2013 Winter Anime] "Love Live! gdgd Fairies" and "Tamako Market" - Let's take a look back at historical anime that will celebrate their 10th anniversary this year! Anime 10 Years in the Past

In the world of anime, 10 years ago may seem like a long time ago, but at the same time, it is a delicate and perfect time, as some series are still being broadcasted today.

This time, I would like to take a look at what kind of works were broadcast in the TV anime world 10 years ago - in the winter season of 2013.

Love Live! School idol project

A major media mix project by KADOKAWA, Lantis, and Sunrise, "Love Live! School idol project" by KADOKAWA and Lantis Sunrise, the anime version of which began airing in January 2013.

The project originally started in 2010 as a reader participation project in Dengeki G's magazine, a bishojo oriented anime and game magazine. The project incorporates fans' opinions in various ways, including ideas for unit names and goods, dance positions, and song composition. The magazine's reader participation project has produced many works, including "Sister Princess," which has been made into an anime and video game.

Love Live! is one of the reasons why "Love Live!" was able to create a particularly large movement, not to mention its link to the current era of idol wars. In the Heisei era, towns are being forced to "revitalize their towns" due to the recession, but there are local idols that you can go and see. And fans can push them closer to the girls than they can see them on TV.

In the world of "Love Live! world, nine girls form the "school idol" group "Muse" to save their alma mater, which is in danger of being closed down, and begin their activities to compete in the "Love Live! The nine girls start their activities with the aim of competing in the "Love Live! The school they attend, Kunitachi Otonokizaka Gakuin, is located near Akihabara, and the actual location appears in the film. Akihabara has always been a town where many idols are active, so it is no surprise that μ's is among them. In addition, in the reader participation project, we were able to promote μ's in various ways, including through voting. In this sense, it can be said that μ's and its fans were very close.

Another key point is the strong backbone of this story of high school students growing up. Starting with only a few spectators for their first live performance, they worked hard to improve their ranking, but "Love Live! was forced to withdraw from the main competition due to health problems. Then, they again held the "Love Live! Many of you may have experienced the activities of the nine members of "μ's" in your own school days, such as club activities and extracurricular activities.

At the end of the story, "Love Live! members, who are preparing for the main competition and the subsequent breakup of the club, are depicted as having finished practicing but regretting their separation and going straight to school for a campout. Everyone has probably experienced this kind of regretful farewell in some form or another. There is a universal theme of the cruelty of time and the beauty of the end.

This series is known to have many female fans, indicating that this work was accepted by many people beyond its gender. It is not just because it is an idol series that it became popular, but because it is a story of high school students growing and changing through idols, which is why it was able to capture the hearts and minds of viewers.

Dengeki G's magazine, in which various projects for this work were developed, was originally a magazine featuring gal games. While games featuring beautiful girls were called "gal games" and the number of releases on game consoles was decreasing, the smartphone application "Love Live! School Idol Festival" became a hit on smartphones, supported by many people. This is another episode that symbolizes the change in the main battlefield for games featuring beautiful girls.

gdgd fairy s

This 15-minute gag anime depicts the joyful days spent by Pikupikku, the natural-brained fairy, Silsil, the tongue-tied fairy, and Korokoro, the wonder-chan fairy, who live in the "fairy forest. Due to the popularity of the first season of this work, a second season was aired two years later.

The main feature of the series is that the characters and other visuals are created using 3DCG software such as MMD, a free software for 3DCG animation, which many users have picked up because of its ease of use. CG videos are now being posted on the Internet, including the video site "Nico Nico Douga". It can be said that this work is one of the symbols of an era in which the development of tools has made it possible to create CG animation with less effort than ever before.

According to the director, Mr. Sota Sugawara, he was able to create "practically an episode of an animation in a week" using only a few computers at home. In an interview at the time, Mr. Sugawara said, "To put it bluntly, I may be able to prove that I can become an animation production company all by myself," and the recent development of AI may accelerate this trend.

The work is mainly a conversation between three fairies, and the various sections are just like late-night radio: the "Mental and Time Room," in which the three magically summon various people and things and a low-polygon, chaotic world unfolds; the "Mental and Time Room," in which the prearranged images are too strange, and the dialogue is ad-libbed. The "Afflecko" section, in which the audience ad-libbed lines of dialogue to the overly prepared images, became a popular feature. From the second season, in addition to the above sections, the "Unspeaker" section, in which the audience is asked to add their own interpretations of what the mysterious sounds are, was introduced. The emphasis on improvisation has become even more radical.

It is interesting to see the "true" voices of Suzuko Mimori, Kaoru Mizuhara, and Satomi Akasaka, the voice actors in charge of the three, appear and disappear, giving the show a unique and interesting feel as if you were secretly eavesdropping on their conversations. The fact that old and new anime, manga, and video games are mentioned without explanation makes the show comfortable for otaku, and it can be said that this is a program where you can enjoy 15 minutes of "gdgd" in a good sense of the word.

Tamako Market

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya," "Lucky Star," "K-ON! K-ON!" and other animations with original works have created a movement. This "Tamako Market" is an original work, which is rare for KyoAni, and has become a hot topic of conversation.

The main staff of "K-ON!", including Naoko Yamada as director, Reiko Yoshida as series composition, and Yukiko Horiguchi as character design, were assembled. The main staff of "K-ON! The story follows the daily life of Tamako Kitashirakawa, a high school student who is the daughter of a rice cake shop owner, and Della, a talking bird in search of a queen on a southern island. The beauty and precision of the artwork, which has been praised as "Kyo-ani quality," is still present in this work.

The "Usagiyama Shopping Street" where Tamako lives is modeled after the Demachi Masugata Shopping Street in Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto. It has a unique modernity with its rows of short buildings, modern LCD TVs and old-fashioned sinks coexist in the houses, and a coffee shop ...... where you can enjoy coffee in exotic decorated cups amidst a large number of vinyl records. The unique atmosphere and lifestyle that Kyoto has to offer is well represented, and is indeed the work of Kyoto Animation.

The daily life that everyone spends in such a Usagiyama shopping street is warm and beautiful. Making new friends in the new semester, confessions at the seaside school, building a haunted house to liven up the shopping arcade, and striving for the success of the cultural festival stage are all depicted in this beautiful and fast-paced depiction of student life. Set in Kyoto, a city with a unique atmosphere, "Tamako Market" is a coming-of-age story of high school students with the added fantasy elements of a dreamy, friendly shopping district and a mysterious talking bird.

The film received high acclaim, and the story continued a year later in the theater version, "Tamako Love Story. In the Usagiyama shopping arcade after Della's disappearance, Tamako confronts the feelings of her childhood friend, and a more sensitive story unfolds.

(Text by Shinichi Yanamoto)