Boku no Hero Academia Second Season:
Episode #1
Storyboard: Kenji Nagasaki
Episode direction: Setsumu Dogawa
Animation Direction: Takahiro Komori, Tsunenori Saito
Key Animation: Yoshiyuki Kodaira, Kazumi Inadome, Takuya Saito, Kenta Ikeda, Minami Sakura, Ayaka Kawai, Noriko Morishima, Yuko Danki, Miyuko Matsumoto, Nobuhiko Kawakami, Yuka Shibata, Takuma Nakamura, Tomomi Noda, Miho Kato
Junichi Hayama, Takahiro Komori, Tsunenori Saito
-This episode was clearly a introduction one, setting the stage for the future and classic, shounen manga tournament arc, while giving a quick recap to the things that happened the last season, while talking about the character’s motivations to be heroes and the possibilities that the tournament can give to them.
-Personally, i think that the recap of the beginning of the episode was kind of excessive, like, we really need 6 minutes of recap after having a entire episode of recap footage one week ago, that was necessary?, and even after the recap, they keep talking about Shigaraki’s personality and action, that didn’t really needed, since, we can guess by ourselves, but since this is a series clearly aimed to teenagers…
-The major point on this episode, however, was the tournament, a opportunity to all the students to be distinguished by heroes of all around Japan, and enter on agencies as sidekicks, giving them a extra of motivation to do it.
-Ochako’s motivation were wonderfully explained thanks to Kenji Nagasaki’s simple, yet pretty effective storyboard, that while maintained a clear simplicity, still has a lot of room for funny details and down to earth drama every now and then, like on this episode, that was full of fun character interaction while having some issues about the evolution of the villains on a more simple form and Ochako’s motivations to be a hero.
-The animation was, on overall, pretty decent, with a lot of funny moments every now and then, while maintained it always on-model by the BONES pillars Takahiro Komori and Tsunenori Saito, as well as the good list of overall decent-to-good BONES longtime associates, such as Kazumi Inadome and Yoshiyuki Kodaira.
-The major surprise on the KA list is Junichi Hayama, that definitely is on here because Yoshihiko Umakoshi’s involvement on Tiger Mask W, series on which Junichi Hayama is the series action animation director, where Umakoshi did the first ending on the series, a pretty simple rendition of the old school’s style of the first series, and for so, Junichi Hayama appeared on this first ep, credited along with the animation supervisors on a separated KA credit.
-Another [good] surprise was Yuka Shibata presence on the KA list, seems like she still hasn’t planned his future after leaving ufotable, and for now, she keeps pumping out freelance work for BONES, Khara and Trigger, all of them places where she have ex-GAINAX friends working on.
Opening #1
Storyboard/Episode direction: Yasuyuki Kai
Animation Direction: Yoshihiko Umakoshi
Key Animation: Tsunenori Saito, Takahiro Komori, Kazumi Inadome, Takashi Mitani, Yuko Danki, Mino Matsumoto, Takuya Yoshihara, Minami Sakura, Yuka Shibata, Masaya Sekizaki
Washio, Osamu Murata, Aiko Oura, Takafumi Hino, Itsuki Tsuchigami, Anna Yamaguchi, Hironori Tanaka, Hideki Takahashi
Yasuyuki Kai, Koichi [Yuki] Hayashi
-This opening marks Yasuyuki Kai’s first major contribution to a non-Haikyuu project since 2013, he has spent the last four years being Haikyuu’s main Action Animation Director, correcting the drawings of the matches and doing lots and lots of stock footage, as well as doing his directorial on the second opening of the second season, which is full of well crafted and detailed animation all the way through.
-This opening wasn’t as visually creative as Hakuyu Go’s opening for the first season, but it is still a pretty impressive opening for an animation standpoint, specially on its second half, personally, i don’t quite like the song as much as the first season’s one, so, maybe on it resides the problem.
-The special detail on the legs and the routine exercises of the students was pretty nice, with all of them preparing for the tournament where it can decide their destiny, it was a good touch.
-The KA list is again full of BONES regulars and a lot of youngsters that i’m not really familiar with them, being the major stars four names: Hideki Takahashi, Itsuki Tsuchigami, Hironori Tanaka, and Yuki Hayashi.
-For those who didn’t knew him, Hideki Takahashi was one of the major players under the breath-taking Haikyuu’s volleyball matches, giving to the series a lot of great scenes, as well as being one of the main animators of the series along with the already mentioned Yasuyuki Kai, Takahiro Chiba, Shinji Suetomi and Bo Ya Liang, with this scene animated by him of the S2 #24 being one of the best scenes of realistic animation that i have seen on years, and while being considerably old, Hideki Takahashi is just being giving exposure now, which is a shame, since he is really good.
-Itsuki Tsuchigami, also known as miso, was one of the main animators of the first season, and seems like he is coming back for this second season, his work on the S1 was consistently great, so i’m more wonderful work on this season!
-Hironori Tanaka and Yuki Hayashi really i don’t have the need to present, since everyone pretty knows them since years for now, they are two of the most prolific animators on the TV industry, and both being raised on Toei grounds, with the second one still belonging to Toei even while working with everyone else while still sitting on Toei and receiving his paycheck on the mail, really good strategy if you ask me, using a pen name, however, «Koichi» Hayashi, that don’t really convince to nobody but Toei, so, i’m happy for him being able to diversify his work because of that.
Ending #1
Storyboard/Episode direction: Naomi Nakayama
Animation Direction: Yoshihiko Umakoshi
Key Animation: Hitomi Odashima
-The ending was nothing really destacable, pretty nice, the drawings were very beautiful and the direction was pretty regular, is just a random ending to fill space at the last minute and half of the minute, i’m not really going to remember it on a while.
-The major surprise was the director, that was supposedly busy doing work on the Orange Movie, but since she is one of Umakoshi’s friends, she appeared on this, hopefully she can stuck here, because she is a awesome director.
-The unique animator was Hitomi Odashima, a animator that i have absolute unfamiliarity with, apparently is a very young BONES-based animator that was given this opportunity casually, since she is very acquainted with Studio C, the BONES sub-studio that is producing this season of BokuHero, while the S1 was produced by Studio A, that is too busy with Kekkai Sensen S2.
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