©ONE, Yusuke Murata/SHUEISHA, Hero Association HQUntil recently, the identity of One-Punch Man Season 3‘s director was kept a secret. Observing the reactions to Shimpei Nagai‘s announcement, it’s easy to understand why — many have taken to X/Twitter to criticize what they see as his lack of qualifications (despite the fact that anime staff aren’t limited to a single genre) and his previous involvement in adult anime (Nagai is not the only professional in the field who has worked on adult animation — names like Akiyuki Shinbo, Masami Obari, Hideaki Anno, and Toshiyuki “The Perfect Animator” Inoue have been credited in such works).
About one-and-a-half hours after Nagai’s participation was officially announced, the director made the following post (slightly reformatted for this article) on his account. It discusses his work history, his interest in a “hybrid of 3DCG and hand-drawn animation,” and his reasons for requesting that his involvement be kept confidential:
“Hello everyone, nice to meet you. I’m Shimpei Nagai, the director of One Punch Man Season 3.
“I completely understand everyone’s reactions. Please calm down and hear me out, if you would. I’ll explain why I was chosen, and it might be a bit long, but please listen.
“I’ve been a freelancer from the beginning, and that hasn’t changed.
“At 37, I wrapped up my apprenticeship and stepped into the anime world with a work called “Hiiro no Kakera.”
“I learned how to create hybrid animation with 3D in a project called “Aquarion Logos,” and after that, I switched to a 3D company for just one year, contributing to image boards for “Altered Carbon” and such.
“My goal was always Manglobe. I honed my skills on Episode 6 of “GANGSTA.” and “Samurai Flamenco,” among others. I was aiming for a hybrid of 3DCG and hand-drawn animation, but as everyone knows, Manglobe ended up closing down. In the midst of that, J.C.Staff became a long-term partner, commissioning me for storyboards and direction throughout the year.
“However, since I’m relatively unknown and don’t have standout achievements as an animator, I thought it might give a bad impression, so I asked to keep it under wraps. Then, when the consultation for One Punch Man Season 3 came up, I focused on incorporating a new workflow—something I discussed in CGWORLD, bridging 3D and 2D workflows—to squeeze out even one more second of production time.
“I sincerely apologize for keeping quiet about this. The team is giving it our all on site. I can’t discuss details about the production, but I’m open to answering what I can within limits.”
The post garnered numerous supportive responses, including one from animator Kento Fukuda, who said, “Nagai-san is an underrated director. His public achievements may seem small to fans, but he’s a real Saitama who has saved many productions behind the scenes. As always, he storyboarded at eight times the speed of the average storyboard artist.”
Nagai also took the opportunity to respond to some of the comments. One of his replies provided more insight into his hybrid animation efforts:
“Actually, that online HENTAI was the first time I tried a hybrid animation pipeline where all the backgrounds were created in 3D, previsualized, and output as 2D layouts, then overlaid with 2D animation—about 20 years ago. I’ve been experimenting and tweaking it ever since.”
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- English (Publication Language)
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The shows that Nagai has contributed storyboards to include Flower and Ashura, Demon Lord 2099, 2.5D Seduction, Dropkick on My Devil, Otaku Elf, and DATE A LIVE III. The series he directed include Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san, I Can’t Understand What My Husband Is Saying, and
One-Punch Man Season 3 is set to debut on October 5 JST. It’s arriving ten years after the 2015 first season (directed by Shingo Natsume at Madhouse, with Frieren co-animation producer Yuichiro Fukushi as its animation producer), which impressed viewers with its animation, and six years after the 2019 second season (directed by Chikara Sakurai at current production studio J.C.STAFF), which didn’t impress as much with its animation.
Regardless of how One-Punch Man Season 3 turns out, let’s remember that there’s no need to overreact or behave in such a way that a director feels compelled to release a statement like this.
Source: @ShinNagai_Anime
