Forum - View topicHow does Osamu Kobayashi have a career in animation?
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Brendan Behan
Posts: 19 |
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Good Lord Almighty, does anyone actually enjoy what this man does? His style of animation isn't my cup of tea but if he just stuck to whole series or movies then I'd be fine. Instead it seems all he does is direct an entire episode smack dab in the middle of a series that completely changes not only the style of animation but even some of the characters.
I recently watched Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and was a bit taken back by the animation in the fourth episode. It wasn't a huge deal and it didn't ruin the series for me, but I can't say I wasn't surprised by the mess it caused. Now I'm watching Kemonozume which is a GREAT show that I am absolutely loving and as soon as I started watching episode 7 I thought, "Oh s$%^, this a$%hole again." I think this is honestly the only time I've been pissed over anime. I feel like this guy might've single handedly took this show down a notch in my ratings, and that bugs the hell outta me because I have really been digging it so far. With Gurren Lagann I wasn't that angry because it was a longer show and not much was different besides a temporary change in the animation style. I can't say the same for Kemonozume. Not only did he again create an episode that sticks out like a sore thumb (does he ever not do this? can he not work within the series?) but he suddenly made one of the female characters grow giant tits, which half the episode revolved around... including a shower scene, a sex scene, skimpy outfits, and an argument over breast sizes. All the characters just acted wrong, plain and simple. And there are only 13 episodes too, so he has a much bigger impact than he did in Gurren Lagann. I am just trippin man. I can't understand how he has a career in this industry. Am I wrong here? Edit: Been given some time to brew and I suppose whoever wrote this godawful episode deserves a large chunk of the blame too. I don't know how much impact Kobayashi had there and whether or not he decided to make every character act out of turn and make a character's breasts the focus for half the episode... but I do know he did draw them the size of watermelons and his just whole style irks me. The animation has switched up constantly in Kemonozume but it always had the same sort of vibe and somehow meshed with the overall tone... Kobayashi's just didn't. |
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Triple_Dude
 Posts: 20 Location: Canada ^_^ |
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He was the Animation Director for Karas... Which shows that not everything he touches turns into *CRAP*
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Well, I didn't personally like Karas much (I've only watched the first episode... even though I have the entire 6 episode DVD collection  )... So it might as well have been crap anyways (The characters were wonky... Not surprised there, Har!).
But honestly, I think it just has to do with the fact that he's made a name for himself (he's been around... According to ANN, he's 44 this year; that's a respectable age in the industry). It's like someone said in the Speed Racer thread: A tanker here and there doesn't sink someone's career. Ya know what they mean? Sure you do  .
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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Osamu Kobayashi is one of my all time favorites. Orange Road, Paradise Kiss and Beck are my favorite slice of life titles. It is true that sometimes great series directors bring too much of their style to a series where they might not fit in.
I actually like it when Rintaro jumps in to guest direct or storyboard an episode. The Paranoia Agent episode that he storyboarded on felt so much like his/Madhouse style and also worked for Satoshi Kon's style. He also worked on an episode of Osamu Kobayashi's Paradise Kiss which worked within the frame of the series. He has also has done individual episodes of Tsukikage Ran, Gokusen and Master Keaton if memory serves although he isn't listed on the ANN encyclopedia for confirmation. Some directors are better at working within the framework of a given series, others impose their own style. A few like Rintaro manages to do both. |
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ManSlayer07
Posts: 214 |
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Interesting that how you hate him so much because I really, really hope that he's currently working on a TV series (preferably at Madhouse).
 It's been over a year since I saw Kemonozume so I can't really agree or disagree with you but enjoyed all of it (I felt that the ending was a little too weird though).
Edit: Speaking of directors, the way you feel about Kobayashi is probably how I feel about Koichi Mashimo (from Bee Train). The guy has absolutely no directing skills at all. He substitutes painstakingly-slow pans and zooms for actual motion to waste time (and save money I'd assume). He ends putting you to sleep with so many silent pans and unnecessary camera movement. He is the exact the reason why people are getting worried about Blade of the Immortal...
I agree with you on Paradise Kiss and Beck, they're two of my all-time favorite titles. I ope he directs a second Beck series if it ever gets made. |
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Brendan Behan
Posts: 19 |
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I might look into Beck and Paradise Kiss. His style isn't horrible when on its own, in both episodes of his I've watched I got used to it quickly, it's just the fact that it sticks out so much from the rest of the series that really bugs me. I was just angry last night because I felt like that episode was horrible and a lot of the blame for that landed at his feet. Obviously if people are willing to give him complete control of specific episodes then his work must be thought highly of by some of his peers, so it's wrong for an ignorant person like myself to be questioning his work without giving it a proper viewing.
And I agree with you about Kemonozume, BTW. I LOVED the first couple of episodes and thought that it was going to end up as one of my favorite shows of all time, but there were definitely some parts that I didn't live up to my expectations. I can respect weirdness and Kemonozume has a lot of it, but I too felt that some scenes in the end were just too much. All in all I still enjoyed the show a whole hell of a lot and I would recommend it to anyone who's looking for something a little different. I watched it in a marathon session so I'll probably go over it again to see if I'm being too harsh (or too gentle). |
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