Imaishi joins new start-up animation studio

[gatotsu911]

Nah, I was pretty okay with Abenobashi's ending.

[soul.assassin]

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.

Seems that they're setting their sights at overseas markets, in these days when much of the animation work is being outsourced elsewhere.

[gwern]

There's Yamaga. There's aaaaalways Yamaga.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

[soul.assassin]

Update:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2011-10-25/gurren-lagann-imaishi-draws-to-support-idolm@ster-nishigori

[gatotsu911]

Thrilling.

[XX]

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.

Mr. Yamaga said at Connichi 2011 that Hiroyuki Imaishi (and I suppose other ex-members as well) will continue to collaborate on future GAiNAX productions.

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

What about Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise? And about his participation in Aim for the Top! Gunbuster? He also has been heavily involved in practically all the works of the studio, as a producer or not... come on, guys! Give some credit to the man!

[Xard]

What about Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise? And about his participation in Aim for the Top! Gunbuster? He also has been heavily involved in practically all the works of the studio, as a producer or not... come on, guys! Give some credit to the man!

The young, artistically ambitious Yamaga who created Honneamise out of his own serious passions is very different man from today's Yamaga.

[XX]

The young, artistically ambitious Yamaga who created Honneamise out of his own serious passions is very different man from today's Yamaga.

I've always supposed that something of that passion always remains for everyone, even if it is a nostalgic feeling, although maybe that is an overly optimistic way of seeing things.

I'd like to think that what he really wants to do is to work on Blue URU, and that he only can truly focus on a project like that one, as he has longed for it for so much time, and that many times has been stepped aside because of its difficulty... this is a vision so stupidly optimistic as well, sorry about that!

[gwern]

I'd like to think that what he really wants to do is to work on Blue Uru, and that he only can truly focus on a project like that one, as he has longed for it for so much time, and that many times has been stepped aside because of its difficulty... this is a vision so stupidly optimistic as well, sorry about that!

Have you *read* what Yamaga had come up with and was pitching as Blue Uru's plot? It's terrible! http://www.gwern.net/docs/1996-animerica-conscience-otaking#page-25-3

[gatotsu911]

Have you *read* what Yamaga had come up with and was pitching as Blue Uru's plot? It's terrible! http://www.gwern.net/docs/1996-animerica-conscience-otaking#page-25-3

In all fairness, we only have Okada's word on that, and he may not exactly be the most reliable source. (The magazine itself explicitly mentions that Yamaga's version of the story is highly different.)

Speaking of Yamaga, what the hell happened to that Abenobashi OVA he announced a year or two ago?

[gwern]

In all fairness, we only have Okada's word on that, and he may not exactly be the most reliable source. (The magazine itself explicitly mentions that Yamaga's version of the story is highly different.)

It's Yamaga. Between Okada and Yamaga...

Speaking of Yamaga, what the hell happened to that Abenobashi OVA he announced a year or two ago?

You were already pointed to http://www.gainax.fr/forum/viewtopic.php?p=32678#p32678 - since I hear Pansuto was not terribly successful and Gainax has started and finished _The Mystic Archives of Dantalian_ (which seems to have sunk like a stone, for all the impression it made in the anime blogosphere), it would seem to have been put way on the back-burner.

[XX]

Have you *read* what Yamaga had come up with and was pitching as Blue Uru's plot? It's terrible! http://www.gwern.net/docs/1996-animerica-conscience-otaking#page-25-3

Honestly, I don't find it that bad considering that was probably a rough draft (and we know how GAiNAX, sometimes nonchalantly or jokingly, has handled those kind of premature concepts previously). One thing I've always liked about this studio was that laudable (in an almost amateur-ish way) participatory nature of all its creative higher level staff, including the Board of Directors, on the great variety of individual ideas later pitched to compensate the projects, that helped them to refine the approach for pretty much every particular work they have produced, and I think a project like this one would have also benefited from it.

You were already pointed to http://www.gainax.fr/forum/viewtopic.php?p=32678#p32678 - since I hear Pansuto was not terribly successful and Gainax has started and finished _The Mystic Archives of Dantalian_ (which seems to have sunk like a stone, for all the impression it made in the anime blogosphere), it would seem to have been put way on the back-burner.

Precisely in an interview made for GAiNAX.FR, Takami Akai said to Otaking that the illness of Tomo Saeki, and consequently Mr. Yamaga's reluctance to make any new episode without her, was one of the reasons of the "on-hold" status for the production (at that moment):

Takami Akai - JE 2009 (Interview Exclusive)
http://www.gainax.fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=390:takami-akai-je-2009-interview-exclusive&catid=37&Itemid=227

Also, gwern, I wanted to thank you for all the impressive compilation of interesting information you have given us with all those threads in here you have made (and that website as well), good job!

[NAveryW]

Yamaga said at Fanime 20...10?... that he took on the jobs of directing Mahoromatic and Abenobashi only because the staff was spread so thin at the time. He's also said (separately) that Mahoromatic was the sort of project he'd always wanted to do, so that's presumably why he chose that one. But overall he's apparently not that enthusiastic about doing much directing himself. SSD can back me up, probably.

Come to think of it, his statement's rather similar to when Anno said he doesn't like to direct, mentioning that he decided to direct Gunbuster only because he was moved to tears by Yamaga's script for the second episode and it wouldn't have gotten made otherwise.

[cyharding]

Does anybody have any idea how far Blue Uru went into production? It seems to me that since there are illustrations and character designs that appear in Alpha & Der Mond, the film must have gone into an early stage of production before it was set aside.

[XX]

Does anybody have any idea how far Blue Uru went into production? It seems to me that since there are illustrations and character designs that appear in Alpha & Der Mond, the film must have gone into an early stage of production before it was set aside.

The project called Blue URU has been through so many ups and downs that you could say it can't be now the same project that could have been made in the early 90s.

The majority of those character designs and illustrations were made during the pre-production stage of the project, that began in March, 1992. The original concept was devised between Yasuhiro Takeda, Hideaki Anno and Hiroyuki Yamaga. Mr. Anno was going to be the director and the script was in charge of Mr. Yamaga, but the project fell apart during early production on July, 1993, because of economic problems for the studio (at that time GAiNAX retired from Wonder Festival, and had problems to pay their employees).

On 1997, Mr. Yamaga (that admitted he wanted to direct again after all those years) wanted to resurrect the concept as a multimedia project, and all the work made previously, like designs and such, were scrapped. This is why those were included in the CD-ROM Blue URU Frozen Designs Collection. From that attempt to continue with Blue URU only the game Aoki Uru Combat Flight Simulator Plane And Mission Module, an add-on to Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator, was released.

From that moment until now, this project has remained in a 'frozen' status, but Mr. Yamaga is still convinced in its viability, and 3 years ago he confirmed a fixed budget necessary for the production, that he was confident in obtaining:

Pour rester dans les infos qui ne mèneront peut être à rien, Rukawa a rapporté ce petit bout d'info du Connichi 2008, Hiroyuki Yamaga espère toujours trouver les moyens financiers nécessaires à la production de son film Aoki Uru. Il croise les doigt pour avoir le budget qu'il s'est fixé en 2009 (on est de tout cœur avec lui) et je suppose alors, relancer la machine.

http://www.manganimation.net/news/2008/10/une-nouvelle-production-du-studio-gainax-au-printemps-prochain

[gwern]

Honestly, I don't find it that bad considering that was probably a rough draft (and we know how GAiNAX, sometimes nonchalantly or jokingly, has handled those kind of premature concepts previously). One thing I've always liked about this studio was that laudable (in an almost amateur-ish way) participatory nature of all its creative higher level staff, including the Board of Directors, on the great variety of individual ideas later pitched to compensate the projects, that helped them to refine the approach for pretty much every particular work they have produced, and I think a project like this one would have also benefited from it.

Ahem.

`ANIMERICA`: The last time I got information on **_URU_** from Yamaga, he said that he did not yet know what the story was going to be. So maybe he discarded that earlier concept, threw it away.

`Okada`: No, when he gave the synopsis of **_URU_** to the Pioneer people--Pioneer LDC was to be **_URU_**'s main sponsor--the story was almost exactly the same as **_STREETS OF FIRE_**.

Precisely in an interview made for GAiNAX.FR, Takami Akai said to Otaking that the illness of Tomo Saeki, and consequently Mr. Yamaga's reluctance to make any new episode without her, was one of the reasons of the "on-hold" status for the production (at that moment):

Takami Akai - JE 2009 (Interview Exclusive)
http://www.gainax.fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=390:takami-akai-je-2009-interview-exclusive&catid=37&Itemid=227

Akai also says she's back and has already finished more Abenobashi-related work - with no announcement. Maybe Yamaga again realized he didn't have good ideas and was just doing a parody (I can't figure out ANN's description, myself - what does Abenobashi have to do with freediving of all things?):

Son retour prenant énormément de temps, le projet que nous avions pour Abenobashi avait quasiment disparu. L’année dernière, elle a enfin repris du service malgré une santé fragile et a notamment participé au doublage d’un jeu de Pachinko basé sur Abenobashi. Et c’est en la voyant faire son travail sur ce projet que l'idée a un peu commencé à renaître de ses cendres. Mais officiellement je ne peux pas vous en dire plus.

Also, gwern, I wanted to thank you for all the impressive compilation of interesting information you have given us with all those threads in here you have made (and that website as well), good job!

You're welcome. Incidentally, if you know French, I'd appreciate translations of various things :) (My French is too weak to make a good translation without collaborating with someone, anyway, so I only do it when I really have to.)

Does anybody have any idea how far Blue Uru went into production? It seems to me that since there are illustrations and character designs that appear in Alpha & Der Mond, the film must have gone into an early stage of production before it was set aside.

See http://www.gwern.net/docs/2002-notenki-memoirs#aoki-uru and in particular the footnotes like http://www.gwern.net/docs/2002-notenki-memoirs#fn219

From that moment until now, this project has remained in a 'frozen' status, but Mr. Yamaga is still convinced in its viability, and 3 years ago he confirmed a fixed budget necessary for the production, that he was confident in obtaining:


http://www.manganimation.net/news/2008/10/une-nouvelle-production-du-studio-gainax-au-printemps-prochain

My own Connichi source (http://www.pelleas.net/aniTOP/index.php/recent_stuff#c10309) was distinctly less confident; given the absence of any information in the 3 years since...

[Mr. Tines]

Son retour prenant énormément de temps, le projet que nous avions pour Abenobashi avait quasiment disparu. L’année dernière, elle a enfin repris du service malgré une santé fragile et a notamment participé au doublage d’un jeu de Pachinko basé sur Abenobashi. Et c’est en la voyant faire son travail sur ce projet que l'idée a un peu commencé à renaître de ses cendres. Mais officiellement je ne peux pas vous en dire plus.

Roughly

Her return having been a long time coming, the project we'd had for Abenobashi had almost disappeared. Last year, she finally returned to service despite frail health, and was involved in the dubbing of a Pachinko game based on Abenobashi. And it's by seeing the work on this project that the idea has begun to slightly rise from the ashes. But officially I can not tell you more

[gatotsu911]

If the OVA turns out to be an epilogue that resolves the story will player haters reconsider your opinions of the show?

[Noriko is my wife]

Come to think of it, his statement's rather similar to when Anno said he doesn't like to direct, mentioning that he decided to direct Gunbuster only because he was moved to tears by Yamaga's script for the second episode and it wouldn't have gotten made otherwise.

Correct me if I'm wrong but if you're thinking of what he said with Izubuchi I understood it as that he didn't plan to become a director not that he didn't like doing it. That Khara biography was very much about the joy of working if I recall it correctly.

About Abenobashi. The latest Yamaga said was that it couldn't be produced because Hiramatsu was busy working at Khara. Which brings us to the situation at Gainax at the moment. As far as I can tell going by their homepage the only notable staff they have left is:
-Hiramatsu who gives Khara as his workplace on his facebook and with the exception of a storyboard for Panty & Stocking and some animation for the recent Mahoromatic special has mostly worked outside of Ginax since Gurren Lagann ended.
-Akemi Hayashi who like Hiramatsu seems busy elsewhere.
-Akira Amemiya who I can easily see move on to Trigger as soon as he's needed. He's also like most of their animators listed as free-lance. (This probably means he doesn't receive a salary?)
-Megumi Kouno who is Gainax young hope for another great animator
-Shoji Saeki is now their most experienced director...
and that's it. Hiramatsu has shown that he could be a great director but it won't be on Medaka Box if the rumor of that being their next production is true.

When Trigger debuted with their Idolmaster episode some of the animators were young Gainax people who could have changed company. The in-between animation was credited to Khara and all the names were former Gainax employee's (including their one guy who's been in-between checker on most of their shows and the blogger who started the rumors of Imaishi and co leaving). Some 2ch posters saw this as further confirmation of the companies demise and said that the future of "Yamagainax" would be handling copyright of old properties.

On a more positive note, we don't know if some of the Idolmaster people might return and their young staff has been trained on some very interesting shows even if they haven't made a name for themselves yet. We'll see whenever Gainax makes their next original show.

Also in light of all of this as well as comments from Ikuto Yamashita and Mohiro Kitoh about unrealized projects by Anno I've come to wonder if maybe the main incentive for Rebuild was not a desire for the staff to revisit Evangelion nor a shameless cash-grab but a way for Anno and Tsurumaki to set up their own studio away from Gainax.

[gwern]

If the OVA turns out to be an epilogue that resolves the story will player haters reconsider your opinions of the show?

I would have to rewatch the whole thing in the light of the epilogue to see. I doubt it will be an epilogue, however - as already said, it supposedly has something to do with free diving. (People complained about Mahoromatic's ending, and it had 3 followup special episodes, none of which were new epilogues.)

About Abenobashi. The latest Yamaga said was that it couldn't be produced because Hiramatsu was busy working at Khara.

Where does he say that?

In any case, first Tomo Saeki, now Hiramatsu? At what point does this become simply excuse-making, one wonders...

Also in light of all of this as well as comments from Ikuto Yamashita and Mohiro Kitoh about unrealized projects by Anno I've come to wonder if maybe the main incentive for Rebuild was not a desire for the staff to revisit Evangelion nor a shameless cash-grab but a way for Anno and Tsurumaki to set up their own studio away from Gainax.

What comments from Yamashita & Kitoh?

And nothing says it can't be both a shameless cash grab and also setting up a new studio away from Gainax. George Lucas, for example, did the second two Star Wars movies more or less to get funding for Skywalker Ranch, which was supposed to fulfill his dream of an indie film-making sanctuary & haven.