Birdy The Mighty: Decode Animation Analysis Part 3: Norio Matsumoto

This will be the third part of my analysis of the animation in Birdy The Mighty: Decode. Today i will be discussing the work of Norio Matsumoto. Having seen a lot of Matsumoto's work on Naruto: Shippuden beforehand, i wasn't really sure if he could top himself in this show but the scenes of animation  he produced were some of the best and most intense sequences that I have ever seen. I already extrapolated my thoughts on Shingo Yamashita's impressive work on the show in his 2 most memorable scenes in the show but for Norio Matsumoto, he was charged with bringing to life 2 of the most emotionally intense sequences in the show. The first is in the video below.

Birdy The Mighty: Decode Animation Analysis Part 2: Tanaka and Yamashita

Now that i have told you my thoughts on the character designs and the background art, lets get to the main feature. Just to remind you i will be analyzing the work of the animators with the most memorable scenes in the show.

Hironori Tanaka

Birdy The Mighty: Decode Animation Analysis Part 1

I thought I'd start this post off with the video I edited together with some animation from the show. As you can see, the show has a lot of really good animation and a lot of animators whose styles are easily recognisable worked on the show. The most recognizable one being Hironori Tanaka who isn't even trying to tone it down a bit and is going crazy. The easiest way to tell Tanaka animated a scene is the stupidly amazing amount of detail he puts into the hair and the very exaggerated movements of the characters. Before i start sayin stuff about the show and its animation however i will say that this show is my #1 anime of all time at the moment and i have rewatched it close to around 12 times since i first saw it. Needless to say this post will involve a lot of gushing so i apologize beforehand.

Thoughts on Sanzigen and Black Rock Shooter TV

Seeing Hiroyuki Imaishi credited as the CG Battle director on the Black Rock Shooter TV Series really got me interested in seeing what the CG would look like. Seeing as I didn't even realize he did that kind of thing, after I did a bit more research I saw he mostly did storyboarding of the battles rather than being full on with the CG work. Here is the opening of the series just to show you what the CG is like.

Hunter X Hunter (1999) VS Hunter X Hunter (2011)

For today's post I will be putting forward my opinion on which of the two adaptations has better animation. First of all i ain't hatin on either one and this is just my opinion so yeah. Here is the first video then.

Fullmetal Alchemist VS Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Hello again guys, I'm not gonna start any FMA VS Brotherhood debates but for this post I'm gonna be comparing the animation in the two series. And to do this i will generally be comparing them through the animators that contributed to both series. The most memorable animator people should recognise for the original FMA would be Yutaka Nakamura whose style is the most easily recognisable because he is an amazing animator of characters and effects and he always makes sure they stay on model which is Nice considering most good animators these days (Shingo Yamashita) sometimes have trouble with it. So heres the first video (The FMA stuff starts at 1:16 and 3:12)

Yutaka Nakamura

An Introduction

My internet handles generally tend to be Destructokitteh or Daichi383. The easiest way to find me though is through my twitter @DestrictoKitteh. I'm an Architecture Student with a very strong interest in the art of Animation and Film-making. More the former than the latter but i do hope to make at least one film in my lifetime. These days i tend to analyze and make compilations of the work of animators i like as well as practice animation.

  

An example of one such animator is Katsunori Kikuchi. He is one of the more prolific Fairy Tail animators and i like his work because its little bright spots in the generally badly animated series Fairy Tail. Its a very jerky but dynamic style that is similar to Jun Arai's style but without the Yoshinori Kanada inspired effects animation. He's been working on the show since the beginning and has recently started being credited with animation direction as of episode 152. Its been interesting basically seeing what the guy gets up to because he goes all over the place. From Madhouse to Production I.G., he's a freelancer but contributes a lot to Fairy Tail where he has the most credits. Anyway I'm going to be posting Animation analysis of various anime and cartoons primarily which will be supported by videos i edit together as well as probably posts chronicling my attempt to make a Fan Animation of my favourite manga Psyren and other little projects.


Here is a basic explanation of my grading system just so we understand each other.

1 - Choppy with mediocre character art. (e.g. MD Geist)
2 - Choppy mostly but smooth in places and generally decent character art. (e.g. Fairy Tail, Hitman reborn 1-101, Pokemon)
3 - Smooth more often than not with nice character art. (e.g. GiTS: Stand Alone Complex, Eden of the East, K-ON, Hunter X Hunter 2011)
4 - Consistently smooth with good character art and fluid animation. (e.g. FMA Brotherhood, Soul Eater, Birdy the Mighty: Decode, Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop, Madoka Magika, Legend of Korra)
5 - Very smooth and stylish animation with fluid movement, good character art and also very memorable and intense action. (e.g. Sword of the Stranger, Summer Wars)

From now on i will also try and have a post up on every Monday evening seeing as that's my only free time to do so now.