Shaft (company)
Animation studio best known for adding an almost constant stream of references and shouts out to other series in the backgrounds of their shows. This usually manifests itself as writing on blackboards and posters which change with every cut. Also known for having a somewhat minimalist yet oddly stylish bent to their own productions. One of the more divisive anime studios. People either love the style or hate it. Middle ground is rare. Oh, and keep one thing in mind: whether the adapted work was originally a Widget Series or not, the Shaft anime will most likely be one. They were also one of the animation studios behind Jayce and The Wheeled Warriors.
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Who's the studio that baits otaku dick |
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Akiyuki Shinbo has been their primary director since 2004, and is responsible for much of their present image.
Note that some fans refer to this just as "Shaft". Do not confuse this with a badass mother- (SHUT YO' MOUTH!), or a minor character of the same name in two Castlevania games.
Studio SHAFT solo productions:
- Arakawa Under the Bridge
- Arcade Gamer Fubuki
- Bakemonogatari
- Nisemonogatari
- Kizumonogatari
- Dance in The Vampire Bund
- Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko
- Ef a Fairy Tale of The Two series
- G On Riders
- Hidamari Sketch
- Katteni Kaizo
- Maria Holic
- Natsu no Arashi!
- Negima!?
- Pani Poni Dash
- Popotan
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica (the studio's first original series)
- Rec - Not to be confused with the Spanish zombie movie ~[REC]~.
- Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
- Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru
- Tsukuyomi Moon Phase
- Kid Icarus short "Paultena's Revolting Dinner"
In cooperation with Studio Gainax:
Shows for Di C:
- Jayce and The Wheeled Warriors (With Sunrise, KK C&D Asia and others)
- Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling (With Hanho Heung Up and Wang Film Productions)
- Popples (With KKC and D Asia, Madhouse, Studio Junio and Studio Korumi)
- Dennis The Menace (Color Styling)
- ALF Tales (With Mook DLE and KK C&D)
Other projects as support include:
- Ai Yori Aoshi (Digital Paint; Digital Coloring for Enishi)
- Angel Sanctuary (In-Between Animation)
- Arcthe Lad (Animation)
- Ashita no Joe (Finish Animation; Second series)
- Beck (Finish Animation)
- The Big O (Finish Animation)
- Bleach (Animation)
- Blood Plus (In-Between Animation)
- Le Chevalier Deon (In-Between Animation)
- Code Geass (In-Between Animation; first season)
- The Castleof Cagliostro (Ink & Paint)
- Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure (Co-Producer with AIC)
- Darker Than Black (In-Between Animation; Gemini of the Meteor season)
- Eden of the East (In-Between Animation)
- Eureka Seven (In-Between Animation; Digital Paint)
- Excel Saga (Production Cooperation)
- Eyeshield 21 (Animation; Finish Animation)
- FLCL (In-Between Animation)
- Generator Gawl (Finish Animation)
- Ghost Hunt (In-Between Animation)
- Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (In-Between Animation)
- Gundam 00 a Wakening of The Trailblazer (In-Between Animation)
- Neon Genesis Evangelion (Cel Painting)
- Noein (In-Between Animation)
- Ouran High School Host Club (In-Between Animation)
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (In-Between Animation)
Tropes associated with Shaft:
- Anime First: Puella Magi Madoka Magica is their first ever original work (read: not based on any pre-existing material).
- Deconstruction
- Deranged Animation
- To quote a random blogger: Whenever I watch a SHAFT anime, I feel like I’m on acid. Not just a little bit of acid, a tanker truck filled with it.
- Design Student's Orgasm
- Enhanced On DVD: Their by-now infamous scrambling to meet deadlines during a show's original airing season generally means improved animation for the eventual DVD release. They've become so notorious for it that this practice of revising art and animation has come to be known as "Shafting", as in "Bakemonogatari was Shafted".
- Harem Genre: Most of their series have at most The One Guy.
- Hey, It's That Guy!: Akiyuki Shinbo has directed a good number of Shaft's productions.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Hiroshi Kamiya and Chiwa Saitou are often present in many of their shows, and sometimes even share the same show. Other Shaft regulars include Ai Nonaka, Aoi Yuki, Asami Sanada, Chiaki Omigawa, Emiri Katou, Eri Kitamura, Kana Hanazawa, Marina Inoue, Miyu Matsuki, Miyuki Sawashiro, Ryoko Shintani, Ryoko Shiraishi, Takahiro Sakurai, Tomokazu Sugita, Yui Horie, Yuko Goto, Yuu Kobayashi and Yuuichi Nakamura, among others.
- Medium Blending
- Mind Screw
- Nightmare Fuel: Their Deranged Animation can get really deranged at times.
- Refuge in Audacity: This summary (possibly NSFW) of Nisemonogatari Episode 5 by a Fansub. It notes all of the weirdness that is a part of Shaft.
- Retraux: They'll often add old-timey film effects or use old-timey orthography.
- Schedule Slip: They're becoming increasingly infamous for this, due to a company policy of not rejecting work. Though they're generally relied upon to fix any error on their TV release come the DVD/BD release.
- Justified in the case of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Due to certain real life events, the final two episodes airing was delayed for over a month. Gen Urobuchi, who wrote for the series, explained that the slip came as a bit of a relief because they'd been having trouble animating them. When they finally did air on April 21st, fans could see why. Shaft loves its surreal art, after all.
- Shout-Out
- Signature Style: Part from the studio, part from Akiyuki Shinbo, but there are a lot of those:
- Unreadably Fast Text
- Unmoving Plaid
- Camera showing whatever instead of the characters that are talking at the moment
- Pictures of real life objects
- The infamous head-tilt (Now compiled for your convenience)
- What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Shaft will often, and for no reason, up the framerate and animation quality immensely, and can focus on incredibly mundane things.
- Surreal Theme Tune: All of them Madoka Magica's makes complete sense, you just don't get context until the end
- What Do You Mean, It Wasn't Made On Drugs?
- As one Youtuber commented the Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei OVA Opening: "Oh SHAFT, you and your LSD."
- Widget Series: Everything that they are a part of turns into this.
