Animator Spotlight: Shinya Takahashi

All gifs in order
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure OVA (2002)
Darker than Black (2007) Presumed
Nura Rise of The Yokai Clan (2011)
Hiiro No Kakera (2012) Presumed
Tears to Tiara II (2013) Presumed
Hakuoki: Spirit of the Blue Sky (2014)
Gangsta (2015)
Twin Star Exorcists (2016) Presumed
Konosuba (2017)
Sin Nanatsu no Taizai (2017)
My Hero Academia (2018)
Konosuba: Legion of Crimson (2019)
Sailor Moon Eternal (2021)
Attack on Titan (2022)
Princess Connect Re:Dive (2022)
Uma Musume Pretty Derby (2023)

Happy Birthday to Shinya Takahashi. The freelanciest of freelancers, its easy to find Takahashi not committing to just one show and having involvement in multiple studios. Best known for his tightly compacted smears, and incredible illustrations, Takahashi has been a double threat for about three decades. Takahashi ever since debuting in the early 80s has been a bit of a lone wolf in sakuga, not really known who his associates are, or the rhyme or reason of projects he joins. His most notable more full time jobs being on Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan and Konosuba. With a noticeable Yasuomi Umetsu influence, being the quick timing of his animation and the “mature” content he takes on, Takahashi feels like anime’s veteran edgelord.

Takahashi much like some of the more fringe animators like Kouichi Arai, has had a bizarre and winding career. With a lot of shows not worth mentioning and some that are. His first debut was on Queen Millenia in 1982 when he was only 16 years old doing KA. From there he went freelance which wasn’t incredibly common. His first notable credit would be on City Hunter 2 and 3 where his first bit of true animation comes to fruition sakugabooru.com/post/show/136831\. There is a Umetsu-ism towards the end with very good drawing skills, and quicker timing.

From there on out Takahashi would do a ton of great work in the 90s albeit very sporadically. 1993 would be a standout year with Takahashi working on Patlabor 2, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure OVA, and Gunnm better known as Battle Angel Alita. Alita was the best example of Takahashi flexing his skills, animating alongside legendary effects-only animator Takashi Hashimoto

Takahashi 0:52-1:57
Many of the hallmarks of Takahashi sakuga come into play here. Some of the close up shots and Obari-esque timing helps a lot. There is great focus on the drawings of the characters here making the action almost seem useless as its more easier to imagine them then what is happening in-between. Steady background animation with Alita dodging Gally’s claw attack.

The rest of the decade had some great standout scenes, The Hakkenden sakugabooru.com/post/show/205481, Photon sakugabooru.com/post/show/200918, Bio Hunter sakugabooru.com/post/show/170394, Cowboy Bebop sakugabooru.com/post/show/123930 and Choushin Hime Dangaizer 3 sakugabooru.com/post/show/139841

In 1999 Takahashi got his first taste of character designs on Kurogane Communication

Produced at A.P.P.P (a recurring studio that Takahashi would join on projects), this would also mark his first venture into animation direction. As for designs with the main heroine there is a very strong Umetsu influence (who he surprisingly never worked with in the 90s) with the small lips, although doesn’t have the robotic look most of Umetsu’s girls do.

The next year had Takahashi on one very important project being Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Takahashi did the introduction of Benge the shadowplay assassin sakugabooru.com/post/show/149138, this is a presumed not confirmed him. He also provided character designs on Kirara and Sci-Fi Harry around the same time.
A few years later Takahashi did a great scene on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure sakugabooru.com/post/show/158422, one of his best scenes helped by great manga material to bring to life.

During the mid 2000s Takahashi was just as all over the place as he was in the 2000s albeit more consistent than ever before. One standout scene although he wasn’t identified was the opening train heist on Episode 1 of Wolf’s Rain

An incredible sequence with Takahashi and many other animators doing some heavily realistic action. This began a trend of Takahashi picking up minor work at Studio Bones for more than half a decade.

In 2007, Takahashi worked on Darker than Black where he contributed some significant animation to OP 1 and 2.

Takahashi 0:40-0:53

Takahashi 0:57-1:03
While this would not be a fully fledged committal to a show, Takahashi would start to animate more frequently on serious becoming a recurring figure instead of being the nonsensical freelancer he was known to be up to this point.

After doing some overcorrected work on Towa no Quon, Takahashi took on a big outing on Nura Rise of The Yokai Clan

Directed by legendary Studio Deen figurehead Junji Nishimura, this show felt like a pretty forgettable splash in the middling Deen catalogue, but Takahashi for some reason showed his ass out doing a lot of very gritty and well drawn action scenes sakugabooru.com/post/show/157316, sakugabooru.com/post/show/229299, sakugabooru.com/post/show/157318

Another anime that year would be on Is this a Zombie?

Takahashi 1:07 to end
An anime that unfortunately ended on a cliffhanger, we get to see Takahashi take on more full scenes and actively engages with some pretty brutal scenes sakugabooru.com/post/show/178462

In 2012, on Hiiro No Kakera Takahashi improved more on his supernatural action doing many impressive sequences sakugabooru.com/post/show/178459 sakugabooru.com/post/show/178656\. This would also apply on the Hakuoki movie where Takahashi would start to divulge his effort into sword fights sakugabooru.com/post/show/208668.

2014 marked Takahashi’s first collaboration with Yasuomi Umetsu on Wizard Barristers

Takahashi 0:54-0:58
Produced at Arms this show felt like a jumping off point less so for Takahashi and Umetsu collaborations, but more so plentiful burgeoning action animators. Nozomu Abe and Yuya Geshi do some of the most underrated sakuga of that year with Abe leaving this as a test bed for being a hype animator sakugabooru.com/post/show/104111, Takahashi worked alongside Abe on Episode 1 sakugabooru.com/post/show/190151 as the two were former associates on Blood-C

The next year Takahashi does possibly his best sword fight on Gangsta

Incredible movement and impactful blows from the swords. I love the sense of danger Takahashi is able to put into the fight, while still maintaining anime heightened-ness. Although his scene in Log Horizon 2 the same year does give this scene a run for its money sakugabooru.com/post/show/157669.

2016 we get two more collabs with Umetsu first on the opening of Dimension W

Takahashi 0:11-0:22
Underrated dancing cut

And April would bring fourth the second Umetsu directed OP on Twin Star Exorcists

Takahashi 0:53-0:58? he might have done more

In the winter season of that year, Takahashi would come on to one of the most important shows of his career on Konosuba

Takahashi 0:58-1:06
Produced at JC Staff I am not sure Takahashi’s reasoning for joining this show, but he put his entire heart into the show and that shows in spades throughout. Him along with younger anime journeyman Kazunori Ozawa make for some of the show’s best sequences Comedic character acting Episode 1 sakugabooru.com/post/show/152441, strangely grounded action on Episode 6 sakugabooru.com/post/show/157100, and magical effects on Episode 10.

All Takahashi
It is unbelievable this is Takahashi’s first time working on a more popular anime as a full time animator, but he really shows himself out. At this point I feel Takahashi’s animation had not been leaning towards this, but here we are.

Takahashi's BTS of his genga

Early in 2017, Season 2 of Konosuba aired once again bringing along more impressive scenes to the show.

Takahashi 0:50-1:10
One standout being Episode 6 sakugabooru.com/post/show/77858 I approve of the Gundam/Gunbuster kick reference. One prior being Episode 5 with some great drawings sakugabooru.com/post/show/178469

Just look at how many smears this man draws

That year we got yet another Umetsu collab, this time on a music video for Sin Nanatsu to Taizai an ecchi that contains some very perverse animation. Given this is Umetsu its not that surprising

Takahashi 0:14-0:20

After a brief appearance on a My Hero Academia OP in 2018,

Takahashi 0:24-27
Nice drawings here



Takahashi in 2019 was brought on to the Konosuba film, Legend of Crimson.

The only scene Takahashi was credited for was the incredible morphing scene in which Sylvia fuses with the Mage Killer. A wonderful example in where the a fan service ridden anime can have god tier effects sakugabooru.com/post/show/126343

In 2021 Takahashi did two key scenes on Sailor Moon Eternal one of the first film(s) in the franchise aired in years with the last being 1995. This contains some of Takahashi’s best and amazing effects, I have never seen debris and background’s represented in impact frames sakugabooru.com/post/show/156650 sakugabooru.com/post/show/156494.

2022 contained some notable scenes from the man. The first being on Attack on Titan Episode 79, where he really captures the feeling of a mental breakdown from Grisha’s character

Takahashi 2:06-2:21
In a season rife with very rushed and underwhelming character acting it was a breathe of fresh air to see a veteran put his stamp on to such a pivotal scene.

On the Ken Yamamoto directed OP 1 of Season 2 of Princess Connect Re: Dive Takahashi did a quick very organized and quick cut of the whole cast

Takahashi 0:57- 1:02

Most recently in 2023 Takahashi has worked on two projects. The first would be the very impressive OP on Uma Musume Pretty Derby Road to the Top. Despite a sequence rife with younger animators like Odashi, Shuhei Fuchimoto Takeshi Maenami, Myoung Jin Lee, and others Takahashi lets himself only top it all off at the end doing silky smooth animation on 1s

Takahashi 1:19-1:27

He then did some brief KA on Shun Enokido and Takahito Sakazume’s Fate/Strange Fake sakugabooru.com/post/show/231395 even bringing on Umetsu for one cut sakugabooru.com/post/show/231915\.