So this is my first animator spotlight but I'm not gonna make this a regular thing. I just felt i had to share the work of one of my new favourite animators now that i know his name. Here's the video y'all.
When looking at his work, the episode of Reborn that i first noticed his handiwork was #99. That episode was first aired in September of 2008 and i assume that he got quite a bit of notice for that scene. after that point he started working freelance for bigger studios while continuing working at Artland. From the work of his I've seen. He tends to do mostly effects animation (specialising in water effects). So after my analysis of Reborn i decided to do some more research and try to find out who the mysterious water effects animator was. After a quick search a name that kept popping up was Takashi Torii. After looking up some of the other names that popped up frequently i found nothing but after i looked Torii up on Japanese sites with episode credits translations and NicoNico to see if Japanese fans were in the know, i learned that he was indeed the man i was looking for. It's probably safe to assume he's one of Artland's in-house animators. He is probably their best effects animator and while the vast majority of the work he has produced was with Artland, he has started working more with Production I.G. since 2010 after Artland went off the radar for a bit. He seems to be an effects animator through and through. Like other effects animators, it's sometime difficult to tell if he animated a scene if his effects aren't being shown but as of late he has settled in a style of character animation that is most definitely his own unique style that relies mostly on dynamic angles and less on continuous shots of action though he is proficient in both styles as is shown in his work on Tsubasa: Spring Thunder.
The easiest way to tell he animated a scene is by looking at the Yamamoto fight at the instant that Yamamoto swings his sword and a surge of water flies towards genkishi (00:27 to 00:30 in the video). That few seconds is his style in a nut shell. His effects for water, fire and all sorts of things look exactly like the surge of water be it going up or down. Then when the camera is behind genkishi we see what looks like swipes quickly fill the screen and those effects are what he used a lot in Sengoku Basara. Another tell is the fluid water and the single fluid water lines that come off of Yamamoto as he fights. Those show up mixed with the surge effect in Blood-C. The final tell would be the fluid way in which the characters move. Mind you the hair stays the same with no deformation, just swaying is whatever direction the character moved but no Tanaka-style deformation or detail. He also likes showing characters hands really close to the screen a lot. The fluid character movement is best displayed in Tsubasa and Demon King Daimao.
His I.G. work includes episode 2 of Blood-C in which he animated the monster of the week fight. This fight was not really anything to write home about but the latter half had some very good cuts so I'd say it's a win overall. Torii also worked on the Tsubasa: Spring Thunder Chronicles OVA episodes and while i had absolutely no idea what was going on as i watched them, Torii injected so much life into the proceedings that i just got swept up in it. He along with Yasunori Miyazawa made the first of the 2 episodes quite entertaining though i had to do a lot of frame by frame analysis so that i didn't get the two's work mixed up which i almost did. I did however not include scenes that i just couldn't tell who did what. The long fight sequences between the 2 Syaorons was especially grueling for me because i had to research every animator that worked on the episode and do lots of frame by frame examinations to check the effects and shading style to be sure it was Torii but i'm fairly certain it was him because it does look quite similar to his Blood-C episode. The last major I.G. show he worked on was the ever lovable Sengoku Basara (he worked on episodes 9, 12 and season 2 episode 1). His work on this show was mostly for his water effects animation in episode 9 but he got to stretch his "muscles" with the other 2 episodes he worked on which showcased more of his character animation and his non-water effects animation which looks fly as fuck. It's pretty safe to say that Sengoku Barasa was basically the show that a lot of good animators got to show off on.
Now to discuss his work with Artland. Torii worked on Reborn for a very long time. He is credited on episode 1 and his last credit on the show was episode 199. The episode that he did animation direction for is one of the most memorable ones and it featured the fight between Yamamoto and Genkishi. The interesting thing about Torii is that he changes the way that he does his effects animation depending on the budget of the show he is working on. In earlier episodes of reborn, his work looked recognizably his but with less detail and simpler looking explosions. As the show progressed and the budget grew, we got his work on episode 99 and soon after his magnum opus on Reborn which was episode 123. After that point he continued to produce solid work mostly in openings but nothing quite as memorable as #123. As Reborn drew to a close however he was also working on the other Artland show at the time. Demon King Daimao is a really shitty show. I know i've said it already twice now but i have to reiterate. This show terrible written, has shitty music (except the opening) and has very schizophrenic direction. It can't tell if it wants to take the premise seriously or just shove tits and ass into the viewer's face. The one thing it had going for it was that Takashi Torii worked on all the major episodes with Tatsuya Yoshihara popping in for an episode too. As you saw in my video, Torii's work was impressive to say the least. In episode 1 he animated the final confrontation of the episode which was quite the visual feast. In episode 5 he animated the fight with Peterhausen in what was quite possible the best 5 minutes of any show i have ever sen as the main character proceeds to beat the shit out of a dragon with his bare hands (also magical powers) and enslave it. He also animated some fanservice that ended with a wolf attack for some reason but the less said about that the better. In the final 2 episodes of the show he animated at least 2 further confrontations to his usually high standard and i was quite happy with his work. Too bad everything else was so shit. Also don't watch the show.
Finally lets talk about his current project Senran Kagura. It's pretty safe to say that i wouldn't have even considered watching the show if i wasn't doing this animator spotlight. Takashi Torii is the character designer of the show and he is basically showing off in every episode he works on. One thing of note is that the Character designs resemble Masayoshi Tanaka's style quite a bit which make sense seeing as he worked using Tanaka's designs for a really long time. The scenes i included at the end of the video above show this off quite well but he isn't showing off at the level he did in Tsubasa so the other Artland staff can relax a bit. Overall i'd say this is a very talented man whose work i'll continue to follow. Wow these posts are really starting to get long aren't they. If you survived this long i apologize and will make them shorter in the future. There won't be a score seeing as this isn't really a full analysis rather than just observations so to conclude he animate good and shit i guess. See you next time guys *winks*
When looking at his work, the episode of Reborn that i first noticed his handiwork was #99. That episode was first aired in September of 2008 and i assume that he got quite a bit of notice for that scene. after that point he started working freelance for bigger studios while continuing working at Artland. From the work of his I've seen. He tends to do mostly effects animation (specialising in water effects). So after my analysis of Reborn i decided to do some more research and try to find out who the mysterious water effects animator was. After a quick search a name that kept popping up was Takashi Torii. After looking up some of the other names that popped up frequently i found nothing but after i looked Torii up on Japanese sites with episode credits translations and NicoNico to see if Japanese fans were in the know, i learned that he was indeed the man i was looking for. It's probably safe to assume he's one of Artland's in-house animators. He is probably their best effects animator and while the vast majority of the work he has produced was with Artland, he has started working more with Production I.G. since 2010 after Artland went off the radar for a bit. He seems to be an effects animator through and through. Like other effects animators, it's sometime difficult to tell if he animated a scene if his effects aren't being shown but as of late he has settled in a style of character animation that is most definitely his own unique style that relies mostly on dynamic angles and less on continuous shots of action though he is proficient in both styles as is shown in his work on Tsubasa: Spring Thunder.
The easiest way to tell he animated a scene is by looking at the Yamamoto fight at the instant that Yamamoto swings his sword and a surge of water flies towards genkishi (00:27 to 00:30 in the video). That few seconds is his style in a nut shell. His effects for water, fire and all sorts of things look exactly like the surge of water be it going up or down. Then when the camera is behind genkishi we see what looks like swipes quickly fill the screen and those effects are what he used a lot in Sengoku Basara. Another tell is the fluid water and the single fluid water lines that come off of Yamamoto as he fights. Those show up mixed with the surge effect in Blood-C. The final tell would be the fluid way in which the characters move. Mind you the hair stays the same with no deformation, just swaying is whatever direction the character moved but no Tanaka-style deformation or detail. He also likes showing characters hands really close to the screen a lot. The fluid character movement is best displayed in Tsubasa and Demon King Daimao.
His I.G. work includes episode 2 of Blood-C in which he animated the monster of the week fight. This fight was not really anything to write home about but the latter half had some very good cuts so I'd say it's a win overall. Torii also worked on the Tsubasa: Spring Thunder Chronicles OVA episodes and while i had absolutely no idea what was going on as i watched them, Torii injected so much life into the proceedings that i just got swept up in it. He along with Yasunori Miyazawa made the first of the 2 episodes quite entertaining though i had to do a lot of frame by frame analysis so that i didn't get the two's work mixed up which i almost did. I did however not include scenes that i just couldn't tell who did what. The long fight sequences between the 2 Syaorons was especially grueling for me because i had to research every animator that worked on the episode and do lots of frame by frame examinations to check the effects and shading style to be sure it was Torii but i'm fairly certain it was him because it does look quite similar to his Blood-C episode. The last major I.G. show he worked on was the ever lovable Sengoku Basara (he worked on episodes 9, 12 and season 2 episode 1). His work on this show was mostly for his water effects animation in episode 9 but he got to stretch his "muscles" with the other 2 episodes he worked on which showcased more of his character animation and his non-water effects animation which looks fly as fuck. It's pretty safe to say that Sengoku Barasa was basically the show that a lot of good animators got to show off on.
Now to discuss his work with Artland. Torii worked on Reborn for a very long time. He is credited on episode 1 and his last credit on the show was episode 199. The episode that he did animation direction for is one of the most memorable ones and it featured the fight between Yamamoto and Genkishi. The interesting thing about Torii is that he changes the way that he does his effects animation depending on the budget of the show he is working on. In earlier episodes of reborn, his work looked recognizably his but with less detail and simpler looking explosions. As the show progressed and the budget grew, we got his work on episode 99 and soon after his magnum opus on Reborn which was episode 123. After that point he continued to produce solid work mostly in openings but nothing quite as memorable as #123. As Reborn drew to a close however he was also working on the other Artland show at the time. Demon King Daimao is a really shitty show. I know i've said it already twice now but i have to reiterate. This show terrible written, has shitty music (except the opening) and has very schizophrenic direction. It can't tell if it wants to take the premise seriously or just shove tits and ass into the viewer's face. The one thing it had going for it was that Takashi Torii worked on all the major episodes with Tatsuya Yoshihara popping in for an episode too. As you saw in my video, Torii's work was impressive to say the least. In episode 1 he animated the final confrontation of the episode which was quite the visual feast. In episode 5 he animated the fight with Peterhausen in what was quite possible the best 5 minutes of any show i have ever sen as the main character proceeds to beat the shit out of a dragon with his bare hands (also magical powers) and enslave it. He also animated some fanservice that ended with a wolf attack for some reason but the less said about that the better. In the final 2 episodes of the show he animated at least 2 further confrontations to his usually high standard and i was quite happy with his work. Too bad everything else was so shit. Also don't watch the show.
Finally lets talk about his current project Senran Kagura. It's pretty safe to say that i wouldn't have even considered watching the show if i wasn't doing this animator spotlight. Takashi Torii is the character designer of the show and he is basically showing off in every episode he works on. One thing of note is that the Character designs resemble Masayoshi Tanaka's style quite a bit which make sense seeing as he worked using Tanaka's designs for a really long time. The scenes i included at the end of the video above show this off quite well but he isn't showing off at the level he did in Tsubasa so the other Artland staff can relax a bit. Overall i'd say this is a very talented man whose work i'll continue to follow. Wow these posts are really starting to get long aren't they. If you survived this long i apologize and will make them shorter in the future. There won't be a score seeing as this isn't really a full analysis rather than just observations so to conclude he animate good and shit i guess. See you next time guys *winks*
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