a magical school girl story. Akko who wants to be the greatest witch in the world making people smile, joins Luna Nova convinced she can do it. Conceived, directed, storyboarded, character designed and written by Yoshinari and Otsuka its the first time we get to see Yoshinari’s vision and it’s cute. The project was made at the time with Anime Mirai a young animators program with other studios like Madhouse, Zexcs, and Gonzo taking part at the time as well with their short films.

full OVA (English Dub)