Original Structures: Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō (OAV 1) | Far From Animation

Analyzes the YKK anime (usually called Yokohama Shopping Trip in English) and the nature of episodic structure in anime, which is generally ignored by anime fans in favour of looking at either narrative themes or the animation itself (as sakuga).

One of the aspects I love being captivated by while I watch anime is without question the episodes’ structure, a fundamental piece in the general direction.

Are Opening and Ending always included? What kind of framing closes the episodes? Are there insert songs? When talking about adaptations, is the narrative pace of the original material kept? How are treated captions?

These are some of the questions I ask myself and, more realistically, these are the problems the storyboarder (Ekonte, 絵コンテ in the credits) must face. He is in a certain way the true Master of the episode. If his style is appreciated by the director and understood by the other staff members, we viewers end up enjoying something really similar to this position’s imagination. It’s him who puts the OST inside an episode, who decides if there’s need to get rid of a song, who gives indications to the Art Director and the Animation Directors. Usually who works on the ekonte is limited by the staff at disposal, by schedules and budget but the product I want to talk about today doesn’t have any of these possible problems. Not only that, but director and storyboarder are the same person, so that any possible mistake made by different autorships regarding the stylistic choices are avoided. In this article I’ll show you some of the original direction elements that I loved the most in this animation series.^___^