Get In The Mecha is officially back! In this episode I'm catching up on some of the analysis that I missed by talking about some of the sleeper hits of 2022 that I think are worth going back to. How does Tatami Time Machine Blues differ from The Tatami Galaxy? How does The Girl From The Other Side configure into the current anime landscape? What can music videos teach us about storytelling? All this and more in this episode. Thanks so much for your patience over the first half of this year (and before that) - I'm graduating this month which means I finally have the time to produce the podcast ..read more

Recently I've been thinking a lot about the things that divide up an anime episode, be it an OP or short intertitles - and so I decided to make a whole episode about them! In this edition of Get In The Mecha, I talk about how these dividing mechanisms make all the difference to how an episode / film feels and ask the question of what is so important about structure. This is the last episode of 2022! I want to get the podcast back on track next year so bear with me a little longer. Thanks for all your support, feedback and attention this year! Video Version of this episode: - https://youtu.be/1 ..read more

I know we're already in March but let's talk about the anime staff I discovered for the first time in 2021! 2021 was a really great year for anime, in terms of the number of exciting projects that came out, which of course meant that I came across many cool creatives at the same time. In this episode I share who I've come across, why I gravitated to their work and more on this episode of Get In The Mecha. Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/hn09ZCO-icg Timestamps: 0:00 – Intro 1:42 – Yuki Yonemori, Keiichiro Saito & Nobuhide Kariya (WEP & Sonny Boy) 7:07 – Fuuga Yamashiro ..read more

The new year is approaching and a there's a lot of anime on the way. On this week's episode of Get In The Mecha I take a look at the anime projects that I'm most excited for and talk about who is working on them. And at the end I give my take on an important question - can this much anime be sustained by the industry? Watch this podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/VreGShyXP0w Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro + Review 3:15 - Akebi's Sailor Uniform 8:51 - The Orbital Children 14:20 - Exception, Vampire In The Garden & Bocchi The Rock! 17:02 - INU-OH 19:26 - The Girl From The Other Side 23:22 - Is A ..read more

What ties rich historical narratives like Heike Monogatari together? On this episode of Get In The Mecha I complete my trilogy of discussions on Heike Monogatari by taking a look at the anime's smart use of visual metaphors. This week I dive into the various symbols the show uses, what we can learn from them and most importantly - why are they so important in historical anime. Thank you for the review Ohirafan! Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/mPYRp-cQrdM Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro & Review Reading 3:31 - Context 4:26 - Flowers 10:24 - Wings / Butterflies 13:19 - Biwa Strings ..read more

What ties rich historical narratives like Heike Monogatari together? On this episode of Get In The Mecha I complete my trilogy of discussions on Heike Monogatari by taking a look at the anime's smart use of visual metaphors. This week I dive into the various symbols the show uses, what we can learn from them and most importantly - why are they so important in historical anime. Thank you for the review Ohirafan! Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/mPYRp-cQrdM Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro & Review Reading 3:31 - Context 4:26 - Flowers 10:24 - Wings / Butterflies 13:19 - Biwa Strings ..read more

I couldn't stop thinking about the anime Heike Monogatari so I decided to make another episode on it - this time, I'm focusing on Episode 9, storyboarded and directed by the amazing Ryouhei Takeshita. This week, I try my best to go into depth on what I think makes this episode a standout one in the series with the goal gaining some more insight into what makes great storytelling in anime. Let's dive into one of the standout anime of the Fall 2021 season for a second time! 0:00 - Intro 1:21 - The Work of Ryouhei Takeshita 4:29 - Lighting 8:09 - Lens & Focus 14:46 - Composition & Cuts 19 ..read more

It's another episode of the Anime OVA series! On this week's edition, I take a look at two OVAs that I enjoyed recently, namely Kyō Kara Ore Wa!! (From Today I'll) (1992) & Lodoss-tou Senki (Record of Lodoss War) (1990). These OVAs are quite different from one another - yet they both taught me a lot of things about comedy, direction, storytelling and more. Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 1:17 - Introducing Kyō Kara Ore Wa!! 5:58 - The Akehisa Arc 6:57 - Thinking About Comedy 10:08 - Introducing Record of Lodoss War 12:24 - The Lodoss War Team 13:44 - Character Designs 14:53 - Thinking About 'Atmo ..read more

Heike Monogatari kind of came out of nowhere and already there's so much to unpack from a visual perspective. In this episode, I attempt to break down this anime's approach to visual storytelling by going through the work of the various storyboard aritsts & episodes directors that featured on Episodes 1-4. How does it's approach fit with the epic's themes? How does Naoko Yamada's style as a director influence the anime's aesthetic? All this and more on this week's edition of Get In The Mecha. Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 1:18 - Context 3:31 - The Yamada Style 9:34 - The Ai Yukimura's Episode 1 ..read more

Akiyuki Shinbo may be one of the greatest anime directors of all time - but how exactly does he direct anime? In this week's episode of Get In The Mecha, I do a brief study of Shinbo's OVAs to get to the bottom of what his style really looks like and what we can learn from his approach to anime. Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 1:56 - Context 3:08 - Le Portrait de Petit Cossette 9:09 - Shin Hurricane Polymar 12:28 - Tenamonya Voyagers 15:42 - Learning from Shinbo 19:33 - Outro + Music Credits Creatives mentioned in this episode: Akiyuki Shinbo, Masahiro Ando, Hirofumi Suzuki Anime mentioned in this ep ..read more