The next stop for Timo would be on the Mamoru Hosoda directed The Girl Who Lept Through Time. Timo penned what might possibly be one of the greatest pieces of running animation ever put to paper. It’s a very simple scene, but works wonders due to its storyboard and resounding dedication from Timo.

After Girl Timo would animate on a number of shows for the following years. One very important anime would be Bokurano. Though a majority of Timo’s cuts are unidentified the series would mark an important arrival as Timo would begin to know a 20 year old Shingo Yamashita who’d be making his KA debut. It wasn’t known at the time, but Yamashita would become a central figure of the webgen movement all within a few years.
The two accompany each other on Baccano that same year, along with Kenichi Kutsuna another early webgen animator.

On Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Timo made a few appearances. In Episode 14 he animates some great sketchy line work and a nice long cut. Though it isn’t anything crazy it still was him through and through sakugabooru.com/post/show/112549\. The same wouldn’t apply on Dennou Coil while assisting on a great action scene along with Chakashi Kubota and company sakugabooru.com/post/show/110554.

On Birdy the Mighty: Decode Timo joined by Escaflowne director Kazuki Akane served as character designer and general animation director. Again it’s unbelievable how fast Timo rose to this position only being in the industry for four years. His designs still paid tribute to the original manga, simplifying the lines and giving very easy definitions.




In terms of KA, Birdy became a hotbed for more webgen experimentation, while Timo had his fair share of animation sakugabooru.com/post/show/203153, it was the younger Yamashita and seasoned Matsumoto who had some of the most stand out moments. Yamashita especially stands out on the ED where he does this lovely flash animation

On Episode 9, Yamashita animates a one-sided action scene that goes over incredibly well thanks to jerky choreography and an indomitable use of Flash

Yamashita 1:01 to 2:05 notice the very globular deformed sense of motion and water thats just reduced to abstract digitalis.

I bring up Yamashita and Matsumoto in tandem with Timo so often, because they are just as essential to the webgen movement as he is. After Timo did brief KA on a Tales of Vesperia opening he’d come back to Birdy the Mighty: Decode 2. On this series he’d act more as an action animation director and assist in letting way more of this webgen style be apparent than the previous series. Half of the line work and character designs go off model so often that it doesn’t even become a concern anymore. Newcomers like Hironori Tanaka, Yuki Hayashi, and Tomoyuki Niho, all make their respective splashes on the series. Tanaka’s scene is especially reminiscent of Matsumoto sakugabooru.com/post/show/203167\. But it is Norio Matsumoto himself along with Shingo Yamashita that truly stand out especially on Episode 12.

majority of the fight scenes are handled by Yamashita, the running scene during the middle Matsumoto, Timo does the romance scene towards the end
This scene is an absolute masterclass in a***ogue vs digital. While Matsumoto’s scenes are done completely on paper, we shift over to Yamashita using Flash to get some of the most insane speedy abstractions one could ask for. It feels like a father and son affair, both making use of their respective skills.

you can see in this art book Yamashita’s deforming to color silhouettes to represent speed, something present in Norio's work as well.

Tomoyuki Niho, who was also a Noein alumni did impressive scenes for the show penning more out of the ordinary webgen experimentation. You can see the squared off proportions very emblematic of Utsunomiya’s animation especially the hair with the triangle like shapes.

some of these scenes unfortunately would get corrected upon DVD releases, as here is Niho’s same scene but cleaned up. On Birdy’s face especially sakugabooru.com/post/show/203138.

Birdy was a success, but the resultant styles of digital animation proved somewhat controversial among fans. Despite that Timo was on a hot streak and went on back to freelancing. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Episode 23 would display an impressive scene from Timo showcasing a nearly 3D “rotoscoped” understanding of the character drawings sakugabooru.com/post/show/213666\. On Hanamaru Kindergarten Timo drew the ED on Episode 6 and was the director and art coordinator too.

It’s 2010, and Ryo-Timo makes his directorial series debut on Yozakura Quartet: Hoshi no Umi working at Tatsunoko Productions. A story about humans and yokai living together in Sakurashin city, where 4 characters have to protect the city from threats.

This was a 3 episode OVA running from 2010-2011 and Timo was a storyboard artist, character designer, AD, KA, and OP director.
Timo does lovely character designs for this show, in fact they are so well defined to the point that he even gives a proper height chart on the model sheets.

and his character reference sheets have a wide array of expression

Once again we get peak Yamashita, where he does some insane scenes especially this

Just insane direction by Timo and an absolute blast of animation.

After Yozakura finished, Timo would go on to do KA on Welcome to the Space Show, an insanely stacked KA affair from an early A1-Pictures that once again is forgotten to time sakugabooru.com/post/show/119969\. He’d also direct Episode 9a of Panty and Stocking Garterbelt the same year.

Yozakura would see its second iteration in 2013 called Hana No Uta.

After 3 years Timo had essentially worked as a prestige animator doing freelance KA on Madoka Magika and Nisemonogatari, and the franchise really needed him. The tv series would mark the return of Norio Matsumoto on KA and Yamashita also just did his thing this time handling more character acting. Newcomer Shingo Fuji from A-1 Pictures did remarkable character acting cuts, as well as Kenichi Fujisawa another webgen animator who was close to Yamashita, the two made a huge impact on Naruto Shippuden and their experience here shows. Future Chainsaw Man director Ryu Nakayama also made a fantastic impact making a name for himself on Episode 13 sakugabooru.com/post/show/167047 with some well grounded action. This would also mark the early years of animation duo Shun Enokido and Takahito Sakazume both penning scenes.

Though all those names are great, the animator that would arguably make the best scene would go to Toei’s Yuki Hayashi. Though not a webgen animator in any right his animation has the markings one could imagine for it in full motion, and his bouncy character acting against weighty action, flows so well together in his cuts.

Hayashi 49-1:09
Timo’s storyboards for this scene are great and informs us how Hayashi expanded so well here


Its a fairly quick scene but the effort and sheer gait of character and action makes it work so well.

On the Tsuki Ni Natu OVA the KA cast of the anime would return with Yamashita absent. Still absolutely vibrant action with another new animator Hiromitsu Seki making his mark on the franchise sakugabooru.com/post/show/167113.

After Quartet ended for the remaining decade Timo would be brought on to a number of projects. He’d direct an Ajin episode, would be a character designer on Seikaisaru Kado and would be essentially be quiet on the animation front due to the grueling process of Quartet. In 2020 he was appointed creative director for Plott a studio known for the Teiko Penguin animation shorts that were very popular in Japan. Timo stated that Youtube anime has more viability as the creators have a close bond to their audience rather than platforms like Netflix or Amazon Prime. He did a short film called Idomo in 2020 which we have a quick look at here.

So yeah Ryo-Timo is a total goat. I get the term "webgen" is thrown around wearily often nowadays, but that's because there are so many more webgen animators then there used to be then ever before and its all thanks to Timo. Under duress and advanced training from legends like Satoru Utsunomiya, and his student Norio Matsumoto we got one of the most important animators to come out within the animation medium in years. Sure he's not as popular as the more well known Shingo Yamashita, but Yamashita wouldn't exist thanks to people like Timo and we have a whole school of thought stemming from his efforts in pushing the boundaries of traditional animation. Moving to tablets and realizing it was the future

Timo animating in 11 minutes with digital software CACANi

latest suisei no majo was crazy

Ngl though I was rooting for Gruel to win fair and square

Just realizing how good new g witch ed is

do not disrespect run w rhe wind like that.. that show has 23 episodes of great running scenes not just 2mins

also i f***ing hate anime running/breathing sounds sound like i’m watching hentai

bro always making me google these titles and it’s just gundam

Bro the kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen movie was so good!

would vote for a live-action hxh with steve carell as chrollo tbh

#WitchFromMercurySweep #PeakFiction

good