When it comes to the combination of boy and girl and monster partners in anime, which work will you think of first? Is it pokémon trainers and Pokemon in Pokémon, or the selected kids and Digimons in Digimon, or something else?
Digimon
In Japanese anime works, there always seems to be some special connection between teenagers and monsters, just like the relatively unpopular animation work "CENCOROLL" (replaced by the Chinese translation "Senko" introduced by the author today), which also positions the protagonist as a teenager and a monster, but this work has a lot of special flavor, simple lines and color, but because of the wonderful battles to leave a deep impression on the audience.
"Senko" itself and the director can be said to be a special existence in the animation industry.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Atsuya Uki and his Chiko</h1>
The improvement and popularization of computer performance made it possible for individual animation to be made possible in the early 21st century, and thus a large number of independent animators were born in that period, and Makoto Shinkai and his "Voice of stars" are typical representatives. The director of this game, Atsuya Uki, was also one of the most famous independent animators of the period, and had amazing performances in both manga and animation production.
Chiko
The source of the creation of "Senko" is related to an institution in Japan, the animation revolution Tokyo, the cradle of independent animators, the provision of funds and working environments for creative and thoughtful animators, and the resources for publicity, which has helped many people produce excellent animation works. Chiko was one of the first installments of the Anime Revolution Tokyo, but the first beta version of Senko didn't attract much attention, and Atsuya Uki's 2004 anime Dragons awake was a stepping stone to her career, with the help of Atsuhiro Iwagami, a producer of animplex, which led to the 2009 theatrical version.
Teaser poster
This version of "Senko" in addition to partial coloring and post-music, almost all the work is done by Ugi Atsuya independently, followed by 74 minutes of "Chiko 2" from the first release, spanning nearly 10 years, originally wanted to complete it alone, Uki Atsuya also found someone to help. He fully shows the style of an independent animator, drawing his favorite paintings and telling his own story.
"CENCORLL" tells the story of young boys and monsters, the name comes from the words "cenco" and "control", and the domestic basically uses the translation of the monster of the protagonist of "Qianzi". The story tells that a huge monster suddenly appears in an ordinary town, and the girl Snow accidentally discovers the secret that the boy Tetsu of the same school can control the strange creature Chiko, out of curiosity about the boy and The Thousand Son, the girl and the two boys who master different monsters have a relationship and start a series of adventure stories.
The protagonist group
In Japan, where the animation industry is relatively mature, there are still independent animators who do not have a lot of capital support, and there is no commercial animation to consider too much about the constraints of the audience, so we can see more aspects of animation.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > "monster fantasy" active around boys and girls</h1>
Unlike mature animation works such as Digimon and Pokémon, which also feature teenagers and monsters as protagonists, the world of Senko is more single, but full of imagination.
Compared to the colorful children's world, Atsuya Uki prefers to decorate his animation world with black and white gray, and although the protagonist of his works is a teenager, the audience seems to be more diverse.
Dominant color
In his works, monsters of various shapes and young girls become the character composition of the story, and the refreshing middle school students and the combination of school uniforms suddenly show the sense of vitality.
The character positioning in "Senko", the young Tetsu and the maiden Snow, plus the mysterious monster Chiko with special powers, the three people constitute the protagonist group of the work. This is the most distinctive style in the works of director Atsuya Uki, a vibrant adolescence, but also a period when imagination and creativity are very active, and it is more authentic and infectious to take young boys and girls as the protagonists of the story.
Different roles
The collision of imagination in the juvenile period is also fierce, the fight between monsters is extremely destructive, bringing great destruction to the city, the role of adults is constantly weakened, the application of 2DCG technology adds a sense of picture to the characters and battles, and a large number of urban destruction scene portrayals in the whole work also increase the destructive effect of this collision of ideas.
Destruction of the city
At the same time, the dense urban complex in the work, the cold-colored ruins left after the fight, bring the effect of science fiction to the whole work, and the duel between monsters is also from the duel of the sword of the cold weapon to the fiery war of the shell, a large number of fight scenes and various deformations of the monster give the work a taste of science fiction.
deformation
2009's "Qianzi" is only 27 minutes long, the background of the story is not clearly explained, just around the fight between several people, although the background of the battle is the entire city, but the pattern of the story itself is reduced to the young boys and girls, it seems to be a simple daily crisis, this narrative structure, the main body of the story is all gathered in front of the audience, and the simplified plot introduction is also fully introduced in the 2019 "Thousand Sons 2".
A large number of action scenes integrated into the work make a short animation short film with a short time, under the premise of limited narrative, play the action scene to a certain height, and this work has also been expected by countless people, because it has led to a new trend of independent animation, and at the same time, it also allows us to see the possibility of individual animation.
protagonist
It can be said that the work "Senko" allows us to see the most interesting side of this story, and also lets us understand the unlimited potential of director Atsuya Uki, and "Senko 2" ten years later can be regarded as a complete presentation of this story to the audience.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > "Thousand Sons 2" that spanned ten years and so on</h1>
From "Thousand Sons" to "Thousand Sons 2", many viewers waited for 10 years. "Senko 2" took five years from its announcement in 2014 to its release in 2019, and I only hope that the third part can meet the audience soon.
"Senko 2" tells the story of monster fantasies and boys and girls in its entirety, and the colors are brighter and more cheerful, considering the time span, the story of the first part is cleverly integrated into it. The origins of the monsters, their ability attributes, and the organization behind them are also introduced.
Bright colors
This time the monster story is comprehensive and specific, and "Senko 2" also leaves a foreshadowing for the third part at the end, the appearance of mysterious teenagers and new monsters, indicating that the director is planning a larger monster world.
derive from
In this work, we see more aspects of Atsuya Uki, the reason why he is highly expected by countless people in the Japanese animation industry is because there are not many independent animators who can be competent in all aspects, and he has shared many positions in "Senko 2", including supervision/storyboarding/scripting/character design/original painting/animation/coloring/editing/background/color design/photography, etc., which can be said to be a comprehensive animator.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the animated life of Atsuya Unki</h1>
Because after the "Senko" fire, Uki Atsuya received a lot of anime invitations, 2012's "Fishing Ball" and 2015's "Digimon Tri", the characters he designed have been criticized because they are too different from the original generation, and the good or bad have their own judgments.
In the world of independent animators, Atsuya Uki has always been considered by many to be the general existence of the "second shinkai Makoto", but his path is more comprehensive and more down-to-earth, and in terms of animation production, he is all-round, painting and production are involved. But in terms of content, Atsuya Unki seems to have always loved only the stories of monsters and teenage girls he wants to export.
The charm of independent animators lies in the fact that the whimsy in their minds are conveyed to the audience in a suitable way, creating a different style. How many years to wait for "Thousand Sons 3" is unknown, but it must be a more exciting monster world.