Masahiro Ando

Masahiro Ando’s Shakespearean Epic; A Review of Blast of Tempest

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Here comes Matthew again, leaping to review another anime by Bones. I suppose that’s all I’m good for, isn’t it? And it’s directed by Masahiro Ando, no less…

Is Masahiro Ando my favorite anime director? He’s certainly up there with blokes like Takuya Igarashi. After all, Ando directed Snow White with the Red Hair, a show that I consider to be an empowering masterpiece of feel-good fantasy romance. Be it a drama or an action show, he is a talented director… though not without some missteps.

What I watched of Canaan never gripped me and reeked of a show whose potential was hurt by low-denominator tropes and poor writing. Under the Dog was an average pilot to a series that will never come out. And Sirius the Jaeger? More like Serious Disappointment (don’t hit me).

I would call Masahiro Ando the Brad Bird of anime. He makes some legendary stuff that will stick with you for ages, but he also tends to bat 50/50. It’s hard to tell why. Maybe it’s the source material on certain shows, maybe it’s other staff members, or maybe Ando is just inconsistent depending on the project.

I’ll cut through some of the snark and assure you of one thing, though. Blast of Tempest (or, Zetsuen no Tempest: The Civilization Blaster) is certainly on the good side of Ando’s batting average.

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A Review of Tenrou: Sirius the Jaeger

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Expectations can be rough. In my post about searching for my “perfect” anime, I laid out the key elements present in most of the media I enjoy. When I see even one of these components presented especially well in an upcoming show, I become obsessed. This is more or less what drew me to B: The Beginning at the start of 2018 and it has happened again now with Tenrou: Sirius the Jaeger.

But integral the success of any of my favorite shows are qualities that only present themselves when the entire picture shows itself. In this way, Sirius hooked me with its style, concept and the mastery of its action, but when the dust settled there wasn’t much left. Sirius is a lesson in the price of basing the crux of a show’s appeal on just action

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Imagining My Perfect Anime

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The “best” anime of all time is different for everyone. Across all media, in fact, you would be hard pressed to find a unanimously agreed upon “best” thing, outside of the agreements found within one’s own tight-knit group. Even then, there will be differences in taste.

“It’s all subjective,” is the point I’m trying to get across, but perfection doesn’t have to be dismissed in critique just because it’s improbable. If the perfect anime is different for everyone, and no consensus can be reached, then perfection is purely personal taste. It is absent of objective standards of quality and instead panders to the greatest amount of our interests.

I believe most people have not found their perfect movie or TV show, possibly because it doesn’t exist yet. We all have favorites though, so it stands to reason that if I took three of my favorite anime of all time and picked them apart, I could get a sense for what my perfect anime would be. Bear with me, this is going somewhere.

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What Am I Watching? August 27th, 2018

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Wow, it’s been a whole year since I did one of these? Not sure why I haven’t done these more since they’re a great buffer in between longer editorials for this blog… Well, whatever, while I work on reviews for Cowboy Bebop: The Movie and Megalo Box, I figured I would give you another (long-overdue) a glimpse into what is currently consuming my free time.

It’s not a long list, as I’m not one who can consume too many new shows in a given season and is even less capable of finishing those in my backlog. Regardless, hope you will all sound off in the comments about your thoughts about the shows on this list when all is said and done. Now let’s get on with it.
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What the Hell Happened to Under the Dog?

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[Update (May 13th, 2017): The official Under the Dog website is working again and the creators have posted the “final update” on the Under the Dog project. The blog post can be found here.]

In early 2016 I got really excited about a Kickstarter project that I had already known about for a while but never quite grasped the importance of. Under the Dog is an Anime project that was a Kickstarter success back in 2014, only to be on hiatus until the OVA was finally released on August 1st, 2016. It promised to be a gritty science fiction epic inspired by Akira and Ghost in the Shell. It was a project helmed by industry veterans but now… nothing. More than half a year after the release of the OVA and nothing. So what happened? How did a project with such promise fall so far into the depths of obscurity?

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A Review of Akagami no Shirayukihime (Originally Posted March 7th, 2017)

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It seems that every year, I grow to appreciate the art of animation more and more, by growing fonder of different studios, actors, techniques, narrative styles, and directors and the conclusion I have come to is that without Japanese animation, I would not harbor the appreciation for storytelling that I possess now. It takes a special kind of show to remind me of that to the point that I am left breathless by what has transpired. Akagami no Shirayukihime, or Snow White with the Red Hair, is that show.

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Is Bones The Best Animation Studio in the World? – Parts 2 and 3

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At this point, it is pretty clear that Bones are masters of choreography and even clearer that I am a HUGE fanboy of their work. Last time I showcased fight scenes from the Cowboy Bebop movie, Sword of the Stranger, Darker than Black, and Mob Psycho 100. The quality of those fights truly speak for themselves but fights alone aren’t what make Bones special. It is their reputation for constantly creating new, imaginative works across genres and demographics, and still managing to approach each project with love and care. In that respect, today I will talk about consistency and variety, two qualities that make Bones one of the best in the business.

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Is Bones The Best Animation Studio in the World? – Part 1

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When you think of your favorite anime, which shows come to mind. Maybe it’s a sprawling epic like Fullmetal Alchemist or a feel-good nostalgia trip like Ouran High School Host Club. Perhaps you prefer to watch a shonen series like Soul Eater or a comedy like Space Dandy. Otherwise, you might be more interested in recent projects like Mob Psycho 100 or Kekkai Sensen. Either way, it’s pretty cool to think that every single show I just mentioned was produced by the exact same studio. Bones.

Bones was created by Masahiko Minami, Hiroshi Osaka and Toshihiro Kawamoto who previously worked at Sunrise, the studio that gave us Cowboy Bebop and Trigun. Ever since the early 2000’s, Bones has established itself firmly as one of the biggest and best animation studios in Japan. They have made some of the most beloved anime and are still making masterpieces today. It was around the time that I watched 2015’s “Akagami no Shirayukihime” that I concluded that Bones was my favorite animation studio. I wondered then, could Bones be the best animation studio in the world?

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