Animation: Critical Studies: Shinji Hashimoto.

For this critical studies task we're required to choose an animation based on it's style, genre, studio or auteur. I guess my choise is going to be based on a style.

I've always been a big fan of comic books and manga and used to rip out the pages where they had sketchy drawings. Because in my opinion they are more dynamic and realistic. When Linkin Park's "Breaking the habit video" aired it was something out of this world! I have never seen a comic book come to life before! Even up until now this animation still remains one of my favourite pieces.

This animation was made by "Studio 4°C". This studio has produced numerous feature films, OVAs and shorts. Their work is various and has a unique and also peculiar style: from being totally reckless and weird to very detailed. As you have guessed, I'm going to focus on the animation style. So the person I've chosen as my style guru is Shinji Hashimoto.

It was extremely hard to find the owner of this "sketchy style" because there's not much information on this artist on the Internet. And I'm still not sure if it's right. At first I was convinced that the person who provided the key animation and directed it was the owner of this style. Also while looking at other pieces of animations that utilise the same style, Kazuto Nakazawa was usually part of the animatiors crew. While browsing through Wikipedia an other sourses I didn't find any additional information regarding style and just went on believing that Kazuto Nakazawa was the hand behind it.

But while I was reading the interview with him i found an interseting thing: "The Sketchy style of the Kill Bill anime and the music video for Linkin Park (the guy who asked this question incorrectly credited him for doing Kid's Story in the amatrix) was not his invention, but instead the invention of another animator, Shinji Hashimoto, who first used the style in Isao Takahata's film My Neighbours the Yamadas". This part part put me in the right direction.

The main reason why I have put Shinji Hashimoto's work in the center of my attention is that it has a particular drawing style that I would like to master. I'm not even sure how to name it. It's rather sketchy but almost realistic enough to believe that the chracters are human. The way he makes emphasis on character's eyes is beyond me. When he was asked where did he get the idea to use a scratchier style he replied: "Basically I don't like drawings that are drawn very clear-cut. I prefer sketchier pictures that have more atmosphere to them. I have used this sketchy-type thechnique on two other productions. The first time was on the titles for earlier project, and the second time I used the sketchy style from beginning to end was on a film for Studio Ghibli".

Shinji Hashimoto provided key animations for the Animatrix's " Kids Story". The Animatrix is a 2003 direct-to-video anthology film based on the Matrix trilogy. The film is a complication of nine animated shorts.