#satou akira

[nocandnc]

When Akira notices his new piece of shit co-worker using a mini-cam to film an upskirt shot of Misaki he doesn't say anything direct, but uses his Unique Set of Skills to screw with the camera instead. Pretty slick!

One could say he acted to keep himself from being recorded, but seeing as he wasn't the focus subject and interfering served no real benefit otherwise, I'll read it as Akira being genuinely concerned for Misaki~

Gosh, I just love it when stone-cold killers are like... nice people...!

[animehouse-moe]

Women In Anime

I came across this tweet a few days back, and did give it a response on Twitter back then, but I keep thinking about it, so I wanted to bring a longer discussion here.

I think hating that anime ends up a male dominated industry is totally fair, I think that hating that men end up bringing a lot of negative stereotypes and tropes and whatnot is valid.

There's a mountain of problems with men in the industry, and just the industry in general. But there's also a problem with the awareness of the NA community. Scrolling about the quote tweets and replies, it's probably one in ten responses at best, that show an opening that's actually from a woman.

Hate like this ends up performative, and targeted at the most negative aspects, rather than being used as a tool to shine a light on the people that deserve it. Directionless and generalized points like this do nothing, and in the end can actually take away from uplifting the voices and talents that they should be.

So, I wanted to bring a list of ten women in anime that have worked on openings over the years.

Karneval OP - Satou Akira

Openings that really cut deep into the core of a series can be a little hard to come by sometimes. I think a lot of openings get suckered into "looking cool" and tend to neglect their creative ability to depict something deeper within. Satou Akira falls into no such trap with Karneval, providing an incredibly strong opening that consistently relays several themes to the viewers through its visuals of things like, well, carnivals, for one. Also included is clock faces, butterflies, gears, and a few other pieces. It's really great work, so it's a shame that they haven't returned to the role since then.

They have, however, been in some pretty impressive roles elsewhere. For example, their biggest role was boarding for the second Fate/Grand Order Camelot movie. Important to note that it's the second movie, and not the first, as the second movie is considerably better.

Akira is still only reaching the tip of the iceberg though, as they recently were the lead director on Ao Ashi, and are being tapped for the Kinnukuman anime in 2024. They certainly have a good relationship with Production I.G, so I'm really hopeful to continue to see them on future projects with the studio.

Skip and Loafer OP - Deai Kotomi

Yeah, it hurts my soul to have different embeds, but I've had to source some of these OPs as they don't exist on YouTube.

Anyways, Deai Kotomi definitely had her limelight moment this year with Skip and Loafer and it's very fun and energetic opening. It's a great reflection of the characters and story, which really highlights Kotomi's understanding and ability to work with the content of the series. She did an absolutely wonderful job leading the production of Skip and Loafer, but I think a lot of people don't know about her history and connection. I mean, the reason she's following up Akira and Karneval is because Kotomi actually did the ending for Karneval! Really cool little piece to learn.

Make no mistake though, this isn't Kotomi's first rodeo, it's just the one she's most known for. But man, does she have a good history. Starting off with assistant direction credits for Kids on the Slope and the first season of Silver Spoon, she then moves on to helm the follow up season of Silver Spoon, and take over for Natsume's Book of Friends.

Though with the new season of Natsume's Book of Friends I'm a little sad to see Kotomi relieved of the role as the Chief Director for the series, Hideki Itou, steps into the role. Still have high hopes, but was looking forward to more Kotomi. Just means I need to wait and see where she ends up next, and I highly doubt it'll take too long for her to appear once more.

Sk8 The Infinity OP - Hiroko Utsumi

Speaking of people that I can't wait to see more of Hiroko Utsumi. I'm sure everyone that's seen it is a fan of Sk8 The Infinity and its opening, and there's not really a better person to handle the opening that Utsumi herself. After all, she's the original creator for the series.

But let's rewind a little before I get ahead of myself. Utsumi has probably one of the most prestigious careers on this list. Utsumi originally started with KyoAni, working her way up from second key animation to first key animation, to episode direction and storyboarding, finally making their directorial debut with Free! back in 2013, quickly following it up with the sequel.

Interestingly enough though, Utsumi then goes silent for 2 years before re-appearing outside of KyoAni, doing some storyboarding work with Bones and Mappa, leading into the next crazy piece of her story: the lead director of Banana Fish. Then of course it's to Sk8 The Infinity, and now she has Bucchigiri?! on the horizon, as well as a continuation of Sk8 The Infinity.

Talk about a career with no misses. Even better is that with her new works, we'll almost certainly be getting more of her expert openings, as with every series she's directed, she's also done the openings. So really, lots and lots to look forward to with Utsumi.

Arakawa Under The Bridge OP - Yamamoto Sayo

I know, not the opening that most would pick, but I wanted to be ✨Different✨. Everybody surely knows Yamamoto Sayo from Yuuri!! on Ice, but I just wanted to show off a bit more of a her range with an opening like this one. Clearly, she's a very talented woman, and the industry recognizes that with her work as she's done quite a few openings, especially with Mappa as of late.

These are all of her openings (and some endings), in order of appearance: Rozen Maiden Traumend, Michiko and Hacchin, Arakawa Under The Bridge S1 & S2, Hanamaru Kindergarten (ED), Attack on Titan S1 (ED), Space Dandy S1 (ED), Yuri On Ice, Kakegurui, and Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul.

Quite the list, to be sure. I just wish they did more direction work, as they've been stuck at Mappa for the Yuuri!! on Ice movie. Hopefully that'll come out some day and Sayo will be free of that hell, but all we can do is sit and wait.

Kaguya-Sama: Love is War - Ultra Romantic OP - Eiko Hirayama

I mean, it's Kaguya-Sama, do I really need to say more? Great effort, and great direction from Hirayama here to really cap off the best season of the series. But did you know that she also did the work for the first opening of Love is War?

Hirayama is probably the most curious staff member on this list though. They do have a good few credits for various openings, but by and large they're all special or visual effects credits. For example, they most recently did the visual effects in the opening for the Nier anime, and they also did the same for 2 of the Vivy openings.

I think it's really interesting to see someone like Hirayama step out of their comfort zone to do something like an opening, because you can absolutely feel their experience shape the opening.

Here, let me add a little breakdown of the opening for Kaguya S3. If you pay close attention to the opening, you'll realize that there's not a crazy amount of animation. Rather, there's a lot of camera and 3 dimensional movement, and a lot of interesting composition. I mean, just look at the sequence of Kaguya running, it's a compositor's dream as they shift through all sorts of different visuals and styles.

And I just think that's really cool. Sure, Hirayama isn't a thoroughbred director like the others on this list, but I think their storied experience with composition gives them an angle in this opening that a lot of others just wouldn't find.

Heike Monogatari OP - Naoko Yamada

Naoko, alongside her work with Heike Monogatari, will always have a special place in my heart. Much like Utsumi, Naoko started her career with KyoAni. However, she was a part of the studio for longer, and because of that, was present during the arson attack on the studio in 2019.

This opening, and really the entirety of this story, hits really close to home with its ideas of the loss of family and suffering through a cycle of violence, and she does a beautiful job of juxtaposing that idea against the pieces that Biwa fondly remembers of those around her. It's very, very strong work from Naoko that feels almost like a rebirth as her first major work following the arson attack.

Regardless of what she went through at the end, her time with KyoAni was incredibly impressive. I'm not sure how many will know her name from it, but she was the director behind the incredible success of K-On!. Similarly, she also worked on Tamako Market and the follow up movie. She's an incredibly talented woman, and has continually put her best foot forward with everything she's done, so I'm really hopeful to see her continue that hot streak with wherever she goes next.

Naruto Shippuden OP20 - Chiaki Kon

Had to bring a bit more of a classic pick out, no? Chiaki Kon is certainly not a staff member that tends to really be seen as someone popular, if that makes sense. They're rather light in terms of individual expression, so having a stronger opening like this that hones in on individual character arcs while relating them to larger interactions within the world is really great to see.

Though that's not to say that Chiaki tends to get lost as a staff member, but that I think her work is very subtle. For example, she directed the recent (and popular) Sacrificial Princess anime, which is one of J.C Staff's top 3 anime in the last 5 years. It undoubtedly has Chiaki to thank for a lot of that, where she's kept a reasonable distance on the project while still providing a lot of her overarching vision to it.

But man, has she been active lately. While she does do lead direction, she's insanely present as an episode director and storyboarder, getting anywere from 6 to even 12 or more episodes boarded and/or directed in a year. Odds are if you watch any amount of anime, you've seen an episode done by Chiaki Kon.

Given OP - Hikaru Yamaguchi

Maybe a bit of an odd choice, but I feel like that makes it all the better to give them some spotlight. Not everyone is going to be a "knock it out of the park anime rockstar", and that's perfectly fine. Though I might still argue that Yamaguchi fits that bill. It's just that they're not as productive as others on this list.

After all, they did the OP for Given and directed the series (as well as the movie), and it's a very good show. It's interesting though how long it took her to get another lead direction role. There was 3 years between the Given movie, and the Osomatusu-San movie that she directed in 2023. And you might be thinking, "well hey, what about smaller roles to fill the gap?". Nope, not really any of that.

There was a 2 year gap between the Given movie and her next staff position. Though I mean, it's a pretty damn cool one. She did the storyboard for episode 3 of Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War. For those that don't know, that's the episode of Ichigo vs Quilge Opie (which was very cool, by the way).

Yamaguchi is certainly an interesting staff member in that regard, as she doesn't have many projects she's worked on, but they've almost all been very big name ones. Certainly has me curious to see what she'll manage to appear on next.

Dance Dance Danseur OP - Sarisa Kawamura

If you thought Kawaguchi was an odd pick, wait until you hear about Kawamura. This is the second ever credit for her that I've been able to track down. The other comes from VFX assistant role on the Undead Girl Murder farce ending. So you can imagine my surprise considering the insane quality and creativity displayed with this opening that she boarded for.

I mean, when I first watched it when the anime aired, I was stunned. Absolutely incredible work with the first person perspective and the ideas with all the reflections and the wild expressiveness of the characters. Seriously, this was a shoe-in for opening of the year back in 2022, and I'd still say one of the standouts in this decade for sure.

I just, really, really hope that we'll see Kawamura board something else soon, because I absolutely need more of her incredible vision.

And that's the end of the 10 women, that I chose to use for this list. Seriously, there's a mountain of them that have done all sorts of other openings, or endings, and an unimaginable amount that have done creative work outside of those things.

I wouldn't say I'm disappointed that nobody talks about anime staff (in general, really, but also more specifically women), but a lot of people just don't have the interest in looking this stuff up. I really, really wish that streaming services would start translating credits to make it easier for people to get a grasp of who it is that's working on their favorite series, but we can't always rely on companies to do things like that.

Thankfully, the community out there is really, really dedicated so you can find staff credits on websites like MAL, Anilist, Anidb, and even Anime News Network. Sure, it takes a little bit of time to go and find those credits, but I think it's really valuable time that's well spent. You're bringing more awareness and understanding into the hobby and community, and that can change the trajectory of it in really wonderful ways.

Highlighting the works of women in anime is just one way of doing that. It inspires people in the community, it makes people aware of the idea of who is making their favorite works, that women are a central and pivotal part of the industry.

I really hope that people found out something cool with this list, and I really do encourage everyone to do a bit of digging into their favorite series to find out the names behind them. I mean, we all know who directs a movie or TV series over here, and we certainly know all about the actors and whatnot, so I'd love to see people bring that same understanding to anime.

[polmcarts]

Wanting to try something different and I love The Fable so I redrew a scene from the OP🖤

[dailaz]

My new Fanfiction!

Isekai Quartet of Smash Bros!

[anime-to-the-t]

[ilovecats4ever]

our boy a lil off but hes alright

[dangerousbrick]

[ali-dot-txt]

yo i played persona 5 for the first time (II)

(part 2 of a series, you can find part 1 here)

In this incredibly long chain of posts: Hina taking shape as a character, records of how people gender her, and my reactions to the events of the game, as seen from screenshots of Discord messages I sent.

Sojiro gets off to a good start by not even misgendering the delinquent he took in.

Look, he's trying, at least. That's what matters

In future, Ryuji will consistently forget that Hina is a girl, but he never seems to mean anything by it.

Side note: The mod plans to change the romance options to 4 men and 4 women at some point (as of right now, romances are unchanged, as far as I could tell). Ryuji is going to be one of the male options.

Morgana forgets sometimes as well, but I can't recall a time where he outright calls Hina male, and since, you know, these people are speaking Japanese that's translated for our readability, it's entirely possible that he barely misgenders her at all. Which makes sense, given his whole thing is helping her.

Another change from the mod! Hina can only go into womens' restrooms.

It took about the entire length of the game for me to get to the point where i even tolerate Morgana, though.

Morgana has a different comment on Hina's room.

Takemi: one of the romance options that the mod is planning to keep. The fact that she is a romance option utterly ruins her for me. You will not be seeing much more of her. Hina stopped visiting the clinic after rank 3 of her confidant.

She passes enough to get into the womens' bath with no incident.

I do not have many screenshots from Kamoshida's Palace. I take many more screenshots in later Palaces. Due to that, I miss a lot of Ann's establishing character moments in this recap, so I'll recap her here:

She's one of the romance options the mod plans to keep. She also misgenders Hina more than Morgana but less than Ryuji.

Hina Canonical Character Trait: she's scared of heights

More cute outfits for Hina

Hina transgender moments

Hina eventually has to settle for getting her meds by mail order

MISHIMA is a planned romance option. MISHIMA. There is no larger sign of how few cute boys there are in this game lmao

Sae barely misgenders Hina, but that's just thanks to her barely having any chance to refer to her in the third person for most of the game.

This line works much better with the headcanon, and as a fun side bonus it hurts a lot more!

And I've run out of images. Next post!

[otaku-republic]

・ Oteyawaraka ni Kusakabe-kun by Towa ・ Masami-kun wa Kiss mo Shiranai by Hitomi Haruma ・ Neko Neko Sweets by Narazaki Souta ・ Honto Yajuu vol.16 by Yamamoto Kotetsuko ・ Takane no Otouto by Kamori Kiki ・ Cosmetic Playlover by Narashima Sachi ・ Romantic Lamento by Satou Sanayuki ・ Kogoeru Kimi ga Tokeru made by Sakuragi Yaya ・ Toudo no Ou to Sennen no Yume vol.2 by Hino Akira ・ Hanbun Ageru by Arima Arashi

[trashexplorer]

BLCD Review: Smoky Nectar

Title: Smoky Nectar (スモーキーネクター)

Author/Artist: Minazuki Akira

Release Date: 2021/07/14

Cast: 

Satou Takuya x Enoki Junya

Komatsu Shouhei

Muro Genki

Taito Ban

Tsuchida Reo

Hasegawa Ikumi

Sugiyama Riho

Kobayashi Kousuke

Okada Sachiko

Kida Tasuku

Synopsis: Writer Hasegawa Mitsuru has been investigating a case that was rumored to be the work of vampires known as “Biters”. His childhood friend, Annaka Yuusei, a.k.a. Anna, warns him not to stick his head into where it doesn’t belong.

Review Proper

Just something about this is weird. The manga’s pretty fluid on its own, but it’s kinda, uhh, choppy? in the BLCD. Although I’m not sure if Smoky Nectar’s a serious manga with some comedy here and there, 50:50 serious and comedy, or is a comedy with some serious moments... it kinda doesn’t work in the BLCD. I mean, SatoTaku and Junya did well during the serious parts, but they seem to stumble during the comedy or the parts that lead to the comedic moments. Maybe the comedy just doesn’t transition well into the audio adaptation. *shrugs*

Let’s jump straight into the voice work, shall we?

I was quite interested in listening to this ‘cause yo??? Juujin bottoms??? If Daath and Kai were in these tones in Kemonohito, I would ship them 100% lmao, but then, uhh, idk, Junya was kind of a mess here. We’ll get to SatoTaku later, but I feel like they didn’t record this together. I do not like how Junya drags his moans on during their bedroom Redcross donations because he sounds very out of sync with SatoTaku’s ministrations (this is only very obvious in the first, though). I think he also has a hard time expressing the deadpan humor Mitsuru has. Sometimes my mind wanders off and starts having thoughts of either Reio, Ban, or Shouhei potentially being a better option for Mitsuru. That might just be my other issue with Junya. He was a bit too low for Mitsuru. I feel like if he was in a higher register, then he would’ve been able to express Mitsuru’s feelings better.

Now, as for SatoTaku, the man wasn’t free of my suspicions either. SatoTaku was a little too smooth to match Anna’s equally deadpan humor. I’m not saying that SatoTaku can’t comedy ‘cause sis you’ve heard Sonna ni, right??? But as compared to Anna, Shinobu’s more dynamic a character. Niyama and Ginger also gave the cast time to prepare before a big change in moods. Huh, I’m starting to think that this is the same thing that went down in Takasaki Bosco’s Torokeru Kuchibiru. I feel like Makonyan or Ono Yuuki would’ve done this better. But I know, I FUCKING KNOW, why Fifth Avenue got SatoTaku for this.

Thanks to Fifth Avenue, I know have my ringtone set to SatoTaku saying “erro” in the Mini Drama on repeat.

Goddamn I fucking flatlined on that one. I wasn’t really expecting much from the Mini Dramas, so thanks. 👍

Anyway, I also have to say that the sound effects as well as the bgms suck balls lmao. FIFTH AVENUE PLS. The main piano bgm also starts and ends in random places. There was also this part where Anna jumps off from a fucking building to the floor on the ground, making a table flip. Like we all know how a table sounds like flipped, right??? It definitely won’t sound like a chair shaking! 😂 I don’t think Fifth Avenue even cared at that point. 

This was actually a pretty decent adaptation despite the many issues I have with it. It’s pretty faithful to the manga too, although I would recommend reading the manga once before ‘cause you wouldn’t know what they were doing in real time without the visual cues. This is an action bl too, after all. If you’re looking for another vampire (the “biter” thing also threw me off a bit, but the “nectar” concept wouldn’t survive without ig) bl, I raise you Yuri Azuru’s Fujitsu de Fumou na Koi no Kami-kon starring Okitsu and Egu. That one’s a little disappointing on the action front, but it was a good vampire bl nontheless. Okitsu’s Lark was also a good comedic/spontaneous type, so that’s good vampire + comedy! 

[mihotose]

📸 📸 📸 📸 📸 📸 📸 📸

[nocandnc]

~A Few Days Later~

TASTE THE KARMA, BITCH.

[animemakeblog]

“The Fable” The Manga For Gets TV Anime

The production firm VAP unveiled the official website for The Fable, a television anime based on the manga by Katsuhisa Minami. A teaser image (shown) was also made public on the website.

[cacaitos]

this somehow has the smell of a katsuhiro otomo story

[thatsyuribabe]

Ebisu-san to Hotei-san / Ebisu-san and Hotei-san

Story by Satou Nanki, Art by Kizuki Akira

Published 2009-2010 by Tsubomi

English translation by Lililicious

[anime-to-the-t]