On Occultic;Nine Ishihama returned to form on the OP and Episode 6

Episode 6’s animation direction is stunning and mysterious, brought to life primarily by Keisuke Kobayashi

2017 would see Ishihama doing two OP’s on Granblue Fantasy: The Animation and How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend

2018 Ishihama apprehensively agreed with CloverWorks to direct Persona 5: The Animation

youtu.be/ePcZjOOVxdU
With some flaws, and some highlights Persona 5 ended up being a mixed bag. While it is made very apparent that Ishihama and producers like Akira Shinizu and Kazuki Adachi played the game, even having that responsibility go on to the staff, it wasn’t looking too bad from the start. They had a good template, with the game’s animated cinematic by Production I.G. made

And another thing of note is that Ishihama was the ideal pick to adapt this into anime. His stylish flares are super beneficial to the animation and help the dark noir-esque elements seen in the game. Although even with those traits and an incredible staff the show fell short due to production issues. For one an over influx AD’s with the show having 5 Chief Animation Directors, lackluster character decisions, fast pacing, and unimpressive animation.
This was mainly due to Aniplex asking for retakes, and having interference. Some scenes resulted in the Cloverworks utilizing CGI which didn’t fit the vibe of the show, and also some staggeringly bad animation errors.

why is the bottom half of Ren incorrectly composited?

Granted it wasn’t all bad. Ishihama’s boards on the first episode are pretty great, and does a good job enveloping the viewer into the world sakugabooru.com/post/show/53334 sakugabooru.com/post/show/48720\. The OP is also fantastic.

Ishihama is so good at knowing the rhythm of a song, and knowing exactly what to show. The panning frames are done so well, great use of split framing devices, and once again impeccable color designs.

Ultimately Persona 5: The Animation’s biggest failing, wasn’t on the staff at all, it was company interference, and a lack of time to see through their vision.

Ishihama would be quiet for the next few years, until he was asked to direct Horimiya in 2021.

From disturbing psychological feudal future in Shinsekai Yori, to enthralling supernatural noir on Persona 5, to slice of life romance on Horimiya, Ishihama can do it all. After an OVA, made by several studios was adapted for the manga, it was finally time for an anime adaptation at CloverWorks. With somewhat lower stakes than Persona 5, Horimiya proved to be relatively breezy by comparison. When asked about difficulties for the show Ishihama prefaced that importance of time, and era was key to get right

“There did not lie any difficulties. The first point that I was concerned about was the age difference; the source material’s serialization started in 2011, and the gap involves a great deal of change in the times there. The speed of information is different in the school life of the age when smartphones were not widespread than it is today. However, if I did try to fit it in the present world, it would no longer be “Horimiya” and it was obvious that it would lose the charm of the original story.
Therefore, it made me think that I would just have to visualize every single thing according to the original work. It made me think that I would not find anything difficult to make a decision every time. When I reached that point, I came to the conclusion, I said at the beginning, that there were no difficulties. You could say that “Horimiya” is a manga that is quite easy to adapt into visuals. Thanks to the intelligence of the original work’s team and the flexibility of the makers, the anime production has been operating very smoothly.

Thanks to Iizuka Haruko-san being assigned to be the character designer, I no longer have to control the “design” and I am allowed to feel satisfied with the “wonderfulness” of the screen whenever I look at pictures I receive. I really enjoy it. Just as much fun is the voice recording session. The cast are way too professional that almost no direction is required from our side. Each actor thinks over on their own to perform, making it a very enjoyable time.”

Ishihama was completely right about Iizuka’s designs, as they have this collected airiness and looseness to them that fits the story being told.

On the animation side, the very first thing that needs to be addressed is the OP. This is the only source I could find as other videos got copyright stricken

I love the use of converging frames in this OP as its a very Ishihama thing to do, and also feels very just simple and inviting. Some of the oversaturated portions are also one of my favorite things about his work, along with these still frames.

The series has a great influx of animators, putting everything into comedy scenes. One frequent collaborator is webgenner Odashi who did a good chunk of animation, even doing a 2 plus minute long scene on Episode 12 sakugabooru.com/post/show/149892

The same year Ishihama got to direct a really playful music video for Ayase/ YOASOBI on “Sangenshoku”

This insane music video really encapsulates all the strengths of Ishihama’s direction, perfectly letting color guide the visuals, and being so rhythmic and in-sync with everything happening on screen. Every single technique Ishihama perfected over the years is present here, and he lays everything out. I love the scene with the three friends converging as you have one keyed in red, another in blue, and once the girl in green comes in the outlines of the background erupt into a kaleidoscopic collage of the three colors combined.

The next year we get another career highlight for Ishihama on the CloverWorks and Wit Studio adaptation of Spy x Family with Ishihama at the helm of the first OP.

This is OP not only displays an affinity for Ishihama’s fantastic direction, but also great understanding of the characters and source material within the OP. Each cut is tailor made for the characters.

We get a sleek, heavily shaded opening with Loid in his spy antics, being incredibly dark and noir esque.

Then a hard pivot into Anya’s child-esque imagining of the world, with 50s esque character designs being not only being purposefully abstract, but also representing Anya’s simplified understanding of the world around her

Ishihama perfectly hard cuts back to adult action with Yor and Loid as the chorus of the lead song “Mixed Nuts” swoops in, and the viewer is barraged with a ton of visual storytelling pertinent to the series.

Capping it off perfectly with the three sitting together, by the end. It’s so crazy that Ishihama can cram all these visual styles together, but the sense of cohesiveness isn’t lost at all.

Currently Ishihama is directing Horimiya: Piece a second adaptation of the manga which is airing right now. So tune in

GOATED love R.O.D

Ishihama is the master of the OP. Though I previously praised Shingo Yamashita as goat of them, Ishihama is the master. He has seriously carved a lane of his own thanks to being inspired by some of the most wonderfully creative directors of his upbringing. His use of color, and compositing and editing is unrivaled throughout the industry. While he may not be as prolific as a director, he still is insanely light years ahead of many others with his less is more approach in the visuals, and knowing where to place his animators. An underrated pioneer

I wish WIT would’ve finished it out too

A man can dream ok

(Anime only I have no idea where the story ends)

lain gets such a bad rep

Natsuiro Present still one of my top 5 OPs after all these years.

Did you see any of the Madoka movies?

That’s next up for me

Cyberpunk is so good bro

Let's f***ing go

Nah very different

that spotlight took way too long to write

going to do another one about Goripon

All timer end credits

I actually like this show alot a guilty pleasure every anime fan has that one way too h**** show