*not saying we adore this project so much*

This short crying cut from the Whispers of Taiji trailer runs on just 4 key poses on the character layer (A). A subtle head nod downward, letting the weight of the emotion do the work rather than overplaying it. Produced by Otsu Animation & Studio Munbou

It’s such a long journey from the animatic to the final animation. But it also a joy to look back and see how things have developed💪 Today let’s see the “before & after” we’ve done for @kamenamerica animation. Animated portions by Otsu Labs for KAMEN AMERICA ALPHA: THE MANGA

How much can a layout change after the director's review? Base on the storyboard, the key animator interprets the director’s intent then visualizes the movement from their own perspective in the Layout. Then, the Layout goes to Enshutsu (Episode director) for review. At this stage, the focus is on the animation itself: how the characters move, act and express themselves. If the acting doesn't quite capture the intended vision, Enshutsu step in and fix it. Take this cut from our Fwog animation for example. Instead of having Pepe simply jerk backward in surprise, the Enshutsu added a face-turning motion to exaggerate the reaction even further. #OtsuAnimation

How to feel 3D depth in 2D background? Here’s the example. The background in this cut is hand-drawn. To create a camera pushing through the crowd and onto a phone screen, we had to sync up multiple layers seamlessly. But here’s the catch: matching layer A (the character on stage) with layer BA (the same character on the phone screen). One wrong pose or offset position and the whole illusion is ruined. Produced by Otsu Animation & Studio Questline

3 years of Otsu Animation 🎂 Today, we had a little talk with ourselves. Turns out, the plan still holds. But what doesn’t show is everyone behind it. The artists who said ‘yes’ to styles they’d never tried before. The extra rounds that turned ‘almost there’ into ‘that’s it’. The partners who handed us their stories and trusted us to get them right. Three years of that changes a studio and it shows in every frame we make. In the years to come, we’re bringing the same care to our own original stories. #OtsuAnimation #3yearsanniversary🎂

And suddenly, we’ve been animating for three years. #OtsuAnimation #3yearsAnniversary

2 months left in 2026, let’s see what we have done so far. Can’t help but smile looking back at everything we’ve shipped so far. There’re still a few released projects we can't share just yet, but no worries, more bangers are on the way 👀 #OtsuAnimation

Running is one of basic movements in animation. A simple run cycle usually has 4 key poses: contact, down, up and take-off. One thing to note: the arms stay bent during the whole cycle and move opposite to the legs. When the left foot is forward, the left arm moves back. Produced by Otsu Animation & HSBC #OtsuAnimation

Hi! Here’re several cuts we worked on for clean-up and color in Knights of Guinevere Ep2 with @glitch_prod 🔥 Gonna share more about the process soon!

Gatekeeping the colorscript for Zofia would’ve been a crime. So here we are. The story is set in a retro-futuristic Kraków main square, mid-2030s, partially destroyed, reinforced with metal structures and defense lines. The color palette had to carry that weight: gritty, tense, and atmospheric enough to put you in the middle of a battlefield without a single word of dialogue. Credit goes to our director, Pipou Phuong Nguyen, for designing this colorscript. #OtsuAnimation

Not every drawing in animation needs to be clean, but some absolutely do. In layout, enshutsu, and sakkan, drawings can stay rough. The focus at these stages is establishing movement and correcting proportion, not line quality. But in Genga and Douga, the lines have to be clean. This is where the final line art is decided, what goes into Shiage for coloring and ultimately what the audience sees on screen. #OtsuAnimation

Quick breakdown of our girls in Erene Mochi’s Debut PMV. Produced by Otsu Animation & Studio Questline

The sakkan sheet 🟨

Too many frogs, but only one is real. You may not know, every frog you see started as a single jump sequence. We animated it once, then multiplied and offset the timing across different positions to make it feel like a whole crowd. Can you spot the original? 🐸 Produced by Otsu Animation & Fwog