Carmen is Composed

1y

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.

Carmen is Composed

1y

2016, saw Ishihama on the eye-popping Erased ED

hayabusa

1y

nigga spinoff of what theres nothing left to cover

Carmen is Composed

1y

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.

proper

1y

u havent even watched horimiya

Carmen is Composed

1y

I watched three episodes last night

Tranquility

1y

My condolences

Wisdom

1y

Did you see any of the Madoka movies?

Tranquility

1y

My condolences

Wisdom

1y

Attack on Titan worldwide after party directly after finale (preview)

ragedsycokiller

1y

Warning everyone to leave that day cause I'm making OP a celebration for AoT

Wisdom

1y

LET’S GOOOO :

Feels like it’s only 5 of us here (who like AoT currently). I’m honestly so sad that the series is ending tho ngl. My favorite by far

ragedsycokiller

1y

Realistically AoT and Sao is what pushed the new mainstream acceptance of Anime into American general population. Glad I became an anime nerd through AoT lol

BLACKSTAR HOOLIGAN

1y

Finally starting berserk