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The Rise and Fall and Rise and Fall of Studio Gonzo


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SailorPluto1313



Joined: 26 Jan 2016
Posts: 118
PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 10:27 am Reply with quote
Yeah Gankutsuo: The Count of Monte Cristo was fantastic. The art was awkward at first, but it definitely grew on me.
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Anime Critic



Joined: 18 Oct 2017
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 10:39 am Reply with quote
I made this account just to post on this feature. The topic is excellent, and there should be a lot more articles like this one discussing anime studios and directors (would love to see something on Manglobe and where the staff is now).

That being said, to put it bluntly, this article is horribly written and incredibly difficult to read. The material written appears to be excellent, but you guys need an editor to fix this badly. Please change this in the future for the readers.


Last edited by Anime Critic on Wed Oct 18, 2017 11:01 am; edited 1 time in total
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 10:50 am Reply with quote
Very interesting background article. Sounds like the topic of Studio Gonzo could easily support a book. Would love to see more of these types of articles at ANN.
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 6680
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 11:04 am Reply with quote
The bargain-bucket mainstay that was Zaion actually holds a legitimate claim to fame, you say? Not a day goes by without learning something.
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ScarRedTiger



Joined: 11 Dec 2013
Posts: 15
PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 11:05 am Reply with quote
They're still risk taking pioneers. They took a chance on Funimation to Same Day Simuldub both of their anime this year (To varying degrees of success). The first ones since Space Dandy.
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2532
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 11:26 am Reply with quote
Anime Critic wrote:
That being said, to put it bluntly, this article is horribly written and incredibly difficult to read.


I wouldn't go that far, but it does come off a little oddly organized. Admittedly, that's mainly because I was expecting it to follow the general chronology of Gonzo's existence, but instead it kind of hops back & forth in time to go with the thematic categories it instead is written around. Still, it's a well done article overall, and it does help illustrate why Gonzo went from being one of the biggest names in anime (at least internationally) to one that more or less went quiet (& nearly dead), before once again making a small comeback in recent years.

I agree that it would be cool to see more retrospectives & histories of different anime studios & the like. I'm all for looking back at history like this.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 7912
Location: Anime News Network Technodrome
PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 11:33 am Reply with quote
Lord Geo wrote:


I wouldn't go that far, but it does come off a little oddly organized. Admittedly, that's mainly because I was expecting it to follow the general chronology of Gonzo's existence, but instead it kind of hops back & forth in time to go with the thematic categories it instead is written around.

I agree that it would be cool to see more retrospectives & histories of different anime studios & the like. I'm all for looking back at history like this.


As the editor of the piece, it took me a moment to understand how he'd organized it. Once I got to the end I felt I understood it fine and appreciated the thematic organization, even if it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

We have more pieces like this one currently in production - glad you liked this one, thanks for reading.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5296
PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 11:52 am Reply with quote
I'm a little fascinated with this studio, or at least the 00s version. I've never see shows, that are average in quality, to be so much fun. Even the terrible 3DCG sometimes had a rustic charm to it. They were like the counterpart to Bones, while Bones put out 1 or 2 finely crafted shows each year, Gonzo would pick up the slack with 6 or 7 average to good shows. And I like how most of their shows were either original works or additions of short completed Managa titles.
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residentgrigo



Joined: 23 Dec 2007
Posts: 2404
Location: Germany
PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 12:03 pm Reply with quote
Wait, they rose again and who cares about 18if? Gankutsuo is one of the best adaptations of all time it aged amazingly (outside of the lack of anti-aliasing for the CG). Gonzo also produces enough highlights to be a name to proper anime fans BUT fewer A-list companies deserved to crash as much as they did.
Gonzo´s hit to miss ratio was deeply questionable and they ran the studio like an assembly line in the 00s. In a way that even outshines Pierrot´s or Toei´s thrown together output. Continue to bleed out slowly and stay in the grave Gonzo, you gave me enough shovelware for a lifetime. Let´s instead remember the highlights and maybe keep to your nostalgia instead of going back. I recently had to find out that Samurai 7 didn´t age well once it exited the 1st act. Especially animation wise! The ups and downs the animation on display goes though from ep. to ep. is THE perfect metaphor for Gonzo itself.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 12:11 pm Reply with quote
If you take out the name drops and oversized images, what's really here of substance? Is it possible to bring up the idea of "rise and fall and rise and fall" by mentioning the highlights... Count and Last Exile; I'm sure there are others like Vandread, Samurai 7, oh Desert Punk!... and concentrating the falls to vague mentions of fan service years... starts with D ends with Naught I mean Naut... and overextended years... I know I watched Glass Fleet but I'll always pretend I didn't. And then there's the ones like Blassreiter... oh boy, that one... and Speed Grapher.

Gonzo: They're Just Not As Good As You Remember.

I still love Solty Rei though. Come on, Robot Girl who punches spider tanks! That has nothing to do with Ghost in the Shell... really...
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Parsifal24





PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 12:44 pm Reply with quote
I started re-watching Basilisk and I can see where the budget went in that series that being said I still enjoy it. It would be interesting to see these sort of retrospectives on other well known studios as well. I didn't know before this Gonzo almost got delisted by the Tokyo Stock Exchange you learn something new. I have to say honestly I never liked the art style in Gankutsuou though it always struck me as too "busy" and distracting.
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CatSword



Joined: 01 Jul 2014
Posts: 1489
PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 1:12 pm Reply with quote
My biggest problem with Gonzo has always been their inconsistent quality; sometimes they have great animation, and sometimes it's sloppy. Sometimes they adapt a great story, and sometimes the adaptation is exceedingly poor.

The most recent series of there I saw, Akiba's Trip the Animation, seriously felt like it was made a decade earlier. It was jampacked full of cliches and lazy animation/fanservice, not willing to take any real risks.
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 1:44 pm Reply with quote
Gonzo sure does have a storied and baffling history. It's hard to follow just what happened with them as the years went by. Their Romeo x Juliet has always had a place on my shelves, however. : )
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Zhou-BR



Joined: 28 Feb 2008
Posts: 1419
PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 2:25 pm Reply with quote
The way I see it, the downfall of Gonzo was due to their excessive output in the mid-'00s, which led to poor quality control and inconsistent animation pretty much across the board, and the fact that most of their projects seemed to be made with an eye on the international market instead of catering to Japanese fans.

I just don't agree with generalizations like "Gonzo shows take too many liberties with the source material", as if all of them were written and directed by the same people. And even though they produced a lot of crap, I think a studio responsible for shows like Blue Submarine #6, Last Exile, Gankutsuou, Welcome to the NHK, Kaleido Star, Samurai 7 and Basilisk has a lot to be proud of. I even have a soft spot for Speed Grapher, the only show with a bad guy whose big plan is spoiler[putting all of Japan's money inside of a builiding and blowing it up. And he succeeds!]
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pachy_boy



Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 1323
PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 3:05 pm Reply with quote
It's really too bad what happened to them, but they've made their mark. I will always be appreciative of Gonzo for Chrono Crusade, Full Metal Panic Season 1, Burst Angel, Romeo and Juliet, Last Exile (both series) and Origin: Spirits of the Past.

Last edited by pachy_boy on Wed Oct 18, 2017 9:02 pm; edited 2 times in total
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