All photos by Daryl Harding For the first time since the arson attack and pandemic, Kyoto Animation returned to the halls of Kyoto's Miyako Messe in late October and brought fans into the production process behind the studio's biggest and latest worlds. From storyboards to the finishing animation, KyoAni showcased materials from Sound! Euphonium , Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: A lonely dragon wants to be loved , CITY THE ANIMATION , Free! , and, surprisingly, a few more. "Meet the Worlds of KyoAni" The 7th Kyoto Animation Thanks Event was held over two full days on a cool and wet autumn weekend. Unlike the past two "Thanks" events, which were music festivals held in the ROHM Theatre across the road and lasted just a few hours at night, this year's event was two full days of Kyoto Animation goodness, filling four halls with exhibitions and one massive hall for the special stage events. This year revisits KyoAni's past, when the studio would host these two-day events to introduce their works, rather than just hold a concert. Previously, photography was not allowed and was more structured to keep people moving. The 7th Kyoto Animation Thanks Event was a free-for-all gallery space that was not prepared for the number of people who wanted to see inside the studio. Kyoto Animation Stages Its Future Miyako Messe holds a special place in the heart of Kyoto Animation and its fans. It has been a long-time partner, hosting Fan Days events since 2013. It was also the site of the public and private memorial for the victims of the 2019 arson attack, which was the last time I walked into the venue , as the previous two events were held across the road at the ROHM Theatre. Lines were long, and the gloomy weather reflected the mood of attendees. For many of us, including myself, seeing "Kyoto Animation" on the signs as we walked through the Miyako doors was tough. Those feelings persisted as I walked into the third-floor exhibition hall, which had been converted into an auditorium. But Saturday's stage events weren't about looking back; It was about looking forward with the reveal of Sparks of Tomorrow , the next anime from Kyoto Animation's novel division . The series was initially announced as 20 Seiki Denki Mokuroku back in 2018, but was put on hold for obvious reasons. While CITY THE ANIMATION is technically the first new adaptation from Kyoto Animation since 2019, it's one from an external source and inherited the style of Nichijo . Sparks of Tomorrow , on the other hand, is from the KA Bunko label (KA standing for Kyoto Animation) and is staffed by a whole new team. This is the future of Kyoto Animation I wanted to see years ago . This series is the spark that is KyoAni's future. Seeing the pre-production materials on stage was fun, though it would have been nice to have had an impact on the exhibition space below. Sunday's events started drier than those on Saturday. I utterly adore hearing the intentions behind why a key visual looks a certain way or how the designers addressed certain limitations; It sometimes felt more like I was back at university rather than at an event. Maybe I needed more coffee. That all changed when the Sound! Euphonium panel started with TRUE performing the opening theme. Series director Tatsuya Ishihara, who was on stage to introduce the compilation film's new information, lightened the mood by also trying his hand at singing the opening theme song. Mascots appeared between the events to keep the fun going. Or in the case of CITY THE ANIMATION 's, the horrors. Each day's stage events ended with an orchestral rendition of classic Kyoto Animation music. These were always nice at the end of the Music Festivals to wind down after the rushes that were the J-Pop music that make up anime openings and endings, but here they nearly lulled me into a nap, especially on Sunday. After two full days of the event and then an hour orchestra, everyone was tired. Meeting the Worlds of KyoAni The main meat of the event was the exhibition spaces. One room was the merchandise shop — which sold out almost immediately on both days — while the final room displayed messages from the staff, including handcrafted little "thank you" notes to all those who attended the event. The largest space was the gallery, which spanned two rooms. Welcoming people into the halls was a banner featuring the key visual, along with director Ishihara's desk. Ishihara said in his message that he has always been interested in the desks of manga creators since he was a kid, which is why he wanted to show off his desk to those who may find it interesting. He was correct in doing so – I love this stuff! It's wonderful to see his reference books, figures on display (like a Mikuru from Haruhi Suzumiya on a Sound! Euphonium train) and other oddities around, such as an Epiphone Les Paul, which is famously Yui's Guitar from K-ON! . Next to the desk was a brief overview of the anime production process, accompanied by a few examples in the glass case below. It should be noted that all the production material on display was original, which is likely why some series are more prominent than others. According to the studio's president, a significant amount of physical material was lost in 2019. That hasn't stopped Kyoto Animation from digging up some original key animation frames from some of their oldest hits. Traveling Around CITY THE ANIMATION CITY THE ANIMATION had the most floor space of all the series. This was mostly comprised of a diorama of the Tanabe Residence from the fifth episode, centered in one of the rooms, which was created by Kyoto Animation's background team. It was exceptionally detailed and a joy to examine up close. A lot of the production material on the walls was pre-production sketches and details, which were equally as exceptionally detailed. Like every other area, the key animation frames, both first and second, littered the space, though they held an interesting detail. For most anime, the line art is usually uniform with a digital pass to give it a signature style, such as ONE PIECE' s rougher lines in the Wano Arc. This is a common practice and makes anime more interesting to look at in motion rather than uniform line work. CITY is different: all the line work was in the original key frames, which made the originally hand-drawn frame I was looking at seem fake in some way. They were perfect. Of course, there were some correction sheets (which are the yellow frames in the images), but even then, for a series that has so much motion at its core, having most of that hand-drawn key animation is something that only Kyoto Animation would do. Keeping with the insane details that only KyoAni would do for a silly series like CITY , the 3D models seen in the ending were also on display, as well as some behind-the-scenes looks at the Zelda parody from episode five. KyoAni was so detail-oriented with CITY that it was hard to tell the difference between the pre-finished (with bloom and other digital effects) and the finished animation. The finished product is overall better, especially in motion, but it's hard to pinpoint what, considering the pre-finished animation already looks better than most anime released. One fun aspect of the CITY THE ANIMATION panel was the choice of the name. In Japanese, the "the" was a point of contention with the staff regarding its pronunciation, with "za" being chosen in a particular intonation because, as director Ishidate noted, it was considered "cute." He laughed at the fact that they spent so much time on that simple aspect when people internationally wouldn't even notice, because the title was in English. Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid’s Animation Shines Bright As one of the latest works from Kyoto Animation, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid occupied a significant section of the exhibition space and featured a substantial amount of material. Much of that was original key frames, showcasing the incredible detail that KyoAni puts into the first step of the animation process. What I liked about this is that instead of having all the papers behind glass, which made it difficult to see under heavy lights, Kyoto Animation used a matte plastic/glass hybrid that scattered the light, allowing for better visibility of the frame. I've never seen this used in an exhibition before. Screens were used to showcase the Memorial Gallery, which featured the original key animation base of all the key visuals from A lonely dragon wants to be loved , blending seamlessly into the finished poster. It was really cool to see how these posters started with all the notes still on them, including the key animation frames. If you zoom in on the notes, you'll see that they are handwritten by the animators or an animation director for future parts of the process. A lonely dragon wants to be loved has some of the best lighting in an anime film ever. The orange tones in Kobayashi's apartment set the dramatic mood perfectly, and thankfully, KyoAni showed part of the finishing process for these scenes (and others in the film), so there are spoilers if you haven't seen it yet. The top is the original composition with the usual coloring of the characters on the background. The bottom is the same frame, but with the lightning of the scene added on top of the original work. The change between the two frames, achieved simply by adjusting the lighting, is incredible to see. Sound! Euphonium Serenades While Sound! Euphonium didn't have the largest space in the event, it made the most noise. On the second day, it was wall-to-wall of people trying to get pictures of their favorite Kita Uji member in their original key animation frames from the entire franchise, not just material from after 2019. Breaking up the original frames were reproductions of cuts that you could flip through. A few of the other series here also had these to flip through, but being able to flip through the zooms on the immensely detailed instruments or the fantastic character acting that Kyoto Animation excels in is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for fans of the series and the studio. Throughout Sound! Euphonium , each character (of which there are many!) had their own style, different outfits for events and even casual clothes. A small sample of these was shown off with the full character sheets. The complete process, from key to finished animation, for certain characters was featured to show each step in the process alongside the same for the instruments, detailing the shadows and gleam that the euphonium has. There's one thing to look at how the animation was made, but there's another to touch it. Sound! Euphonium is well-known for its sweeping shots of schoolrooms, stages and more. These are usually 3D environments with 2D character animation layered on top. KyoAni showcased the 3D design of the Kita Uji classroom on a touchscreen that anyone could try out, allowing me to zoom in on Kumiko's chair. Uji City, the home of Sound! Euphonium, feels like a character in its own right as it is so richly detailed in the series, alongside being a fantastic partner for Kyoto Animation in its trying times (including letting the studio put its memorial in a historical park that dates back to the 1400s). The backgrounds used in the series, including the famous shot from Episode 8 of season one, which overlooks the city. The Kyoto Animation Arson Memorial in Uji City The end (or start, depending on how you look at it) of the long Eupho corridor was a few school chairs set up, with the instruments used as a reference for the series. The entire exhibition features a surprising number of authentic instruments! Swimming With the Free! Anime Kyoto Animation's internet-breaking swimming anime Free! is an essential franchise for the company. Heralded by its previously separate subsidiary Animation DO, it was the only franchise that the Osaka-based studio held before the studio was absorbed back into KyoAni after the arson. Original key animation frames from The Final Stroke films were on display, and, being the most recent output from the franchise, were obviously readily accessible. Free! spent a lot of time in the water, and in doing so, brought the anime industry forward by blending 3D and 2D animation in the swimming scenes. KyoAni showed off their master craftsmanship in a "Making Gallery." In Free! 's finished animation section, it was interesting to see the color matching between the character sheets and backgrounds. These sheets are used to ensure that characters and objects appear consistent in different environments and under varying lighting conditions, providing a reference for colorists and compositors. Part of the history of Free! is the "Swimming Anime commercial" that Kyoto Animation released in 2013, from the same team as the first season. It was used to showcase the finishing process in real-time for the entire advertisement, and you wouldn't know it was 12 years old. Arrows Fly in Tsurune The boy bow show of Tsurune got a small space in the exhibition with some key frames and digital materials. Tsurune is very authentic to the archery experience, which means KyoAni had to recreate the utterly detailed outfits and all the bows. And then do it again for every character in all the teams. Zooming in on the character models, colors for every aspect of the character are available to reference when digitally filling in the key frames. Typically, we'd only have the standard character setting art publicly available, so it's fascinating to see a complete sheet that animators would use on a daily basis. Violet Evergarden Breaks Hearts The Violet Evergarden series is by far the most detailed of KyoAni's works, with intricacies that are unrivaled in any anime production then and now. The original key frames on display reveal these aspects, especially in the mechanics of the series, such as Violet's hand, cars and typewriters. Again, most of the original art on display is from post-arson, but that doesn't limit the breathtaking quality of seeing these frames, including one of my favorite frames from the entire event. The eye reference stating that you can always see the lines of the eye through the hair. Violet Evergarden innovatively utilized CG meshes, enabling the compositing team to incorporate a 3D camera into the 2D animation, creating movement from still images. This technique was also implemented to move the flowers in the same space, which were not initially animated and were only selected for this purpose at this stage of the production process. Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! Takes on Anime Production Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! is the oldest series to receive its own dedicated section, and it mainly features production materials from the Take on Me! film, released in 2018, with minimal key frames and more digital materials. Throughout the event, the production material had a few little notes on it, and Chunibyo 's were about KyoAni's famous eyes. While there are a few different examples of notes, they all stipulate that the character's eye is to be covered by their hair, but their eyebrows are to be visible at all times. Complimenting the Animation of KyoAni Outside of animation, KyoAni also operates a publishing label, which Violet Evergarden , Free! and several other series originated. A whole section was dedicated to the label, showing some uncut pages from the novels, the print color collaborator, a gallery of covers and insert pages and an in-production cover for Moon Fighters! , a series that got a surprising amount of space in at the exhibition for a book series – maybe one to watch out for? Kyoto Animation also operates a music label, Kyoani Muse Labo, which collaborated with Evan Call (composer of Violet Evergarden and our tears) on a release. That release showcased some of its production art. The room adjacent to the exhibition room was filled with thanks. Thanks from the staff in the form of adorable, hand-drawn postcards with warm messages of appreciation for everyone's support. And gifts to the studio in the form of flower bundles. These flower bundles are standard at big events or openings and are often provided by working partners or fans. The final section of the event was downstairs in the basement, where barely anyone tread, thankfully. Winding down with standees of all the main characters from each featured anime, and then on the back wall, the history of Kyoto Animation. Every single work that Kyoto Animation produced had its visuals on display, including the next Sound! Euphonium film and the upcoming Spark of Tomorrow series. A perfect visual to bookend this chapter of Kyoto Animation, a look toward an even more incredible future.
