Fluximation

Fluximation is a set of 14 music videos around 30-40 seconds each for every track of Utada Hikaru's Exodus album. It was produced by Studio 4c, so you know there is a fantastic selection of talent working on these videos, and I think it's safe to say even people who aren't fans of Utada would get something out of this if they like creative animation outside of the norms of bland seasonal anime or if any of the artist names are recognized. I knew all but 4 of them and would consider myself a fan of all of the ones I knew, so I cameinto this somewhat excited, though I'm definitely not an Utada fan. I think MAL's synopsis listing the animators is not correct (I checked the Studio 4c page). I don't think Hideki Himura worked on this. It's Hideki Futamura. 1, 3, and 9 (Opening, Exodus '04, and Crossover Interlude, respectively) are visually some of the most striking and pretty clearly involved Koji Morimoto. I think the opening is my favorite of the three because it's set to an ambient opening track, and the choice of backdrops and very expressive animation for the free-flowing and morphing woman is great. 3 has quite striking composition and meticulous storyboarding. Before I found the credits, I thought 9 looked very similar to Morimoto but a little lower in terms of quality—leading me to originally say this was directed by Diet Morimoto... but, yeah, it's Morimoto. The animation and design is perfectly fine, but it feels more hollow and flat compared to the others. 2 (Devil Inside Me) is Kazuto Nakazawa, and this is probably the most stylized in terms of presentation—relying a bit more on graphic design and editing than the others, often with very deep inking and vivid colors, especially for the closeups. It probably fits the song better than most of the other tracks. 4 and 8 (The Workout and Animato, respectively) is by Hideki Futamura. Ugly CGI set to whacky abstract expressionist backdrops and crass sexual metaphors. It does fit the song lyrics, though—I'll give it that. 8 is just random cutesy 3D looking video game fluff, but more "drawn-looking" than no. 3. The best I can say is it's kind of cute, I guess? 5 (Easy Breezy) is by Hiroyuki Kitakubo; Takeshi Honda also appears to have animated on this, according to Sakugabooru taggers. This is peak cringe. It's like those artist pages on instagram who specialize in drawing pretty girls and nothing else, and Easy Breezy is an awful, awful song. Most of the animation is rotoscoped, but it's nothing too special compared to Yoko Kuno's work on Airy Me or Hana and Alice; or even the rawness of Aku no Hana. This is the lamest by far, but it would have been better if they just kept the art style in the beginning. They add in a bunch of stills and crude animation bits with the same girl in different styles, and it does not work. At all. Kitakubo is a good director, based on past work, but I can't really blame him for phoning it in with a lame short for such a bad song. 6 (Tippy Toe) is from Jiro Kanai; it does resemble his style a bit from looking at past works, but he's honestly done better. This is a b&w samurai girl thing where she swings around a sword, roles around in the nude (not particularly graceful nudity), and we cut to random imagery and colored floral patterns. Decently animated and drawn. Kind of confusing and too short, but it has some energy... 7 (Hotel Lobby) was directed by Yoshiharu Ashino. It's an awkward pastiche of old noir and occasionally cyberpunk/sci-fi type imagery. Nice hologram animation. The storyline isn't coherent, but what little I gathered is about what you'd expect from the noir trappings and an apparent femme fatale. 10 and 14 (Kremlin Dusk and About Me, respectively) were directed by Yasuhiro Aoki. 10 looks maybe like an interesting fantasy/sci-fi crossover concept set in Russia. A pretty energetic style after the slow beginning. The reliance on numbers evokes quite a few sci-fi stories, and this is one of the more intriguing ones. Then we go from a compelling sci-fi world to dishwasher cinema with the 14th and final segment. This is a very mundane note to end such a fantastical series of shorts on. It even manages to look like the work of a foot fetishist. It's just shots low to the ground to depict scenes of legs and feet moving around and "funny" little incidents happening like a brute stepping on a girl's flip flop while she is in mid-stride. Also, did that guy crap all over the floor in that one clip or was that blood? What was that? Pretty bad. 11 (You Make Me Want To Be A Man) was obviously worked on by Atsuko Fukushima, and it is probably the most coherent short from a narrative standpoint, and also featuring wonderful animation, so this is the best of the bunch, with only Morimoto as possible competition. Wonderful transitions and fantastical yet still sort of grounded all throughout. Doesn't feel like just throwaway pretty animation for a pop song (frankly, even some of the ones I like fit that bill). Very carefully crafted and could easily be a pilot for something grand; this reminds me somewhat of the look she used from her Genius Party segment, but smoother and more restrained. Fukushima is one of the most underrated KA given her level of talent, and I wish she would animate more. 12 (Wonder 'Bout) is from Tatsuyuki Tanaka, and the style is very similar to a lot of his illustration work in the last few years. This one consists of numerous jump cuts over a very detailed backdrop. The character acting in this one is very dynamic and lively, and they even lip sync for most of it. Not the most interesting, but Tanaka is always reliable for great designs, and he's one of the best and most entertaining KAs when it comes to character acting. 13 (Let Me Give You My Love) is from Daisuke Nakayama. Kind of a weird mixture of fast paced imagery and more "mature" designs mixed with chibi characters—some of it even reminds me very slighty of Hiroyuki Imaishi, and is similarly overly stylish, but also messy and garish and a visual overload you'll probably have to rewatch multiple times to make any sense of, but I don't think there is any sense to be made here. Like most compilations this is a mixed bag—a very mixed bag; like mixed up by a hurricane. Still, it does offer some very good short segments. Morimoto, Tanaka, and Fukushima have the most notable shorts. And I'll give honorable mention to Aoki's Kremlin Dusk, as I've never heard of this artist and found that one to be a surprising standout among even some of the veterans I'm more familiar with. Plenty of the others have some decent animation or art on display, but they aren't too exciting. Considering this is probably only about half-good, I'd say this warrants a 5/10 overall. Nevertheless, it's absolutely worthwhile for fans of Utada or any of the animators/directors.