After doing some great realistic animation on Jin-Roh sakugabooru.com/post/show/170367, FLCL’s ED created a great ground for Ishihama to observe a very creative credits sequence. He did a brief cut of characters shaded in bountiful colors.

A few years later, Ishihama was placed as primary character designer on the Read or Die OVA by Studio Deen
For the animation direction on two episodes Ishihama brought out a lot of his looser style, and can be seen very easily in his own (presumed) KA sakugabooru.com/post/show/212502\. Much of the action here is super loose with clothing being super angular, and characters sometimes going off model in-between frames, pretty reminiscent of Hironori Tanaka’s work with the jumpy timing, clumpy wisp hair, and mellow flow of action.

Ishihama would return to the Read or Die series on the tv adaptation where he returned to designs, being more of a confident designer. Containing very strong illustrations.



Not only that but this show marked Ishihama’s first role as Chief AD, controlling a vast majority of the show’s visuals, with great animated portions by Tetsuya Takeuchi, Takahiro Chiba, Yuichi Takahashi, and Naoto Hosoda. The most skilled among the staff would of course be Takeuchi who did some the smoothest and liveliest cuts throughout the series. Not only was (and still is) capable of great action sakugabooru.com/post/show/214482 but also character acting sakugabooru.com/post/show/212542\. This also marked Ishihama’s first role as an episode director.

On Speed Grapher Ishihama once again came back to being Chief AD

One noticeable thing we can see in the long lineage of Ishihama working on OPs is the synchronization with the music. In this OP we oddly have the well known “Girls on Film” by Duran Duran. You can see how a lot of the editing here is meant to be in sync with the action. And while it might have a slight “fan edited” feel with the episode clips in there, the slick uses of color, and stylish editing is very well spun.

2006 was a very notable year with Ishihama working on several big projects, the first being Welcome to the NHK

The wildly popular dark comedy manga in anime form. Ishihama was placed as sole character designer for the show, brought on by director Yusuuke Yamamoto. Ishihama stays somewhat true to Tatsuhiko Takimoto’s designs, although he does default to give the eyes of some of the female a bit of a more upward and elongated look, this applies to faces as well. This could just be him unable to shake off the effects of Azumanga Daioh. What Ishihama is best known for here is his direction of the OP, which is where his quirks flare up more than ever.

Ishihama animates 1:06-1:18
Vibrant, stark, and two dimensional, Ishihama isn’t opting for any viscera or sense of aggression here, he is outlining the story for the series the moment you watch it and immediately know what you’re in for. Though the anime is trying to get across themes of depression it does so through abstraction and visual metaphor.



Ishihama uses strong visuals compacting a lot of conflicting internal character conflicts into very simple discernible Saul Bass or “pop art” scenery. He is also not a sloucher on the camera, as we get nice fast paced cuts accentuating personal mystery and comedy.

Great promo art from Ishihama too

Going back to the OP, Ishihama returned for Bleach’s 5th OP.

Here we can see Ishihama taking some more realistic elements from his Speed Grapher in here but making change ups. Using out of focus blurs, and black and white cinematography. Once again treated to a well timed OP.

For the next two years, Ishihama mainly stuck to KA. He’d go back to do some minor work with Gainax on Gunbuster 2 and Gurren Lagann. He spent a decent chunk of time working on Mitsuo Iso’s Dennou Coil where he did quite a bit of animation on Episode 11 sakugabooru.com/post/show/158235 sakugabooru.com/post/show/158236\. While Ishihama KA can somewhat inconsistent hear he’s able to establish pretty smooth volume, as working under Toshiyuki Inoue is pretty demanding.

After doing brief work on Sword of the Stranger and designs on Kite Liberator, we get the crowning achievement of this era from Ishihama on Code Geass: Rebellion of Lelouch Season 2 where Ishihama did a great quick shot on Episode 1
sakugabooru.com/post/show/177876\. There is a great feeling of weight in the punch Kallen throws, and the head recoil is insanely well done.

After two years of work, an underrated achievement for Ishihama, with his designs and AD on Welcome to the Space Show one of A-1 Pictures first big feature films

Directed by Koji Masunari the film is a seriously interesting exploration into alien worlds. Ishihama lets loose here being very shrewd in the character, and alien design departments. All for the sake of letting the stacked cast of key animators go insane. This film boasted a high percentage of old and new at the time with many interesting voices. We have Mitsuo Iso, doing a scene owning Ishihama one back for Dennou Coil sakugabooru.com/post/show/119944\. A troop of regular Naruto animators including Hidetsugu Ito, Hirofumi Suzuki, Koji Yabuno, Takashi Hashimoto and of course the legendary Norio Matsumoto. Notable 90s gen freelancers such as Takahiro Kishida and Shinya Takahashi (who does a great character acting scene sakugabooru.com/post/show/119921). Some of the standouts remain in the cavalcade of webgenners with Kenichi Kutsuna, Ryo-Timo , and meeting Ishihama for the first time Shingo Yamashita. Takeuchi returned. We also get Hironori Tanaka who shows off with Yama and Kutsuna in the film’s climatic action scene sakugabooru.com/post/show/119964\. Production I.G. associate Yasunori Miyazawa animated some of the film’s more alien portions sakugabooru.com/post/show/119939\. Also the in-house A-1 animators are also standouts including Ryouma Ebata and Isao Hayashi. Also an appearance from future One-Punch Man director Shingo Natsume

While all of those animators are fantastic, and are certainly worth mentioning, the spotlight of the whole movie comes in the form of snappy and high-brow cuts from a lone Masaaki Yuasa who animated and directed Neppo’s “The Space Show” promo sequence. Yuasa is well known for his exceptionally unconventional approach to animation with his bright simplified colors and lack of shading. It aligns perfectly with a lot of Ishihama’s traits albeit even more extreme, and opting for zero realism and all expression. sakugabooru.com/post/show/119926




One of Yuasa’s best rare KA displays

The same year we get two fantastic OPs from Ishihama, the first on Night Raid 1931

Ishihama animates all the 2D portions
While this OP doesn’t contain a lot of actual animation the background visuals are super stylized, representing that of 50s or 60s spy movies akin to IPs like James Bond. There is so much eye candy

The OP starts with these interesting geometric shapes likely inspired by painter Piet Montrian

Flat gear shapes, also followed up by the character drawing shading in a pop-art style

The second OP was on Occult Academy, while Ishihama didn’t direct this OP, Tomohiko Ito provided a wonderful canvas of ideas for him.

Ishihama 0:54-59
Wonderfully colorful, and spacial OP

The last OP of that year would be Bleach’s 13th OP.

Dark, and psychedelic. We’re given even more peak into Ishihama’s creative process, making heavy use of grainy film filters.

2011, was plentiful for Ishihama. By this point he is pretty much a full time employee at A-1. We get his work on Beelzebub’s third ED.

Ishihama SOLO KA
Great use of shapes once again with flat flower cutouts being incorporated, great use of camera blur, and Ishihama’s animation is beautiful. The flow of the hair is gorgeous.

Dragon Crisis marked Ishihama’s last time doing character designs, as it seemed like many of his creative priorities were better spent on OP work.

As the chief animation director, Ishihama was able to get on some nice animators, like Tanaka, Matsutake, and Atsuki Shimizu but the show overall was not that outstanding in to many regards as it would be overshadowed by Ishihama’s next work.

In 2012 Shinsekai Yori was released, Ishihama’s directorial debut

Based on the novel by Yusuke Kishi, the show sees Ishihama and A-1 Pictures staff delve into the dark and disturbing world of the novel. With its unnerving atmosphere, simple character, designs and unnerving danger the series is a splendid debut from Ishihama. Lots of wonderful creatives brought on board to make the show work. One being character designs by Chikashi Kubota, consistent key animation by Takashi Kojima, a stark ED by Shingo Yamashita, and a sparse score by Shigeo Komori.

The fruits of the team’s efforts can easily be observed in the first episode (the first three were storyboarded by Ishihama)

A terrifying mind-bending opening sequence, then switched over to unreal purple scenery. A later sequence then opens up a story book world animated by Shingo Yamashita, in charge of direction and photography as well. Characters are reduced to glowing luminous beings, while the quote on quote “Ogre” of the scene is a terrifying monster, depicted in an unstable form.



The episode ends with Yamashita as well, with a slapper outro song.

Any OP directed by Yamashita past this point, displays a lot traits of Ishihama. Rack focuses, cross-dissolves, simplified character designs, and immsersive animation.

Episode 3, contains an opening in a completely different style of animation from the mainline show, thanks to the wizard of the wakame shadows, Jun Arai. A once prolific Kanada-school animator, embalming the opening with his stunning spiraling fire and smoke effects, and dramatic lighting sakugabooru.com/post/show/178133\.

The rest of the series is collaged with some of the most eerie imagery in anime. With it being consistently stunning.

The next few years came another streak of banger OPs, starting with Attack on Titan’s 2nd OP “The Wings of Freedom”

Once again a staggeringly well timed OP. The quick and aggressive flashes of imagery only give you a second to see what happens. The faces of characters syncopated with choir vocals. Appropriate use of CGI, all around just great.

2013-14 continue the banger streak, (in order) on OPs and EDs for Tokyo Ravens, Mahou Sensou, and Psycho Pass 2

https://sakugabooru.com/post?tags=mahou_sensou+source%3A*ED*+

One standout OP would be on Encouragement of the Climb Season 2.

This OP doesn’t even contain a lot of character animation, instead Ishihama opts for gorgeous pastel imagery by the visual effects department. Ishihama handles all the actual keys by himself. One technique not very usual for Ishihama, is texture mapping on clothing and hair (you’ve seen it before on American cartoons like Chowder). A bit of a strange effect, but works for it.

On Episode 5, of Your Lie In April Ishihama was brought on as an episode director and storyboard artist, bringing on only one animator Takashi Kojima.

Solo episode KA’s are super rare, the only animators knowing that I know I can recall that have done that are Hironori Tanaka and Kouichi Arai. If you have ever watched the series, I recommend to watch this episode knowing Kojima animated the whole episode. 20 plus minutes of animation is insanely hard to do, and the fact Kojima is able to remain consistently on model and keep up a relative ploy of energy throughout is mind-numbing to think about.

Kojima put in some comedy

He put in some drama

And in the end made a pretty feel good episode

One of the highlights of Kojima and Ishihama’s career.

2016, saw Ishihama on the eye-popping Erased ED