OmarAS

This might seem like something very minor but this shot is proof of how finely tuned the color design is in City. The blue sky (part of the background art) takes up most of the screen but it's clearly differentiable from the character's lighter blue shirt. Comfortable looking result overall!

Some backgrounds from the final episodes.

The second half of the show struggles a lot production wise but the backgrounds always remain excellent. Generational effort.

Really like the subtle green/light purple brush strokes on trees and other structures, which I think serve to convey shading and volume.

Akage no Anne

Art Director: Masahiro Ioka

One of the most impressive efforts in TV anime background art ever.

日記です

Rocket Start! +, MLTD

Who Comes Up With Anime’s Openings & Endings? The Impressive Sequences Of The Present And The Historical Evolution Of Their Creators Spring 2025 is coming to an end, and with it, a lot of incredible opening and ending sequences. It’s time to delve deep into those works and their creators, but even more importantly, how the…

Wrote about many dazzling openings & endings in anime lately! The cool creators behind them and their techniques, who has historically been in charge, and how current circumstances (overwork, inflated expectations, cynicism) have shifted that role. Complex topic! blog.sakugabooru.com/2025/06/28/w...

On a similar note: Maenami has explicitly said that the episode that inspired him to one day key animate everything on his own was Tetsuya Takeuchi's work in Honey and Clover #07. Will this inspire people to go watch the show? Probably not, but it should

And he sure did...(don't tell him it's most probably not a guest)

Episode 26, Animas

急にノスタルジックになって昔のエロゲを見ながら見よう見まねで雰囲気を出した

The Word Count Issue #1 - ekonte (絵コンテ) - Magical Stage In the first edition of The Word Count we take a look at ekonte (絵コンテ), it's etymology and its vital importance to anime production!

A new article has just dropped on Magical Stage! @buildknuckle.bsky.social starts The Word Count, a brand new series looking at the many words in anime, the first being ekonte!

magicalstage.moe/2025/01/25/t...

Motto Doremi's ending sequence is my favourite one so far. Beautiful visuals, emotional song and it tells a really nice little story!

You can tell when something will Happen involving BG elements because objects meaningfully interacted with are drawn in cel. This is part of the charm but it can rob you of suspense, so directors in both new & classic anime have attempted ingenious ways to hide that - Takashi Anno was great at it

Really wanted Zenshuu to be good since it's an original led by Mitsue Yamazaki, but ever since that 2nd PV that revealed it was an isekai I lost hope and the first episode confirmed it. It's just a boring mess, the nice bank animation won't save it. Genuinely baffled

Get more from Sakugabooru, Sakuga Blog, and Sakuga Video on Patreon creating Animation Appreciation, With A Focus On Japanese Anime

Friends are bullying me ruthlessly for being bad at self-promotion so: if you enjoy sakugabooru, the articles & interviews we publish/translate, or events like these yearly awards (that are damn costly to run!) you can support us at www.patreon.com/Sakugabooru

I was able to participate in this year's sakuga bowl! Had a lot of fun writing and it's a great honor to be listed together with so many people I hugely respect!

I might have cheated since I wrote the most about non 2024 anime but I'd be really grateful if you read my and everyone else's entries!

But of course the compositing also has its valuable contribution to the show's aesthetic, mainly through the lighting which is coherent with the color palette. Combined with all the other stuff I mentioned above, this makes the beautiful and carefully constructed aesthetic of this show!

Highlights and irotore (colored lines) also make use of the show's main colors to support the aesthetic. This also avoids over reliance on the compositing to define the color of the scene, which is a common problem in modern anime.

If you look at the backgrounds, you can find "brushes" of the three main colors: blue, purple and yellow, even in t he interiors. This helps keep a tight aesthetic sense even in scenes that are not really dominated by a certain color. But if you look close enough you'll find them.

In episode 11, when a ghost torments Byakuya, green is used which is a color foreign to the show's palette and it properly conveys that something is off. When Mira comes over to help, the appartment is dyed in his blue color thus making Byakuya feel safe and being able to sleep.

There are neat uses of this color palette. For example with Formalhaut: his color is yellow, also a Byakuya color. Mira sees him initially as a danger to his relationship with Byakuya, but Formalhaut later shows that he supports them, thus dying the following scene of the pair with his yellow color.

Now that we found colors to the main characters, what I interpret from this is that the whole show's aesthetic is tightly built upon these colors, more specifically, Byakuya's. You see it in the other characters but also the backgrounds and the lighting, which makes for a cohesive aesthetic

The other magical girl, Hibana, is basically the opposite of Byakuya with her violent personality. Her dress is a dark blue/purple. She also has three colors, which are basically more intense variations of Byakuya's blue, purple and yellow.

Mira's color is very straightforward: an intense blue. His fire magic indicates it as well as other scenes focusing on him alone. In the very first scene of the series, he is attacking the city and his color dyes the city and Byakuya

Nevertheless I think we can easily find her color palette by looking at her magical girl transformation. Three colors stand out: very light versions of blue, purple and yellow. Putting one of those into an online color recognizer shows that they make a triad.