When Ruka came in I was like "that b\*\*\*\* is still here?" lol

just got to 100 series but im already at like 50 days watched

1st ep of Rurouni Kenshin is solid, it's just like the OG. Is this just gonna be similar to DB Kai where they cut off the fillers?

I forgot that Kenshin speaks like Yoda for some reason The OPs and EDs of the OG are gonna be so hard to top

random thoughts of anime ive watched this year

Season 2 of Vinland Saga started out very slow but eventually became my favorite anime alongside chainsaw man and attack on titan right now. Probably the best anime out right now in terms of character development

Demon Slayer was beautifully animated but it feels like the story didn't really progress until the very end.

Black Clover movie was very entertaining. I miss it

Hell's Paradise/Jigokuraku is superrrr MID. The characters aren't likeable and the pacing is too fast for me to even gaf about them. The animation is kinda okay. I dropped the anime after episode 8

Animator Spotlight: Kouichi Arai

All gifs in order
Akira (1988) was a co-KA with Hideki Hamasu, do not know which cuts they did separately
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Memories (Magnetic Rose) (1995)
Perfect Blue (1997)
Spriggan (1998) Presumed
FLCL (2000) Presumed
Millennium Actress (2001)
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004)
Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa (2005) heavy AD by Yutaka Nakamura
Highlander: The Search for Vengeance (2007) Presumed
Sword of the Stranger (2007)
A Letter to Momo (2011)
Attack on Titan (2013)
Kizumonogatari Part 2: Nekketsu (2016) Presumed
Persona 5 (2016) Presumed
Blade Runner Black Out 2022 (2017)

Happy Belated Birthday to Kouichi Arai born same day as Shinji Otsuka. A mysterious animator, Kouichi Arai much like his colleague Hideki Hamasu have enjoyed quietly successful careers post-Akira OVA boom. Initially working at Toei he contributed character designs to their OVAs like Xanadu Dragonslayer, and Crying Freeman the latter being a great demonstration of his animation direction. He’s had a long career of freelancing on films and tv though primarily favors Production IG projects. In terms of actual animation, Arai is solid and weighty, though he is mostly placed on “conversation” scenes, his more movement oriented cuts are clean and direct, his main influence being Junichi Hayama. Though he is good in that department his designs in his animation direction can departure heavily from the source material when brought on to adaptations. Arai is a founder of Kimetra Citrus the studio responsible for Made in Abyss.

Brought up in the OVA boom, Arai was one of the most prominent animators of that era, much like his friend Hideki Hamasu. He was working on a lot of fringe animes such as Odin Starlight Memory, and at the time was employed with Toei. This lead him to work on Dragonslayer: Denestsu which had him on character designs. After cutting tooth and nail through OVAs he was finally brought on to Akira along with Hamasu.

So in terms of the more fringe animators of Akira, Arai and Hamasu were pretty much the only two on the outskirts, along with Yoshiji Kigami. Arai, Hamasu and Morifumi Naka all make a conceited effort of debris and weight sakugabooru.com/post/show/193896\. Many of the effects seem inline with Hamasu though the character work seems more in tune with Arai, and the vehicular work appears to be Naka. It’s a quick bit, but is very emblematic of what’s to come (though I’d say more so for Hamasu then Arai).

The next 6 years would have Arai working on the second OVA boom of post Akira goodness. The first was on Crying Freeman which had his designs and KA on Episode 1, sakugabooru.com/post/show/213123\. Despite being very limited there is a lot to be admired in Arai’s minimal aesthetics, and in the original cut letting the music do the work. He’d work on Guyver Bio Booster Armor a strange Toei’s OVA. The few years after that had Arai just being an on request freelancer. First being Roujin Z which had him back with some of the Akira crew including Toshiyuki Inoue and Hiroyuki Okiura. Then several more Ninja Scroll, he animated a cut on the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure OVA sakugabooru.com/post/show/114065, and he even was back on Toei duty working on a Dragon Ball movie and Sailor Moon movie.

1994 saw him working on the Macross 7 opening alongside Toshiyuki Inoue, being a near solo KA effort sakugabooru.com/post/show/219996 with Jiro Kanai assisting on two cuts, and Toshiyuki Inoue doing an Itano Circus. He also worked on the Fatal Fury movie and on Macross Plus the same year. This year also has one of his strongest scenes on the Tomcat’s Big Adventure movie sakugabooru.com/post/show/163107\. A great display of background animation and cartoonish character acting, and physics defying stunts.

1995 he did work on Macross Plus: The Movie but more importantly OP animating the Golden Boy anime

1:30 onward should be Arai and Norimoto Nokura

The same year, Arai along Hamasu hopped onto Ghost in the Shell

Brought on by Hiroyuki Okiura, Arai and Hamasu helmed the scene of the Major attempting to destroy the spider tank, and failing in the process. sakugabooru.com/post/show/120948 Hamasu’s opening cut is one of the most memorable instances of anime body horror.

Arai picks up afterwards, with the Tank nearly crushing The Major’s head, and Batou saving her.

There are some great details to pick up in Arai’s scene. I love how when the gun hits the tank it’s wires are spilling out like guts, and after it drops the Major there is oil leaking off its arm like blood. Thanks to corrections by Okiura and Kazuchika Kise the scene would not look the way it does.

Later that year, Arai and Hamasu were brought on to Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira follow up Memories, specifically Magnetic Rose

This section boasts one of the highest yields of Arai’s sakuga where he does a really fantastic job with the character acting. sakugabooru.com/post/show/64379 he does this fantastic rotating shot during the middle section of the film with no corrections (funny considering that Toshiyuki Inoue redrew nearly everything), then as things get more hectic he begins to up the ante, with the emotional horror.

Arai 0:40-0:52, he comes later with the scene of him shooting the robot at 4:20 to the end
Later while the station is destroyed, a flurry of effects animation is committed by an unidentified artist, Toru Yoshida, and Arai, with Hamasu and episode director Koji Morimoto correcting the debris sakugabooru.com/post/show/186605.

1996, had him working on more minor animes like Ruroni Kenshin and Fire Emblem. He also worked on Rintaro’s X film. 1997 marked his first collaboration with Satoshi Kon on Perfect Blue, doing the terrifying striptease sequence sakugabooru.com/post/show/119545 sakugabooru.com/post/show/57104.

The same year Arai worked on the amazing Ghost in the Shell PS1 opening

Arai 0:32-0:40

1998 saw him working on some bigger animes, the first one being Serial Experiments Lain where he animated a section of the opening

Arai’s cuts are sadly unidentified, though I will guess he probably did the walking cuts.

The next would be on Studio 4C’s second big feature, Spriggan.

A fierce display of action sakuga, the movie only covers a portion of the manga, though director Hirotsugu Kawasaki and Katsuhiro Otomo made every scene count. Arai was a part of the incredible Istanbul chase sequence with help from Mamoru Oshii animator Toyoaki Emura coming after him, with brothers Kouichi Hashimoto, Shinji Hashimoto, and Shinya Ohira handling the back end, Shinji Hashimoto doing a majority of animation after the building explosion.

Arai 0:55-1:12

The same year the four episode series Blue Submarine No. 6 would debut with Evangelion co-director Mahiro Maeda at the helm.

Arai was brought on as a character designer though I am assuming it was only for background characters, as he’s only credited for Episode 2-4, and the main characters were handled by Range Murata Takeshi Honda and Toshiharu Murata. You can tell Arai’s designs in this scene sakugabooru.com/post/show/190813 due to the way he draws the male characters specifically the one in the third to last shot. Minimal details yet still maintaining a solidity, and three dimensionality on the face.

The late 90s early 2000s saw Arai working on Mamoru Hosoda’s Digimon films this sakugabooru.com/post/show/64746 being the only identified cut of his from those films. That was 2000, and in that same year he worked on FLCL with many of the same Production IG regulars, this being his first time working alongside some newcomers. He only worked on Episode 4, and his short scene is incredibly impactful sakugabooru.com/post/show/221884 with the glitching father. Thanks to AD from Nobutoshi Ogura this scene makes heavy use of shadows to up the drama factor.




I love how Arai implements the shadows to help convey a sense of three dimensionality to help compensate for the thin line work, even if this could potentially not be him. The jerky animation works great too. The same year he also did work on Blood The Last Vampire, though his work is unidentified he did do some cuts on the pilot with Mitsuo Iso sakugabooru.com/post/show/190228

2001, he’d do some pretty simple character acting scenes on Cowboy Bebop: The Movie sakugabooru.com/post/show/185867 the last cut of Edward is great. 2002 he’d reunite with Satoshi Kon on Millennium Actress working with much of the IG staff from FLCL such as Tetsuya Nishio and Shinji Otsuka. Arai worked on the forest attack sequence with Nishio sakugabooru.com/post/show/195054\. He’d show up later presumedly handling the rain running sequence sakugabooru.com/post/show/195096.

After a dead 2003, he’d return back in 2004 working on many shows and movies. The first would be on Satoshi Kon’s Paranoia Agent (his final Kon contribution) sakugabooru.com/post/show/155704\. He did some work on the final shootout scene in Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence sakugabooru.com/post/show/160607\.

He then did a lot of unidentified cuts on Steamboy, Naruto, Beck, and Inuyasha to name a few. 2005 saw him working on One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island alongside many Gainax animators sakugabooru.com/post/show/180815, this scene is great but its unfortunately censored in the official version smh. The same year he also did a fantastic cut on Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa sakugabooru.com/post/show/217678 with a lot of timing and animation corrections by Yutaka Nakamura.

2006 saw Arai working on Kemonozume doing some great cuts under Masaaki Yuasa in particular this hilarious monster scene sakugabooru.com/post/show/185792\. The next year saw him working on Mitsuo Iso’s technological fanfare on Dennou Coil. He doesn’t have any identifiable KA, but Episode 8 was under his AD where some minor liberties were taken with character designs. Arai also covered an action sequence on Sword of the Stranger sakugabooru.com/post/show/15779 under the direction of Masahiro Ando and working in this scene alongside Hidetsugu Ito and Hiroshi Shimizu

some of Arai’s genga from the Sword of the Stranger groundwork book right side
The same year he also worked on Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s probably last project on Highlander Search for Vengeance sakugabooru.com/post/show/120074

2008, along with former Production IG and Studio Bones members he founded Kimetra Citrus

For the next decade Arai would primarily work on the biggest titles, being either legacy projects or new series. 2011 saw him returning back to IG with Hiroyuki Okiura on A Letter to Momo doing a minor part sakugabooru.com/post/show/33623\. 2012 he returned to Toei to work on Rainbow Fireflies an anime commemorating 64 years of the studio sakugabooru.com/post/show/25608\. He was a chief animation director on the Ghost in the Shell Arise series alongside other projects like Naruto: The Last, and Napping Princess over the years.

As for significant moments in the decade Arai has contributed to some OPs, one being Attack on Titan's ED in 2013 alonside Tadashi Hiramatsu

Arai 0:59-end