The animation studio was founded on September 1st 1975 by HiroshiWakao. The company originally contracted itself out to help paint and produce animations for other studios but were later able to start making their own productions.
Since 2004 Hiroshi Wakao has since been retired and Kubota Mitsutoshi has taken up the role of representative director. Since the companies new management, Akiyuki Shinbo, Tatsuya Oishi and Shin Onuma have directed, produced of screen played most of shafts productions till date and have become the new face of shafts giving this studio its very own unique feel.
Their work is packed with gags literal and subtle, they have a famous head tilt which WILL be added to ANYTHING and EVERYTHING! A habit of making references to people and other anime’s in the background through the use of posters, billboards and blackboards, sometimes revealing their own screw ups or fun facts about past productions.
Since 2004 Hiroshi Wakao has since been retired and Kubota Mitsutoshi has taken up the role of representative director. Since the companies new management, Akiyuki Shinbo, Tatsuya Oishi and Shin Onuma have directed, produced of screen played most of shafts productions till date and have become the new face of shafts giving this studio its very own unique feel.
Their work is packed with gags literal and subtle, they have a famous head tilt which WILL be added to ANYTHING and EVERYTHING! A habit of making references to people and other anime’s in the background through the use of posters, billboards and blackboards, sometimes revealing their own screw ups or fun facts about past productions.
To sum it up, chances are if you’re watching a pilot episode and the word shaft doesn’t pop into your mind then it most probably is not a shaft production. There unique directing style is most definitely what has drawn me to them in an industry where almost everyone looks the same, shaft sticks out like a sore thumb.
Since 2004 the painting staffs has been downsized to make room for more digital editing and 3d artists to help improve the quality of their productions but they are still relatively new and downsizing and up scaling unevenly can effect production. shaft has been well known for not being able to finish productions in time or getting other studios to help create works for them time to time. A well-known example of this is episode 10 of their Bakemonogatari series while their highest selling series at the time episode 10 got dubbed the “NO ANIMATION” episode. Due to lack of time and resource management there was no one to draw animations properly this created an episode with stationary images and only lip-syncing animation for the most part.
The lack of quality during production (if any at all should occur) leads on to one of my most favourite things about this studio and further sets them apart from other animation studios. They will always give 100% quality during their Blu-ray and DVD releases; this is when you notice just how spectacular the skills this studio has are, entire episodes get a complete makeover, segments can be completely redrawn and redesigned, edited to provide a better feel and changed to create a high quality product that can rival the quality of a feature length production. It’s definitely a big plus side for them to keep their fan base in their early years.
Heres a little taste of Shafts specialised High-On-Drugs animations that they've become famous for. This is the opening sequence for the show Sayonara, Zetsubo Sensei OVA2
Heres a little taste of Shafts specialised High-On-Drugs animations that they've become famous for. This is the opening sequence for the show Sayonara, Zetsubo Sensei OVA2
As you can see its not really what you would expect from your average cartoon, and what makes it even more unique is this style is often embedded into the shows themselves at points. of course it isn't always to everyone's taste so at times Shaft has been known as a love it or hate it company.
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