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Asatte no Houkou: A Quirky Tour
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This 12-episode J. C. Staff production screened in the fall of 2006 and has sadly remained under the radar for most anime fans. It is based on a magical premise -- a young girl and a disillusioned woman exchange ages thanks to a wishing stone at a roadside shrine -- but for most of its course it follows a strict slice-of-life format. An interesting psychological study, we see the girl-grown-old slowly coming to terms with what it means to be socially and sexually mature, while the woman-returned-to-childhood revisits many of the emotional "stuck points" that have made her adult life unsatisfying.
The series was directed by Katsushi Sakurabi, whose credits included work on Love Hina, Revolutionary Girl Utena (TV and Movie), Rozen Maiden, and Tsukihime, Lunar Legend (overall director). Series composition was credited to Seishi Minakami, who had recently done the same job for Daphne in the Brilliant Blue and soon after took a higher-visibility task in collaborating with Satoshi Kon on the screenplay to the film Paprika.
This tour, like previous series retrospectives, highlights the main characters and the episodes for which I have art. From the point of view of animation art, the most interesting aspect of the series is that it was Ikuko Itou's first major project after creating Princess Tutu. She is credited with character design for the series and acted as Chief Animation Director for all the odd-numbered episodes. Shinya Hasegawa, character designer for Revolutionary Girl Utena (TV and movie), was Chief Animation Director for the even-numbered episodes.
A diverse and talented group of junior animators served under them. I've been lucky enough to obtain enough material from this well-produced series that I can sort out individual styles present and identify many of the artists.
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