Why Shinbo (was: Wherefore shafting)?
Few figures in animation are more divisive than Wackiyuki Akiyuki Shinbo, studio head and famously iconoclastic director at SHAFT animation studio. Some love his visually bizarre work, others loathe it for its apparent pretentiousness. Very few people tend to be in the middle. Plenty across the internet have weighed in already – and they tend to do so again every season that one of his series airs.
So what makes this wingnut/auteur so appealing? Let’s pick 5 and run with that (please note that after the jump this post may contain images of animated girls in their skivvies!):
Ownage.
SHAFT’s works are rarely original. And the word “writer” does not appear once on his IMDB or ANN profiles. But if I were a mangaka or author and I found out I’d be adapted by the man, I’d probably go home and cry and get to work on my next piece. It takes something as distinctive as Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei to retain its own identity in the face of a SHAFT adaptation. When your style is as distinctive as Shinbo’s, it’s bound to subsume the original to a degree — kinda like those guys in Spirited Away.
Angles.
Is it off-balance compositions? Is it long, Kubrick-esque one-point perspective shots? What about the fisheyes where the character’s head digitally turns all creepy-like? No! It’s jump cuts! If you’re a fan, then you probably have a favorite (mine is the off-balance composition 
), but most of us love them all. Shinbo’s philosophy is that animation should be enjoyable to look at — that’s what it’s there for — so from hiring the best character designers to elaborately planning scenes, a well-done SHAFT work is a visual treat.
Words.
English words, Kanji, symbolic words presented as pictures or objects. They’re all here. Not just the Anno-ism of a giant word on an empty screen, silently jarring you into paying attention to the scene again. Not just the overtaking dread of ef’s NAZE or Bakemonogatari’s frightening Wordcrab, but all of these, and more.
And it’s not just about weighty symbols and crazy goose chases for hidden meaning, although that’s a huge part of the fun. Bakemonogatari proves that words and puns, much of which English speakers partially miss out on, can drive an entire story. Feelings vs. weight? Seems like a pretty thin thread on which to hang your plot, but it works. And even amidst that, Araragi and Senjougahara’s pun-riddled conversations tickle your brain into submission. Credit in the case of Bakemonogatari of course goes to author NisiOisin but his love of wordplay is brought to life here. From an interview with Shinbo on adapting Bakemonogatari:
Not only amusing characters and story, I also found the conversations to be peculiar. That’s why we should adapt those conversations as it is without any weird changes. Since I myself also want to see those conversations in the anime.
To make the boundary line between the letters and the visuals as vague as possible. Not only turns texts into visuals, but to leave the novel’s characteristics on them. This may sounds exaggerated; we’re finding the definitive technique in order to make Bakemonogatari anime. We’re also trying in on-screen texts’ direction we’ve been using up until now.
And I’ll say it again if I have to: phone card countdown.
Service.
Hideaki Anno proved a long time ago that fanservice and depth are not mutually exclusive. Whether aiming for the top(!) or embarking on an epic Jungian journey, tits, ass, and robots accompanied the Gainax helmsman on his voyage. Just as Anno more than likely influenced Shinbo’s use of text (I have no verification, just an educated guess), the Gainax Way creeps into SHAFT’s work.
Some may be turned off by parts — like ANN’s famed reaction to his most famous earlier work, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. But the boldness of Shinbo makes all those steam-filled bath scenes of normal anime seem downright juvenile and tame.
It’s not just about underage panty-shots or the incredibly lusty Senjougahara though — just as Nadesico taught us to “remonstrate love,” the wild Pani Poni Dash flew in the face of tribute/reference anime like Project A-Ko or Lucky Star with its never-ending supply of Gundam-infested chalkboards.
Sometimes it’s just staplers fucking.
Density
Those chalkboards exemplify the extreme sensory overload that is packed into every single episode of Bakemonogatari, or the best pieces of ef. The wordplay, the graphics, the visuals, the fanservice, they all come together with a density that the typical TV anime viewer never deals with. All this adds up to an experience that’s wholly unique. For me, in a sea of sameness, that’s more valuable than almost anything else. And as a bonus, it makes rewatching that much better.
I’m sure while getting all giddy over the usual goose chase I missed something. What was it? What do you love about Shinbo? Or, barring that — and I know you’re out there — why can’t you stand him?
I enjoy storyboard, layout, and editing the most in SHAFT works. Usually, different people are assigned to these tasks under Shinbo’s supervision.
I’m too new to Shinbo to appreciate many of the things mentioned here, but the composition does impress me a lot. The whole sequence in the park in episode 03 of Bakemonogatari was awesome.
Sometimes it’s just steak cycles on a circular track.
You missed the Negima!? example in the OWNAGE part, as the main example of why sometimes the SHAFT style overcomes the original material until it becomes unrecognizable. From a harem rom-com mixed with epic adventure, it became a harem rom-come mixed with maybe the most obscure otaku jokes you can imagine (even more than PPD or SZS), with a lameass plot that is just a excuse to make really weird jokes.
It seems that the author was so unsatisfied with the results that SHAFT then made an OVA that adapted the most recent arcs into a much more faithful fashion… but then there is the 2nd chapter of Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, where Kumeta jokes about what could have happened if Negima! was made by KyoAni and cites Akamatsu’s blog: “Damn you, Kumeta!”*
*Both Kumeta’s SZS and Akamatsu’s Negima! are serialized in Shounen Magazine, and both series had an OVA series by SHAFT that was bundled with special editions of the manga volumes. Obviously, SHAFT is cheaper than KyoAni.
If there’s one thing that I like about Shinbo, it’s that every show which he’s credited with directing will be an interesting experience. He won’t go down well-worn paths that most others go to, and in doing so, will provide a unique take in such a way that it stretches the bounds of convention and that alone is worth something when there are so few examples of his sort of creativity floating around.
Like zzeroparticle mentions above, a Shinbo experience is always an interesting experience. Sometimes it works and it’s brilliant, other times it feels gimmicky (SZS episodes can waffle between the two from scene to scene). But I gotta give him all the credit in the world, because thinking that stuff, planning it out, then getting it done takes so much work and effort. Even in the latest Bakemonogatari epi, with the 1 minute pan over the playground, there was so much attention paid to the dialogue and the backgrounds, it didn’t feel like an animation cheat. You can’t ever fault him for mailing it in.
Rather than saying anything relevant, I shall instead point out that Shinbou didn’t direct ef (which is what the second screenshot, with all the text, is from). Both seasons of ef, while animated by SHAFT, were directed by Oonuma Shin.
@Kitsune
He really seems to surround himself with quite a lot of great people, as he mentioned with character designers. The editor of Bakemonogatari (and ef, for that matter) is brilliant.
@ghostlightning
LOL steak cycles. Just weird. Or for that matter, GUILTY NOT GUILTY MAP. I’m sure there’s meaning, but that’s the goose chase to which I refer.
@jiv
I haven’t made it to Negima!? yet but thanks for the supporting argument. When you say Akamatsu, do you mean Ken Akamatsu of Love Hina? I’m a fan of that one so maybe I should read it.
@zzeroparticle
That is the long and short of it for me. Even among the good, so much anime is done in a similar style and SHAFT just comes out of nowhere to blow your mind.
@RP
No cheatin’. It definitely gives the impression that it’s all done for the sake of the vision. “Gimmicky” is something that I sometimes will agree with people on, but in general I find it more “imaginative.”
@Raiga
No worries, that’s totally relevant. Actually any time I write about ef, I make sure to point out Oonuma but I neglected that here. I do feel though, that in the case of ef, Shinbo’s title of “Supervisor” or whatever it is (basically “head of SHAFT” LOL sounds suggestive) says a lot. His stamp is all over the series, and I’ve always been curious what the specific involvement was.
I feel that his heaviest uses of trademark SHAFTisms (or whatever) are at best deviously subliminal in that sort of passive-agressive way that dominates and overtakes the original work like you mentioned, or at worst it’s like he’s just throwing random stuff at a wall and seeing what sticks. Either way the extreme form is really distracting. I’d like it if he would exercise a more moderate and focused Anno-like style, without Anno’s pathos or reproach for humanity.
Interesting blog entry. Shinbou is doubtlessly a talented director and currently he puts much effort into Bakemonogatari, but even that can’t cope with some of his earlier works like Soultaker. By far the best episodes in his anime are those which he directed and storyboarded himself, but sadly he does only storyboard-correction nowadays so that his direction is somewhat watered-down compared to his magnificent earlier works in Yuyu hakusho, Soul Taker, Metal Fighter Miki, Ninku, etc., where he did some outstanding work with great animators like Nishio and Wakabayashi.
The directing in his anime is always nice and refreshing, with lots of interesting compositions and visual gimmickry, but the problem is that it gets boring after some episodes, because Shaft has only a few (episode) directors, who really know how to keep the visuals fresh with doing something new. Shinbou’s protégé Oonuma or Shuuji Miyazaki are examples for this. In most of Shinbou’s recent works the animation is pretty weak (they are frequently outsourcing big portions so no surprise), that’s why the shows feel very shallow once the directing becomes trite. Bakemonogatari has somewhat better animation than the average Shaft show, especially episode 1 has some excellent animation by Akio Watanabe and Noboyuki Takeuchi. It’s partly Tatsuya Oishi’s influence which leads to some refreshing changes, as he pays attention to communicative animation. The quality of the writing is also excellent, probably the best Shaft show since ef ~ memories.
I can give a show like Bakemonogatari the benefit of the doubt due to its pedigree, but Pani Poni Dash is just a pseudo-highbrow version of those Seltzer and Friedberg movies.
(Then again, I didn’t think that Shinbo was directing Bakemonogatari?)
(Or is he? I ran out of editing time and I’m not sure the difference between a director and a series director.)
I must be one of the few people in the middle, because I think Shinbo passes me by. I liked Soul Taker because it had fighting and shouting, and I disliked what I saw of SZS and PPD because they didn’t make me laugh.
@otou-san
Yup, that Akamatsu.
I might have to begin to believe that I’m the only one watching Bakemonogatari for Akio Watanabe? The man has a huge role in this show :v
Hmmm… Maybe most people are watching Bakemonogatari for Shinbo/Shaft, but I think there’s also a lot of people (like me) that are watching this because it’s an adaptation of a Nisioisin book… Zaregoto 2 fucking where, Del Rey?
I got introduced to Shinbo madness in Negima!? and I found it rather annoying. But when I saw the style in ef – a tale of memories, I found it really good. Same goes for Bakemonogatari. It surprising fits.
It’s an acquired taste, basically. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
“Either way the extreme form is really distracting. ”
I’m starting to find that I think that’s where “SHAFT being SHAFT” bugs people in a “why does it have to be like that?!?” sort of way, or in the “he’s doing more than necessary” sort of way, or in the “this is not what I want to see in my anime” sort of way. I like the extreme form because I feel like it’s done to make the audience more involved in the show rather than to sit back and have everything wash over them. But that’s part of why I like him. His cinematography and use of montage notwithstanding.
I’m always surprised no-one ever mentions the use of colors in Shinbo’s works, as the combinations and shifts between them can be pretty striking, and I think is also part of a signature of his work.
“I might have to begin to believe that I’m the only one watching Bakemonogatari for Akio Watanabe?”
I’m watching the show for both, among other things, especially because the last time I remember such a marriage between the two was in SoulTaker, and I greatly enjoyed that. :3
I think I find Shaft shows to be rather tiring to watch, and I think it has to do with the wordiness. I wonder if I was a native speaker of Japanese if it’d be better, but sometimes there is so much going on superfluously that it overwhelms the main action. With that said, I do like they push the boundaries even if it is a bit hit or miss with me.
My favorite part of the Shinbo experience is definitely the subliminal flashes of text that you have to stop and rewind to read. It’s an annoying process and not always rewarding, but when it does pay off you feel like you worked for it. As for what you missed, all I can think of is the odd animation quirk you see in several of his shows of having an object move while the pattern on it remains still.
Honestly though there isn’t a single trademark that sets Shinbo apart, as you said, it’s the sum of all the details he layers into each episodes, the references and metahumor and the constant waves of text blipping by (the OPs and EDs of his shows are also almost always very well-made and tend to change throughout the show’s run, although I don’t know if that’s a Shinbo thing or a SHAFT one). The overall effect is to make anime that really engages a viewer. Most shows you skip the OP and ED after the first couple episodes, leaving you a little less than 20 minutes, which you watch straight through. With Shinbo it’s often well worth watching the OP and ED (and there are often scenes set directly before or after them so it’s dangerous to skip), and you might have to pause and frame jog your way back and forth to read a bit of text that only appears for one or two frames several times in any given episode. It’s a longer process, but I think it makes the experience richer, in a nerdy way.
Bakemonogatari is obviously especially exciting because it’s got pretty witty writing to start with and pains have been taken to make the animation total eyecandy. It doesn’t even seem fair to compare the show to more mainstream anime in terms of color and light/shadow, I don’t even think characters in shounen shows even have visible shadows half the time. Bakemono (and to some extent Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei) is the only show this season I’m really looking forward to every single week.
As for Shinbo’s style overpowering a show, the only time I’ve really felt that was an issue was, like you mentioned, Negima!?, where it seemed like the original work had just been rejected outright. To be fair the first Negima anime did the same thing, Ken Akamatsu’s series isn’t exactly deep but it’s very, very broad, and for a high school harem show it would take a lot of action and huge backgrounds to animate it with complete loyalty. Introducing the weird little monster things and turning the main character into a Chupacabra felt like Shinbo saying ‘fuck it’, by halfway in the show was just falling apart. Can’t win em all.
I was thinking about writing about Shinbo in the near future myself, it’s gratifying to see that I’m not the only one in love with his crazy style. It kills me how many people out there complain about having to invest the slightest thought in their anime and object to his work because they might have to, gasp, read something or go back and rewatch a part that went by too quickly. If there were more directors like Shinbo in anime the genre might not have such a shitty reputation for being mindless and unoriginal.
I like him.
He’s good.
In a removed sort of way I like Shinbo – I find his visual work to be fairly entrancing. However, I feel like much of his shows and shows with which he is affiliated suffer from a degree of unwatchability – yes, your visuals are extremely eye-catching, but you sort of forgot the human element, e.g. the plot and characters. It seems like these tend to get sacrificed to the art and symbolism, leaving us with something that is interesting to look at, but not exactly engaging to watch.