The SoulTaker ( Japanese : The Soul Taker 〜魂狩〜 , Hepburn : Za Sōru Teikā ~Tamashii Gari~ ) is an anime series that focuses on seventeen-year-old Kyosuke Date who was killed by his mother Mio Date, and afterward gained the ability to turn into an incredibly powerful winged mutant known as "The SoulTaker" and that he has a long-lost twin sister named Runa, and that his past is all a lie.
178-456: The series was directed by Akiyuki Shinbo and was Tatsunoko's first anime to utilize digital animation as well as the first anime to be broadcast on high-definition television , and features a five-episode spinoff OVA miniseries featuring the character Komugi titled Nurse Witch Komugi , albeit Shinbo did not return to direct the OVAs. After being stabbed in the chest by his mother, Kyosuke Date
356-559: A pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent . Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure is topic–comment . Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender , and there are no articles . Verbs are conjugated , primarily for tense and voice , but not person . Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has
534-528: A "visually striking" production by various critics, and in 2017, the Tokyo Anime Award Festival selected Bakemonogatari as the best anime of 2009. The series was also an immediate financial success, as indicated by the 6th Blu-ray (BD) release breaking records for the number of copies sold on its first day. Shinbo expressed his desire to produce a magical girl series to Atsuhiro Iwakami around Bakemonogatari ' s production, which spawned
712-506: A Lion (2016–2018). Shinbo was born on September 27, 1961, in Koori , Fukushima Prefecture , Japan . Due to the town not having many bookstores, and his parents not buying much manga for him, Shinbo's main source for manga was Weekly Bokura Magazine , which ran from 1969 to 1971. Although he noted that he was broadly influenced by the magazine, he emphasized that he was a fan of Tiger Mask prior to its move to Weekly Shōnen Magazine . He
890-671: A background art studio to take on the role (which was common), and instead wanted an associate of Shaft to handle the work. Kubota suggested Nobuyuki Takeuchi (who worked with Shaft often) to act as the "visual director." A few of the directing staff for Shaft's projects for the next several years also worked on the project to some degree, including the aforementioned Takeuchi and Oonuma; and also Tatsuya Oishi and Ryouki Kamitsubo . Oishi previously worked with Shaft as an animator on several works, as well as with Shinbo on an episode of Yu Yu Hakusho , so his connections with both converged into his work as an episode director on Tsukuyomi , which
1068-624: A benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action. Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English: The amazed he ran down
1246-589: A complex system of honorifics , with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned. The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters , known as kanji ( 漢字 , ' Han characters') , with two unique syllabaries (or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters: hiragana ( ひらがな or 平仮名 , 'simple characters') and katakana ( カタカナ or 片仮名 , 'partial characters'). Latin script ( rōmaji ローマ字 )
1424-579: A director at the time usually meant becoming a production assistant ( 制作進行 ) , a job he had no interest in, so he thought becoming a director was impossible. After graduating from college, Shinbo entered the industry as an animator in the early 1980s at Bebow, the studio founded by Tomonori Kogawa , and shared a room with colleague Hirotoshi Sano. His time at Bebow was brief, and he soon after joined Kaname Production, but quickly left to join Masahito Yamashita's animation collective Studio Oz. He joined
1602-549: A director on the series for the purpose of separating the original Madoka Magica and Magia Record in order to clearly express that Magia Record is a spin-off series, rather than a continuation of the original series. As "animation supervisor", Shinbo often made suggestions and supervised the work at scenario meetings and the post-recording sessions, and he mainly assisted with setting up the connections between Magia Record and Madoka Magica . According to Aniplex producer Tatsuya Ishikawa, Shinbo's opinion served as guidelines for
1780-414: A distinct language of its own that has absorbed various aspects from neighboring languages. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron ) in rōmaji , a repeated vowel character in hiragana , or a chōonpu succeeding the vowel in katakana . /u/ ( listen )
1958-419: A glide /j/ and either the first part of a geminate consonant ( っ / ッ , represented as Q) or a moraic nasal in the coda ( ん / ン , represented as N). The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and assimilates to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including [ɴ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɰ̃] . Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as
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#17330847730272136-479: A listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations. Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it
2314-417: A lot of dialogue. From there, he believed that if he presented Monogatari in a similar way, it would avoid getting tired of it. He had also chosen Tatsuya Oishi to act as series director due to the latter's stylistic affinity for interesting colors and his ability to use cool lettering and Kanji in the animated medium, which he thought were beneficial in adapting such a unique novel series. He wanted to keep
2492-402: A mixture. The second arc to Monogatari Series Final Season , Owarimonogatari I , was released in 2015, adapting the first two of three volumes of the original Owarimonogatari novel. Every year thereafter, new series in the franchise were produced, with Koyomimonogatari being released in 2016, and Owarimonogatari II being released in 2017, all of which were co-directed with Itamura. At
2670-400: A part of the project since the scriptwriting stage. Shinbo listed Hiroshi Motomiya , Ikki Kajiwara , Go Nagai , and Shotaro Ishinomori among the manga authors that he liked whose works, such as Kajiwara's Tomorrow's Joe , were big influences on him. Their usage of brightly colored backgrounds and compositions influenced the way he in which he, prior to directing, thought he could make
2848-412: A replacement director. Shinbo had already been contacted about the work and was originally supposed to storyboard an episode; but Birukawa happened to watch the 74th episode of Yu Yu Hakusho , which Shinbo had both storyboarded and directed, and thought he was "amazing." Birukawa didn't know how to read Shinbo's name correctly and misread it as "Niibusa" in his attempt to hire him, but in the end Shinbo
3026-408: A sentence need not be stated and pronouns may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above, hana ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long", while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! ( やった! ) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below),
3204-428: A single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! ( 羨ましい! ) "[I'm] jealous [about it]!". While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate
3382-415: A style in previous works, Natsu no Arashi! was the first time it was implemented in the foundation of one. For Maria Holic , the team made the conscious decision of directing the series using some of the techniques and aesthetics headed by Dezaki, such as his "three pan" ( 三回パン ) shots technique, which show the subject three times for dramatic effect; and the aesthetics of shōjo manga , like Aim for
3560-526: A supervisor on Oonuma's own series Ef: A Tale of Memories and its sequel Ef: A Tale of Melodies ; in 2008: (Zoku) Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei and its sequel (Zan) Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei with Yukihiro Miyamoto (again assisted by Tatsuwa), and Hidamari Sketch x 365 (assisted by production director Tatsuya Oishi); and in 2009: Maria Holic with Miyamoto; as well as Natsu no Arashi! with Oonuma, and its sequel Natsu no Arashi! Akinai-chū with Oonuma and Kenichi Ishikura . Between 2008 and 2010,
3738-716: A technique of using the storyboards that the former had drawn, cleaning them up, and enlarging them to use as background layouts ( 原図 ) . The series' production faced many difficulties, and two of the most prominent issues included episode 10's storyboards taking too long to complete, and the team being unable to get many other companies to work on the show. Such inhibitions set back the show's production schedule during its broadcast run, though three studios did ultimately help out and take charge of three of The SoulTaker ' s episodes: Kyoto Animation on episodes 3 and 6, and Triangle Staff (who further outsourced to Shaft ) on episode 10. Normally, an outsourcing studio would pull out of
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#17330847730273916-414: A theatrical release. The drafted script went through several revisions and was extended from its original 70-minute runtime to its final length of 116 minutes. Shinbo didn't intend to make the scenario itself longer, but requested additions such as the action scene at the beginning of the film. Although Urobuchi's scenario was originally titled "Madoka 2", Shinbo and the staff had difficulty in deciding if
4094-634: A traditional henshin magical girl series, the first episode of the series might end after the protagonist beats the villain of the episode succeeding the protagonist's henshin transformation; however, in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha , screenwriter Masaki Tsuzuki had structured the first episode to end with the transformation itself, which Shinbo said influenced him in thinking that—in the modern age of anime—conventional formats no longer had to be adhered to. Shinbo cited Yoshimitsu Oohashi, whom he worked with several times between 1995 and 1997, as
4272-542: A trilogy film series consisting of two recap films with updated animation and a third sequel film, with Shinbo chief directing and Miyamoto directing. Around the end of the release of the Madoka Magica TV series, Urobuchi and Iwakami had separately decided that they wanted to do more with the story. Urobuchi wrote a script for a new project which had not been planned for any particular release format, and Mitsutoshi Kubota recalled Iwakami saying that it seemed fitting for
4450-490: A way of emphasizing the summer heat. After he discussed with the art team, Oonuma decided that the shading and lit areas by the sun would have substantially different contrasts in order to bring out a feeling of harsh heat from the sunlight. Shinbo himself contributed to the look of the lighting itself, which takes the form of linear and geometric shapes, a style that art director Yuuji Ikeda influenced him with when they worked together on Marude Dameo . Although he had used such
4628-677: A woman. Eventually, Yuniko Ayana was hired to be the series composition writer by request of Shinbo. In 2014, Shinbo directed Nisekoi with Tatsuwa, Mekakucity Actors with Yase, the final arc to Monogatari Series Second Season , Hanamonogatari , with Itamura, and the first arc in Monogatari Series Final Season , Tsukimonogatari also with Itamura. Throughout the next several years, Shinbo continued to direct series with Shaft's other directors, including Gourmet Girl Graffiti (2015) with Tatsuwa, Nisekoi: (2015) with Miyamoto, The Beheading Cycle: The Blue Savant and
4806-452: A work if the schedule was too difficult, but Shaft took on the difficulty since the staff at the studio found the series to be interesting. Shinbo lauded both, stating that Kyoto Animation did a great job and that he was impressed with the quality of Shaft's episode. The SoulTaker received both praise and criticism for his direction and the series' art design by reviewers; despite the criticisms, Mike Toole of Anime News Network said that
4984-415: A work visually interesting; Nagai's work, for example, used ostentatious red-and-blue paneling, which he described influencing his own colored paneling as a director. The overarching narrative of The SoulTaker —in which the protagonist Kyosuke Date looks for his sister—was inspired by Motomiya's manga Ore no Sora ; and the set designs for Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase were inspired by the sets from TV dramas of
5162-624: Is compressed rather than protruded , or simply unrounded. Some Japanese consonants have several allophones , which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [tɕi] , approximately chi ( listen ) ; however, now [ti] and [tɕi] are distinct, as evidenced by words like tī [tiː] "Western-style tea" and chii [tɕii] "social status". The "r" of
5340-537: Is resurrected to find out he has a twin sister named Runa, and the ability to transform into the amazingly strong, powerful and dangerous superhuman mutant known as the SoulTaker. As he seeks out his twin sister, he is being pursued by the strange mutant doctors and nurses of the hospital, led by his own father, Richard Vincent, as well as the evil Kirihara corporation, led by Yui Kirihara, who are also tracking down Runa for their own malevolent purposes. Assisting him along
5518-447: Is a Japanese animator , director, compositional writer, and storyboard artist . Best known for his works with Shaft , he has attained international recognition for his unique visual style and storytelling methods. Born in Koori, Fukushima Prefecture , Shinbo began his career in the early 1980s as an animator, but his true rise to fame in the industry occurred when he received the opportunity to direct for series produced by Pierrot at
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5696-445: Is also seen in o-medetō "congratulations", from medetaku ). Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from European languages – now-common words borrowed into Japanese in this period include pan ("bread") and tabako ("tobacco", now "cigarette"), both from Portuguese . Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese,
5874-519: Is also used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms) in Japanese writing. The numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals , but also traditional Chinese numerals . Proto-Japonic , the common ancestor of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages , is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from the Korean peninsula sometime in the early- to mid-4th century BC (the Yayoi period ), replacing
6052-440: Is appropriate to use sensei ( 先生 , "teacher"), but inappropriate to use anata . This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status. Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon ( 本 ) may refer to a single book or several books; hito ( 人 ) can mean "person" or "people", and ki ( 木 ) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number
6230-684: Is associated with comedy (see Kansai dialect ). Dialects of Tōhoku and North Kantō are associated with typical farmers. The Ryūkyūan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands (administratively part of Kagoshima ), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryūkyūan languages. However, in contrast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider
6408-462: Is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for instance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam ). Among other sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to /ɔː/ , in contrast with /oː/ ; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/ merges with /je/ . Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear – the continuative ending - te begins to reduce onto
6586-509: Is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi ( 私 , literally "private") or watakushi (also 私 , hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore ( 俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku . Similarly, different words such as anata , kimi , and omae ( お前 , more formally 御前 "the one before me") may refer to
6764-417: Is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word ) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. 人人 , hitobito , usually written with an iteration mark as 人々 ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka . Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through
6942-722: Is less common. In terms of mutual intelligibility , a survey in 1967 found that the four most unintelligible dialects (excluding Ryūkyūan languages and Tōhoku dialects ) to students from Greater Tokyo were the Kiso dialect (in the deep mountains of Nagano Prefecture ), the Himi dialect (in Toyama Prefecture ), the Kagoshima dialect and the Maniwa dialect (in Okayama Prefecture ). The survey
7120-420: Is often called a topic-prominent language , which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai ( 象は鼻が長い ) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose". Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of
7298-489: Is preserved in words such as matsuge ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern mieru ("to be visible") and kikoeru ("to be audible") retain a mediopassive suffix - yu(ru) ( kikoyu → kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → kikoeru (all verbs with the shimo-nidan conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in Early Modern Japanese )); and
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7476-402: Is the version of Japanese discussed in this article. Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( 文語 , bungo , "literary language") was different from colloquial language ( 口語 , kōgo ) . The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then kōgo gradually extended its influence and
7654-471: Is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) aspect , similar to the suffix ing in English. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru means "They have come (and are still here)", but tabete iru means "They are eating". Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have
7832-405: Is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced , "your ( majestic plural ) grace") or Portuguese você (from vossa mercê ). Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom. The choice of words used as pronouns
8010-505: The Japonic language family, which also includes the Ryukyuan languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands . As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is sometimes called a language isolate . According to Martine Irma Robbeets , Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in
8188-504: The Philippines , and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil , with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE data, more than
8366-556: The Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language . There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as the Ainu , Austronesian , Koreanic , and the now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance. Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from
8544-716: The United States (notably in Hawaii , where 16.7% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and California ), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao Region and the Province of Laguna ). Japanese has no official status in Japan, but is the de facto national language of the country. There is a form of the language considered standard : hyōjungo ( 標準語 ) , meaning "standard Japanese", or kyōtsūgo ( 共通語 ) , "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times. The meanings of
8722-794: The de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect , especially that of Kyoto . However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages—such as German, Portuguese and English. Many English loan words especially relate to technology—for example, pasokon (short for "personal computer"), intānetto ("internet"), and kamera ("camera"). Due to
8900-448: The standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo ) in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese is an agglutinative , mora -timed language with relatively simple phonotactics ,
9078-644: The "Alternate Space" world. Shinbo didn't have an idea for who would compose the series' music, but Iwakami suggested Cossette composer Yuki Kajiura ; and after listening to a sample she provided, Shinbo believed she was a perfect match for the series. Urobuchi was initially reluctant as he didn't know how to write about magical girls, and had never thought about it, so he did research by watching Shinbo's previous magical girl work Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha . He also watched Hidamari Sketch , directed by Shinbo and based on original character designer Aoki's manga, to try and grasp what kind of characters to write. One of
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#17330847730279256-518: The 1.2 million of the United States ) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru , Argentina , Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver , where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry),
9434-465: The 12th episode of the series was the date between Koyomi and Hitagi, which he wanted to dedicate the entire episode to anyway; and in doing so, the rest of the Tsubasa Cat arc was moved to an online release in 2010, and only 12 episodes were broadcast on TV in 2009. Bakemonogatari received cult fame and was widely praised for its aesthetics upon its initial release, and is regarded by some critics as
9612-621: The 1970s like Kitaro Tareuchi Family and It's Time . Mystery elements found in The SoulTaker and Le Portrait de Petit Cossette were also broadly influenced by the written works of Edogawa Ranpo , whom Shinbo started reading the works of while in elementary school. One of Shinbo's earliest influences from the anime industry itself was director Osamu Dezaki whom he, and fellow director Kunihiko Ikuhara , have been described as direct descendants of Dezaki's particular affinity for exaggerated and grandiose compositional staging. He has also made
9790-439: The 1995 OVA directed by Yorifusa Yamaguchi , which Shinbo had served as storyboard artist for.; and that same year with J.C. Staff, he directed the 3-episode OVA Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko , which spawned its own animated franchise consisting of a sequel 3-episode OVA series in 1997 and a 26-episode television series in 1999. Also in 1996, he directed Debutante Detective Corps at Daume , his first of two projects with
9968-461: The 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered the language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese . Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords . The basis of
10146-528: The Ace! and The Rose of Versailles (which had adaptations by Dezaki). In April 2008, an anime adaptation of Nisio Isin 's novel Bakemonogatari was announced. Shinbo was originally the only director, but he requested that Tatsuya Oishi work with him as series director. Previous Shinbo collaborator Akio Watanabe was also brought onto the project as character designer and chief animation director, as well as art director Hisaharu Iijima. According to Watanabe, he
10324-580: The Dark Master manga in 1997, and again with J.C.Staff on a 3-episode OVA adaptation of Hitoshi Okuda 's Detatoko Princess manga series. During the production of Detatoko Princess , he decided that he wanted to direct with a "simple and frivolous" philosophy and that he "hate[d] making ordinary stuff." He worked for the final time with Pierrot in 1999 on the 4-episode original series Tenamonya Voyagers . Following New Hurricane Polymar at Tatsunoko Production, Shinbo started work on another project with
10502-482: The Japanese language is of particular interest, ranging between an apical central tap and a lateral approximant . The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced [ ŋ ] , in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects. The phonotactics of Japanese are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant,
10680-462: The Nonsense Bearer (2016–17) with Yase, March Comes In like a Lion (2016–18) with Kenjirou Okada , the film Fireworks (2017) with Nobuyuki Takeuchi (assisted by Seimei Kidokoro), and Fate/Extra: Last Encore (2018) with Miyamoto. Manga author Chika Umino was a fan of Shinbo's works with Shaft and stated that she did not want an adaptation of March Comes In like a Lion unless it
10858-724: The Old Japanese sections are written in Man'yōgana , which uses kanji for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct morae . Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of kanji for each of the morae now pronounced き (ki), ひ (hi), み (mi), け (ke), へ (he), め (me), こ (ko), そ (so), と (to), の (no), も (mo), よ (yo) and ろ (ro). (The Kojiki has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo 1 and mo 2 apparently
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#173308477302711036-488: The Ryūkyūan languages as dialects of Japanese. The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese of the time, most likely the spoken form of Classical Japanese , a writing style that was prevalent during the Heian period , but began to decline during the late Meiji period . The Ryūkyūan languages are classified by UNESCO as 'endangered', as young people mostly use Japanese and cannot understand
11214-805: The Vampire Bund with Masahiro Sonoda, Arakawa Under the Bridge and its sequel Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge with Miyamoto, and And Yet the Town Moves (although Tatsuwa is credited as the "assistant director", Shinbo has referred to him as the show's "series director"); in 2011: Katte ni Kaizō with Tatsuwa, Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl with Miyamoto, Maria Holic Alive with Tomokazu Tokoro (and Ishikura as assistant), Hidamari Sketch x SP , and Mahou Sensei Negima! Anime Finale (assisted by Ishikura). In 2012, he directed Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb with Yuki Yase , and this year marked
11392-543: The addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi , but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present (or non-past) which
11570-529: The anime ultimately pursuing an original story. In 2021, he returned to the director's chair with an adaptation of Nisio Isin's Pretty Boy Detective Club , with Hajime Ootani as director (and Kenjirou Okada assisting). In April of the same year, it was announced that Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion (2013), the final film in the Madoka Magica trilogy remake, would receive a sequel with Shinbo returning as chief director and Miyamoto as director, and
11748-420: The audience, though Shinbo commented that as a first time director the series was difficult for him. As the previous director had left during pre-production, the series was in an awkward state for a replacement director due to episode three's storyboards already being complete, which meant Shinbo had to make corrections to the 'completed' storyboards that already had corrections from the previous director. Since
11926-485: The character designer of his next work at Shaft. In 2005, Shinbo and Oonuma worked together as series co-directors for the first time on Pani Poni Dash! , and Oota designed the characters. Shinbo wanted to expand on the visual cross-cutting (in which buildings are spliced on the camera as if it was a stage production) techniques Nobuyuki Takeuchi used in Tsukuyomi while also expanding on other experimentalist ideas from
12104-409: The characters for animation, but the schedule didn't align (instead, Shaft animator Nobuhiro Sugiyama designed the characters). Planning and produce[sic] Genki Kawamura gave permission for Shinbo to make an anime film adaptation of Shunji Iwai 's live-action television film Fireworks in 2013. Iwai suggested scriptwriter Hitoshi Ōne for the film, and Kawamura was similarly eyeing his work. At
12282-743: The color design and "inventive imagery and camera tricks." In 1995, Shaft managing director Mitsutoshi Kubota asked Shinbo to direct episodes to the studio's first original television work, Juuni Senshi Bakuretsu Eto Ranger , but was unable to due to conflicts with his schedule. Although unable to participate in Eto Ranger , Shaft was later gross outsourced to for an episode of Shinbo's The SoulTaker . Later, in 2004, Shaft's first president and studio founder Hiroshi Wakao retired from his position, and Kubota succeeded him as president. According to Shinbo, Nippon Victor producer Hiroyuki Birukawa, whom Shinbo worked with on Metal Fighter Miku , approached him with
12460-422: The company. The Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko television series was Shinbo's first collaboration with character designer and animator Akio Watanabe . The OVAs had character designs by Kazuto Nakazawa , but Shinbo wanted the characters to feel more realistic while keeping their "cute" qualities. Shinbo found out about Watanabe after he did research and asked J.C. Staff producer Yuuji Matsukura to offer Watanabe
12638-420: The conception of New Hurricane Polymar (1997)—a reboot of the 1974 superhero series Hurricane Polymar —at Tatsunoko Production , character designer Yasuomi Umetsu had done two previous projects at Tatsunoko with another director, but he felt that that director did not have love for the works. Umetsu instead asked J.C. Staff to help produce the series and lend a director, leading to Shinbo's involvement on
12816-467: The conscious decision of directing using techniques headed by Dezaki, such as Dezaki's "three pan" ( 三回パン ) shots, on works like Maria Holic . This ties in with Shinbo's emphasis on visual representation, style, and "good pictures" in his works, rather than a focus on traditional storytelling or strong narratives, to which he has said that he "hates making ordinary stuff." This philosophy ties in with his interest in non-traditional narrative structures: in
12994-686: The continuation of the Monogatari series with Nisemonogatari and Nekomonogatari: Black , with director Tomoyuki Itamura replacing Tatsuya Oishi. In 2013, Shinbo returned with Itamura for Monogatari Series Second Season , featuring Yase and Tatsuwa as series directors for the Kabukimonogatari and Onimonogatari arcs. Yase also directed the final OVA series in the Hidamari Sketch anime franchise under Shinbo, and Shinbo directed (assisted by Tatsuwa) Sasami-san@Ganbaranai . Itamura served as
13172-455: The countryside that Koori was a part of, so he moved to Tokyo and attended Tokyo Designer Academy [ ja ] . Initially, he wanted to become a manga artist , but after moving to Tokyo said that there were better artists than him suited for the job. Kazuki Takahashi , whom Shinbo befriended soon after his move to Tokyo, exemplified what kind of a person Shinbo saw as professional manga artist. During his studies at college, Shinbo
13350-523: The dialogue more-or-less the same, despite the amount of dialogue in the work, which would be interesting as an anime; though, this philosophy in making the work proved to be somewhat problematic, as Aniplex producer Atsuhiro Iwakami planned the series as a 13-episode work. Enough content existed in the original novel to add another episode in the Suruga Monkey and Mayoi Snail arcs that would be otherwise cut following Iwakami's 13-episode plan. Despite
13528-564: The effect of changing Japanese into a mora-timed language. Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly equivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period , respectively. The later forms of Late Middle Japanese are the first to be described by non-native sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries; and thus there
13706-489: The episode directors were able to show their individuality and expressions more strongly than in previous installments in the series. One of the instructions he gave to the storyboard artists for the season was to lower the number of camera cuts compared to previous seasons, as well, in order to create a more relaxed tempo. In 2019, he stated that the Monogatari series was his life's work, and that he wanted to continue adapting
13884-468: The episode limit, Shinbo was adamant that the anime wouldn't truly be Bakemonogatari without the inclusion of Koyomi and Mayoi's banter and dialogue in the Mayoi Snail arc, for example. The total episode count was then increased to 15, but a separate problem of TV airing came into question: how would the team air 15-episodes in a television slot that only had room for the original 13? To Shinbo's fortune,
14062-470: The episode was produced perfectly. From 1995 to 1999, Shinbo participated in a number of OVA productions with various studios and varying success. In 1995, he directed the sixth and final episode of Madhouse 's OVA series Devil Hunter Yohko , which he cited as a major point in his development as a director. In 1996, he returned to J.C.Staff to produce Galaxy Fräulein Yuna Returns , a sequel series to
14240-409: The episodes at the episode directing stage instead. However, when he saw episode 11 of the series, he was surprised and had the thought that he could not "lose to" the work of episode director Naohito Takahashi and animation director Yuriko Chiba; and so in the final episode, which he directed and storyboarded himself, he worked with the motivation of not being outdone by anyone. Birukawa believed that
14418-440: The experience, Shinbo said that the production was a difficult time due to the necessity to order the key animation from Korean sub-contractors and the in-between animation from Chinese sub-contractors, oftentimes leaving only as little as a single day for the episode directors and other staff to do their final checks before the animation cels were photographed; and, according to Shinbo, it was not unusual for staff to spend nights at
14596-415: The film's art director Ken Naitou and analog artist Youichi Nangou, the latter of whom had previously worked for Shinbo as art director of Twilight of the Dark Master and was especially involved with Gekidan Inu Curry's work on the film. Shinbo and Shaft continued production on a number of other series concurrently between 2010 and 2013. In 2010: Hidamari Sketch x Hoshimittsu with Ishikura, Dance in
14774-544: The final novel in Final Season , by himself. The season, initially released as a film in 2018, is the only arc in the Monogatari series directed solely by Shinbo, solely by one director, and the first time he had directed a project without assistants or co-directors since 2011 ( Hidamari Sketch x SP ). He mentioned that many of the staff members by this point had been with the series since its beginnings, but that many had also joined partway through; nonetheless, he believed that
14952-558: The first episode, which he though was closer to Shinbo's style than Nanoha . He also found out that an acquaintance of his worked at Shaft, and got their phone number to join the Tsukuyomi team and Shaft. At that point, Shinbo was already aware of Oota and praised his work on Nanoha as being some of the best outsourced episodes he had seen while working on TV anime, and was surprised that Oota wanted to join Shaft to work on Tsukuyomi with him. For his work on Tsukuyomi , Shinbo chose Oota to be
15130-459: The first episode. The series was also the second collaboration between Shinbo and animator Toshiaki Tetsura, who worked on the second OVA series and was brought onto the TV series as both mechanical designer and visual director, whom Shinbo described as indispensable to the development of his works following Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko , and that he couldn't imagine them without Tetsura's help. Prior to
15308-403: The first time Shinbo worked with composer Yuki Kajiura . Fujimoto discovered Shinbo while he was looking for "unusual" directors, and he intended for Cossette to serve as a vessel to illuminate "Shinbo as an auteur". During the production, Shinbo and Hirofumi Suzuki (the character designer and main animation director) worked in a semi-subterranean room at Daume mostly by themselves, even though
15486-609: The genitive particle ga remains in intentionally archaic speech. Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period , from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the literary standard of Classical Japanese , which remained in common use until the early 20th century. During this time, Japanese underwent numerous phonological developments, in many cases instigated by an influx of Chinese loanwords . These included phonemic length distinction for both consonants and vowels , palatal consonants (e.g. kya ) and labial consonant clusters (e.g. kwa ), and closed syllables . This had
15664-463: The genre's usual tropes. While Carl Kimlinger of Anime News Network criticized the series for having a more mature tone than its characters ages should have represented, online magazine ICv2 , conversely, stated that the series had become immensely popular in the United States among "hardcore" fans due to the characters' adversaries containing more realistic social issues not found in other series of
15842-425: The greatest anime series of the 2010s, and one of the greatest anime series of all time. Shinbo won the best director awards at the 11th Tokyo Anime Award , and the 2011 Newtype Anime Award for his work on Madoka Magica . In 2017, Shinbo was also chosen by Japanese critics as one of the greatest anime directors of all time for his work on Madoka Magica . The series was also a financial success and broke
16020-404: The group sometime during their rebranding to the name Studio One Pattern (supposedly due to confusion with another animation studio named OZ). He and Studio One Pattern colleague Shinsaku Kozuma shared a room for some amount of time during his tenure with the group. Although not much is known about Shinbo's time as an animator, due to a lack of sources and a lack of credits, Kozuma stated that he
16198-440: The idea of directing an adaptation of Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase , but did not have an animation studio in mind. Shinbo liked the studio's work on The SoulTaker , so he recommended Shaft and attempted to get a hold of Kubota through the studio's phone line, but was given the answering machine on several occasions. Kubota eventually heard about the offer and accepted it, citing the answering machine issue as comically bad timing due to
16376-436: The initial development of Puella Magi Madoka Magica . Iwakami decided early on that they would produce an original project to give Shinbo more freedom in his directing, and to develop an anime that could appeal to a wider audience than the usual demographic that the magical girl genre was aimed towards, intending for the series to be accessible to "the general anime fan." Gen Urobuchi and Ume Aoki were contacted to work on
16554-453: The languages of the original Jōmon inhabitants, including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language . Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period must be based on internal reconstruction from Old Japanese , or comparison with the Ryukyuan languages and Japanese dialects . The Chinese writing system
16732-449: The languages. Okinawan Japanese is a variant of Standard Japanese influenced by the Ryūkyūan languages, and is the primary dialect spoken among young people in the Ryukyu Islands . Modern Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryūkyū islands) due to education , mass media , and an increase in mobility within Japan, as well as economic integration. Japanese is a member of
16910-427: The large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between [tɕi] and [ti] , and [dʑi] and [di] , with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords. Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has also been spoken outside of the country. Before and during World War II , through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea , as well as partial occupation of China ,
17088-425: The only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. The basic sentence structure is topic–comment . For example, Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu ( こちらは田中さんです ). kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by
17266-403: The organization of to frequent collaborator and writer Mayori Sekijima. Character designer/chief animation director Akio Watanabe and visual director/mechanical designer Toshiaki Tetsura, also previous collaborators of Shinbo's, were invited to participate on the series as well. Together, Shinbo and Tetsura experimented with a technique of using the former's cleaned-up and enlarged storyboards for
17444-470: The out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta ( 教えてもらった ) (literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta ( 教えてあげた ) (literally, "explaining gave" with
17622-415: The particle wa . The verb desu is a copula , commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mx Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages,
17800-565: The project as the screenwriter and original character designer, respectively, and the four (Shinbo, Urobuchi, Aoki, and Shaft) collectively created the series as the "Magica Quartet." The team agreed that the work would have a copious amount of blood and a "heavy" storyline that was unique in comparison to other magical girl series. Yukihiro Miyamoto was put on the project as series director alongside Shinbo, and animation troupe Gekidan Inu Curry , old classmates of Miyamoto's who were working on Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei , were brought on to design
17978-473: The project. Shinbo was a fan of Tatsuo Yoshida, a director and the founder of Tatsunoko Production, and was happy to be able to participate in one of the company's works. He wanted to use American comics as the basis for the OVA's style, but he said that American comics weren't readily available in Japan at the time, so instead bande dessinée was used for inspiration. Despite the change in inspiration, Umetsu believed
18156-477: The proposed larger Altaic family, or to various Southeast Asian languages , especially Austronesian . None of these proposals have gained wide acceptance (and the Altaic family itself is now considered controversial). As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support. Other theories view the Japanese language as an early creole language formed through inputs from at least two distinct language groups, or as
18334-502: The prospects of a Shaft-Shinbo adaptation, and Iwakami met with Kubota and Shinbo, and they agreed to the project. Umino had originally wanted the series to have a similar aesthetic to Bakemonogatari , which she was a fan of, but Shinbo said that it wasn't a good idea; instead of the Bakemonogatari -esque background art Umino had in mind, for example, the series was made with a watercolor-style. Umino also wanted Akio Watanabe to design
18512-499: The pseudonym Jūhachi Minamizawa ( 南澤 十八 , Minamizawa Jūhachi ) with AT-2 (the adult video brand of studio Arcturus, at the time a subsidiary of Seven Arcs). Shinbo's hentai series were lauded for their visual aesthetics, with one blogger referring to them as "unhinged and downright batshit crazy"; and one series, Nurse Me! , served as the catalyst for future collaborations with first-time episode director Shin Oonuma . Along with
18690-493: The purpose of using them as background layouts ( 原図 ) . The series found itself in various production troubles, most notably in that Tatsunoko Productions and the team were unable to find studios who were willing to take on outsourcing jobs for the series. This set the series' production schedule back in the long run, and in total only three of the episodes were produced outside of Tatsunoko Productions: episodes 3 and 6, which were produced at Kyoto Animation ; and episode 10, which
18868-541: The reason for the realistic qualities in his characters. Japanese language Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo , [ɲihoŋɡo] ) is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people . It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan , the only country where it is the national language , and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes
19046-402: The record for the number of BD volumes sold on the first day (a record previously held by Shinbo's Bakemonogatari ) with its 1st BD release, which the series broke again with the following release, and ultimately garnered over ¥40 billion ( $ 400 million ) from the sales of related goods by 2013. The success of the series allowed for it to become a larger franchise, and the following two years
19224-493: The return of Seven Arcs, Shinbo, and Tsuzuki. The series was important in influencing Shinbo's approach to narrative structures by rejecting conventional structures of the time. Nanoha received praise for its atmosphere, themes, and uniqueness from reviewers in the west. Tim Jones from T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews noted that the series tended to focus more on physical fighting, rather than the usual magical girl trope of fighting with long-range magic attacks, despite having many of
19402-543: The role of character designer, and since Watanabe had already known about Shinbo and was a fan of Metal Fighter Miku , he accepted the job. Shinbo discussed the initial story with series composition writer Mayori Sekijima, who had written the screenplay to two of the OVA series' episodes, and decided that he wanted to make a narrative similar to the Space Cobra anime series directed by Osamu Dezaki; and as production started, Shinbo gave up his New Years' vacation to storyboard
19580-402: The role of production director following Kamitsubo's leave as chief director. Oishi was already involved with the first season as an episode director, storyboard artist, and one of the art designers, and Shinbo wanted Oishi to have more input in the second series, so he became involved as the "production director" and had a hand in checking episodes that he wasn't otherwise involved in. Although
19758-440: The room could accommodate for many more people. Shinbo described his previous works as self-centered, but he wanted Cossette to be accessible to the public and engage with the world. Animestyle magazine editor-in-chief Yūichirō Oguro , in his interview with Shinbo, likened the series to The SoulTaker , calling the atmosphere of the two series "exactly the same." Viewers praised the series' style, with admiration emphasized on
19936-428: The same genre. Despite his criticisms of the series, Kimlinger praised the series' usage of multiple art-styles, which he found gave the series an "undeniably appealing" look. The success of the series spawned a franchise that consists of four television series and four theatrical films, albeit all other entries in the franchise did not involve Shinbo. Around the same time, SME Visual Works producer Masatoshi Fujimoto
20114-459: The same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu ( いいです ) "It is OK" becomes ii desu-ka ( いいですか。 ) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no ( の ) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning
20292-413: The same time, Kawamura had seen Bakemonogatari and Puella Magi Madoka Magica , and was interested in working with Shinbo and Shaft. Initial planning for the film began with 7 to 8 members of the production team (including Ōne, Shinbo, Iwai, and Kawamura) meeting every two weeks for about half a year to discuss ideas. Although Shinbo said that he didn't contribute much to the discussion, Oone said that it
20470-591: The same time, however, Tatsuya Oishi had been busy working on the Kizumonogatari trilogy, which had started 4 to 6 years prior, and also involved Shinbo as chief director. The same year as Kizumonogatari III and Owarimonogatari II ' s release, however, Itamura left the studio, and Oishi seemingly disappeared from the anime industry after directing the opening animation to a video game released in 2018. Both Itamura's and Oishi's absences as series directors led to Shinbo seemingly directing Zoku Owarimonogatari ,
20648-570: The second season of Magia Record were announced to be airing in July, again with Doroinu chief directing and Shinbo acting as animation supervisor, but with Miyamoto as director. A "final" season consisting of four episodes with the same staff premiered in March 2022 after a delay from fall 2021. In 2024, an adaptation of the Off Season and Monster Season series of novels of Nisio Isin's Monogatari series
20826-410: The series and Nisio Isin's other novels. In 2016, Shinbo also expanded his work outside of Shaft alongside light novel author Reki Kawahara and novelist and scriptwriter Ichiro Okouchi as shareholders and collaborators to the then newly-established Egg Firm production studio. Shinbo and studio Shaft took a hiatus from major animation works in 2019. The only major product from the team that year
21004-562: The series and released it on 4 volumes on DVD and VHS. In 2004, Geneon had re-released the series under their Signature Series label. It originally aired in the United States on TechTV as part of Anime Unleashed , and later aired on G4 after the TechTV merger. The series' opening theme is "Soul Taker" by JAM Project while the ending theme is "Memory" by Shinji Kakijima. Akiyuki Shinbo Akiyuki Shinbo ( Japanese : 新房 昭之 , Hepburn : Shinbō Akiyuki , born September 27, 1961)
21182-407: The series as if it was an older anime, using less-common techniques in the modern era of the time like people reflected in objects and fish-eye lenses. Shinbo noted that both himself and the original author to Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl , Hitoma Iruma , were male, so he thought the series would've been more interesting if the series composition was instead written from the perspective of
21360-414: The series could be difficult due to the screenplay often including onomatopoeic sounds found in the manga. While Shinbo worked on Yu Yu Hakusho , J.C.Staff attempted to produce its first original television series, Metal Fighter Miku (1994). However, the director who was originally attached the project left partway through its pre-production, and Nippon Victor producer Hiroyuki Birukawa had to find
21538-658: The series direction of Noriyuki Abe , a colleague from Musashi, the Samurai Lord . In particular, Shinbo's involvement with the series is noted for his work on the Dark Tournament arc, which is regarded as the first appearance of his visual style. Speaking on his motivations in the series, he spoke highly of animation director Atsushi Wakabayashi, whom Shinbo described as the driving force behind his work, and previous collaborator Motosuke Takahashi, whom Shinbo regards as another mentor; although, he mentioned that storyboarding for
21716-430: The series director of Nisemonogatari due to Shinbo's trust in his capability. Shinbo had been aware of Itamura's work at Shaft since he had joined 3 years prior, and he believed that the second episode of Bakemonogatari (which Itamura had directed) was very good. Shinbo interpreted the source material for And Yet the Town Moves as being inspired by and written like an older manga series. For that reason, he directed
21894-448: The series scriptwriters and composition writers, as Shinbo thought that the words men and women would use in depicting everyday life would be different. Even though many of the scenes and conversations lacked punchlines, he and the writers thought that it would be okay as long the characters were having fun, and Shinbo imagined the series as being like a conversational drama similar to Yappari Neko ga Suki [ ja ] . The series
22072-403: The series that pushed Shaft "into fame", with writers from Funimation describing it as a "hit." Whereas most of the studio's works prior to Bakemonogatatari are described as being closer to comedies (such as the Hidamari Sketch franchise, Pani Poni Dash! , and Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase ), the series was described as darker in nature. Stylistically, Bakemonogatari is praised considered to be
22250-473: The series to the culmination of projects that he had been involved with up until that point, especially with Shaft. One particular series was Oonuma's Ef series which—although not involved with as a director, but rather as a supervisor—he described as exemplifying the idea that beautiful or cutely-drawn characters can be mixed with a story featuring heavy themes. Released in 2011 to critical acclaim, Madoka Magica has been cited by several critics as one of
22428-465: The series was important for being "the start of Akiyuki Shinbo's long transformation" as a director. With The SoulTaker complete, Shinbo took a brief hiatus from the mainstream anime industry. In 2001, he directed a short music video spin-off of the Triangle Hearts series, which started his relationship with Seven Arcs . For the next 3 years, he mainly focused on producing hentai series under
22606-407: The series' aesthetics of "moe." Kubota knew that Shinbo had worked several times with scriptwriter Mayori Sekijima, and so they asked him to take on the role of series composition writer. Shinbo also wanted the visual aspect of the series to have a solid foundation, and he specifically wanted someone with strong art setting ( 美術設定 ) sensibilities to do the work; however, he didn't want someone from
22784-464: The series, he focused more on making unique shot compositions and imagery than creating a story, and left all organization of the narrative to previous collaborator and scriptwriter Mayori Sekijima. Along with Sekijima, the series also marked Shinbo's second collaboration with character designer Akio Watanabe , and his third with Toshiaki Tetsura, who worked on the series as the visual director and mechanical designer. Shinbo and Tetsura experimented with
22962-472: The series. He also wanted the staff members to showcase their own abilities while keeping consistent direction, a philosophy he compared to Time Bokan (1975). Another idea for the team came from eyecatches , which weren't new to either Shaft or Shinbo, but the concept of using eyecatches consistently arose when the planners from King Records asked the staff to include the character Behoimi in every episode, but because she did not show up often early on in
23140-405: The staff always being out when Shinbo called. Kubota, now the studio's president, wanted to transform Shaft into a studio with recognizable characteristics and visual flair that made its productions distinct from the works of others in the industry; and Shinbo, whom Kubota had seen several works of (in specific Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko , The SoulTaker , and Le Portrait de Petit Cossette ),
23318-444: The staff so that they did not carelessly omit explanations and logic that would otherwise confuse the audience. Though Shinbo said he did not interefere much with the staff, he did contribute ideas, like one that eventually led to the creation of the anime-original character Kuroe. It was through Shinbo's request to Doroinu that the anime not follow the flow of the game due to a difference in mediums being untranslatable that also led to
23496-797: The state as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the South Seas Mandate over the island shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese, but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home. Japanese dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent , inflectional morphology , vocabulary , and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this
23674-661: The story, it was decided that they would compromise by putting her in the eyecatches. Shinbo attributed part of Pani Poni Dash! ' s success to King Records producer Atsushi Moriyama and TV Tokyo manager Fukashi Azuma, who fought for Shaft's ability to use certain references and parodies, thus giving the team a higher degree of overall freedom. Between 2006 and 2009, Shinbo directed several more television series and OVAs with various in-house and freelance directors. In 2006: Negima!? with Oonuma; in 2007: Hidamari Sketch with Ryouki Kamitsubo , Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (assisted by Naoyuki Tatsuwa ), as well as serving as
23852-419: The storyboards besides the timing and tempo of actions and lines. Takahashi also taught Shinbo other parts of the production process, like how to read time sheets. No longer an animator at Studio One Pattern, Shinbo received steady episodic work from Pierrot, and he eventually joined the studio's production team for Yu Yu Hakusho (1992–94). Shinbo directed 19 episodes of the series and storyboarded 13 under
24030-465: The storyboards, and the work as a whole, weren't his, it was difficult for him to bring out his own tastes and style while keeping the work cohesive. He not only had to find himself as a series director, but also how to not only include his own tastes and put the work together. His motivation was lowered by the fact that he was making so many storyboard corrections, and he said that during production he thought he might have been better off processing all of
24208-476: The street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun) But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese: 驚いた彼は道を走っていった。 Transliteration: Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct) This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" ( 君 "lord"), anata "you" ( あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" ( 僕 "servant"). This
24386-445: The studio also produced a series of Negima! Magister Negi Magi OVAs with several guest directors working under Shinbo including Miyamoto, Tomoyuki Itamura , Hiroaki Tomita, Kōbun Shizuno , Tomokazu Tokoro , and Tatsufumi Itō, and a series of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei OVAs directed by Shinbo and Miyamoto (assisted by Tatsuwa as well). When he received the offer to direct the adaptation of Ume Aoki 's Hidamari Sketch , Shinbo
24564-419: The studio that never ended up being produced. Afterwards, he was asked to direct the cutscenes for Tatsunoko Fight (2000), a video game using characters from various Tatsunoko works, and was then asked to direct an original series titled "Warhead." Eventually, "Warhead" became "The SoulTaker" and was produced under Tatsunoko Production and their digital vision Tatsunoko VCR. Admittedly, when Shinbo worked on
24742-580: The studio working, and both he and his colleagues developed temporomandibular joint dysfunction due to pressure and, at least in Shinbo's case, nervousness in making his debut as a director. Despite the difficulties of the work, Shinbo views Shigino as his directorial mentor. Succeeding Musashi, the Samurai Lord , Shinbo worked on Marude Dameo (1991), which is where he met animator and storyboard artist Motosuke Takahashi , whose storyboards were so well-crafted that Shinbo had little to worry about in processing
24920-484: The team succeeded in creating the American comic-like atmosphere that Shinbo wanted. The OVA only produced two episodes, however, and Shinbo regretted being unable to make more. Later, he mentioned that he learned how to implement the compositional technique of " smacking " ( ナメ ) from animator Mamoru Sasaki while working on the project. Shinbo again worked with Madhouse on an OVA adaptation of Saki Okuse's Twilight of
25098-440: The themes he noted was the theme of "friendship", but was still uncertain as to how to write Madoka Magica . Afterwards, he saw Shinbo's gothic OVA Le Portrait de Petite Cossette and decided that he wanted to mix the "disturbing" and "mysterious" atmosphere of Cossette with Aoki's cute characters. With Gekidan Inu Curry's help, he believed that the two series were successfully linked together. Shinbo attributed his success with
25276-462: The tighter deadline. In a 2012 interview, Shinbo mentioned having interest in making a prequel or sequel series to The SoulTaker . This thirteen episode-series produced by Tatsunoko Productions and directed by Akiyuki Shinbo , premiered on the Japanese television network WOWOW on April 4, 2001, and ended exactly 3 months later on July 4, 2001. Two days after the last episode aired, North American anime licensor Geneon Entertainment USA licensed
25454-577: The turn of the decade and early 90s. His unique style developed across the studio's productions, cultivating in Yu Yu Hakusho , which led to his debut as a series director with the J.C.Staff television series Metal Fighter Miku (1994). Over the next several years, Shinbo developed his directorial style through numerous avenues in the industry; and the pure form of his style has been described as coalescing in series like The SoulTaker (2001) and Le Portrait de Petit Cossette (2004). In 2004, Shinbo
25632-419: The two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Japanese also includes a pitch accent , which is not represented in moraic writing; for example [haꜜ.ɕi] ("chopsticks") and [ha.ɕiꜜ] ("bridge") are both spelled はし ( hashi ) , and are only differentiated by the tone contour. Japanese word order is classified as subject–object–verb . Unlike many Indo-European languages ,
25810-495: The two had never worked together before, Natsu no Arashi! manga author Jin Kobayashi attended Shinbo's drinking and book reading sessions, where they would read other works. Eventually, it was decided that Shaft, Shinbo, and Oonuma would make an adaptation of Kobayashi's manga. Shinbo felt that one of the most particular aspects of the series was its portrayal of summer (thus, "natsu" in the title), so he asked Oonuma to come up with
25988-577: The two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s. Bungo still has some relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in bungo , although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). Kōgo is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect. The 1982 state constitution of Angaur , Palau , names Japanese along with Palauan and English as an official language of
26166-472: The two terms (''hyōjungo'' and ''kyōtsūgo'') are almost the same. Hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 , meiji ishin , 1868) from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see Yamanote ). Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications. It
26344-483: The various hentai series produced by Arcturus, Shinbo was hired to direct the Seven Arcs series Triangle Heart: Sweet Songs Forever (2003), which Masaki Tsuzuki had created. For the work, Shinbo opted to use the method of creating background layouts that he created with Tetsura on The SoulTaker . The series served as a starting point for the creation of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the following year, which featured
26522-407: The verb (e.g. yonde for earlier yomite ), the -k- in the final mora of adjectives drops out ( shiroi for earlier shiroki ); and some forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hayɔɔ , where modern Japanese just has hayaku , though the alternative form is preserved in the standard greeting o-hayō gozaimasu "good morning"; this ending
26700-430: The vessel for the eventual collaboration between Shinbo and animator Kazuhiro Oota . Oota, who was a fan of Shinbo's prior works ( Tenamonya Voyagers , Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko , and The SoulTaker ), was given the opportunity to act as animation director for two of Nanoha ' s outsourced episodes (episode 4 and 7). He later found out that Shinbo was directing Tsukuyomi at the same time as Nanoha , and watched
26878-529: The way are the mysterious Shiro Mibu and the nurse mutant girl Komugi Nakahara, who betrayed the Hospital out of strong romantic love for Kyosuke. In 1996, studio J.C.Staff collaborated with and provided director Akiyuki Shinbo for Tatsunoko Productions ' 1996 OVA New Hurricane Polymar at the request of the character designer, Yasuomi Umetsu; and succeeding the end of New Hurricane Polymar , Shinbo and Tatsunoko Productions started work on another project which
27056-595: The work was to be marketed as a sequel to the previous parts of the franchise. Eventually, it was Iwakami who decided to call it a sequel film. Alternate space designers Gekidan Inu Curry had also become more involved with the production of the films and directly contributed to the addition of scenes (such as the "tea party" scene) and scriptwriting dialogue for Bebe (the witch form of Nagisa Momoe ). While Shinbo said that he tends to want to make things more "unusual", Gekidan Inu Curry's designs were amazing enough that it wasn't needed Gekidan Inu Curry's parts were supported by
27234-548: The world. Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as Ainu , Korean , Chinese , Tibeto-Burman , Uralic , Altaic (or Ural-Altaic ), Austroasiatic , Austronesian and Dravidian . At the fringe, some linguists have even suggested a link to Indo-European languages , including Greek , or to Sumerian . Main modern theories try to link Japanese either to northern Asian languages, like Korean or
27412-415: Was Shinbo's idea to change the age of the characters from elementary school students (as they are in the original film) to junior high students. Shinbo struggled to decide on whether the characters should be more comedic or realistic, but after reading Ōne's screenplay, decided that it would be okay to have a little of both, especially since he felt that the character designs (designed by Watanabe) suited such
27590-458: Was a Shaft-Shinbo production. Her editor from Hakusensha , Ryou Tomoda, asked about the possibility of receiving an adaptation from the director and studio, but was told it would be impossible. However, the son of shogi player Torahiko Tanaka , Makoto Tanaka, who worked at Tohokushinsha Film , was a fan of Umino's manga, and approached Tomoda about adapting the anime. From there, Tomoda met with recently promoted Aniplex CEO Atsuhiro Iwakami about
27768-457: Was a director capable of leading that transformation. Shinbo chief directed Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase (assisted by Toshimasa Suzuki ) that year. He believed he shouldn't add much of his signature style to the series due to the change in genre from his previous works, and that he should instead focus on "making things properly", but was asked by the series' sponsors to add some of his aesthetics anyway. The series, which Shinbo described as " moe ",
27946-434: Was a new experience for him. Shinbo attributed Tsukuyomi as the foundation for his experimentalism with Shaft, and that without the work's out-of-the-ordinary approach, it would not have been possible to collaborate with other like-minded people; and it was because of that approach that they gained recognition, thus allowing for such creators to come together. The earlier Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series also served as
28124-421: Was also Shinbo and art director Hisaharu Iijima's first time working together since Le Portrait de Petit Cossette. Iijima was no longer employed by Studio Easter and had started his own company, Ryuubidou, which Shinbo found the website for decided to ask him to work on the show. A second season of Hidamari Sketch with the title Hidamari Sketch x 365 was produced the year after, with Tatsuya Oishi taking on
28302-465: Was also a fan of Go Nagai 's manga, and volume 3 of Nagai's Devilman was the first manga tankōbon that he ever bought himself. Later, he found himself attracted more towards anime, especially with the release of Space Battleship Yamato in October 1974 during his first year of junior high school, and Galaxy Express 999 a few years later. After high school, he wanted to study anime and leave
28480-419: Was announced, with Shinbo, Shaft, and Akio Watanabe returning to their respective roles; and with the debut of Midori Yoshizawa as series director, who was an assistant director on Magia Record . Aniplex producer Tatsuya Ishikawa approached Shaft with the idea of continuing the Monogatari anime in the fall of 2022, with the studio agreeing. Yoshizawa was chosen to direct by studio president Kubota and had been
28658-466: Was balanced by the stability of the show's structure and his comprehension of the characters, and felt that he truly understood her work. Character designer Yoshiaki Itou and Oishi (who served as production designer in the second season) were in charge of the series' general art design of the series, and Shinbo's orders consisted of each of the girl's rooms shown only at selective angles with few "cameras". The show also exclusively featured mostly women as
28836-535: Was based on 12- to 20-second-long recordings of 135 to 244 phonemes , which 42 students listened to and translated word-for-word. The listeners were all Keio University students who grew up in the Kanto region . There are some language islands in mountain villages or isolated islands such as Hachijō-jima island , whose dialects are descended from Eastern Old Japanese . Dialects of the Kansai region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particular
29014-437: Was born. The series incorporated Shinbo's direction with several of his previous collaborators: writer Mayori Sekijima, animation studio Daume, and art director Junichi Higashi (the latter of whom Shinbo had worked with on Tenamonya Voyagers ); and the series was also Hisaharu Iijima's first time working with Shinbo as an art director and would later become a core element of Shinbo's later works with Shaft. The series also marked
29192-413: Was challenging due to the fact that he didn't understand "moe" at the time, so he took great care in receiving help from staff members more experienced with the aesthetics of moe. In particular, previous collaborator Shin Oonuma was invited to Shaft by Shinbo due to the former's ability to utilize digital technology, and the fact that his fondness of "gal games" and "moe anime" ultimately helped Shinbo with
29370-474: Was chosen as the replacement director. Although Shinbo hadn't directed a series before, there weren't very many other opportunities to do so; and coupled with the fact that he only had experience as a director on Pierrot's works—which he described as mainstream but not otaku -orientated, as opposed to J.C. Staff's original video animation (OVA) approach—he took the offer. Birukawa was specifically interested in Shinbo's usage of colors and his ability to surprise
29548-525: Was episode 10's storyboard artist Ei Aoki . Iwakami introduced Shinbo to the first The Garden of Sinners film, which Aoki directed, and he liked it and requested Aoki storyboard an episode of Bakemonogatari . Shinbo initially thought that adapting such a work, in which characters speak for a large portion of the runtime, would be difficult. Pondering this, he thought about Isao Takahata 's 1979 anime series Anne of Green Gables and its portrayal of mundane and daily life, much of which also consisted of
29726-491: Was good at drawing. His earliest known given credit in the industry is GeGeGe no Kitarō 3rd Series episode 3 (1985). However, he worked on several other productions uncredited—the full extent of which is not known—some of which he and those who know him have confirmed, such as Serendipity the Pink Dragon (1983), Igano Kabamaru (1983), and GoShogun: The Time Etranger (1985). Yamashita heard that Studio Pierrot
29904-718: Was imported to Japan from Baekje around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism. The earliest texts were written in Classical Chinese , although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the kanbun method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order. The earliest text, the Kojiki , dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, kanbun , and Old Japanese. As in other texts from this period,
30082-651: Was initially worried that the viewer would change the channel if it was too boring as a slice of life work. However, he had seen Aria the Animation , which was a story that lacked a particularly singular narrative or any conflict, which surprised him due to its success. Knowing Aria ' s success, he was convinced not to overdo himself on Hidamari Sketch , but he also found himself conflicted on whether or not he should use experimental visual elements like live-action photography and manga-like backgrounds. Aoki thought that Shinbo's visual experimentation with Hidamari Sketch
30260-449: Was invited by newly appointed Shaft president Mitsutoshi Kubota to collaborate with the studio as a director. Since the newfound collaborative effort's debut with Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase (2004), he has mentored various directors and won numerous awards for his productions with the studio. His notable directorial works with Shaft include the Monogatari series (2009–present), Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011), and March Comes In like
30438-528: Was looking for an "auteur"-like director with whom he could make a series with; and after viewing the Yamamoto Yohko OVAs and Metal Fighter Miku , thought that Shinbo would be a fitting director. When they met, Shinbo asked him to watch episode 74 of Yu Yu Hakusho which he had been in charge of, as well. Originally, the two had planned to make a work based on Devilman , but the idea never came around, and instead Le Portrait de Petit Cossette (2004)
30616-452: Was looking for directors in the early 1990s for Musashi, the Samurai Lord , and he subsequently recommended Shinbo. He joined the production early in its run, and initially served as director Akira Shigino's assistant for the first episode. He debuted as a full-fledged episode director himself on the fourth episode of the series. Later on in the series, he also made his debut as a storyboard artist and animation director . Reflecting on
30794-465: Was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of morae shrank to 67 in Early Middle Japanese , though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for /je/ , which merges with /e/ before the end of the period. Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle tsu (superseded by modern no )
30972-553: Was originally not asked to draw designs for Bakemonogatari , but instead for an adaptation Shaft was planning for the Zaregoto series. He had received the call from Mitsutoshi Kubota for the work, but was called sometime later to say that they had changed their mind and would adapt Bakemonogatari instead (though Shaft, Shinbo, and Watanabe later worked on Zaregoto as well). Several episodes were notably storyboarded and directed by members outside of Shaft's usual connections, one of whom
31150-427: Was produced by Triangle Staff and Shaft . Shinbo lauded the studio's efforts, saying he was impressed with their quality. Triangle Staff and Shaft's episode in particular had a rough production schedule due to episode director and storyboard artist Shintarou Inokawa's storyboards being very late, and Shinbo was surprised that Shaft (who was mainly in charge of producing the episode) was interested in handling it despite
31328-421: Was the televised release of Zoku Owarimonogatari . The following year, they returned for the adaptation of the spin-off Madoka Magica series Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story . The series was not directed by Shinbo, however; instead, Doroinu (one of the two members of Gekidan Inu Curry) served as chief director, and Shinbo served as animation supervisor. Shinbo took a step back from acting as
31506-473: Was ultimately never produced. Shinbo was then asked to direct the cutscenes for the Tatsunoko-produced video game Tatsunoko Fight (2000) and was then asked to direct an original series titled "Warhead", which eventually became "The SoulTaker." Directing the series, Shinbo admitted to being more focused on the series' aesthetic and visual presentation than the story itself, which he left the entirety of
31684-405: Was unable to watch much anime, but he was a fan of the works that involved Osamu Dezaki , Akio Sugino , and Yoshinori Kanada , so he asked his brother to record episodes for him to watch when he could. The students of the college, during his second year, were given the opportunity to tour studios in search of jobs, and Shinbo thought it might be interesting to direct "strange" works, but to become
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