Hello everyone. It’s Justin and welcome to the Otaku Mind. When it comes to anime the two most important aspects are story/characters and animation. It’s been debated on which one is more important, some say it’s animation others say it’s the story/characters. Personally, I think the story/characters are the most important as those are the factors that keep us coming back for more and stick with us. With that said, I do understand the importance of animation. Over the years the anime industry has started placing more importance on the animation aspect of a show. Throughout the years there’s been a number of studios that have upped their game in the animation department such as Mappa, Bones, Trigger, Wit, and even A-1 to name a few. However, one studio that has overtaken them and cemented itself as the king of animation is Ufotable. From anime obscurity to a household name when people talk about the best studios in Japan, Ufotable’s climb to success is one of triumph. Since we’re in the middle of The Summer of Fate and just got done looking at two of Ufotable’s best works, it only seems right to shine the spotlight on this studio. I’m Justin and this is the Rewatch: Ufotable.
UAS (Unidentified Animation Studio)
Our story begins in the year 2000 at TMS Entertainment where we focus on a man named Hikaru Kondou (aka Matsuri Ouse). Hikaru worked at TMS as a producer/animator and even help on a few Lupin the Third specials/movies. While I couldn’t find any ill feelings toward TMS in my research, Hikaru and his friends wanted more. They wanted to create a studio where everyone could gather around a table and share ideas with each other. They had everything they needed to start a studio. Animators, a producer, a color designer, money, and passion, but they didn’t have a name. Hikaru was in charge of the name but just couldn’t think of one. He didn’t want the name to sound too business-y and felt the name should reflect what he wanted to express to people as well as what he wanted to achieve with this new studio. While out shopping one day he came across a table that was owned by a Scandinavian private company and liked it. It had a unique design and was close to the ground where you could sit and get work done or chat with others. Sadly, he didn’t have the money to buy it, but the image of that table stuck with him because it looked like a UFO. Thus, he named the studio Ufotable and would later go on to buy the table at a later date. In fact, they even bring the table out to events from time to time. The studio would go on to officially open for business in October of 2000.
Obscured but Silly Early Years
Despite getting started in 2000, the studio didn’t release an official anime until 2002 and if you think their early work was as detailed and well-structured as it currently is, boy are you in for a shock. The early animes of Ufotable were the exact opposite of what it is today. Despite being serious about production and heavily utilizing their own staff their animes were kind of all over the place. They had wild pacing and plotlines with serious moments introduced only to get dashed to the side or used as the setup for a future laugh. Going back and watching their early work honestly felt like watching two separate studios. Their first anime was Weiß Kreuz Glühen better known as White Cross Glow. This series is a spin-off of Weiß Kreuz which focuses on four assassins who work as vigilantes killing people the law can’t touch. Glühen focuses on two new members along with original members who are investigating a series of unusual suicides at a school. The anime itself was mediocre and is best known for having a lot of behind-the-scenes issues. While the animation quality was higher than the original anime, the character designs were vastly different due to legal disputes with the original character designer and even the translated title of the series had to be changed to Knight Hunters Eternity. Not the most noteworthy start to a studio but not a weird one either. No, that came in the following years. In 2003 the studio would release Dokkoida?! A comedy anime about a boy named Suzuo who gets hired by an alien girl named Tanpopo to test out an experimental battle suit developed by an intergalactic toy company she works for. Suzuo uses the suit to fight bad guys as well as rival toy companies and organizations hoping to crush the competition. In 2004 the studio would go on to produce Ninja Nonsense: The Legend of Shinobu which follows the story of a young kunoichi named Shinobu who befriends a normal girl named Kaede and her comedic life as she trains to be a ninja. Both of these shows were all over the place with their stories and plotlines that it actually felt more entertaining tuning in and seeing what sort of craziness they were going to do next. Both shows would go unnoticed and made no sense with only a few people watching them and they haven’t stood the test of time very well.
Getting Organized with Original Work
While the early years of Ufotable saw them produce anime that barely anyone watched and went against the image they were trying to create, it did help them on two fronts, getting organized and focusing on their original works. One of the unique things about Ufotable was that all of their animation was done in-house. I talked about this briefly in my Fate/Zero review, but basically, a majority of studios out there rely on freelance workers and other studios to get the animation done for an anime. This allows the studio to keep the costs down, take on more jobs, and make more money. The only problem is the quality of the animes will be inconsistent with each other. In short, you could get something well animated like Kaguya-sama: Love is War or crappy like Junji Ito Collection. Ufotable (and Kyoto Animation for that matter) do the opposite. They don’t take on a lot of jobs putting more emphasis on the quality of their animes rather than the quantity. Because all their work is in-house you were guaranteed consistency, and nothing indicates that their works had a higher budget than the average budget given normally to produce an anime. This means that all that high-quality animation you see from them today is the result of a well-organized team who were passionate about the project they were working on and went all-out to make it the best anime possible. Anyway, 2005 would see Ufotable start to make anime that would reflect the image they wanted to create by producing original works. The first was Futakoi Alternative which was co-produced with Feel and Studio Flag. The anime focuses on a man named Rentaro who runs a detective agency when two twin girls named Sara and Soju show up at his doorstep and move in with him working as his secretaries and developing feelings for him. This anime is actually a spinoff from another anime called Futakoi which focuses on a boy named Hina (who shares the same last name as Rentaro) and his life with 6 pairs of twin sisters who develop feelings for him and some of the girls do appear in Alternative. I remember watching this anime back in college but nothing really stuck with me. The plot was nothing major and the characters were forgetful. Classifying Alternative is difficult. At one point it’s a romantic comedy then an action story then a sci-fi/fantasy story then back to the romantic comedy. This was a major criticism for the anime, it could never decide what it wanted to be and just bounced around seeing what stuck. The anime was nothing major and fans are split about it. Some like it while others don’t because of the criticisms I mentioned earlier.
Moving on to 2006, Ufotable released their second original work Coyote Ragtime Show. It focuses on a girl trying to find this treasure her dad left her on a lawless planet, a group of pirates aiding her, and a mobster/assassin searching for the treasure as well. The best way to describe this show is what would happen if you mixed Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, and One Piece together but instead of focusing on the plot and characters you instead focus on the over-the-top action and that’s what this series does well. It knows what it is, is comfortable with that, and gives you over-the-top action you would expect to see in a lawless space frontier filled with pirates, assassins, mobsters, and lawmen. It’s not for everyone but if you like Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star I don’t see any harm in checking it out. The last original work they did around this time was Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight. Released in 2007, this was a slice-of-life school comedy that takes place in the year 2035. The birth rate has dropped dramatically, and schools are being shut down because of a lack of students. Morale in school is low as well. At an all-girl school, an energetic and optimistic girl named Manami becomes the student council president and works with her friends to raise the morality of the school. Again, nothing major but the series did gain some level of popularity thanks to the school comedy phase the industry was going through courtesy of Kyoto Animation around this time. While the original works weren’t great it did help the studio get more organized with what they wanted to do and moving forward they were ready to shake up the industry for the better.
New Decade and New Standard
After Manabi Straight, Ufotable would take a break from major anime projects. However, they weren’t just sitting around and doing nothing. From 2007-2009, Ufotable would produce a series of films based off the light novel, The Garden of Sinners. The prototype to Fate/stay night and Tsukihime series, The Garden of Sinners focuses on the life of a girl named Shiki who was raised be a demon hunter and the various cases she undertook. The series was a hit and it was here that we got our first look at that high-quality animation that Ufotable would come to be known for. Along with this film series, Ufotable would also take work in the videogame industry. The studio would go on to produce the opening animation and cutscenes for a variety of JRPGs such as God Eater, Black Rock Shooter, The Tales series, and various Type-Moon games over the years. To this day they still work on various videogames with their most recent being Tales of Arise and the Demon Slayer videogame. Finally, 2011 rolled around and with their impressive work so far, Type-Moon would ask them to produce anime for Fate/Zero and oh man, was this their golden ticket. I’ve already reviewed this series so click here to see my thoughts on it, but here’s the overview. 8 mages from all over the world (mainly Europe) gather in Japan to partake in the Holy Grail War. A war in which the mages summon a servant who is a historical figure from history to do battle with other historical figures. The last mage and servant left standing at the end of the war is declared the winner and receives the Holy Grail which can grant them any wish they want (just like Twisted Metal). This series was incredible. The characters were great, the story interesting, and the animation. My God, the animation. This is without a doubt some of the best animation I have seen in an anime and it still holds up to this day. Fate/Zero was a big hit and got people interested in the Fate series. In 2013 Ufotable would revisit The Garden of Sinners by releasing an anime that covers the first four and seventh films. Aside from better animation, I think you’d be better off sticking to the films to get the full story of the series.
In 2014 Ufotable would return with Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works which follows a route from the main series of the game with all new characters. Just like Fate/Zero this was a big hit with the animation quality being even better than Zero and the story still good and interesting. While I personally like Zero more, I think this series was still good and if you’re looking to get into the Fate series then definitely check this out. 2015-2017 would see Ufotable continue to make anime based off of videogames they worked on in the past. The first was God Eater based off the videogame under the same name. In a post-apocalyptic world, an organization known as Fenrir fight against monsters using weapons known as God Arcs. I never played the game so I skipped over the anime but I did see a few clips on Youtube for reference. The animation style they used was good but not as good as the animation style used in the Fate animes. You can tell Ufotable was experimenting with this style of animation as there are a few oddities here and there, but the character designs, weapons, and backgrounds look good. The only major downsides with this anime is that the story isn’t all that good and the monsters have terrible CGI. In 2016 Ufotable would adapt Tales of Zestiria the X based on Tales of Zestiria and Tales of Berseria. While the anime follows the story of Zestiria, characters from Berseria make an appearance because the anime was airing around the time Berseria was about to be released and Bandai Namco wanted to promote the game. The final videogame they adapted into an anime was Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu in 2017. A free-to-play browser that was popular among females because it featured pretty boys fighting and historical figures. Kind of went unnoticed but it had some good animation.
2018 was a quiet year for the studio as they only produced an OVA series called Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family, a slice-of-life comedy that focuses on Shiro making food for his family and friends in this alternate universe. But they came back guns blazing in 2019 with their best anime yet, Demon Slayer. Based off the hit manga, Demon Slayer follows the story of Tanjiro whose family gets killed by a demon. His only surviving family member is his sister, Nezuko, who has been turned into a demon but still maintains a slight hint of her humanity. Tanjiro becomes a demon slayer and journeys across Japan slaying demons and searching for the demon who killed his family in order to save his sister. This anime is a masterpiece. No other words do this anime justice. It’s spectacular from beginning to end and is one of my all-time favorite animes. Apparently, a lot of people like it as well. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people at my job come in wearing Demon Slayer merchandise. This anime helped skyrocket Demon Slayer’s popularity on a global scale. So much so that it was able to help dethrone One Piece as the highest-grossing manga in Japan. While Fate/stay night finally got people interested in Ufotable, Demon Slayer made them a household name and helped them be recognized as one of the best studios in Japan. In 2020 they would release a Demon Slayer movie called Mugen Train which serves as a sequel to the anime and became the highest-grossing film in Japan. Finally, in 2021 they would release the second season of Demon Slayer where they killed it in the animation department and became the undisputed king of animation, and yes I am going to review the second season but feel free to check out my reviews of the first season and Mugen Train here. Oh and they also made another Fate series. Between 2017 and 2020 Ufotable would release a Fate film series called Heaven’s Feels which would cover the final route of the game, but we’ll get to that at a later date. As of now Ufotable is using the rest of 2022 to prepare for 2023 where they’re bringing back Demon Slayer and producing a few projects along with Type-Moon.
Conclusion
The rise of Ufotable from an unknown studio to the industry leader in animation is an amazing tale that will be well documented in history books. Ufotable continues to build on its legacy and will go down in history as being one of the best studios of all time. What do you guys think of Ufotable? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.