News

The anime industry lost a long-treasured gem as Ryou Kouno, a talented art director, passed away recently. Kouno has been in the anime industry for decades and has made significant contributions during her career. News of her passing away has been received by fans with grieving hearts.

She was a part of popular works like Mob Psycho 100, Devilman Crybaby, Perfect Blue, and many more. Her easy adaptability to such widely different art styles made her a favorite in her field.

Talented Art Director Ryou Kouno Passes Away Mob Psycho 100 | Credit: Studio Bones

Ryou Kouno, a popular background artist and art director in the anime industry, passed away on October 23, 2024. News of her death was publicly revealed two days later, on October 26, by her nephew via Twitter. Her nephew also reported that she passed away due to suspected gastrointestinal bleeding.

Fans of the artist have commented their condolences under the post,...

Inio Asano needs no introduction to fans of the Seinen genre. From ‘Goodnight Punpun’ to ‘Solanin,’ Asano’s beautiful art style and captivating stories have mesmerized fans for a long time. With a soaring demand for adaptations of Asano’s works, fans are finally getting their wish fulfilled. ‘Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction’ is finally receiving an anime adaptation.

Inio Asano’s ‘Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction,’ often referred to as ‘Dddd,’ was first serialized in Shogakukan’s Big Comic Spirits in 2014. With a total of 12 tankobon volumes, the manga concluded in February 2022.

In January 2021, the series received the Best General Manga award at the 66th Shogakukan Manga Awards, and in 2022, it was honored in the manga category at the 25th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards. In March 2022, Gaga Communications announced an anime adaptation based on the series.

https://twitter.com/DEDEDEDEanime/status/1697021384734507102

On August 30, 2023, the official website confirmed that “Dededede,...

By 2007, it was certain animator and director Masaaki Yuasa was going places, after having impressed audiences and critics alike with “Mind Game” and “Kemonozume”. The latter had been awarded the Jury Selection Prize at Japan Media Arts Festival, further cementing its creator’s reputation within the industry and marking him as part of a small group of people who would go on to define the anime genre in the years to come. “Genius Party”, a compilation of twelve animated features, was in many ways a representation of the kind of skill and talent within the industry, with Yuasa contributing “Happy Machine”, which tells the story of an infant and its experiences in the world.

Happy Machine screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam

Having spent his life in a nursery, the baby is used to the structure taking care of everything he needs. However, when it suddenly breaks down, the infant...

Hey you! Yes, you. One of Japan's unique voices in animation wants your help! Masaaki Yuasa, writer and director of Mind Game and television series like Kemonozume and The Tatami Galaxy is making a new short called Kick-Heart. And a Kickstarter campaign has been launched to crowd-fund this project and finish this ten-minute short. Kick-Heart is a love story between Romeo, a successful pro-wrestler, and Juliet, a nun who lives a secret double-life as a female pro-wrestler. Romeo's secret is that he enjoys taking a beating in the ring, while Juliet feels invigorated when facing her opponents as a wrestler. When the two meet in the ring, the fireworks fly. Their story is set in the colorful backdrop of the professional wrestling world. Will Juliet reveal her true...

So someone in the West finally pre-licensed one of Masaaki Yuasa's creations, then. Why so exciting? A quick recap; the animation wunderkind shot to fame after production house Studio 4C gave him a shot at the director's chair on the 2004 movie Mindgame. Yuasa brought author Robin Nishi's esoteric cult manga to life with a staggering display of artistry and technical chops married to freewheeling narrative philosophising both playful and emotive, and quite unlike anything else seen in the industry up until that point.

But distributors were on tenterhooks given what they saw as potential lost profits given a growing army of fans had already picked up the Japanese DVD release (apparently mistakenly issued with subtitles). Few people saw Mindgame outside of festival-goers and animation enthusiasts until Madman Entertainment finally gave it an Australian release in late 2008. Undaunted, Yuasa carried on with two successive television series in the meantime,...

It seems you can’t safely travel through our forum anymore without stumbling on brilliantly written reviews. Again I lift one of these gems into the spotlight of the main page, and it’s no surprise the writer is Eight Rooks. We have used his reviews several times before already, most recently with ”City of Life and Death”.

This time he tackles the Japanese television series “Kaiba”, directed by Masaaki Yuasa who we all know and love for the Studio 4C movie “Mindgame”.

Once again the stage is all your’s, Eight Rooks!

Kaiba

For the love of God would someone please license this thank you.

I dunno, I’d just been meaning to write something about it lately, and you guys do profess to like Masaaki Yuasa. It’s an extraordinary animated series. “Kemonozume” was a disappointment, to a degree - why the ero episode? Why? - but this...