In-between the time of the Idolmaster airing Kouno got her first AD job on the last episode of the Yozakura Quartet: Hoshi no Umi OVA directed by Ryo-Timo. She already did a subtly fanservicey action scene on Episode 2, but here she had full precedence over the look of the show in some scenes. Strong AD work made into the fold with some of her raggy character acting standing out.

Kouno would then go a spree of credited episodes with Akira Amemiya, whether it was on Mystic Archives of Dantalian, Amemiya’s Black Rock Shooter episode, Eureka Seven AO, and even Sword Art Online. For solo Kouno she got a brunt of action and character acting scenes. She did a spectacular display of cut heavy animation on Blood C-The Last Dark and mysterious fire animation on Masashi Ishihama’s From the New World

Back to the Idolmaster Kouno got to work on the dreamy Shiny Festa music videos as a tie in for the recently released video game

Kouno 0:43-0:56

Kouno 0:50-1:16
Still a ton of spirited animation recontextualized into fun and audacious boards

On Vividred Operation, Aniplex producer Yosuke Toba wanted her to do transformation sequences on the show for a character, but Kouno shuttered and instead did every transformation on the show. With additional help from Yusuke Tanaka and Kazuyuki Asaga

Mostly Kouno, with Tanaka and Asaga help
A ridiculous blend of effects and character interloping in ways only rivaled by greats like Hironori Tanaka, and to a greater extent Shinya Ohira. Even with the slight fan service (Kouno being placed on ass shots often in her career) the transformations are imaginative and most importantly expressive.

Kouno continued freelancing with a notable appearance shortly after Vividred on LoveLab where her incredible 1 minute of character acting not only is hilarious but retains that sensational hair animation she has even if the scene didn’t call for it. Kouno is a quality animator

All Kouno full scene
Kouno did another long character acting scene on Space Dandy’s first episode, and also a brutish action scene on Noragami with a shocking amount of debris and smoke.

In 2014, Kouno got to help out Nishigori on the The Idolmaster: Beyond the Brilliant Future!

More of a highlight for Yuki Komatsu, Beyond feels like the apex of Nishigori’s directing prowess with dance scenes, but also character acting scenes as there was an abundance of them even resorting to rotoscope. Kouno on the movie was dancey as ever coming on the final song “Masterpiece”

Kouno small appearance at 1:47-1:53, the rest is an assortment of other animators with cgi assistance in some shots

Kouno is best known on this film for her action scenes on the “Fate of the World” music video at the starting compilation of the film. Taking these idol characters and putting them in supernatural action phenomena is weird but it works in a meta way and also nice to see the characters in another light which Kouno is great at.

After a sensational character acting scene on Your Lie in April Kouno was brought on to the Idolmaster spinoff series The Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls

If you thought Kouno was good on the OG Idolmaster she makes leaps and bounds of improvements here. Kouno had been elevated not only to an animation director here, but a chief animation director on a handful of episodes. Kouno also got an opportunity to be credited with the interesting position of design works alongside her animator counterparts Yusuke Tanaka and Jun Uemera. Yusuke Matsuo was lead character designer

“I was in charge of the outfits used during live performances, to put it simply. Animas left me feeling a little unsatisfied over certain things I wasn’t able to do while working on it, so I came into Dereani fully intent on fixing that… There were a couple here and there that I didn’t do, but yes, I designed all the outfits for the main performances.”

Nishigori had left the series to go work on other things with the position being filled by Noriko Takao. Takao was very lenient on presenting the design position to Kouno due to the overflowing detail that she could instill into the performance costumes. Kouno had regarded that the staff had trouble drawings some of the costumes, and with Kouno on AD and KA she had to spend a fair amount of time doing the bits people had trouble with.

Kouno opens the series in stunning fashion with a 1 minute long character acting scene with dazzlingly beautiful boards, and alive looking expressions

She showed up on several songs, laying in her shrewd approach all over

Kouno 0:15-22, 1:02-1:10, 1:43-1:56 presumed

Kouno 0:37-0:46, 0:50-0:57

She was detailed even taken in the skit action scenes too.

After Cinderella Girls ended Kouno went back to freelance primarily focusing on action scenes. Wish Upon Pleiades had her working in pluming and blossoming effects paired with wispy character illustrations, and on One Punch Man she was able to flex under Chikashi Kubota’s seriously detailed designs putting all the hatching and lines to good use nearly 2 minutes of animation. Occultic Nine also allowed her to flex a blend of character animation with action resulting in stellar scenes, where you can also see her dirty line work somewhat preserved in the compositing.

Out of nowhere in 2016, we get an original video animation by A-1 Pictures collaborating with electronic artists Porter Robinson and Madeon titled Shelter directed by Toshifumi Akai with Kouno on character designs, AD, and lead animation.

Solo Kouno animation
Vague Matrix dystopian undertones in a world with a girl alone. Kouno and Akai put everything into giving the fictitious world an overwhelming atmosphere from the character’s POV and adding in a close knit sense of longing memory and slight sense of nostalgia in the designs.

Some incredibly strong drawings by Kouno in here

More than a year later Kouno came back to Nishigori to assist with animation on his mecha love story Darling in the Franxx

Kouno was one of the many lead animators for the series working alongside A-1 Pictures staff, CloverWorks staff, and studio Trigger staff in this multifaceted and big budget tale of intergalactic love. She was an AD for several episodes, and a primary mechanical director.

Kouno shows up on the first episode

Kouno start to 0:15, her full scene

Worked on both OPs

Kouno 1:12-End

Kouno 0:57-1:09 presumed

For the main fight scenes, Kouno’s action direction isn’t the most mind blowing stuff on the planet but the flowing nature of her animation came through in layouts in many times she was on AD.

About a year later, Kouno reunited with Akai and after seeing her work on Darling in the Franxx, placed her at the helm of chief action director along with Toya Oshima, and creature design on Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia

Kouno’s first time in the action chair, this was the time to prove herself in a show with a pretty lenient schedule and some impressive action here and there to boot. This was also Oshima’s first time as an action director, although Oshima was way younger than Kouno by almost ten years. The advantage of getting Oshima on was he had already solidified himself as an outstanding webgen animator (same can be said for his counterpart Gen Asano), and he had made a slew of different connections across the industry being able to reach out whoever he could. This is why AD appearances Ken Yamamoto (aka Leaf), Moaang, Nakaya Onsen, and KA appearances by Shota Goshozono, Eri Irei, Yen BM, Orange, Vincent Chansard, Naoki Miyajima, and many more talented artists was made possible. Not even Shun Enokido or Takahito Sakazume were remotely involved. All of these talented freelance powerhouses allowed for incredible

Kouno and Oshima’s action AD can be first seen in the opening

Kouno 0:55-1:01
Tightly placed action in favor of focusing on the characters rather than the effects around them, and keeping the personality alive through the fighting

Kouno is most famous for animating the Ishtar scene on Episode 1

All Kouno with Genga in-between
A fantastically boarded scene that puts the character in the forefront above everything. Kouno has a underrated talent for behind shots, and she got her chance once again here.




there is a minor error on the last one with two left feet, but it happens so fast in movement no one probably noticed. Id imagine she got frustrated with whoever released these materials

Throughout the rest of the show many animators were on board to make mission statements with well choreographed and personal fight scenes

The two strongest boarded, and executed fights have to go to Leaf and Onsen’s episodes

On Leaf’s episode, he prioritizes animating on a limited frame amount focusing on using janky spacing on 3s and sometimes 4s to make the action seem more hectic

Onsen conversely much like his counterparts Hakuyu Go and Miso loves that epic scale, focusing a lot with effects but also putting character detail and resolve in motion too.

After Babylonia ended airing, Kouno was silent on the animation front for a good portion of 2 years. She returned on character designs on CloverWorks adaptation of Hiro’s Akebi’s Sailor Uniform, directed by Idolmaster Side M maestro Miyuki Kuroki

A chill and relaxing series with a standout girl who just wants to wear a sailor uniform of the school her mother was at. This was one of Kouno’s first time adapting character designs, and the appearance of Akebi and the other characters were a bit more unusual for her. The oval shaped heads and rounded eyes seemed a bit far away from how Kouno usually draws in her easier Nishigori esque ways, but she knocked out of the park able to add beauty in innocence.


Kouno was chief AD for the first episode which was rife with beautiful boards, stunning compositing, and elegant animation




Through the next 12 episodes, Kouno was large and in charge on AD. Brought to life by fantastic animation the series also was in debt to Studio Capsule who much like Wit did character touch up and beautification for certain shots to make the skin appear as if it were glistening

So many talented animators on here. Of course Moaang was well suited for boards doing episode 7 paired with Myoun’s insanely realistic character acting, and Ren Onodera following suit. Futoshi Suzuki got to study under Kouno with the art of drawing hair,Odashi known for working with Ishihama on Horiyama was also present, and one of the newer animators Naoki Okada also got in on the action with subtle studies of fabric. Through mentorship by Kouno and a light schedule, the animation got to prosper here and everyone got along.

That is Megumi Kouno. The shining star of the Idolmaster and the sensation of A-1 Pictures and CloverWorks alike. Through her time being such a diligent animator, the diversity of her catalogue has placed her in the category of a wild card able to do dancing, character acting, action, and effects all perfectly. Kouno continues to be a heavy inspiration to the generations of new animators coming onto A-1 Pictures and CloverWorks projects, struggling to grasp the very nature of her perfect hair animation and highly sought after eye for detail. From the Idolmaster of yesterday, to the Akebi’s of present day, Megumi Kouno is a brazen and productive animation powerhouse.

its a great anime don't know what to tell you

Hmm idk about this one .. where are goth Lelouch & C.C

Compression on Twitter is so bad why do this

Finally the Kouno spotlight. She is my actual beloved.

Ah man the newest spyfam ep was funny but also a bit We rlly don't need more Yuri type of chars esp not from a kid Just keep it to Nightfall and Yuri (if need be..). With 1 ep left in the season, aside from the boat arc and a couple eps in the beginning this season overall is not as good as season 1

I'm holding on to faith that season 3 (and maybe the movie) is better spybros... Like just show me more moments of the 3 of em doing stuff PLEASE

Tbh how is that glazing, the show is in fact a gem

how is that glazing

you do that for less with jjk lol