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The role of an animator is one of the most underrated jobs in producing an anime. The animator does most of the work of translating the story into a creatively designed flow of animations, making it look more pleasing and enticing. However, when this same creativity is used for designing adult content and s*xual parodies, it can spark a lot of controversy.

One Piece Anime Series | Credit: Toei Animation

This was seen recently when a key animator who has officially worked on many prominent anime series like One Piece chose to leave the mainstream anime industry and use his talents for the R18 content, also known as h*ntai. This might feel like a shocking revelation, but it’s not unheard of, as another animator from Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End did something similar, which was deemed contentious by the majority of the fanbase.

It was revealed that he helped...

Having dabbled in various roles in the anime-manga industry, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko commands respect from everyone who has ever crossed paths with the Gundam series. Gundam is one of the most influential anime series of all time and enjoys widespread popularity. Yasuhiko has worked on Gundam as the animation director as well as the mangaka of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin | Credits: Studio Sunrise

After all these active years in the industry, the man has seen the evolution the industry has undergone. His words reflect the experience he has gained over the years. Besides Gundam, Yasuhiko has worked on numerous projects but he doesn’t feel positively about all his works, as he shared during an interview.

Yoshikazu Yasuhiko Calls his Own Works Unacceptable A still from a fighting sequence in Gundam | Credits: Nippon Sunrise

Some of the notable works Yasuhiko has worked on are Venus Wars,...

The creator of the classic manga and anime series Akira, Otomo Katsuhiro, has stirred up a heated debate with his candid disapproval of modern anime’s repetitive art style. Akira has changed the industry with its truly groundbreaking and influential visuals, despite being released way back in 1988.

A still from the Akira movie | Credits: Tms Entertainment

Since he is the mastermind behind this work, his opinions do have a considerable amount of weight. The timeless quality of art in Akira, which has remained longer than many modern mecha anime series, makes his sentiments all the more relevant and worthy of exploration.

Otomo-sensei Does Not Like The Modern Art Style of Anime Kaneda from the Akira movie | Credits: Tms Entertainment

A resurfaced 2017 interview has shed some light on Katsuhiro Otomo’s artistic vision for anime, which offered several insightful viewpoints from this legendary creator himself. During the interview, he made some...

Animator / director / manga artist Yoshikazu Yasuhiko ( Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin ) has provided the official illustration for the Domannaka Anime Film Festival (pictured below), a two-day event featuring movie screenings and guest speakers that focuses on classic anime films from the 70s, 80s and 90s. The Domannaka Anime Film Festival will be held on May 17 – 20, 2024, at the Midland Square Cinema venue in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Domannaka Anime Film Festival poster Related: Crunchyroll to Bring Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island Anime Film to Theaters in September The films screened include: the Mobile Suit Gundam trilogy (1981 – 1982), Patlabor 2: The Movie (1993), Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? (1984), Harmagedon (1983), Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise (1987), Akira (1988) and Venus Wars (1989). Quest speakers include: Shinichiro Inoue, Masuo Ueda, Yutaka Izubuchi, Kazunori Ito, Ichiro Itano, Shoji Kawamori, Masao Maruyama, Kazuhide Tomonaga, Hiroki Yamaga, Shigeru Watanabe,...

This Star Wars anime is a true labor of love as it took animator Paul Johnson four years, working nights and weekends to complete. Zak Rahman supplies the music while Joseph Leyva handled sound effects and audio.  If you have seven minutes to spare, check it out and keep the conversation going in the comment section below. Official Synopsis from Johnson: What if there was an Empire-focussed short Star Wars animation, drawn with the crazy detail and shading of classic 80s anime that's all but vanished from Japan nowadays? Well, I tried my best. Apologies in advance for not living up to Venus Wars standards. Drawn and animated by yours truly over 4 years' worth of weekends, with music by the living guitar solo Zak Rahman and sound design by up and coming audio technician Joseph Leyva. Fans of Lucasarts' seminal 1994 Tie Fighter game may notice a few familiar sights and...

“Star Wars” has gotten the anime treatment, and fans of the franchise launched by George Lucas in 1977 appear to appreciate it. YouTube user OtaKing77077, real name Paul Johnson, spent “four years worth of weekends” creating a seven-minute short film titled “Tie Fighter,” which has quickly gone viral since being posted on Tuesday. “What if there was an Empire-focused short ‘Star Wars’ animation, drawn with the crazy detail and shading of classic ’80s anime that’s all but vanished from Japan nowadays?” the animator wrote in the description. “Well, I tried my best. Apologies in advance for not living up to Venus Wars standards.

Created by just one animator over four years, Tie Fighter is a superb, anime-style fan film set in the Star Wars universe. Take a look...

Imagine for a moment that, in the late 80s, a Japanese animation studio had gained the rights to Star Wars, and made a TV series dedicated solely to pitched battles between Rebel X-Wings and Imperial Tie Fighters.

Had it existed, it might have looked a lot like Tie Fighter, a seven-minute animated film by Paul Johnson. Taking his inspiration from the 90s videogame of the same name, Tie Fighter depicts a blazing space war in authentic anime style - its use of shading, movement and colour are look like something Studio Nue would have come out with 20 or 30 years ago.

"What if there was an Empire-focused short Star Wars animation, drawn with the crazy detail and shading of classic 80s anime that's all but vanished from Japan nowadays?...