Kyoto Animation: Studio discussion, speculation, and whatnot.

[Archon_Wing]

Yea, hitting 1 (True Tears)for 3, now maybe 2 for 4 really needs more proof for PA works.

But hey, Hana Saku is 2 cour, so maybe they won't screw up an ending for once.

[Pocari_Sweat]

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

Yea, hitting 1 (True Tears)for 3, now maybe 2 for 4 really needs more proof for PA works.

But hey, Hana Saku is 2 cour, so maybe they won't screw up an ending for once.

Shipping hater detected .

Also, it's probably 1 for 4 or a possible 2 for 5 in your case. A lot people forget P.A. Works adapted a Professor Layton movie that was based off a Nintendo DS game, which was also their only non-anime original series.

Then again, KoyAni's "Key"-based adaptation has also stuffed up its ending. Yea I'm looking at you Air and Clannad AS.

[Archon_Wing]

Originally Posted by acejem

Shipping hater detected .

Then again, KoyAni's "Key"-based adaptation has also stuffed up its ending. Yea I'm looking at you Air and Clannad AS.

No they didn't; you must mean Kanon.

Well, surely Haruhi must make up for it. And that's kind of out of their control; it's not their choice to decide on that ending.

I mean look at Angel Beats... oh wait that's still Key. Anyhow, I'm sure nobody cared about Canaan.

See, no studio is the wave of the future. Well, maybe Deen. A future of despair

[germanturkey]

Angel Beats had the potential to be amazing, but unfortunately it was limited to 13 eps. if they had 26 to flesh everything out, it would have been amazing.

but yes, i think Key adaptations have been "bad." I actually enjoyed Air the most. I didn't give a crap about the second season of Clannad, which i think was not good until 19 or so. had they spent the years they spent doing key adaptations and k-on doing their own things, i'm sure KyoAni wouldn't be laughed at right now. yeah they were financial successes, but they were probably representative of like 40% of their capability.

and i thought Canaan was pretty good.. a solid 8/10

of course, my opinion of them will change instantly if they put out a Planetarian animation..

[Archon_Wing]

About Angel Beats:

But that's what I see PA works as. A load of untapped potential; which Hana Saku Iroha now has 2 cours to take advantage of. But I don't judge by what it could be; I go by what actually happened.

They certainly can draw just as well...

Anyhow, there is no one god brand of studio as I realized. Look for writers and directors.

[Ithekro]

You do what sells and what your production companies provide you.

If you don't have a writing staff, then you don't produce your own things. Focus on what you are good at, and KyoAni is good at animation (and really detailed backgrounds that look like pictures). They have not been proven to be good as doing things that are not adaptations...at least not in the long term. Short bits of their own material within an estabilished universe they seem to be able to handle...but Munto is the example of KyoAni Orignal Works. Great for a 2003 Web Original. It was hardly noticed in 2009 when they brought it back.

[Leo_Otaku]

Any speculations on what is due for fall season? I want to go into their studio and do some re search XD

[winhlp32]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

You do what sells and what your production companies provide you.

If you don't have a writing staff, then you don't produce your own things. Focus on what you are good at, and KyoAni is good at animation (and really detailed backgrounds that look like pictures). They have not been proven to be good as doing things that are not adaptations...at least not in the long term. Short bits of their own material within an estabilished universe they seem to be able to handle...but Munto is the example of KyoAni Orignal Works. Great for a 2003 Web Original. It was hardly noticed in 2009 when they brought it back.

Well technically half the second season of K-On! are original material. The original writing blended seamlessly with the adapted material, enough to be considered by most viewers canon. And the upcoming K-On! movie will be in terms of plot complete original material. So I'd say there has been no shortage of original writing from Kyoani.

[Ithekro]

That would qualify as within an established universe. The hard parts, making up characters, background information, setting, relationships, all that stuff is done already. You have all the tools provided already, makes writing a story easier. That is why fanfiction isn't as hard as making up your own stuff.

[0utf0xZer0]

You know, I could actually see Full Metal Panic becoming more popular if Kyoto retuned Sousake and Kurz to fit the angsty pretty boy mold. But that would make the characters too similar to the ones in Gundam 00.

[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by germanturkey

Angel Beats had the potential to be amazing, but unfortunately it was limited to 13 eps. if they had 26 to flesh everything out, it would have been amazing.

I agree, individually most of the Angel beats episodes were solidly enjoyable, collectively the series was badly paced, which was probably down to the number of episodes being halved. Personally I never saw the animation problems other people were talking about. The colours were good in a way that I only saw elsewhere in Kara no Kyoukai.

In regards to KyoAni, I'd like to see em put out mecha or Sci-fi. Most of what they've done there (FMP, Say of Sagittarius) was very good.

[thirdlc]

Originally Posted by totoum

Not sure where you get your numbers,here's where I get mine and sunrise has more employees than KyoAni,Madhouse has a little less,bones isn't listed but considering they've got 4 locations so that 4 teams can work in parallel I'd expect that number to be pretty darn big too.

The number I said is number of key animators and inbetweeners. I now counted animators credited at Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi. It's over ninety, including Animation Do and excluding Studio BLUE. It would be nearly a hundred now.

Sunrise doesn't have any animators as permanent employees. (I guess animators refer to key animators in this context.) It's almost impossible that they have more than a hundred of inbetweeners while having no key animators.
Madhouse occasionally outsources the whole of a series, and even if they produce a series themselves, half of episodes are outsourced, (which is nothing but my impression,) so they don't have as many as you think they have.
As for Bones, I don't know them very much because I don't very often look over their episode staff lists. When impressive animation makes me check out a staff list, skilled freelancers have worked in most cases.

Anyway, it's said that eighty percent of animators are freelancers. (I guess animators refer to key animators in this case too.) Even if they seem company members, they are not. Employed animators are much less than you think. Some would think comparing the low numbers is pointless.

[Ithekro]

There is a very long list of things Kyoto Animation has be involved in in terms on Animation. The ones we tend to talk about here are the ones they did completely (or mostly), but what about the rest of the anime they have had their hands in? The problem there would be I suppose anime that had like 15 studios animating them such as The Irresponsible Captain Tylor. Or 44 like Inuyasha. Can you tell which parts KyoAni animated?

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...any.php?id=235

[Skane]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

There is a very long list of things Kyoto Animation has be involved in in terms on Animation. The ones we tend to talk about here are the ones they did completely (or mostly), but what about the rest of the anime they have had their hands in? The problem there would be I suppose anime that had like 15 studios animating them such as The Irresponsible Captain Tylor. Or 44 like Inuyasha. Can you tell which parts KyoAni animated?

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...any.php?id=235

I didn't realise they were involved with Nurse Witch Komugi... that utterly insane *apparently-made-on-drugs* anime. Only Episode 1 and 2, but still... heh.

Hmm...

[Westlo]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

There is a very long list of things Kyoto Animation has be involved in in terms on Animation. The ones we tend to talk about here are the ones they did completely (or mostly), but what about the rest of the anime they have had their hands in? The problem there would be I suppose anime that had like 15 studios animating them such as The Irresponsible Captain Tylor. Or 44 like Inuyasha. Can you tell which parts KyoAni animated?

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...any.php?id=235

They're just hired hands for those... like how P.A Works did stuff for I.G, Bones and the like, lots of studios are hired to animate and work on other projects. Every studio has to go through this.. 8-Bits did stuff for Durarara, Working, Fairy Tail, Kiddy Grade-and, Panty and Stocking.... in addition to working on the Frontier Movies and their hit series IS. GOHANDS have worked on a lot of stuff since doing Princess Lover, in addition to Seitokai Yakuindomo and their Mardock Scramble movies they've worked on Amagami SS, Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?, OreNo among others.

[Malkuth]

Originally Posted by germanturkey

yeah, my friend and i just had a conversation about watching that new show by KyoAni this season, then laughing at how far they've fallen since they've done TSR. TSR is by far one of the best shows ever made in the last decade. it depresses me to think it came out so long ago and that the studio hasn't been able to reproduce a show anywhere near its quality since. PA Works is the future and the only hope we can get something TSR like in the near future.

Two things, first I tend to agree that after TSR most of the scripts KyoAni worked with were crap, while since Lucky Strike their TV animation quality and art turned shit too. But what have they done before TSR... Air, Haruhi, and Komugi? That's not exactly a lot of shows compared to what followed.

The second is that TSR and the original FMP compare unfavourably to Fumoffu, granted TSR tried to have a more mature story, but fell short IMHO. What stood out was the animation quality... and those twins while losing all the humour that made Fumoffu so memorable and accessible.

and I don't even won't to touch:

• the munto train-wreck served in thrice
• the two remakes of Air (Kannon, and Clannad), which would be four if you take into acount the h-adaption of the first game made by another studio
• the 45 episode built-up of Clannad for the adult Nagisa original story
• their 4-koma moe-blob re-runs
• Haruhi trolling

Originally Posted by Leo_Otaku

Any speculations on what is due for fall season? I want to go into their studio and do some re search XD

Another moe-blob adaption

[User68604]

^ thats your opinion


I viewed all the typical anime's (naruto, bleach, dbz) on-and-off for a few years and not being interested at all. Even the 1st season of FMP was nothing special in my eyes...

then i saw FUMOFFU and TSR.

i thought TSR was fantastic in every department. While FUMOFFU drew me into the world of anime, it was TSR that sealed the deal.

[Ithekro]

Before TSR? They did Munto web OVAs, Fumoffu, and Air....that was it.
Haruhi came after TSR (with the Tessa OVA coming out during Haruhi), followed by Kanon.

[Westlo]

TSR was excellent, I think as far as mecha shows go it hasn't been surpassed since it aired. If it was the last ten episodes of a 26 episode series everyone would be raving about it being one of the best arcs ever. These comedy mixed with action LN's always get serious at points and this was one of the major flashpoints for FMP in that regard. If KyoAni didn't have to clean up Gonzo's mess and make an original story at the start to fix things you might've received a few comedy episodes in the beginning. The only fault of TSR is that it hasn't been continued....

Anyway I'll love to see KyoAni do something in the future that will actually surprise people... you know something like the fairly new Shingeki no Kyojin manga if it gets around to having a decent stopping point for a first season. Of course if KyoAni did animate it you'll probably have people bitching about them choosing another safe anime since Shingeki no Kyojin is looking like the next big thing in manga. (lol @ WSJ knocking this back)

[germanturkey]

I disagree about Fumoffu being better than TSR. yes, it was hilarious on many levels, but it was never a "standout" show like TSR was. as several people have said here, TSR was one of the best shows ever made, and to say fumoffu was better, while a valid opinion, goes against the opinion of the vast majority of viewers.

as for the actual studio, they rode their high of TSR into Haruhi, then have been declining since then.