I feel like doing the same thing over and over again for months on end is boring, so why not change things up in April, the month of pranks and spring cleaning?

If there’s one thing that I’ve learnt while watching years of simulcasts go by, and it’s even been noted in the Ode to Anime Studios, that it’s that the director and the source material that mainly affects an anime. There’s only so much I can do for source material – even with my knowledge in Japanese – but directors? That I can do…given enough information, as it is for all the studios I’ve done.

Luckily, ever since I started looking into Takamatsu and his work for the Boueibu fandom starting in 2015 (because there’s no better way to practise reading colloquial Japanese than Twitter!), it turns out he’s fairly open – within the set limits of his work, of course – about his work process and the types of work he’s been given follow certain patterns. Namely, he works on either comedy or mecha shows…or even both, as is the case with RobiHachi…and the type of oddball humour he offers up is always in my wheelhouse, which is why I keep my eye out for him beyond Boueibu, even if the mech shows aren’t my thing.

Sidebar: Takamatsu’s Twitter is currently on hiatus as I type this, so I don’t know if he’s working on something or just taking a break due to the COVID-19 scenario…From my years of dealing with his Twitter though, his icon would normally be a yellow OTL guy though.

Takamatsu does a lot of stuff on his own shows these days – aside from his direction credits, he has sound direction credits, storyboarding, the whole shebang! He even has a bit voice acting role as Elizabeth from Gintama, which is probably how he is best known as a director in recent years (Anime News Network n.d.). He also lampoons himself quite a bit, from the Olympics joke – which seems to be because “Olympics” is a trademark, if this link is to be believed – to having thin parodies of his name show up, such as “Jin Tsumakata” (Anime News Network n.d.). Takamatsu went to an all boys’ high school (Anime News Network 2013) so whenever he deals with male protagonists with such an educational background, you know he’s working from experience.

Sidebar 2: One of my staples for the Ode to Anime Studios is to find the founding date of said studio, because companies seem to take pride in documenting it. I could tell you the birthdate of Takamatsu, but that almost seems like a breach of privacy…so I’ll omit it. If you wish to find it, it’s on Anime News Network.

So, did you like this change of pace?

I guess I can revisit this idea if all my leftover studios are obscure…another way I’m thinking of changing this segment up is to redo some of the early pieces in the series, but I’d need to identify a few to change to do that. Alternatively, I chose to focus on a director because I wanted to see if there was a way to look at the staff for anime I was interested in for the future (*erhem* HypMic anime *erhem*), so…I don’t know how that would work in the context of this post series, but I’ll keep thinking about it.

References

Anime News Network 2013. Interview: Shinji Takamatsu. Available from: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interview/2013-08-16/interview-shinji-takamatsu [15th April 2020.]

Anime News Network n.d. Shinji Takamatsu. Available from: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=6593 [15th April 2020.]