They just launched a crowdfunding campaign to help them finish the project, for those interested motion-gallery.net/projects/NOT...

If I had to describe it, it'd be 13 Sentinels-esque sensibilities with his emphasis on texture and seamlessness - unifying it all as if it were BG art, rather than in cel-like fashion. Alongside the roto/reference-based acting that highlights children's spontaneity, it's a cocktail evoking nostalgia

It's honestly really cool, especially for a weird project that's been in the works for a long time

Shita Kanda Toki to Daitai Issho

Definitely not as much as Hiro does, tbh

I knew it was music-related because the teaser account followed Ryo, but my brain activated the second the song started. Eternal banger tbh

I bet there's a german word for "creator whose perception had been narrowed down to a few recent cameo appearances for mainstream action anime for teenage boys returns to the nerdshit with a boomer angle he's passionate about". Feeling that, it's good

Speculated about Momoka Hase being the art director because she worked in the novel. The secret artboards did look Liz-ish which fit the bill, but the painterly style is something I'd associate with Mao Takayama and she's also available for a debut

That or Yamasaki since she's the big weirdo--

Staff-wise: Hell yeah Ota. Again, no need to say that he's proven to be incredibly ambitious and innovative as an episode director. Okamura feinted everyone by becoming an enshutsu out of nowhere, and then one project later he's debuting as sole character designer. Bro could do anything in Denmoku

Shame people don't get to see the cool artboards they screened after the public stream, because they were very illustrative of Ota's talk about the setting. Rather than a steampunk filter over Kyoto, they wanted to imagine how Kyotoites would shape the world back if they lived in such time & place

Period romcom, and it's most definitely not a shounen action show

The interconnection between themes & aesthetic, especially the art direction, is something he has emphasized in the live stage & interviews. Connecting the pollution with the abstract, unclean BGs is neat... and if CITY #05 wasn't enough of a hint, Ota loves coming up with new forms of expression

But of course, it has changed a lot, and you only need to check the key visuals for that. The new premise and addition of steampunk elements have given it a much punchier feeling, with which Ota hopes to underline the themes already present in the source material

It's also not a change from that one sheet of production materials that made the rounds over being saved from the arson, because that was never from the animation project. That was from the internal contest in 2018 to decide on the designer. (Source: me, I've seen them all privately. It was Sawa's)

That said: it's not a "change" from this commercial, because it was never even technically about the book - despite obviously being inspired by it, and featuring staff like Ishihara who were originally slated to lead the project. This was a studio ad to train newbies www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7HV...

For someone who is that active, it's so rare that they really let do *his* thing to this degree. Windy Tales 2025 real