In Memoriam – Yasuo Otsuka (1931-2021)

In Memoriam – Yasuo Otsuka (1931-2021)

On March 15, 2021, studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki announced the death of Yasuo Otsuka at age 89. With him, it is one of the most important figures in world animation that goes away; it is no overstatement to say that Otsuka was the very embodiment of anime and...
Daicon, back in context

Daicon, back in context

The two Daicon shorts, Daicon III and Daicon IV, are still today considered to be emblematic monuments of otaku culture. A large part of this reputation comes from the fame of its creators, the ones who would go on to create studio Gainax, but also from the array of...
Evangelion: You Can (Not) Deconstruct

Evangelion: You Can (Not) Deconstruct

You’ve probably heard or read this somewhere: “Neon Genesis Evangelion is a deconstruction of the mecha genre” – or of SF, or even of shounen as a whole, if the person writing this is ambitious. This interpretation of one of the most famous mecha series ever is...
Animation fundamentals – A short history of Layout

Animation fundamentals – A short history of Layout

In my previous post, I mentioned that I would make a follow-up about the role of the layout in the production process of anime, so here it is. However, here, I also hope to show that the layout isn’t as simple as I explained last time: if you take a historical...