Background

I’ve actually known about Stampede, All Mix, and Kaina ever since they were announced. And I did plan on covering all three at some point. But it was not until I saw the schedule for the Winter Seasonals that I realize all three was gonna air within the same week. After a quick discussion with a few friends, I’ve decided to just cover them all at once.

In a way, I see this project as me finally revisiting my pilot video “Netflix Furry Starter Pack” considering Beastars was technically how this all started for me. And indeed, one of the visuals are actually reused from the Netflix Furry video. Not to mention the “batch review” format.

This project is rather ambitious as I was rushing to get this done before the shows ended. Covering history is a bit outside of my comfort zone. But I’m so glad I was able to get it done within the time frame I’ve allocated to it. Even with multiple school-related hurdles.

Notes

The Canipa Effect

This video has the most intense research I’ve ever done for a review. Canipa did a few videos on Orange already, so I just kinda… copied his homework. I mean why take the time to look for them myself if the story I want to cover is already right there. To be fair, Orange is already pretty well researched. But for some aspects, like the Land of the Lustrous behind the scene images, I just reverse image searched the image he uses lmao. Same deal with Polygon Pictures actually. Although for that I mostly use my own interpretation of the story, since the interviews are already pretty comprehensive. The hardest one to research is probably SANZIGEN as they are a lot more secretive. The whole segment was mostly just me hypothesizing based on what I know about their relationship with BanG Dream! and Bushiroad.

Anime Fans

It is common knowledge that Anime Fans are the most annoying kind of people on planet earth. And unfortunately due to what I would call the “Berserk 2016 PTSD”, CG gets the very end of the stick. I call these groups of people the “CG Phobes”, both in the “scared at” meaning and the “angry at” meaning. I uploaded a clip of MASKING from RAISE A SULIEN’s Drum Solo a year ago, it got 400k views. And what I found was the less of an “Anime Fan” you are, the more you can actually enjoy things for what they are. Crazy shit I know.

I mean look at this guy enjoying the show.

We need to rise up against cg-phobia. For the greater good.

I wasn’t able to cover The Story in the video so here are some notes i have about it:

TRIGUN STAMPEDE

It’s… idk… While Orange’s visuals looks stunning as always, and is still the primary reason i watched it… I don’t really care about the characters that much. Even the funny Vash Guy himself, i felt like he’s just a goofy aah gunman. I wasn’t really intimidated by the scary knife guy either. I wasn’t invested in any of it. I can’t really pin point why. Maybe it was the constant influx of new characters that gets 2 seconds of screen time? Idk… ironically I vibe with the apparently notorious reporter girl. I like the idea though. Might check out the original after all

D4DJ All Mix

It’s a slice of life, I live for this shit. Good stuff seeing my girls back on stage. LyriLily is wholesome af reddit 100%. Kurumi best girl. I had some worries that this might be the Bandori S2 situation again with the 30 ensemble characters, but the more episodic format really works here I think. Although in saying that, i think it’s still inferior compared to the Brilliance of First Mix. I’d describe All Mix actually like K-ON but with EDM, just girls doing things without much overarching plot. If you can get over that, it’s quite enjoyable.

Kaina of the Great Snow Sea

A hidden gem. this universe works in some strange ways. And that’s not mentioning the “Snow Sea” is neither snow… or sea… while technically the least impressive visual wise i was fully hooked onto the story. The bad guys has fully almost valid intentions and could be emphasize with, and the dynamic between characters is incredible. If there’s anything i take from this show it’s that i should grind my kanji study more, they’re handy.

References & Further reading

[Anime News Network] Studio Orange Founder & CEO Eiji Inomoto & Producer Kiyotaki Waki

The history and background of Studio Orange.

[CGWORLD] The Secrets Behind Land of the Lustrous: Phos’s Jewel Hair

How the shaders in Land of the Lustrous work (in Japanese)

[BanG Dream!] Anime Staff Q&A Session!

Everything from backstory, to production philosophies, and extra lore stuff. Possibly the only comprehensive article about SANZIGEN I can find lmao.

[Anime News Network] Interview: Shuzo John Shiota, President of Polygon Pictures

How Polygon Pictures came about and their early hurdles trying to break into the industry

[Anime News Network] Interview: Pacific Rim: The Black Showrunner Greg Johnson

Talks about how they get in touch with Polygon Pictures and what its like working with them

[CGWORLD] Polygon Pixture’s in house renderer “PPixel” used in the anime “Estab Life: Great Escape

A VERY comprehensive documentation about Polygon Pictures’s in house renderer PPixel (in japanese)

[The Verge] Love, Death and Robots’ most beautiful episode was ‘a love letter to Moebius’

No, not “Morbius”. “Moebius” the famous french illustrator. The artcile is mostly about how the project came about.