I’d like to introduce a new series to AniCombo, the Artist Spotlight, where we blog about some of our favorite artists. In addition to sharing our sources of inspiration, we hope to provide some exposure to artists who may not be as well known.

Today we’ll start with Takehito Harada, an artist at Nippon Ichi Software. He’s probably most famous for his character designs on Disgaea, but he’s also responsible for the designs behind Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom.

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Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (by Hitoshi Ashinano).
(also 2 anime OVA series, 2 episodes each)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokohama_Kaidashi_Kikou

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou is the story of a robot named, Alpha Hatsuseno, and her daily life in a post-cataclysmic, future Earth.  There is no action or drama in this manga, and there isn’t really even a beginning or end in the conventional sense.  Entire chapters are devoted to Alpha sitting in the café she runs;  pondering about the weather and her friends.  As uninteresting as that may sound, it’s her unique perspective of the world around her that makes the most insignificant occurrences so fascinating. (more…)

Here’s a fanart of Zange Chan from Kannagi.  I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I purchased a box of 12 Haruhi nendoroids the other week. It was pretty sunny this morning, so I lined up the figures and took some pictures (the others had already taken a few, so the lineup is a few short).

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I started watching Kyou no Go No Ni the other day.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear a cover of “Secret Base,” my favorite ZONE (J-Pop bandol group that disbanded a few years ago) song, as the ending theme.  More surprising was the list of Vietnamese names during the credits!

Animated shows (not just anime) have been outsourced to other countries like Korea and the Philippines, but this is the first time I’ve seen Vietnamese artists in the end credits of an anime.

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