Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! - Anime General Discussion

[OceanBlue]

KyoAni does tend to use their own staff much more than they use freelancers. It's not surprising that people attribute a look to KyoAni when Ikeda does the designs for half of their series.

Edit: Luckily for Reckoner though, the character designer for Hyouka, Nishiya (who's also the character designer for Nichijou, what do you know?), seems to be up-and-coming if I'm drawing the right conclusions from the staff listings . If I were to guess, I think he'll appear more as the character designer or as a key animator for future KyoAni projects. I don't keep up with staff information much though so I wouldn't know for sure .

[Warm Mist]

Kyoani doesn't use freelancers period, actually.
And Nishiya is a prominent figure in Kyoani, he has been animating since Air and was the Chief Sakkan for Disappearance of Haruhi. It's good that he has started to do designs too.

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by OceanBlue

KyoAni does tend to use their own staff much more than they use freelancers. It's not surprising that people attribute a look to KyoAni when Ikeda does the designs for half of their series.

Edit: Luckily for Reckoner though, the character designer for Hyouka, Nishiya (who's also the character designer for Nichijou, what do you know?), seems to be up-and-coming if I'm drawing the right conclusions from the staff listings . If I were to guess, I think he'll appear more as the character designer or as a key animator for future KyoAni projects. I don't keep up with staff information much though so I wouldn't know for sure .

Character Designers for KyoAni's works:
Fumoffu: Osamu Horichi
Munto (OVA): Tomoe Aratani
Munto 2 (OVA): Tomoe Aratani
AIR: Tomoe Aratani
The Second Raid: Osamu Horichi
Haruhi (2006): Shouko Ikeda
Kanon: Kazumi Ikeda
Lucky Star: Yukiko Horiguchi
Clannad: Kazumi Ikeda
Clannad After Story: Kazumi Ikeda
Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai: Tomoe Aratani
Haruhi-chan/Churuya-san: Futoshi Nishiya
K-On!: Yukiko Horiguchi
Haruhi (2009): Shouko Ikeda
Haruhi (movie): Shouko Ikeda
K-On!!: Yukiko Horiguchi
Nichijou: Futoshi Nishiya
Eiga K-On!: Yukiko Horiguchi
Hyouka: Futoshi Nishiya
Chuunibyou: Kazumi Ikeda

Outside of Haruhi, KyoAni's had a decent rotation of Tomoe Aratani/Osamu Horichi (2003/2005 works) Kazumi Ikeda/Yukiko Horiguchi, and now Futoshi Nishiya taking over. I imagine we'll see another new designer pop up for another future work. Ikeda likely took over so they could have a veteran staff for KyoAni's first KA Esuma work.

[Reckoner]

Originally Posted by ElCachicamo

Aesthetics are not that important at all because it is ANIMATION not illustration. Some people have their focus in the wrong places. Important things that people should care about are direction(storyboard, editing, framing, layout), Script, Animation (Character acting in this case).

Character acting is important and Kyoani is the only one who's doing it in this industry right now. This kind of stuff begun with K-ON, that show had really good direction and very rich animation, but I understand if people don't see it because is more difficult to impress with low key animation and is way easier when you do flashy action.

To give you an exaggerated example it's like having extremely fluid stick figures. Well unfortunately you're just animating stick figures, not that pleasing to look at.

I was just commenting on one aspect of this project anyways. This could still be entertaining no doubt, though I think this doesn't look very interesting at all personally, but it's not going to change the fact that I dislike their char designs here.

[rulfo]

Scan leak(?)

[Skane]

Originally Posted by rulfo

Scan leak(?)

Spoiler for Tidiness:

Magic skirts, or in KyoAni's case, Troll Skirts.

Natch.

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by rulfo

Scan leak(?)

From Nyantype or Megami and given the text in the top right corner, I'm betting Nyantype. There'll be another image like this in the other magazine as reported on the website Thursday.

Edit: I had a 50/50 shot and missed. This is from Megami. Nyantype will have another image like this though.

[OceanBlue]

Originally Posted by Shergal

Kyoani doesn't use freelancers period, actually.
And Nishiya is a prominent figure in Kyoani, he has been animating since Air and was the Chief Sakkan for Disappearance of Haruhi. It's good that he has started to do designs too.

I see. I was thinking that he might have been an animator who's now moving into other things.

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

Outside of Haruhi, KyoAni's had a decent rotation of Tomoe Aratani/Osamu Horichi (2003/2005 works) Kazumi Ikeda/Yukiko Horiguchi, and now Futoshi Nishiya taking over. I imagine we'll see another new designer pop up for another future work. Ikeda likely took over so they could have a veteran staff for KyoAni's first KA Esuma work.

I actually didn't realize that there were two Ikedas...

I have no idea what's supposed to be happening in that scan . The PV needs to hurry up and come out!

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by ElCachicamo

Aesthetics are not that important at all because it is ANIMATION not illustration. Some people have their focus in the wrong places. Important things that people should care about are direction(storyboard, editing, framing, layout), Script, Animation (Character acting in this case).

Character acting is important and Kyoani is the only one who's doing it in this industry right now. This kind of stuff begun with K-ON, that show had really good direction and very rich animation, but I understand if people don't see it because is more difficult to impress with low key animation and is way easier when you do flashy action.

I feel like I've been over this before, but they really aren't the only ones doing these things you mention and I don't know how limited a pool of shows people have to be watching to continue to get this idea. There are plenty of shows I can point too with equally or even super art/animation direction to a lot of what Kyoani puts out. I think they have a certain style that they can kind of lay claim to as uniquely their own and I'd describe their output as having moments of great direction (moreso lately), but I hardly think they're the only ones capable of doing so. That idea is just ludicrous to me and kind of an insult to the hard work of the rest of the industries creative minds.

This idea of attention to detail....it's far more widespread than people seem to notice.

[blakstealth]

Originally Posted by rulfo

Scan leak(?)

gawd gawd gawd so adorable.

[MisaoFan]

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

From Nyantype or Megami and given the text in the top right corner, I'm betting Nyantype. There'll be another image like this in the other magazine as reported on the website Thursday.

I loved this pic because of Rikka's pose (and her "Kiraboshi" gesture). Plus her upskirt is handled without overdoning anything "lewd" or "annoying" kind of fanservice she provides.

[Warm Mist]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama

I feel like I've been over this before, but they really aren't the only ones doing these things you mention and I don't know how limited a pool of shows people have to be watching to continue to get this idea.

That's true, but they're the only ones doing it for every work, as a studio. That's obviously because they can and the other studios don't have the means to do it, but other works in the industry who achieve similar things are due to a greatly talented individual director like Nagai or Yuasa more than anything else.
And doing realistic character acting and low key animation at the level of consistency and fluidity Kyoani has achieved over the years is something no other studio (besides Ghibli) can proud itself in. If you try to point out an example, I assure you that you will be wrong.

Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama

I hardly think they're the only ones capable of doing so. That idea is just ludicrous to me and kind of an insult to the hard work of the rest of the industries creative minds.

Of course it's ludicrous! who in their right mind would deny the mind numbing work of directors like the aforementioned Yuasa and Nagai, Imaishi, or even Shinbo for all the controversy regarding him?

Actually I don't think Kyoani has the best directorial talent in the industry, they're certainly above average and their directors are given enough freedom and resources to develop ideas, but none of them has reached the level of the most acclaimed figures of the industry.

Their strength lies in their consistency and fluidity of animation, use of CG (compared to other studios) and digital composition, which combined make for overall visuals that are still unrivalled by anyone in the TV industry. Only up and coming new studios which coincidentally follow the same philosophy as Kyoani can be thought of as consistently good in these aspects (P.A.Works, ufotable, and GoHands. Especially GoHands.)

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Shergal

That's true, but they're the only ones doing it for every work, as a studio. That's obviously because they can and the other studios don't have the means to do it, but other works in the industry who achieve similar things are due to a greatly talented individual director like Nagai or Yuasa more than anything else.
And doing realistic character acting and low key animation at the level of consistency and fluidity Kyoani has achieved over the years is something no other studio (besides Ghibli) can proud itself in. If you try to point out an example, I assure you that you will be wrong.

Of course it's ludicrous! who in their right mind would deny the mind numbing work of directors like the aforementioned Yuasa and Nagai, Imaishi, or even Shinbo for all the controversy regarding him?

Actually I don't think Kyoani has the best directorial talent in the industry, they're certainly above average and their directors are given enough freedom and resources to develop ideas, but none of them has reached the level of the most acclaimed figures of the industry.

Their strength lies in their consistency and fluidity of animation, use of CG (compared to other studios) and digital composition, which combined make for overall visuals that are still unrivalled by anyone in the TV industry. Only up and coming new studios which coincidentally follow the same philosophy as Kyoani can be thought of as consistently good in these aspects (P.A.Works, ufotable, and GoHands. Especially GoHands.)

Well yeah I think it's a matter of choice. Do you diverisfy and do multiple works with varying styles of animation and overall staff composition at once or do you focus all your energies and funding into one. Both are workable business models under the right circumstances. What works for Kyoani may not work for or even be prefferable for other studios with capital though.

Personally I see this model as a double edged sword though since it equates to putting all your eggs in one basket. Kyoani is fortunate as I've frequently mentioned that their core fanbase is for lack of a better word "hardcore" and has bought in all but entirely to what they are selling so they can even afford to take this risk in the immediate future, but I think their model allows for very little growth overall. I mean just using myself as an example it's going on 6 years and 12 productions now and I've only ever found a couple Kyoani shows that I could say I've found exceptional or even interesting when it comes to the overall package to any degree. That's not good. I'm sure that number would be much higher if there were more output and variety, but as it stands I can't exactly say they've won me over as a fan of the brand, while studios that have come into existence about as recently like A-1 have garnered my attention fairly frequently with their more traditional multi-studio method of producing anime and just the sheer variety of interesting output of late.

As it stands my impression of Kyoani actually has improved with time and a whole lot of quiet thought, but I still put them in about the same boat as Square Enix for me of late. Yeah their stuff usually looks really nice and it's clear they put a ton of effort into visuals, but the experience always seems to end up being lacking and hollow once you really get down to focusing on the core products content.

[CrowKenobi]

[ultimatemegax]

Scan translations! This contains some new information about the characters and the plot of the original novel, which I've tagged with the spoiler tag for those who do not wish to read anything new. There's two lines that I double-spoilered relating to details that occur past chapter 1 in the novel. Other than that, these are mainly spoiler-free.

Credit to Kismet-chan for providing these links:

Spoiler for translation:

This Evil Eye girl won’t give in to the hot sun and warm glances of her friends as she walks down her path!

Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! TV Anime confirmed!
Copyright Torako/Kyoto Animation/Chuunibyou Demo Production Committee

Story:
Yuuta Togashi was once full of himself like many people during puberty. As he entered high school, he sealed away that past. But once he meets with the currently infected chuunibyou patient Rikka Takanashi, that past might start to come out...

What is Chuunibyou?
Chuunibyou tends to occur in boys and girls around puberty. It’s a disorder where they become too full of themselves and banter with other kids. This is not a real disease, nor a mental illness, so there is no cure being developed.

Characters (Right to left):
Yuuta Togashi (富樫勇太)
A very helpful first year high school student. Though he doesn’t stand out now, he had a severe case of chuunibyou during middle school.
Sounds Good!
Perhaps, he’s not made a full recovery yet?
Once he enrolled in high school, Yuuta left behind a past where people didn’t want to be around him...”Now that he’s met Rikka, perhaps he might relapse. (laughs)”

Rikka Takanashi (小鳥遊六花)
This chuunibyou girl is Yuuta’s classmate. She has a huge fear of strangers, but she somehow became attached to Yuuta.
Sounds Good!
I won’t let you do as you please!
Rikka, the self-titled “User of the Devilish Truth Stare”, is always prepared to protect the Earth. At home, at school, everywhere. She wears an eyepatch over her left eye and bandages on her right arm. “Rikka is always prepared to say ‘Right here, right now!’ and undo her eyepatch and bandages. But when will she say that.... Probably when it’s time to flaunt in front of others! (laughs)”

Kumin Tsuyuri (五月七日くみん)
Enrolled in the year above the others. With a carefree personality, she watches over the first years.
Sounds Good!
The original characters are also unique!
There will be some anime-original characters shown in this show. One is Kumin-sempai. “Kumin appears normal with a warm expression but she created the ‘Afternoon Nap Club’ so she’s a bit off.”

Shinka Nibuyani (丹生谷森夏)
Yuuta and Rikka’s classmate. Popular, thus she was chosen as the class rep.

Spoiler:

She dislikes the chuunibyou illness.

Good Job!
See everyone moving around in August!
This work still hasn’t been publicly shown. Is everyone anxious to see it when it airs this fall?! “Our homepage opened on July 10th. We’ve got various things planned to set up for people to enjoy. We’ve planned for you all to see Rikka, Yuuta, and everyone else move around in August, so we hope you enjoy that as well!”

(Referencing image)This bridge spans over this impressive river in the anime edition. Our students use this path while walking to school.

These four are coming back from a school day before summer vacation. Rikka rapidly commented “We’ll go down our path!” With her right arm and left eye covered, she appears injured, yet she’s moving around fine!
“For first time viewers/readers, let me tell you something in advance. Rikka is not injured nor does she have any ounce of evil in her. Rikka is the type of girl who wears these bandages and eyepatch to seal away special abilities that she believes she has.” (Supervisor Tatsuya Ishihara)

Wh-What?! Has she fallen ill?! No, this isn’t a burn, nor an eye disease; this is evil eye chuunibyou! From the looks of things here, the guy walking beside her, Yuuta, has already lost a battle.
“Contrary to what you see, Yuuta was like Rikka before he enrolled in high school. Yuuta, separated from his past, has gotten caught up in the whirlwind once he met an unhappy Rikka.”
In the original story,

Spoiler:

the plot focused around Yuuta and Rikka studying to overcome a failed test.

But in the anime, this is spread to encompass club activities, school events, and normal after-school events. Rikka will charge forward with her chuunibyou in every scene. We hope you enjoy yourself to a frightening amount...
Anyways, will Yuuta be able to control her at all?

Spoiler for translation:

The cuteness surpasses perfection! It's so cute it hurts!

Yuuta Togashi:
A previous chuunibyou patient who once controlled the Flames of Darkness. Now
he’s a first year high school student who’s recovered from that illness. Due to his kindhearted nature, he’s able to sympathize with Rikka, a current chuunibyou patient.

Rikka Takanashi:
A small, yet cute, girl who wears an eyepatch. Undernearth that eyepatch is a golden contact lens she’s dubbed the “Devilish Truth Stare.” Usually, she’s silent and emotionless, but she’s able to show her emotions in front of her contractee, Yuuta.

Shinka Nibutani:
With a tall and pleasant figure, she’s the class rep for Yuuta and Rikka. She’s earned the nickname “Class King” for her leadership qualities and high standards. Does she plan to rehabilitate Rikka?

Original characters?
In the anime, original characters will be introduced. Just look at the airheaded second year Kumin Tsuyuri for proof. This easy-going upperclassman carries around a pillow in her bag so she can sleep anywhere she wishes. There’s many more unique individuals to come in this show.

What is Chuunibyou?
Chuunibyou is where your body has grown up, but your mind has not. That unbalance leads you to say crazy things to people. It was first introduced on Hiakru Ijuin’s radio show. The kind that Rikka contracted is the Evil Eye Chuunibyou type. This type has people think they develop powers and try to conceal them. They also create their own personas.

What about the original novel?
The novel itself won an honorable mention in the first Kyoto Animation Awards. Now, two volumes have been published via the KA Esuma Bunko label. Continuing from Munto and Sora o Miageru Shōjo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai, this is an original title. We hope Supervisor Ishihara is up to arranging Chuunibyou!

The current patient Rikka Takanashi. The former patient Yuuta Togashi. When these two people meet, their souls resonate with each other and the door to the past is unsealed. - Kyoto Animation’s new project tells a cute love comedy interweaving the story of a former and current chuunibyou patient.
According to Tatsuya Ishihara, “This novel was published via the KA Esuma Bunko label, so I think it’s a good KyoAni original series. Because it was done in-house, I believe we have a little more freedom.” In order to create a more bustling atmosphere, original stories and characters will appear in addition to novel aspects.
There’s so many things we want to see animated! Rikka’s “Devilish Truth Stare” stories, Yuuta’s comebacks, Rikka’s expressions as she improvises names of abilities, Yuuta’s Chuuni lines as he listens to Rikka, and then the damage this takes on him. We want to see it now!

Spoiler for translation:

Supervisor Tatsuya Ishihara Interview:
I want to draw chuunibyou as fun as possible

Heroines nowadays that are unlucky

What were your impressions after reading the novel?
Ishihara: I wonder if this is spreading around in the current age. Speaking of weird girls leads, it looks like there’s been a trend lately with pitiful, yet cute heroines like this work. It seems like the male leads have taken advantage of it and look better. Recent romantic comedies seem to have exhausted the genres. I wonder if we’ve reached this setting now.

Perhaps the guy nearby the heroine just has a large heart?
Ishihara: Those guys must have large hearts! For example, let’s take a character in the KyoAni work K-On! named Yui. Isn’t she hopeless? (laughs) Yui fans feel like they have to do something for her. Their needs to help someone are really strong, aren’t they?

Does this feel like a new style of romantic comedy?
Ishihara: Even fujoshi have become recognized, so perhaps this kind of relationship will be too. There’s no cute super powers, they’re just ordinary girls. It’s real heroines. Perhaps afterwards we’ll see a heroine defined by a dirty room. (laughs)

Really? A dirty room heroine anime? (laughs) That’s pretty far out there, but I’m somewhat interested in seeing it. Rikka, suffering from chuunibyou, is a pretty cute heroine isn’t she? When reading the novel, were there any portions that you felt would be interesting to animate?
Ishihara: I paid attention to keep the chuunibyou theme and to illustrate the comedic elements. Having experienced it myself, I have some pretty embarrassing chuunibyou moments. (laughs) If I tried to portray that element seriously, this story would cross over to become darker, so I tried to portray it more comically by making the chuunibyou moments humorous.

I’ve heard that there’s a lot of anime-original elements in this version. Would you mind telling us about them?
Ishihara: There’s a lot of anime-original elements. We used the first novel of the original stories as a base to compose the series, but just one novel isn’t enough. Thus we had to add elements to the story. There’s various details here and there that add up. For example, there’s a lot of times where Yuuta and Rikka study in the original novel. Because we're animating the series, we wanted to make the characters move around more than that. There’s a lot of inside the school scenes in the novel, so we wanted to take them outside in the anime.

This is the first time that Kyoto Animation has made an anime from their own novel. Please tell us about your enthusiasm for working on the project.
Ishihara: There’s plenty of enthusiasm here! This time we’re working on a novel from our companies own label, so I feel it’s like a KyoAni original series. Finally my wish to work on an original anime came true. At the same time, the pressure to succeed is immense. There’s been times where Hanada (Jukki)-san and I leaned on each others shoulders trying to exert more power from each other. We’d say “Just a little more, a little more.” (laughs)

What was the model for the town based upon?
Ishihara: This time we’re depicting a fictional town. We did some location scouting, but I can’t say it’ll be used on a large scale. Perhaps the locations will be credited.

Before, the episode order of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was shuffled. Do you have any surprises like that planned for this work?
Ishihara: This time there’s various surprises planned. I think readers of the novel will be able to see the story in a new light.

[zeniselv]

these sypnosis seem to describe denpa onna to seishun ottoko, an i still wonder why there havent been any images of the anime with the pick haires twin-tailed gril from the first image in this thread.

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by zeniselv

these sypnosis seem to describe denpa onna to seishun ottoko, an i still wonder why there havent been any images of the anime with the pick haires twin-tailed gril from the first image in this thread.

Because she's from the second novel, which ANN screwed up and thought was the synopsis of the series. The anime itself is only using the first novel as a base, so it's doubtful she'll even appear.

[winhlp32]

Thanks for the translation! I do hope that Ishihara will be able to do something a bit different with the whole normal male/"cute, pitiful" female dynamic since he himself admits it's getting more difficult to make something fresh out of it. In any case, I'm glad to hear that they will be getting a bit more ambitious with this project.

[zeniselv]

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

Because she's from the second novel, which ANN screwed up and thought was the synopsis of the series. The anime itself is only using the first novel as a base, so it's doubtful she'll even appear.

so 1st novel its totally different to the second? or they are just ussing the first novel as a base, but an entirely original story?

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by zeniselv

so 1st novel its totally different to the second? or they are just ussing the first novel as a base, but an entirely original story?

(I really need to make a novel thread) Since this is an anime thread, I don't want to spoil anything, but I'll admit that the second novel picks up where the first novel ends. At the same time, it wouldn't be suitable for an anime to adapt both novels in one season by themselves. They're going to expand on the first novel, which sounds like it'll work best given the plot. There's going to be original aspects, but the plot will remain similar.

Edit: We finally have a novel thread! All novel discussion moves over there! (Also made a new Rikka signature for easy access (novel left, anime right).)