I thought I was going to have to promote Asatte no Houkou, but from reading other anime blogs and keeping an eye on discussion boards, it looks as if the first episode has been well received. Big thanks to Lunar Anime for fansubbing the show and making it accessible to a wider audience.
I’ve been looking forward to Asatte no Houkou for awhile now, and it’s mostly for one reason: Kobayashi Shichiro. As Art Director for the show, he’s primarily responsible for background design. I’m a background junkie - it’s what I pay attention to most when judging a show’s production values - and, should you ask me to list my favorite shows in that capacity, Kobayashi Shichiro would be a common link amongst them.
He has a unique style, and if you’ve watched any of the shows he’s worked on, that style should be easily recognizable. Simoun, To Heart, Figure 17, Utena, A Little Snow Fairy Sugar, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, Windy Tales… the list goes on and on. In fact, that’s just a smattering of recent titles. At 74 years old, Kobayashi has been in the anime business for a long time - since the mid 1960s, believe it or not. He’s worked on shows you and I have never even heard of.
Oh, and an interesting bit of trivia: before his career in the anime industry took off, Kobayashi was an elementary school art teacher. How cool is that?
Hopefully, he’s not planning on retiring any time soon. He looks good for his age, at least.
When I first saw Asatte no Houkou was for download, I didn’t know anything about it, but when I saw the Lunar Anime tag to it, it was a no brainer.
And it did not disapoint. For me at least. I too am a background junkie, not only that, but just detail in general. I don’t know much about Kobayashi Shichiro, but I have seen most of the shows you listed for him.
And as for Asatte no Houkou, I’m pretty much hooked from one episode. Great music, flowing animation and an nice range of characters, with a nice twist at the end of the first ep, makes it a stand out from most everyday life shows.
Not surprising, Asatte no Houkou to me feels like a mix of two other Lunar shows, Air -Without the pc game feel to it, and Aishiteru ze Baby-with better animation and a story twist.
You forgot to mention one of the greatest anime movie ever in which Kobayashi Shichiro was an art director: Urusei Yatsura movie 2 ‘ Beautiful Dreamer’. My wife considers it to be one of the best directed anime movie ever and it was one of the important milestone in the history of anime.
I did not know about the Master Kobayashi’s involvement in Asatte no Houkou, but I thought that there was something that attracted me to the show, although I could not consciously point out what it was. Since you, Jeff, has enlightened me with the real reason for my fascination of the show, I am going to be looking for other works Master Kobayashi was involved in. Thank you, Jeff.
Oh, so he helped out in Figure 17 too? No wonder the background art in Asatte felt so ‘Figure 17′-ish.
I’d never paid much attention to the “Art Director” credit before, but I’ll start doing so now. Thanks for pointing this out.
Just relying in first episodes, this was the series that caught my attention where the others just left me cold (I suspect the Simoun link helped — I don’t seem to have recovered from that series yet).
I bet he dyes his hair.
Pretty much my thoughts are with dm as well. Backgrounds help give anime “life” that nothing else really can; they don’t make or break a series, but their that little extra ” ” that makes a show a masterpiece. For example, considering that the YKK anime did a great job of capturing the feel that the backgrounds in the manga had, it would make sense as to why the short OVAs are some of my favorite anime ever.
No wonder it looks familiar. I’ve been watching Figure 17 in between the wait for the newest shows. Thanks for highlighting another easily forgettable but very important figure in the production process. I’m looking forward to AnH too, the first episode is quite intriguing enough.
BTW, Figure 17 is absolutely awesome. I miss having the show end ;).
I had no idea that two of my alltime favourites - YKK and Windy Tales - had the same art director. Thanks for the link too. Don’t you want to look like that when you’re in your seventies?
Wow that was one impressive first episode. I normally don’t watch stuff like this but by the end of the episode I was highly impressed. Thanks for pointing it out.
I was pretty excited to see, some time ago, that Mr. Kobayashi Shichiro would be the art director for Asatte no Houkou. I’ve always claimed to be the biggest fan of Fuujin Monogatari, Tenshi no Tamago and Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou.
No matter how good Asatte no Houkou’s art is, the first episode didn’t impress me at all. I was disappointed, if you want to know the truth.
The character design is pleasant, the backgrounds are beautiful. I really loved the effect of the summer scenery joint to the song of cicadas.
But there is something really wrong with the voice acting. And the animation lacks quality.
We can usually expect the first episode of a series to be the most impressive animation-wise. I kind of hope it’s not going to be the case there.