Well, the summer anime season is well under way and the first series that I've been anticipating has aired.
It's a fact that Tetsuro Araki does not get enough credit for making the Death Note anime as successful as it was. Alas, that's more of often than not going to be the case when you're adapting someone else's work through an anime. Once again, he's adapting someone else's work because the only way talented people can seem to get any work nowadays is by tying them to an already existing property. Clearly anime is just as bad or worse as Hollywood.
Yousuke Kuroda (Big Windup!, Hellsing Ultimate) is handling the series composition, and Masayoshi Tanaka is the main character designer.
The first episode reminds me of the first episode of Death Note. The pacing is crisp and right to point. There are some dramatic and pensive moments, but it doesn't bore you in the details. The framing and camera work is also replete with Araki's style. A perfect example is the cut of the camera flying past the scenery and zooming in on the characters that you see right before the credits. I can't say that I'm a fan of some of the character designs for the female characters, but the fanservice is one of the factors to hook in the audience so it didn't turn out as bad as it could have been (see Dragonaut). Tanaka and Shinichi Miyamae are the animation directors for this episode. The drawings were particularly solid and dynamic throughout given the restraints of a TV series budget. Not breathtaking, but definitely nice. The show is apparently around 12-13 episodes long, so there's a good possibility that it can keep up with this kind of quality. As long as they do the same for the pacing of the script, this show will turn out to be a real winner.
There was reference to 28 Days Later in the episode, but it went over my head. Zombie movies aren't typically my thing. But I think that kind of allusion is a good sign that the staff has firm grip of the kind of thinking they need to have to make this show successful.
Of the key animators listed, I'm only familiar with Terumi Nishii from his work as an animation director in Death Note and Casshern Sins. There were quite a number of KAs and 2nd KAs, but I'd still like to know about how these two groups of animators work together to put out the final product. There's so much that needs to be written about how the animation process is handled in Japan. In any case, check this show out.
The show is streaming now at Anime Network's site. You need to be registered to be able to view the episode (not to mention living in certain parts of the world...)