Moaang’s final big scene of the year came in the winter, on what is easily his most popular work. Episode 8 of Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia. We first open with Moaang animated a character falling after partially turned into stone.

And then the main fight with Gorgon. A truly insane scene that is the work of some the best in the industry. Moaang’s opening scene contains some great background animation, and moves with a great sense of rhythm.

Yusuke Kawakami does an insanely three dimensional looking cut

Shota Goshozono aka Gosso then follows him up with a nice brisker pace

Kerorira follows him up then Kanada animator Kosuke Kato does more spaciously timed cuts, drawing on paper

and the final cut is done by experimental brutalist Hisashi Mori, animating and coloring the final blow similarly to his cut in the fifth One Piece movie.

At the start of 2020 Moaang started off strong doing a wonderful chase scene on Episode 1 of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Moaang 2:22-2:55
Directed and boarded by Masaaki Yuasa Moaang’s animation feels strongly corrected here, as this entire scene has no anticipation and is all kinetic exciting energy. Some of the cuts once the trio gets to the top of the stage resembles him more closely.

After some brief KA here and there, Moaang was credited as chief character designer and animation director for the China directed video Just Call it Love (それを愛と呼ぶだけ) performed by Mafumafu, an impressive feat for a male vocalist.

Moaang 3:07-3:10
One of the most endearing, and stunning music videos of the past few years. As an artist, China has kept one foot in the present and one in the past, and the music video encapsulates the unique way in which he approaches that. This goes beyond any animation, and comes closer to the background art and color palette. This was made possible by DOP Toshitaka Kanda, chiefly responsible for this MV and the next one. The solemn grays, whites, and blues penetrate one’s soul, and the backgrounds provided by Yuuki Funagakure work wonders to portray that sort of sad hopefulness. Amongst these environments lies Moaang, who hybridizes some of China’s goopy webgen designs with some clear inspo from Kojima back on Ride Your Wave.




Even from a distance the unique proportions and silhouettes stand out (these also highlight China’s gorgeous storyboards)



Moaang’s supervision is extremely extensive on this MV, Toru Iwazawa and Shun Enokido who are the two key action animators feel like they are almost invisible amongst everything else, but they probably show up towards the end. Myoun stands out particularly well in the closing shots, and by the end this is a wonderful reminder just how powerful China and Moaang are as a duo.

By the fall of 2020, Moaang made his OP debut as an animation director on Jujutsu Kaisen OP1 and OP2 directed by Shingo Yamashita also supervising as a color script coordinator on the former.

For OP1, some of the wider shots notably have his corrections, as he feels more simplified than say how Tadashi Hiramatsu would approach the corrections. The coloring also has a lot of soft fill lights, that really work out to imply the dreamlike atmosphere of the opening.

OP2 is more of the same, features all the same cross-dissolves, and other elements from the first, albeit stronger art.

2021, was a particularly stacked year for Moaang has his early connections paid off landing him on bigger projects. He’d first show up on the Shouta Umehara produced Wonder Egg Priority doing an incredibly strong scene.

Moaang is incredibly on model in these drawings.
He then shows up again on Episode 6 with China.

Strong layouts.

Moaang did brief KA on a music video for Kiyotaka Oshiyama again joined by China. He then appeared on two movies. First Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko, a film by Children of the Sea director Ayumu Watanabe. Out of all the animators to bring Moaang on, Izumi Murakami must have been the one after being impressed by his Eizouken episode. Moaang’s two minute scene, is fairly decent and I am curious as to how many times in went through chief AD Kenichi Konishi’s hands. The second movie was Belle directed by Mamoru Hosoda, with Hiroyuki Aoyama bringing him on. Again its just more subtle lovely stuff from Moaang. He then quickly returned to television working on an episode of Shingo Natsume’s Sonny Boy in the summer

In the winter Moaang was brought on to Episode 3 of The Heike Story or Heike Monogatari

This was Moaang and China’s first time working with Naoko Yamada, and Moaang’s second time with Takashi Kojima who was the character designer. Episode 3 was China’s directed episode bringing on Imaoka as an AD. Aside from good animation China again shows off a keen eye for quietly cinematic storyboarding.





A few animators like Keiichiro Saito, and others back up the main trio in these scenes. Imaoka is all over Moaang’s scene. This episode has not been credited heavily so it is anyone’s guess as to where else Moaang and others could be.

From late 2021-early 2022 Moaang did a few cuts, presumably joining on Lop and Ocho for Star Wars:Visions returning to action animation

He then did one fairly strong cut on Ranking of Kings

On Akebi’s Sailor Uniform Episode 7, Moaang made his tv anime directorial debut.

Having connections with CloverWorks animation producer Yuuichi Fukushima, Moaang was approached with Episode 7 of the show, the only episode not supervised by chief AD Megumi Kouno due to the already strong drawing power of Moaang’s team for this episode. On this episode Taishi Kawakami was the lead AD helping out the main staff, and pivoting alongside an ambitious debut.
One thing that sticks out in my mind about this episode is the space enveloping the characters in warmth of the sun, backgrounds, and even objects. So many careful lens adjustments, and usages of framing are made to quickly profile a character, and say so much about them. Sometimes without even seeing their faces.



To the credit of the animators. Nearly half of this episode is entirely animated by Myoun. Myoun unlike China, Moaang, Irei, and even Imaoka is a smoldering realist animator. Think Keisuke Kobayashi, but even more closely resembling a Toshiyuki Inoue or Kouichi Arai. His spacing is very conservative and takes advantage of three quarter profile shots, and is well versed in human expression.

All his scenes are phenomenal, but I am particularly enamored with his drawings of Hebimori playing guitar. As a guitarist this is an incredibly accurate prop design on the account of the staff, but Myoun also nailing the realism of the fingering.
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Outside of the heavy realism leanings of Myoun guys like Kerorira, and Yuki Yonemori. A few other animators clearly standout as well like Ren Onodera whose reliant use on CGI has his animation sometimes relay an uncanny effect.

Another element of this episode is very subtle use of psychedelic imagery as an undercurrent amidst the character drama. This is relayed in a few shots from prior, but then finally explodes in a beautifully animated scene by mecha animator Toya Oshima doing something completely out of his wheelhouse.

Breathtaking stuff

For the rest of 2022 Moaang was fairly busy, working on My Dress Up Darling, Pokemon: Hisuian Snow, Rent-A-Girlfriend, and Do It Yourself.

The two notable shows came in the fall, the first being Chainsaw Man

Shingo Yama’s OP was thick with character cuts so Moaang and Souta Yamazaki were placed as ADs. Moaang’s corrections were extensive.





Moaang lent his hand to KA to the softer scenes on Episode 1, and Episode 6. The former has some pretty goopy effects animation, that could also show up in one of his later presumed scenes.

The second show was Bocchi The Rock with Keiichiro Saito, and chiefly on animation Kerorira. Moaang did the Bocchi Godzilla scene on Episode 4.

Moaang 0:08-0:16, full scene, funny joke

After working on a Makoto Shinkai movie Suzume, Moaang once again lent his talent’s to another music video by China for Creephyp’s song “でたらめな世界のメロドラマ” (‘Detaramena Sekai no Melodrama’)

The same team from the Just Call it Love video is reassembled, with Toshitaka Kanda lending his hand to the photography department. Instead of leaning into a 2000s looking anime from the prior MV with a muted semitone look, China opted for colors that more closely resemble an 80s OVA, but with character designs that feel like a hybridized versions of those two worlds. Somewhat of a Takashi Nakamura look, but leaning into that webgen pillowy-ness that animators like Norifumi Kugai had been working towards. Given their nature I am willing to bet these are either China or Imaoka’s but as of writing this there are no credits. I have never seen characters drawn in this way, that feels slightly outlandish, but you can tell it’s human. Once again the storyboards from China are stunning, highlighting his knack for atmosphere.




Kazutaka Sugiyama, Kerorira, Masami Mori, Imaoka, and DDasang were the only credited animators. Sang probably having my fav cut.

Stellar stuff, that I hope we can see more of it in the future.

For 2023 it was mostly short gigs for Moaang behind bigger projects. The first being the Heavenly Delusion OP directed by Weilin Zhang

Moaang 2 cuts, 0:39-0:41
An insane debut from Zhang as a director, closely resembling Yama, but leaning into his hybridized styles of Hakuyu Go and perhaps inspired by Shinji Hashimoto.

Moaang that year animated a sweet POV shot on Idolmaster U149.

For another OP, Moaang lent his hand to Yuki Kamiya’s OP on Jujutsu Kaisen S1

Moaang 0:09-0:21
Perhaps requested by Gosso, Moaang’s opening cuts have a youthful daze that is hard to capture.

Around that time Moaang also worked on Phoenix Eden for Shojiro Nishimi, and likely brought on by Tatsuzou Nishita. This is just my guess but i believe Moaang animated the melting scene here. Just a guess.

Later in the year, Frieren became a massive hit thanks to the incredible display of talent rallying behind series director Keiichiro Saito (much like his mentor Natsume blew up with One Punch Man), and Moaang was not keen on missing out. He does some brief KA on the OP

Moaang does the Fern character select screen spin at 1:08-1:10

Moaang comes back later for Episode 10, arguably animating one of the most famous scenes from the entire show.

0:21-end full scene
The AD for this episode Kariya Nobuhide filmed himself doing a fake decapitation with an umbrella to which Moaang filmed, and then animated. Pretty gruesome expressions to reference.

Moaang and China once again teamed up late in the year on The Apothecary Diaries Episode 4, directed by China.

One of the two stunning shows coming out of the 2023-24 Winter Anime season that China participated in, Episode 4 allows him to envelope his intimate storyboards in tandem with Moaang’s overwhelming AD, too which he made up for in numbers. Myoun and Myaang (extra confusing with who’s who now) make up a bulk of the first half of the episode which is centered around Maomao treating Lady Lihua’s poison sickness. When assigned to the task we get clairvoyance into the subtlety of China’s approach. Not much in the way of movement, and the omission of not drawing faces did get some negative flack from Twitter at the time, however it’s made up for in strong drawings. Same with the following scene, one China heavily modified, noticeable by his hands, and also the orange slice lip flaps.
Moaang has to be commended for his LO work on this episode.

and Myoun deserves a BAFTA for this

Moaang got his first Studio Ponoc (not Ghibli but close enough), animating a large portion of character acting.

For 2024, Moaang started off the year with storyboards for the Blue Archive ED

Some pretty ambitious photography work

Later in the year Moaang marked his second collaboration with Naoko Yamada on her short film Garden of Remembrance as AD, and character designer

Beautiful as any Yamada work, Moaang’s designs and art resemble rounded shapes that are easy to take with young teens or kids say Madoka Magica or Dead Dead Demons Dedede Destruction. The soft look works well, but the short is really a heavy showcase for effects and pure movement. Kanae Miya opens with some great paint animation. Ren Onodera stands out again with his base cg movement. The animation then explodes with Hiroyuki Aoyama animating a psychedelic burst of flowers, Weilin Zhang then animates the flower running. The window scene from this short was presumably animated by Shingo Yama, which makes sense since its dangerously close to his Birdy closer.

Late this summer, Moaang appeared on Yamada’s full feature length project The Colors Within with Takashi Kojima acting again as Chief CD and AD.

The film hit Japanese theaters on August 30th, and will reach American theaters on January 24th. I have high expectations, and hope its great!

So that is Moaang. A diverse animator, capable of many things. Sure he’s not as subtle as China, as action dense as Irei, or as realistic as Myoun, but he can fill out any of those roles if required. I hope in the future we get to see more direction from him, as his Akebi episode shows promise!

Moaang (continued next page)

@ragedsycokiller

also I'll send a detailed message with the reorder of the spotlights in the OP. Idk how many links you can do