Anime of the year

That would be Kimi no Iro for me but it prob won't drop anywhere besides Japan until 2025

Yamadas TV work is usually mediocre honestly but her movies are legit god level

He was a pathetic loser to start but since then he’s honestly more hard working and mature than most anime MCs

But I guess that’s character development

I don't think he's mature at all

Maybe not mature in terms of him still being a massive simp but I do know it would take a lot of responsibility and hard work for a college student who is working to successfully launch a crowdfund project for a film

He's hardworking but his personality is not mature. He's mostly doing this to get her validation. He's still lying to everyone pretending she's his girlfriend. He's not honest with Ruka and doesn't break it off with her. Every time he is confronted about his mistakes he just cries and the other person is expected to feel sorry for him. Just a wimp really.

I imagine he’s going to eventually become mature and learn to do those things also

But I think that’s a pretty realistic arc that he doesn’t just magically become a grown up overnight

oh boy are you anime only

Yup

I’ve read like 2 manga in my life lmao

Animator Spotlight: Shingo Yamashita

All gifs in order
Tetsuwan Birdy Decode ED (2008)
Tetsuwan Birdy Decode Episode 9 (2008)
Tetsuwan Birdy Decode 2 (2009)
Naruto Shippuuden OP 6 (2009)
Naruto Shippuuden 167 (2010)
Yozakura Quartet: Hoshi No Umi (2011)
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos (2011)
Naruto Shippuuden ED 20 (2012)
Shinsekai Yori (2012)
Naruto Shippuuden OP 13 (2013) First two cuts are Tatsurou Kawano
Senjo no Enbukyoku (2014) Promotional Trailer
Blade Smash PV (2018) Yama did the girl genga in the first two cuts only and spinning motion on last, the rest is Keiichiro Watanabe, Bahi JD, and Hiromitsu Seki
Fate/Grand Order CM (2019)
Jujustu Kaisen (2020) Yama did CGI first cut only, rest is Bahi JD, Pebble, and Nakaya Onsen
Princess Connect! Re:Dive (2022) CGI
Heavenly Delusion (2023) Presumed

Happy Belated Birthday Shingo Yamashita born on 7/28. First there was Satoru Utsunomiya, then came Norio Matsumoto, then Kenichi Kutsuna & Ryo-Timo, then Shingo Yamashita. A pioneer of the webgen movement, and one of the most venerable animation OP directors of our time. Yamashita first got his big breakout on Timo’s Tetsuwan Birdy Decode 1 and 2 where his formless Norio influenced action received a ton of attention. As an avid user of Macromedia Flash, Timo allowed Yamashita to flourish with the application doing some of the most mind-blowing sakuga of the late 2000s. His animation was jittery, and seemingly undefined with broken line work. He became an impressive animator on Naruto Shippuuden, doing openings and ending animations, but most notably Episode 167 one of the most controversial instances of sakuga ever. After that, Yamashita grew as a successful commercial director, doing everything from anime openings to video games and in-between. His direction is highlighted by distinctive cross-dissolve photography, clever uses of lighting, interesting visual usage, metaphorical imagery, and CGI which even he uses himself in his animation. His work has broken the mold of traditional animators, and has fostered an explosion of freelance internet talent delegated not just to Japan, but around the world.

Shingo Yamashita got his first start by animating internet gifs similar to Timo, and got his first start on Masaaki Yuasa’s Genius Party doing in-betweens. Due to the obvious talent from his gifs he was able to make his KA debut on Bokurano at Gonzo in 2007. Directed by Hiroyuki Morita this makes Yamashita’s first acquaintance in several years working alongside, Timo, Kutsuna, and Matsumoto. Working with Matsumoto of all people, must have been a treat, as his touch would define Yamashita’s sensibilities. Yama made his proper debut on Episode 6 where his effects animation took a lot after Timo sakugabooru.com/post/show/120584\. It’s nothing spectacular but episode 23 makes up for it sakugabooru.com/post/show/22410 with Yama, Kutsuna, and Mitsuo Iso disciple Shinichi Kurita doing some impressive effects animation. The minimal smoke, the scribbly rocket trails, and blobby explosions are all features of webgen effects. Episode 7 is Yama’s first real attempt at character acting and its super rough sakugabooru.com/post/show/22405\. Though its rough there is a lot of charm with a complete disregard for in-betweens, and jittery timing.

On Baccano at Brain’s Base the same year, Yama was placed on longer scenes doing a train confrontation sakugabooru.com/post/show/180362 and dark creature animation sakugabooru.com/post/show/156559\. Proportionally, Yama’s drawings on people had an Utsunomiya blockiness to them, as many webgenners were doing at the time.

After several other shows in a short span of time, Yama made his most boisterous pieces of animation on Kazuki Akane’s Tetsuwan Birdy Decode.

Chief AD and designs by Ryo-Timo the show was very animator friendly, and gave Yama a playground to go wild. Joined by mentor Matsumoto, and appearances by Kutsuna it was the perfect environment to cultivate Yama’s innate insanity and sheer passion in his work. This can be made strikingly clear in the first fight of the show between Birdy and the ensuing aliens sakugabooru.com/post/show/203154\. Super limited fighting and effects sakuga utilizing animation on 3s and 4s, which is very unconventional but considering Matsumoto was encouraging others to get away from his smoother flow animation this is the result.

Though Yama’s very first scene was an action scene his second bit of animation you see is a solo KA on the ending. A wonderful display of late 2000s flash animation, and an ED left entirely in his hands. Its a simple yet expressive piece, and the accompanying song helps excel everything.

All Yama

Then we skip over to Episode 9 where Yama does his early standout scene with Birdy’s titular fight against Ondine

Shinya Segawa tackles the scene in a much more traditional way for the first 20 seconds, then Yama takes over marking a huge animation shift 0:58-2:06
What can I say? Peak webgen fighting. The opening blows feature brand new sparks animation Yama did with clever use of self-compositing. A lot of the debris in this scene is extremely bizarre, with one cut having it simply move and then disappear in frame. All of these issues are null, with Yama’s incredibly galant sakuga, I love the loopy sparks Yama does, and the water animation near the end is practically the same as his smoke animation with him further employing the mentorship of Matsumoto sensei. Episode 23 is another strange shift as Yama begins to implement cgi into his animation, making for a pretty smooth yet somewhat indiscernible approach sakugabooru.com/post/show/37455.

The sequel series, Tetsuwan Birdy Decode 2 aired the next year.

Much of the main staff returned, with Timo at the helm, this time bringing along older vets like famed character designer Takahiro Kishida, and new talent like the sakuga coven Hironori Tanaka (who at this point was in the early stage of his unimaginable career). Matsumoto, and Kustuna were present and Yama had been steadily evolving his animation. The amount of growth Yama had in such a short amount of time is staggering, and under Matsumoto’s presence it is easy to see why. The first sign of growth comes in ED1

All Yama
Unlike his first ending which was a very simple run cycle with shifting backgrounds and characters, we begin to see Yama shift in-between crude child like drawings with wavering confidence. While the scene is still rife with a brighter Timo-esque setting we see Yama quickly cut quickly to other set pieces, letting the viewer quickly digest the scenery, and then move on to the next cut. This would become a staple later on in Yama’s trailer or ending direction.

Then we get to the meat of the second half of the series, the fights which are Yama’s best. His first appearances in Episodes 1 and 7 are incredibly violent and crude sakugabooru.com/post/show/203157\. Episode 7’s AD by Timo is super off model opting to deform the characters to such extremes they don’t even look the same sakugabooru.com/post/show/165448 sakugabooru.com/post/show/124041 Yama’s usage of flash here is nearly pushed to its limits if not for Episode 12 which contains one of Yama’s greatest diamond of large scale battle sakuga, and one of the best in the webgen medium

Yama 3:50-4:19, 4:56-5:53, presumed for 6:50-8:35
An absolute feast for the eyes this entire sequence is a relay between Yama, and Matsumoto with both carefully working together in perfect synchronicity to give the scene its rough and gritty approach. There is no compromise between the two as its unmistakably them, with little corrections or insight from AD Isao Hayashi. So many highlights from the two, and the only distinction to tell one from another is the fang-like teeth Matsumoto draws on Birdy. Without doubt Yama’s most impressive sequence is the destructive blows by Nataru from 3:50-4:19. I love the background animation on the interior of the buildings, with the action progressively increasing, and Nataru knocking Birdy through multiple buildings with immaculate background drawings as she is catapulted through the skyline. This scene was so incredibly regarded in animation circles that it even made its way into film discourse as director Zack Snyder cites this fight scene as inspiration for Man of Steel’s final battle.

In October, 2009 Yama showcases his powers on Naruto Shippuuden OP6

Yama 0:47-57
Here Yama displays an affinity for disturbingly dark morphing and creature animation in an abstract tier rivaling that of the most superb in this realm like Shinya Ohira and Shinji Hashimoto.

Yama finally makes his proper episode debut on Shippuuden Episode 85 sakugabooru.com/post/show/110733\. Not a lot to note on this scene aside from the puppet like animation, but the cut towards the end has an oddly rotoscoped esque feel to it.

In 2010, despite working on many other animes as a freelancer, only one thing primarily mattered and that of course would be Naruto Shippuuden Episode 167, easily one of the most controversial episodes of tv anime ever made.

Directed by Atsushi Wakabayashi, this episode seriously pushed the ‘unorthodox asset management’ with him pulling some incredibly unconventional animation. His last four episodes on the OG Naruto seriously pushed the boundaries of what could be aired on tv anime, at least for their time. Wakabayashi done some of the most bombastic episodes ever, and here was his opportunity to try again, and he blew everything out of the water; albeit a little too much. Some of the exaggerations in here were pushed so extreme, that the characters are blatantly off-model, and everything looks digital and rough as hell. This episode got a lot of flack for its “bad” drawings, less so then its “bad animation” since the animation is quite spectacular and was capitulating the webgen medium.

After Yama, Matsumoto, Kutsuna, and Timo did some pretty standout scenes on Episode 123, it was time for them to handle the Naruto and Pain fight. Norio and Wakabayashi go all the way back on Ranma in the early 90s and their acquaintance here helped a lot in service of the episode. Kutsuna takes a more advanced approach, odd considering how unfeathered his animation usually is. Yet the animator everyone talks about this Episode is Yamashita who’s scenes simultaneously get the most flack and most praise.

All Yama
Yamashita did a staggering near 7 minutes of KA in the beginning of the episode. I don’t know many other key animators who can contribute that much to an Episode of TV anime aside from Solo KAers like Takashi Kojima, but with this much action it feels like more than an exception. There is a strong bountifulness of Matsumoto’s influence here, but also it betrays a sense of losing many of the restrictions of that very style as Yama goes way more perverse and abstract in approach. The timing and rhythm of action is some of the oddest I have ever seen in anime, and is super limited in effects with practically zero outlines or shading. All of the hatred towards this scene by many fans, comes from the stretchy water balloon Pain faces, which are incredibly jarring, but also add to the mere juxtaposed chaos here, paring with unusually large scale action.

Some of the initial reaction videos to this Episode from 13 years ago give me insane whiplash to being 10, but I digress. Yama has stated in interviews that he didn’t do a ton of finished work for this scene leading to a very rough scene, although considering it was 7 minutes of animation I don’t blame him. Despite the extreme flack of this episode by many fans, much of the blame was not placed on Yama instead Wakabayashi who wouldn’t direct another episode ever of Shippuuden, he did work on Rage of Bahamut but would never do anything on this scale again, which is unfortunate. Yama broke this scene down years later in a 2020 interview with Crunchyroll.

The next year would be very interesting as it marked a return to Timo’s directorial debut Yozakura Quartet: Hoshi No Umi at Tatsunoko Productions

Covering the Hoshi No Umi arc from chapter 26-34, this was the first opportunity for Timo to really flex his skills at asset management. Of course Yama was brought on so was Matsumoto, but this also showcased the making of several new animators under the leadership of the webgen giant such as Megumi Kouno, Hirofumi Suzuki, and Chikashi Kubota. While the latter two aren’t exactly new animators this was their early stages of familiarizing themselves with this kind of style, and it would help improve their work later. As for Yama, he’s fantastic per usual and not only was he just as good as an animator but the storyboarding work done by Timo and Kiyotaka Suzuki especially on Episode 2 planted Yama head first in to how the visuals in his OPs and trailers would look in the future.

Yama did some initial eye candy in the OP, 1:22-1:32

Yama 0:20-end
Then we get Yama’s fight scene with Kotoha fighting the giant Zakuro. This is easily Yama’s strongest bit of sakuga next to the Pain fight. Kotoha’s powers offer limitless creativity with how they are used and Yama puts to full effect with her giant hammers, water cannons, airplanes, and missiles. Its a super engaging scene but the cuts that stand out most are the ones where she’s directly on the giant. The way the scene is cut together, and a lot of Yama’s timing is super reminiscent of his future trailer work with a lot of the massive scale action quickly moving the small subject in frame then using wide shots to emphasize the size and weight of the giant. It Is a great use of contrast in the boards.