Birthday Girl

I’ve only just noticed this about two days ago, but now I see that I have actually already lasted a year into this anime-blogging business. Lots of other, better, blogs have been around for far longer, and I take my hats off to them, but when I think about it, my blog staying alive for a year is an impressive feat in itself, and is thus worth talking about. I never did plan on writing about silly cartoons and comics from the Land of the Rising Sun for very long time, hell, I was expecting to burn out three months into it. But here I am, still rattling away on the keyboard. I’d even gained some positive reactions and a few readers, and for that I am grateful. They’re not a lot, but still, I’d like to thank those who bothered to read (and commented on) this little blog. I hope you continue to read whatever shit I put in here. Also, a shout-out to the guys on the blogroll. I never thought I’d get that many on there.

 

Normally, I should have some kind of celebratory crap in this kind of post, but I couldn’t think of anything. I didn’t want to make a rather pointless post even more pointless, though, so I had to wrack my brains for this one. Thankfully, I kept on catching Samurai Champloo on TV–they re-air the thing quite often here–and an idea struck me: I liked the show when I first watched it, and I find that it’s never gotten old for me, and that over the course of watching the series again on TV I noticed a few names that before didn’t strike me as interesting but has now tickled my fancy. In other words, I’m going to put down here the (more or less) complete staff list for the series. Think of this as a kind of service for other fans of the show who are curious enough to read about such things. Also, I feel this could also serve as a glimpse into the different elements who came together to produce manglobe’s debut TV anime (oh how the mighty have fallen).

Truth be told, I’m only arranging the listing found on ANN, so all credit is due to them. This also makes the post rather meaningless too, but oh well. It’s for my own curiosity first and foremost, anyway.

And for any mistake in this listing, I apologize in advance (I’d like it if you corrected me, as well).

Here goes, then.

Samurai Champloo (manglobe, 2004)

Series Director: Shinichiro Watanabe

Series Composition: Shinji Obara

Character Designer/Chief Animation Director: Kazuto Nakazawa

Emono Design (weapons): Mahiro Maeda

Art Director: Takeshi Waki

Color Design: Eri Suzuki

Director of Photography: Kazuhiro Yamada

Editing: Syuichi Kakesu

Music: Tsutchie, Fat Jon, Force of Nature, Nujabes

Episode staff

#1 – Tempestuous Temperaments

Script: Shinji Obara
Storyboard: Shinichiro Watanabe
Episode Director:  Shinichiro Watanabe
Assistant Episode Director: Hirotaka Endo
Animation Director: Kazuto Nakazawa

#2 – Redeye Reprisal

Script: Shinji Obara
Storyboard: Kazuki Akane
Episode Director:  Takeshi Yoshimoto
Animation Director:  Takako Shimizu

#3 – Hellhounds for Hire (part 1)

Script: Shinji Obara
Storyboard: Shukou Murase
Episode Director: Masato Miyoshi, Shintaro Inokawa
Animation Director: Shinji Takeuchi

#4 – Hellhounds for Hire (part 2)

Script: Shinji Obara
Storyboard: Kazuyoshi Katayama
Episode Director: Hirotaka Endo
Animation Director: Moriyasu Taniguchi, Naoko Nakamoto

#5 – Artistic Anarchy

Script: Dai Sato
Storyboard: Sayo Yamamoto
Episode Director: Sayo Yamamoto
Animation Director: Jun Nakai

#6 –  Stranger Searching

Script: Shinji Obara
Storyboard: Tsukasa Sunaga
Episode Director: Akira Yoshimura
Animation Director: Tatsuya Suzuki, Takuya Suzuki**

**Another case of siblings working together in anime–think You/Kou Yoshinari, Koichi/Shinji Hashimoto…

#7 – A Risky Racket

Script: Seiko Takagi
Storyboard: Kazuki Akane
Episode Director: Takeshi Yoshimoto
Animation Director: Takako Shimizu

#8 – The Art of Altercation

Script: Dai Sato
Storyboard: Yoshitomo Yonetani
Episode Director: Keiichi Sasajima
Animation Director: Shinji Takeuchi

#9 – Beatbox Bandits

Script: Dai Sato
Storyboard: Hiroyuki Imaishi
Episode Director: Hirotaka Endo
Animation Director: Kazuto Nakazawa, Nobutake Ito

(this episode features guest animation by Masaaki Yuasa)

#10 – Lethal Lunacy

Script: Touko Machida
Storyboard: Yoshimitsu Ohashi
Episode Director: Akira Yoshimura
Animation Director: Moriyasu Taniguchi, Naoko Nakamoto

#11 – Gamblers and Gallantry

Script: Seiko Takagi
Storyboard: Sayo Yamamoto
Episode Director: Sayo Yamamoto
Animation Director: Jun Nakai, Yumiko Ishii
Assistant AD: Masaki Yamada

#12 – The Disorder Diaries

Script: Shinichiro Watanabe
Storyboard: Shinichiro Watanabe
Episode Director: Hirotaka Endo
Animation Director: Masaki Yamada

#13 – Misguided Miscreants (part 1)

Script: Shinji Obara
Storyboard: Kazuyoshi Katayama
Episode Director: Takeshi Yoshimoto
Animation Director: Shinji Takeuchi

#14 – Misguided Miscreants (part 2)

Script: Shinji Obara
Storyboard: Shinichiro Watanabe
Episode Director: Shukou Murase
Animation Director: Nobutake Ito, Hiromitsu Morishita

#15 – Bogus Booty

Script: Kazuto Nakazawa aka Uwadan Shimofuwato
Storyboard: Kazuyoshi Katayama
Episode Director: Kazuto Nakazawa
Animation Director: Moriyasu Taniguchi, Naoko Nakamoto

#16 – Lullabies of the Lost (part 1)

Script: Keiko Nobumoto
Storyboard: Hiyo Kondou
Episode Director: Masato Miyoshi
Animation Director: Jun Nakai, Yumiko Ishii

#17 – Lullabies of the Lost (part 2)

Script: Ryota Sugi
Storyboard: Shinichiro Watanabe
Episode Director: Hirotaka Endo
Animation Director: Masaki Yamada, Yoshimitsu Yamashita
Animation Assistant: Nobutake Ito, Kazuto Nakazawa

#18 – War of the Words

Script: Dai Sato
Storyboard: Sayo Yamamoto
Episode Director: Sayo Yamamoto
Assistant Episode Director: Kei Tsunematsu
Animation Director: Masaki Yamada

#19 – Unholy Union

Script: Seiko Takagi
Storyboard: Tsukasa Sunaga
Episode Director: Hirotaka Endo
Animation Director: Moriyasu Taniguchi, Naoko Nakamoto

#20 – Elegy of Entrapment (part 1)

Script: Shinji Obara
Storyboard: Kazuyoshi Katayama
Episode Director: Takeshi Yoshimoto
Animation Director: Jun Nakai, Yumiko Ishii

#21 – Elegy of Entrapment (part 2)

Script: Shinji Obara
Storyboard: Akitoshi Yokoyama
Episode Director: Akitoshi Yokoyama
Animation Director: Nobutake Ito

#22 – Cosmic Collisions

Script: Dai Sato
Storyboard: Sayo Yamamoto
Episode Director: Sayo Yamamoto
Assistant Episode Director: Kei Tsunematsu
Animation Director: Yoshimitsu Yamashita

#23 – Baseball Blues

Script: Shinichiro Watanabe
Storyboard: Tensai Okamura
Episode Director: Mitsutaka Noshitani
Animation Director: Kazuto Nakazawa, Moriyasu Taniguchi, Naoko Nakamoto

#24 – Evanescent Encounter (part 1)

Script: Shinichiro Watanabe, Shinji Obara
Storyboard: Soichi Masui
Episode Director: Takeshi Yoshimoto
Assistant Episode Director: Kei Tsunematsu
Animation Director: Jun Nakai, Yumiko Ishii

#25 -Evanescent Encounter (part 2)

Script: Shinichiro Watanabe, Shinji Obara
Storyboard: Akitoshi Yokoyama
Episode Director: Kazuto Nakazawa
Animation Director: Kazuto Nakazawa

#26 – Evanescent Encounter (part 3)

Script: Shinichiro Watanabe
Storyboard: Akitoshi Yokoyama
Episode Director: Shinichiro Watanabe, Sayo Yamamoto
Assistant Episode Director: Kei Tsunematsu
Animation Director: Masaki Yamada, Shinji Takeuchi, Yoshimitsu Yamashita

OP animation staff

Storyboard/Director: Mamoru Hosoda aka Katsuyo Hashimoto
Animation: Takeshi Koike (solo)
Production: Madhouse

ED animation staff

Director: Shinichiro Watanabe
Animation: Shukou Murase

 

See you for another year…