Animehouse

Staff List

Project Anima took place quite some time ago. It was a contest where participants submitted their work in hopes of it being adapted into an anime. Submissions could come in the form of novels, scripts, manga, sketches, or other formats. Sakugan was the first to be released of the batch in 2021 as it won the Science-Fiction/Robot category. The remaining two projects were The Stories of Girls Who Couldn’t Be Magicians, the winner of the Another World/Fantasy category, set to be produced by JC Staff, and Mobius Dust, the winner of the Kids/Game category, set to be produced by DOGA KOBO. While news on Mobius Dust remains sparse, the day has finally arrived for the Another World/Fantasy winner, whose first episode premiered a few days ago. So let’s us talk about it!

Just from a purely aesthetic style standpoint, the show is very pretty-looking. With its paint-like backgrounds and storybook aesthetic, it really is eye-catching, and I do think it’s a very smart choice for J.C. Staff to go with. They are working on an extremely high number of shows this year, around 13 or so, which is not even counting the extra OVAs and things they’re doing. This is an absolutely insane workload, and some shows will likely suffer as a result (and already have). However, this episode didn’t seem to suffer much from it, though I won’t claim that the animation was amazing or top-tier either; it is more focused on its art style. That said, there was a particularly well-animated scene that I’ll discuss shortly. Given how beautiful the character designs and backgrounds are, and how committed they are to this visual style, even when the animation might lack, it still comes across as gorgeous due to the intensive focus on visuals. Surprisingly, the more stilted movements for some parts fit well with the storybook theme, which is a significant win for J.C. Staff from a production standpoint, as they can work with this series perfectly.

The series is helmed by two directors you’re likely familiar with at this point if you’ve been watching J.C. Staff animes. Takashi Watanabe serves as chief director; he’s a true veteran in the industry, though he may not be performing at his best nowadays compared to his prime. Additionally, there’s Matsune Masato as the director, who, while I’m not sure of his age, seems to be quite young, all things considered. Although he isn’t well-known for many series, he always comes across as someone who wants to do more with his work than the average director can or want to at J.C. Staff.

He worked on Reign of the Seven Spellblades last year, which, despite having several significant flaws, clearly demonstrates his efforts. This is particularly evident in the opening and some action scenes, showcasing that he has a strong vision for his work and strives to achieve it, even in challenging conditions. From dynamic action sequences to unique styles, he really always does feel like he has a particular vision. He typically utilizes a lot of 3D elements in his work, mainly through camera movements and panning. This approach is somewhat contrary to this show, which intentionally adopts a flatter 2D aesthetic.

I think this demonstrates great versatility in his work, and I believe he should be recognized as one of the more interesting directors in J.C. Staff’s current lineup. We should especially keep him in mind because he’s young, and we will likely be seeing more of him in the future. He also of course storyboarded this episode which I thought overall looked great especially in the intro which was aggressively dream like and almost surrealistic in terms of how unrealistic everything was, but the episode did eventually settle to a more natural look which I think is only necessary as you might be burnt out with the extreme visuals at the beginning if it was for the whole show.

The character design is by Mai Matsuura, who I believe is doing a great job. However, I have to give a lot of credit to the color designer, Mika Funabashi, and the photographic director, Yurina Yagi. At first, I wasn’t particularly a fan of Yagi’s work, as it kind of came off as bland, especially in The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest. That show just didn’t have any distinct style, and the compositing at times appeared blurry and seemed to hide details. However, during her work on The Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts, she started exuding a much more unique style, which is very similar to this show. That show also relied on a softer look and a storybook-like aesthetic, which enhances the art, even in moments where it lacks. It feels like she has cranked up that storybook quality tenfold in this show, which I quite like. If this is going to be her style moving forward, I’m quite excited to see it. She seems like an easy fit for shows that J.C. Staff can use to enhance their productions, especially if the show isn’t planned to have a lot of animation. This seems to be the direction J.C. Staff is going with shows like this, The Sacrificial Princess, and Delico Nursery, which appear to rely on pure visual aesthetics with some animation here and there.

That is not to say, the show isn’t well animated. The episode overall had no issues in the animation front and even had a really good cut which was at the very least contributed to by Kazunori Ozawa (Megumin’s personal animator at this point) as he was in charge of the dragon animation direction.

It’s always a wordful experience for the first episode since I want to talk about the staff, but let’s also discuss the plot and other aspects. So far, it’s quite cute. It reminds me a lot of older shoujo anime I watched as a kid, like a mix of Pita Ten and Sugar Sugar Rune. It’s a lot of fun, and the world is quite interesting. The rune casting system seems intriguing, with some characters drawing runes manually, similar to Witch Hat Atelier, while others cast spells by typing into a calculator. I’m curious to see how it will work and how they will handle the clear class separation. This episode looked great; it has a fun premise, and I just want to learn more about the world. I’m a little worried that the quality might falter near the end, but since this has been planned for so long, I hope it will maintain its visual quality all the way to the end.