# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The current Madhouse logo (Fichier:Logo Madhouse.svg, 2021)

# data[].attributes.body
Madhouse Studios is a Japanese animation studio founded by ex-Mushi Pro staff: Masao Maruyama, Osamu Dezaki and Yoshiaki Kawajiri.  Madhouse rose in popularity in the early 2000s, reaching its “golden age” with anime titles like Beyblade, Hajime no Ippo and Death Note. However, when Maruyama left the company in 2012 due to a lack of creativity freedom (he later started a studio known as MAPPA) along with numerous profit losses and the departure of many staff members, Madhouse was hit hard and heavily decreased the frequency of anime productions. However, the company stayed strong throughout those years. With the releases of shows like “Sonny Boy” and “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, " Madhouse would still be recognised as one of the greatest anime studios ever.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The Crunchyroll cover for Hunter x Hunter (Crunchyroll, 2011)

# data[].attributes.body
“Hunter X Hunter” is a shonen manga series written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi in 1998. The story features the main character Gon, a young boy who wants to follow his father’s path as a hunter. Hunters are licensed members of society who are tasked with things like surveying unknown lands, finding rare/unidentified animals and hunting law-breaking individuals. Hunter x Hunter had a previous anime adaptation made by Nippon Animation in 1999, directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi (Kimlinger, 2009). A decade later, A new adaptation was published by Madhouse in 2011.

Hiroshi Kōjina was the director responsible for the Madhouse version of Hunter x Hunter. The script was written by Atsushi Maekawa, who also contributed to animes such as “Dragon Ball Z”, “Sailor Moon” and the “Lupin series”(Atsushi Maekawa | Writer, Additional Crew, n.d.). In addition to the other animators in the team, they mostly achieved their end goal: to create a more accurate anime adaptation of Hunter x Hunter.

The animation style of Hunter x Hunter is a mixed bag as the series has highlights and low lights. One negative example is during the fight between Gon and Hanzo in episode 19. The battle felt static with the lack of variation in camera angles, movements and the many still frames, making the whole episode feel undynamic. For a key moment of the story, episode 19 is a low point in its animation (ForgottenRelics, 2022). However, there are some strong positives like the fight between Gon and Hisoka in episodes 35 and 36. The animation of the battle was dynamic and action-packed, with heavy use of squash and stretch and anticipation to portray the intensity and power of the blows delivered throughout the fight. Hatched lines are used to indicate battle damage and roughed-up clothing along with a wide range of camera angles and movements, all with excellent storyboard pacing making this fight highly memorable (ForgottenRelics, 2022b).

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
One of the manga panels of “Parasyte” depicts a parasite about to attack its victim. (mangaborg, 2015)

# data[].attributes.body
“Parasyte” is a science fiction body horror manga series written and illustrated by Hitoshi Iwaaki in 1989. The story features Shinichi Izumi, an ordinary 17-year-old boy who one night encounters an alien, worm-like creature called “Parasites”. Parasites take over their host’s brains for food, killing them in the process. When a parasite tried to enter Izumi’s body, he managed to prevent it from going into his brain, thus, the parasite only infected his right arm, keeping their consciousness and intellect separate. Together, they fend off other parasites who see humans as food and develop a unique bond, exploring a deeper understanding of love, companionship and sacrifice.

The manga received a live-action along with an anime adaptation at the same time (Loo, 2013). The anime was produced by Madhouse in 2014 called “Parasyte, the Maxim”, directed by Kenichi Shimizu along with Shoji Yonemura as the composer and  Tadashi Hiramatsu as the character designer (Ressler, 2014). Shimizu has worked on many shows including “Quintessential Quintuplets”, “Hajime no Ippo” and “Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher”(Kenichi SHIMIZU - Anime News Network, n.d.). The composer Yonemura has worked on the scripts of famous shows such as “Hunter x Hunter”, “Death Note” and “One Piece” (Shoji YONEMURA, n.d.). Together, they create an anime with a unique aesthetic and perhaps one of the greatest character arc developments of all time.

Parasyte has a very dark and non-vibrant aesthetic, accurately portraying the dark and eerie world the story portrays. Like many other animes, the characters and the plot are closely tied to the original manga material, translating some of its most iconic manga panels into an animated sequence. The fight scenes are punchy and fast-paced thanks to the unique nature of the parasites. The parasites possess supernatural strength and speed but are still organic beings, thus, the animators have animated them in a way where the movements feel alien yet resembling flexible muscle tissue. In addition, the way that the animators tackle infected humans is incredible, the distortion can range from mildly uncanny to disturbing at times which truly shows the amalgamation of humans and parasites. Therefore, along with the great character development, “Parasyte” remains to be a very iconic anime for those who stumble upon it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The cover art of the first volume of the One Punch Man manga. (Wikipedia contributor, 2020)

# data[].attributes.body
“One Punch Man” is a Japanese seinen superhero manga series created by One in 2009. The story is set on a supercontinental Earth where the main protagonist Saitama fights monsters as a hobby. As a godly strong character, the mangaka strays away from the stereotypical superhero story. During an interview with One, he said: "Punching is oftentimes pretty useless against life's problems. But inside One-Punch Man's universe, I made Saitama a sort of guy who was capable of adapting his life to the world that surrounded him, only armed with his immense power. The only obstacles he faces are mundane things, like running short of money” (Valdez, 2017).

Studio Madhouse produced an anime adaptation of One Punch Man in 2015, displaying the “Caped Baldy” and all of his greatness. The first season is directed by Shingo Natsume, an animator who worked on the keyframes of “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood” (Soberano, 2020) and later directed “Sonny Boy”(Loo, 2021), also produced by Madhouse. The character designer and animation director is Chikashi Kubota, he is known for contributing to famous animes like Attack on Titan, Dragon Ball Super, Naruto and One Piece (Chikashi KUBOTA - Anime News Network, n.d.).

Like most animes, the style of One Punch Man is relatively faithful to the original manga where even the colours of the characters are based on the coloured manga covers despite the manga being illustrated in greyscale. In addition, the beautiful art designs are thanks to Shigemi Ikeda; an award-winning art director who worked on “The Promised Neverland”, “Overlord” and “My Hero Academia”(Shigemi Ikeda | Art Director, Art Department, Animation Department, n.d.). The final result is striking background details showcasing each action-packed episode's destruction, chaos and beauty. The action in One Punch Man is dynamic, exaggerated and punchy (no pun intended), with a sprinkle of rotoscoping during calmer scenes. The animators use slow-motion shots to exaggerate the speed of impacts and objects. In addition, the layering of bloom effects, smear frames and background destruction truly stretches the meaning of power in the anime.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The anime cover image depicts the main characters of Overlord. (Crunchyroll, 2015)

# data[].attributes.body
Overlord was an isekai light novel made in 2010, written by Maruyama with illustrations from So-bin, it then received a manga adaptation in 2014 by Satoshi Ōshio, illustrated by Hugin Miyama. The story is set in the future where a massively online multiplayer role-playing game’ (MMORPG) called “YGGRASIL” was shutting down after a 12-year run. The story begins with a player called “Momonga” or “Overlord” who is a guild leader in the game. He was saddened by the game’s closure and decided to stay back until the very last moment. However, when the time came, he didn’t get kicked out but was teleported to a whole new world; a replica of the game where he took the form of his character and all the NPCs became living beings. Since he couldn’t “log out”, he then explored the world to see if any other players encountered the same fate as he did, all whilst meeting new companions along the way.

An anime adaptation of “Overlord” was produced in 2015 by Madhouse with Naoyuki Itou as the director and Yukie Sugawara as the story writer (Loveridge, 2015). The aesthetic of the anime has a high contrast with dark fantasy colours, the character designs are tied closely to the manga and light novel’s descriptions and illustrations. The animators of Overlord have used 3D elements throughout the series which was a very controversial decision as it received mostly negative comments in the community, with comments such as “Madhouse doing S4 With Shit CGI AGAIN !” and “If i have to pick between terrible cgi s4 or no s4. I would pick s4” (Madhouse Doing S4 with Shit CGI AGAIN !, 2022). The CG elements of Overlord appear out of place and are poorly animated since they lack some fundamentals like squash and stretch, anticipation and overlapping actions, all of which are essential to making a natural and convincing movement. Ever since the early adaptation of 3D graphics in animes during the late 2010s era, this field has been improving drastically throughout the years with examples like “Beaststars” and “Blame!”. Otherwise, Overlord serves as a big experiment in terms of their use of Computer Graphics.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The anime cover image depicts Frieren, Fern and Stark on a beautiful hillside. (IMBd, 2022)

# data[].attributes.body
“Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End” is a fantasy manga written by Kenehito Yamada and illustrated by Tsukasa Abe (Sousou No Frieren, n.d.). The story follows Frieren, an elven mage who travels to find the resting place of souls to reunite with her comrades, whose leader defeated the Demon King. Since she is an elf, her lifespan is considerably longer than any other living being, thus, long periods of time would be considered insignificant to her. And when her party leader Himmel, died of old age, she expressed guilt for not getting to know him better. Throughout her journey, she slowly learns more about Himmel’s past with the help of Fern and Stark whilst also collecting different spells along the way.

The manga was first published in November 2021 (Inc, 2020) and announced that Madhouse will release an anime adaptation in September 2022 in the ninth volume(Hodgkins, 2022). The anime is directed by Keiichiro Saito who is known for directing “Bocchi the Rock” and played roles in “Sonny Boy”, “Mob Psycho 100 III” and “I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level”(Keiichirō SAITŌ - Anime News Network, n.d.). The character designer Reiko Nagasawa is known for her work in “One Punch Man”, “Mob Psycho 100 II” and “Death Parade” and also served as animation director in “Sonny Boy”. With Sawako Takagi as the art director and background artist, the final result is a beautiful anime with stunning visuals, a rich storyline and action-packed fight scenes when needed. In addition, Kouki Fujimoto was hired to direct and storyboard episode 9, one of the major fight scenes. Fujimoto is very well known for contributing to “Jujutsu Kaisen”, “My Hero Academia”, “Attack on Titan”, “Chainsaw Man” and many more famous animes(Kouki Fujimoto, n.d.). Having Fujimoto take over the fight scene in an otherwise calmer anime takes the intensity to another level.

Frieren is a very story-heavy anime, that means a lot less fast-paced action compared to something like One Punch Man. However, this does not mean that the animation is boring. The animators spend a lot of effort animating the small actions like hand gestures and small body movements during dialogues. In addition, the care and dedication of animating the side characters like in episode 1 truly adds life to the visual narrative. Thus, it makes sense that “Frieren: Beyone Journey’s End” was placed second on AT-X’s “2023 Top Anime Rankings”(AT-X, 2023).