In the spring months of 2012, came out Hyouka

Directed by Takemoto, this gripping small scale mystery series is able to easily entrance the viewer, making even the smallest motions of animation feel like a seismic event occurring before your very eyes.

Kigami directed Episode 5 closing out the first arc of the series. An episode that is proof of Kigami’s core strengths as a director. We get beautiful opening shots, imbued in gray and green



There is a motif throughout the show of the idea of rain drops rippling through reality revealing true colors amongst the gray of the world, a great metaphor to help reflect Hotaro’s headspace at this point in the story. Hotaro has consistently liked to “conserve energy” being a bit of a low energy person that does not do things for anyone but himself. After getting close to solving a mystery he slowly realizes he is doing this for his friend Chitanda, and with some hints of romance being suggested, as Hotaro’s headspace changes the scenery changes too with the sunlight peaking through and casting beams through the sky. It is not the most complex visual metaphor, but given that the running theme of droplets was established as early as the OP, this moment is a fantastical yet small character turn




The supplemental details of the scene are also fantastic, I love the low angle shot of Hotaro getting onto his bike, with whomever animated the shot having a bountiful knowledge of real life phenomena


And the shots of the crow flying off, symbolizing Hotaro’s growth. Kigami manages to achieve all of this in just about two minutes and the episode did not even start yet. Using such a cinematic opening to reinforce the character motivations for the rest of the episode will always be great, but its Kigami’s special touch and execution through these awe inspiring storyboards that makes it work. The rest of the episode is fairly standard given the scope at the beginning, but he manages to make the little bits compelling too, even going in a horror oriented episode with narration being shown with hoards of rabbits, and blistering psychedelia harkening back to his brief Cursed Dress era.

The remaining episodes had few splashes of Kigami with the New Years episode at the very end of the series being him

He also animated portions of the OVA, with Kigami being an exceptionally good liquid animator.

After brief episode direction on Chunibyo, Kigami hopped on to Yamada’s second series Tamako Market

Doing such a great job on K-On! having such a good understanding of characters even from a distance, it was only right Kigami’s opening on Episode 1 was that kind of adjustment slowly getting closer to them.






Productive and super environmental boards by Yamada, what is so amazing here is Kigami is establishing the setting just as much as establishing the characters. Space is of the essence, and all of the space in the shots feel more real with two cuts of Tamako getting irked by her friends to show where they are stopping and cutting to an establishing shot, or simply Tamako throwing her baton in the air then cutting to a wide after it hits her in the head. Very shrewd boarding.

Kigami, would put his water and liquid effects tested back on Hyouka to full effect on Free!

Kigami Water FX AD (uncredited)
Directed by future Banana Fish director, Hiroki Utsumi adapted somewhat from the light novel by Koji OjI if you want heavy male fan service have fun with this. For a series based on swimming you need some sexy water animation to make the magic happen and Kigami, Ishidate, Sawa, and Satou were the assigned to that role. Almost every swimming race scene is just pure effects sakuga by Kigami and/or his three disciple counterparts.

All I can say is Kigami makes water look very bubbly and glossy, having physical properties of dispersement but with his own touch. Either that or dragon like curving, with all these nice oval bubbles that dance and symmetrically directed downward.

After working so long with his student Taichi Ishidate, Ishidate finally made his debut on Beyond The Boundary

Ishidate and character designer and CAD Miku Kadowaki were able to flex their supernatural action sakuga by bringing a bunch of Kyoto Animation School graduates to primarily animate the series. Kigami himself only showed up on Episode 2, and 11 (which he directed).

Episode 2 definitely had Kigami fight KA

Kigami presumed start to 0:11, 0:48-end
Already in his mid 50s, Kigami was still capable of dishing out some biting battle sakuga.

After, Beyond wrapped, Kigami went back to Yamada on Tamako Love Story

A superb and more realistic dramatic extension from Tamako Market marred against its dim setting is a touching story.
Kigami handles the penultimate ending to the movie, with Tamako’s confession to Mochizou

Kigami start to 0:35 one shot by Satou, 1:13-1:18, 1:27-1:48
Cute simple and effective

Afterwards Kigami did some brief animation on a few Episodes of Love Chunibyo’s second season, but more notably on the OP.

Kigami 0:52-1:07 (presumed)
Kigami all of a sudden looking like he was ready to animate on a Fate series CM, a grippingly fast display of fight sakuga, I love the dispersement of electricity and sparks when Satone is punching Rikka’s shield.

The following year after doing comedic scenes on Amagi Brilliant Park, Kigami was credited onto to Ishihara’s Sound! Euphonium

With a brimming competitive spirit adapted from Ayano Takeda’s novel, and manga adaptation. Shoko Ikeda was the primary AD and her character designs effectively transfer over the glossy aesthetics of the manga. Kigami himself was tasked with the role of directing Episode 5, and 12

Episode 5 has Kigami doing boards mainly with no animation, that we know of. The earlier portions of the episode have so many good character portions. My favorite is Reina and Kumiko walking home together

Great environmental boards by Kigami per expected, and also Kigami utilizing some sort of rack focus to put the characters into focus rather than the backgrounds, also gives the intended or unintended effect of making things look like miniatures. Also a legendary scene for Kumiko expressions

Super nice drawings of Reina, presumably by Kunuhiro Hane

The episode ends with the wonderful parade contest scene, where onlookers begin to realize the Kitauji School ain’t so bad at ensembling.

Episode 12, is perhaps one of Kigami’s strongest in regards to his 2010s output with KyoAni. This episode entirely hinges on Kumiko not giving up her dream with band, and after seven years of knowing the instrument feeling like she has not gotten anything done. Kigami communicates this so strongly in perhaps his greatest board with the “I want to improve” scene animated by Hiroshi Karata

The explosion and weight of everything on Kumiko’s shoulders seems like too much, and she eventually breaks down in this heartbreaking. Whenever you think you’re not good enough its always good to reach out, and luckily a friend shows up to reassure. Karata does incredible justice to Kigami’s boards, and a combination of amazing voice acting from Tomoyo Kurosawa

Pinnacle Kigami right here.


Kigami’s original boards

Around the same time Sound! Euphonium was airing, Kigami came in full power on the second iteration of Ishidate’s Beyond the Boundary movies I’ll be Here - Future

The lone scene of Kigami is another career highlight with him doing a doozy of effects animation. After Mirai is placed into a possessed stupor, she prepares to attack Akihito, and what sheer power Kigami puts into this scene.




And the last cut? My god

He was a God!!!!

After doing standout cuts and direction on Myriad Colors Phantom World, and stellar animation on the Violet Evergarden CMs, Kigami came onto Yamada’s A Silent Voice

Created by the young (at the time) Yoshitoki Ooima, her manga was prime for adaptation by KyoAni as the strong emotional material that the studio excels at was perfect in taking on the material. The story of a boy who bullied a deaf girl in school, getting a taste of karma by becoming an outcast later in life, must come to make amends to the girl he hurt. Nearly all the top animators, designers, and background artists of KyoAni came together to make one of the two tearjerker movies (Your Name) of 2016. Kigami, Yamada, and Takuya Yamamura were all on boards, here and Kigami was one of the top credited animators on the film. He handles the early portion of the two character’s lives, a later portion where they are grown up, and some incidental conflict with Shoko and Miyako.

The best scene he is known for is the ending, get out your tissues people

Kigami 0:39-1:40
Kigami has such an innate ability to do a very intimate scene with nothing too fanciful for the visual look, and seemingly make it work.

Kigami got to once again direct Episode 5 and 12, for Sound! Euphonium Season 2, not as special as Season 1’s 5 and 12 but still good.
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid was another show Kigami got two episodes directing credit on.

Doing the episode where Tohru fights her father.

Great effects sakuga, courtesy of phantom AD by probably Kigami himself

Baja’s Studio was a cute little passion project Kigami directed, marking his first directed work in close to 10 years.

Sort of an advertisement for people to come over to Kyoto Animation, its a little tale about a creature named Baja where he’s home to a studio with people make animation. Sweet little piece.

After imaginary fighting KA on Chunibyo: Take on Me Kigami joined episode direction on Violet Evergarden directed by Taichi Ishidate.

Kigami’s student had become a director that had become so resplendent in emotional storytelling. Thanks to the source material by Kana Akatsuki and illustrations, CAD, and CD by Akiko Takase the series was without a doubt one of the most beautiful things the studio produced, after a two year production cycle. Kigami got to work on the isolated and self contained episode 6, and while not super animation heavy had some gorgeous mountain background art

Kigami is best known for his contribution to Episode 10

Kigami 1:40-End
Another tearjerker scene from Kigami, where a child feels nothing, but pain and confusion. For an episode mostly helmed by the Animation Do Osaka crew of KyoAni, Kigami pulls through here being the mentor for the B-team and leading up every emotional quote on quote “melodramatic” scene up to this.

In the spring of 2018, Yamada brought Kigami on for yet another film Liz and The Blue Bird a spinoff of Sound! Euphonium

Named after the piece, Mizore and Nozomi perform in the film, Yamada and color designer Naomi Ishida completely highjack the look of the original series and take on the soft pastel colors they strived for in A Silent Voice. Comparatively with the original show, Liz is flat in color, it is nearly completely shadeless, and is contrasted with two art styles. The first is the world of Liz and the blue bird in the form of a girl.

And that of the Euphonium world with Mizore and Nozomi

Both done by Futoshi Nishiya, you can tell because of the giraffe necks
Despite differing styles, Liz is still faithful to the persona of the characters in the original Sound! Euphonium and with Yamada’s vision allowed for experimenting like animation on watercolors showing up in various portions of the film. Kigami was presumably on one of the Liz portion of the film. Kigami could have animated a block of wood and make it compelling. The warm bright textured colors, matched with his almost Ghibli esque eye on plant movement, and wistful character acting? Too good to be true

One of the last shows Kigami was credited to was Free - Dive to the Future

Kigami water effects, with Satou and reused Ishidate KA

On July 18th, 2019 Kigami and 35 of his other colleagues were tragically killed in an arsonist massacre.

Spurred on by a former Kyoto animation awards contestant Shiji Aoba, who in a furious stupor thought the studio was stealing his work, he ran into the studio setting ablaze and killing KyoAni staff. Aoba was managed to be recognized by two KyoAni employees and tackled, but the damage had already been done, KyoAni’s Studio One had been destroyed. At least 70 people were in the building with more than half thankfully able to evacuate. This was one of the worst Japanese massacres since the second World War, and one of the worst tragedies to strike Japan in general. A great number of employees died, Nishiya, Ikeda, Takemoto, Ishida, art designer Mikiko Watanabe, and even extremely young staff in their early 20s. It was an unfathomable tragedy. All of those people who were close friends, and colleagues died in horrible pain. Kigami's mother who was 84 at the time was utterly devastated by her son's passing. He was 61 years old.

(From the Ishidate spotlight)
The tragedy rippled through the world of anime, with a number of other animation studios offering their support, and the condolences of several voice actors, mangakas, composers, and production companies. An outpouring of donations went to the company, with domestic and international donations rose up to 30.27 million dollars, a special measure passed by the National Diet made these donations tax exempt. President Hideaki Hatta, also insisted that a majority of the donations went directly to the victim’s families.

Trying to get back on their feet, many production materials were destroyed in the fire, with some digital assets and drawings being recovered in nearly destroyed studio servers. The surviving staff including people not present at the sight of the massacres Ishidate, Yamada, Takase, and several others all returned to KyoAni’s Studio 2 building. The total staff had gone down from 176 employees to 137, with a total 33 victims coming out of the hospitals to work. Some had taken breaks due to the shell shock the event had placed upon them. With several projects delayed due to the fire, the studio had gotten back to work on their next projects. Finishing where they had left off.

“Continuing to create anime in the same way, we always have, is the greatest counterattack to what the arsonist did.”

This month, prosecutors of the arsonist Shinji Aoba announced that they would be seeking the death penalty.

Kigami’s second Baja’s Studio short recovered from surviving studio servers was posthumously released in 2020

In a passionate show of friendship and determination Kyoto Animation since has survived the tragedy, able to come through with new seasons of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid and Tsurune

Kigami’s students Taichi Ishidate, Tatsuya Satou, Ishihara, and many of the surviving members have been able to push through and make fantastic anime for the foreseeable future. The legacy from here on out is up to the greatest animation studio in Japan, and their heartwarming love for the craft, and diligence to put out the best product possible.

Rest in Peace to Yoshiji Kigami. This man was pivotal to the success of Kyoto Animation, and if it was not for his skills the studio would not be in the position it is today. Kigami’s overwhelming love, and intelligent eye for boards, effects, and corrections made him one of the best quality controllers ever. From his skills pre Kyoto Animation at Shin-Ei leading up to that Kigami has retained such a superior knowledge and power with a pen at his hand. Have you ever wondered why Kyoto Animation shows never divert in quality from episode to episode in drawings, it is not just due to the fantastic and amazing schedule they get, but also their work not being compensated by how many drawings they make but the final result they pump out. From animators, to editors, background designers, colorists, and sound effects editors the entire KyoAni studio would not have had the same level of tenaciousness and verisimilitude. Kigami was such a great mentor to the staff, and you can see it through Ishidate, Yamada, Ishihara, and so many of the others. This whole spotlight is not just dedicated to Kigami, but Nishiya, Takemoto, Ishida, Watanabe, Ikeda, and all the other people who had died that faithful morning.

Two memorial for the victims of the attack were instructed by Kyoto Animation employees to be submitted, the first memorial will be finished next year on July 18th 2024 the five year anniversary of the massacre.

To commemorate their lives here is the deceased's artwork

Yoshiji Kigami and Kyoto Animation artwork (mostly by Ikeda, Nishiya, and Takemoto)




All Kigami

Ikeda

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