Imaishi joins new start-up animation studio

[Mr. Tines]

No longer just a rumour --

http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.uk/news/ ... hes-studio

Animator Masahiko Otsuka reported in a Friday Twitter post that he, director Hiroyuki Imaishi, and others have established a new studio.
...
Both animators have not been listed on Gainax's staff pages since at least this past summer.

[Sailor Star Dust]

Seems like people are (still) freaking out whether or not this is the end of Gainax.

[Xard]

So not only did bunch of talented people leave to work on Idolmaster anime (damn fanatics, that game is dangerous ) now GAINAX lost their number one new generation talent and long time, important veteran like Masahiko Otsura?

This ain't good man

[Gendo'sPapa]

You gotta admit, it looks like a lot of Gainax's most talented are jumping ship.

But Gainax is no longer the small start up company for artists to express themselves like they were back in the 80s & 90s. They're a legitimate animation studio with millions in revenue (or at least Eva merchandise).

Honestly, I haven't LIKED anything by Gainax 2.0 (the work post Anno & Tsurumaki) except the great works of Imaishii. If Gainax wants to simply keep making Shikabane Hime's & whatever that Book Reading anime is then fine by me. But it's not the Gainax I fell for.

[Xard]

Honestly, I haven't LIKED anything by Gainax 2.0 (the work post Anno & Tsurumaki) except the great works of Imaishii. If Gainax wants to simply keep making Shikabane Hime's & whatever that Book Reading anime is then fine by me. But it's not the Gainax I fell for.

The "adaptation GAINAX" is always viewed as GAINAX-lite, even by themselves. GAINAX's brilliance has always been their originals (well, Kare Kano under Anno's direction was brilliant too) and that hasn't really changed, looking at Gurren Lagann and PSG...

[NAveryW]

Now this has real promise. But I am assuming Imaishi won't be doing much (or any) animation for GAINAX anymore, which will drag the companys' net awesomeness down considerably.

Now, who's keeping Yoh Yoshinari? And, of course, how will this affect khara?

[Mr. Tines]

Studio TRIGGER -- http://www.st-trigger.co.jp/

[gatotsu911]

I'm a big fan of Imaishi, and while on one hand I'm glad he's branching out and will hopefully give the industry a kick in the pants, on the other hand... I still want Panty & Stocking season 2, dammit!! :(

And, wait, Tsurumaki left too? When did this happen?

[cyharding]

Makes me wonder if there are any of the original members from the mid 80s left at Gainax.

[NAveryW]

Makes me wonder if there are any of the original members from the mid 80s left at Gainax.

There's Yamaga. There's aaaaalways Yamaga.

The new studio is currently recruiting new staff. The website notes that three-month interns will receive a monthly salary of 150,000 yen (about US$1,950), and regular employees will receive a monthly salary of 180,000 yen (about US$2,340). Applicants must be under 25 years old, have good communication skills, be proficient in Mircrosoft Excel and Adobe Photoshop, and must have a driver's license.

I thought Japan's animation industry paid notoriously little. What's going on here?

I'd consider applying if not for the "good communication skills" part, on account of the near complete lack of knowledge of conversational Japanese. I wonder if I could learn enough to have "good communication skills" by the time I turn 25.

[gatotsu911]

EDIT: Okay I was wrong about this. He definitely wasn't one of the founding members though.

[NAveryW]

But he did animation for Neon Genesis Evangelion...

[gatotsu911]

But he did animation for Neon Genesis Evangelion...

A lot of people did animation for Evangelion. (Seriously, practically every good anime director to pop up in the last 15 years had some form of involvement in Eva.) I'm not saying I couldn't be wrong about Tsurumaki, but his directorial debut (Dead Leaves, a personal favorite of mine) was as far as I'm aware done independantly of Gainax.

[NAveryW]

He didn't direct until Dead Leaves, but he did work at GAINAX at as an animator.

[Xard]

But Imaishi was new blood anyway. Ome of the company's best new talents, for sure, but still new. He only joined them in the mid-2000s, I believe.

He joined around Eva time and Kare Kano featured already some of his very distinctive key animation. He was also behind ep 19

Imaishi has been there for a long, long time and his main talents have always been in animation.

IIRC his key animation for Re:Cutey Honey OVA made Anno cry as it made old Hideaki think there still might be a future for Japanese animation, seriously

[Gendo'sPapa]

Imaishi is a genius. So glad to hear he's going to have his own studio. As much as I'd love a Panty & Stocking Season 2 really I just want Imaishi to use his studio to create new & weird work. Not to repeat himself.

Studio TRIGGER. I love it already.

And yeah... I don't think there's any directors left at Gainax that I actually like.

[C.A.P.]

He joined around Eva time and Kare Kano featured already some of his very distinctive key animation. He was also behind ep 19

So he was responsible for coloring all of the episodes in colored pencils?

Wow... with comments like this, you might as well label him the Bob Clampett of anime then.

[BrikHaus]

There's Yamaga. There's aaaaalways Yamaga.

Yamaga is dead to me.

[gatotsu911]

Yamaga is dead to me.

Wut? Abenobashi was rad.

[Xard]

Wut? Abenobashi was rad.

and he also ruined it with one of the worst endings ever that completely ruined it all