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Powerpuff Girls Z 15A.1: The Targeted Fashion Show
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Many of the sketches that have come up for sale from this series come from the first half of Episode 15: "The Targeted Fashion Show." This provides an unusual opportunity to see not just the range of sketch art produced in the CGI age, but actually get a feel for the texture of an individual episode. Looking through this gallery will give you a sense of a depth of artistic decisions that go into even a relatively short and simple-minded animated plot.
Director: Takao Iwai
Storyboard: Iku Ishiguro
Animation Direction: Masami Abe
This half-episode featured animation direction by Masaki Abe, an animator with extensive experience, beginning in the mid-1970s. He got his start as episode animation director working with Osamu Tezuka on the short-lived 1975 Toei series Jetter Mars, a reworking of Tezuka's cherished Astro Boy. He subsequently worked on a variety of "golden age" series, notably Fushigi na Koala Blinky aka "Noozles" (Nippon, 1984).
It is significant that all of the PPGZ episodes for which art was released had Abe as episode animation director. While they show a variety of sketching styles in different hands, some of the most effective sketches, especially those done on yellow paper or in blue pencil, probably are Abe's own work. Others are likely early conceptions that the director tried out on paper, then rejected in favor of better ideas.
Caution! Spoilers! Though, to be sure, with a show like PPGZ, that's like giving spoilers for a Roadrunner cartoon. The plot, really, is only an excuse to hold together a series of outrageous and exuberent visual moments.
But, simply put, Momoko and Miyako are recruited to style outfits designed by a loony fashion designer and her assistant. Mojo Jojo infiltrates the show to steal stylish outfits to wear when he takes over the world, but the Powerpuff Girls intervene to save the day.
This episode gives the animators ample range to work with spectacular outfits, not only for the protagonists, but for a rich side cast of minor characters. As world-renowned fashion designer Shiri no Janko-sensei says, Imagination is important!
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