#top wo nerae 2

[gaynaxing]

Diebuster illustration by Shin Itagaki for gainax.net.

[therosecrest]

[evanniversary]

Happy birthday to

Tsurumaki Kazuya

name: 鶴巻和哉 (Tsurumaki Kazuya)

born: February 2, 1966 (59 years old)

Tsurumaki is most well-known for being the creator and director of FLCL, but he started at Gainax as an animator, doing key animation on Nadia and Otaku no Video, as well as serving as animation director on episode 31 and 39 of Nadia, respectively the climax of the third arc and the finale of the show. He also directed the Nadia Omake Gekijō (ナディアおまけ劇場 / Nadia Bonus Theater) shorts included on the show's physical release.

On Neon Genesis Evangelion, along with continuing to do animation work, Tsurumaki was promoted to storyboard artist and episode director, directing six episodes:

Ep. 1: 使徒、襲来 / ANGEL ATTACK

Ep. 2: 見知らぬ、天井 / THE BEAST

Ep. 8: アスカ、来日 / ASUKA STRIKES!

Ep. 16: 死に至る病、そして / Splitting of the Breast

Ep. 25: 終わる世界 / Do you love me?

Ep. 26: 世界の中心でアイを叫��だけもの / Take care of yourself. (co-directed with Masayuki)

He then directed Evangelion:Rebirth / Episode:25' as part of the films Death and Rebirth and The End of Evangelion, he co-directed all four Studio khara Evangelion films, and directed the short film Evangelion:3.0(-46h) and the motion comic version of Evangelion:3.0(-120min.) included in the 3.0+1.11 release of Shin Eva.

Outside of the Evangelion series, he directed the aforementioned Nadia shorts and FLCL, as well as the Gunbuster sequel Top wo Nerae 2! DIE BUSTER at Studio Gainax, the short film I Can Friday by Day! and the 2017 The Dragon Dentist two-parter at Studio khara, and he is the director of the new series Gundam: GQuuuuuuX, a collaboration between khara and Studio Sunrise, which had its theatrical première in Japan on January 17, 2025 and is set to air on TV at some point this year.

My Anime List: https://myanimelist.net/people/6076/Kazuya_Tsurumaki

Wikipedia: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/鶴巻和哉

[v087]

Nono for /wwd/

[giantrobotfan]

[kaguras-art]

💫✨

[mityfresh]

AIM FOR THE TOP 1 X 2

[sonsan808]

[akudzava]

music: nullse - infinite nothing

[anime-cafeteria]

[stillinaincrad]

For the last few days, I've been putting together a post titled 'Masterpiece Theater', an idea I've had for a while - a list of the anime out there deserving of the title MASTERPIECE. I think it's a word that gets thrown around a little too lightly, and that it is actually quite rare that a show is deserving of it.

How I was going about qualifying them is by originality of the art, originality of the story and plot, the quality of the writing from start to finish, and the number of interesting characters in the cast. This was my criteria.

Which is funny, because when I started doing a little research, the interwebs apparently calls anything with a 9/10 rating or higher a masterpiece, which is laughable. Popularity by no means equals quality, which is pretty much all I've been whining about for the last few years. I mean, 5 of the top 12 rated anime on MAL are Gintama and its spinoffs and movies. Gintama is fantastic, but a masterpiece? I mean, come on - it's basically Airplane! in animated form. And as much as I love Airplane!, I don't think of it as a creative masterpiece. Funny as all hell, but just that. And, am pretty sure is all it was ever meant to be.

Anyways, I digress. I'm making this post instead, though, because I only came up with two very obvious choices that I couldn't argue against - Code Geass is, in my mind, probably the best definition by my microscope. It would be hard to call it anything less, is just 50 episodes of incredible (ironically, with a less than 9 rating on MAL, which means 86 is considered a better anime. I rest my case on the rating system!) After that, I personally would absolutely call Fate/Zero -> Fate Stay Night UBW one, but I can see where someone might argue that there's a lot of meaningless dialogue, etc. Still, given the story, the vast number of great characters, the music, and holy frijoles the artwork? Yep. I'll mince words with you that it belongs.

But then what? Star Driver came to mind, the art style is so one-off, the idea is totally original, it has a ton of character depth, music is so good, all that - but is it more than that? Charlotte has probably the slowest burn to ignite the payload but when it takes off it's such a thrill ride that no one saw coming which is what makes it incredible. But...? Even Diebuster, which I've always felt helped usher in a new generation of anime without abandoning the real heart & soul of creative storytelling which is what made me fall in love with anime in the 90s in the first place, is one I'd be very tempted to include but if no one else feels that way then it'd be pointless. Have said it before, taste is subjective, and what I love might not be what the next person is into, but there's something out there that makes them feel the same way, and that's what it's all about.

So after thinking about it and trying to curate an entire post dedicated to it, I think it's safe to say that there are many, many anime over the years that I think are top-shelf, high octane, unbridled quality shows and will watch again and again without losing interest.

But to call something a true masterpiece, and have everyone accept that uniformly across the board? Well, that's a class of its own, and am not even sure what fits into that column anymore.

[giltori]

Maid day - maid Lal’C

[therosecrest]

[kosemura]

[anidungeon]

Nono ya basta por favor

[giantrobotfan]