Imagawa Yasuhiro does not have very many works tied to his name in a directorial capacity, but mention the ones that he has worked on and you will tend to get very positive reactions from some very loyal fans. His most prestigious work is probably the Giant Robo: The Animation OVA series, an intense labor of love that took many years and many more delays to complete, while his most famous work in America is probably Mobile Fighter G Gundam. And in my personal opinion, he is an astounding director. Possibly more than any other director, he has the ability to take the endless dreams of childhood and translate them into something mature and complex while still remaining faithful to those childhood notions. So why does he get so little work?
We have his latest work, Shin Mazinger. You look at this series, and see a lot of areas that seem to suffer budget-wise. The opening consists entirely of reused footage. Scenes are repeated over and over, and a lot of shortcuts are used. However, the show is still amazing, and still coming out without too many hitches. Sub suggested to me that Imagawa is so much of a perfectionist that the more money you give him, the more likely your anime will never see the light of day because he’ll be too busy making his animators re-do everything to get that one moment just right. As mentioned above, he took practically forever to finish Giant Robo OVA, but he was also kicked off of Shin Getter Robo Armageddon for taking too long. But with Shin Mazinger, where his spending power is limited, Imagawa is forced to make decisions and the result is something that is both Great and On Time.
Imagawa is thus the kind of director to whom you could give 25 cents and he would make the most astounding animation ever that will challenge your very ways of thinking. Imagawa would take those 25 cents, create GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE LEGENDARY EAGLE, and when the show reveals that WASHINGTON AND THE EAGLE WERE THE SAME FIGURE ALL ALONG (like two sides of the same coin one might say!!), you will notice that your ass is no longer in your chair.
Money is to Imagawa as Time is to Tomino Yoshiyuki and No Editors is to Kawamori Shouji.
OGIUE MANIAX 
Don’t forget that Imagawa’s father became ill and died during the production of Giant Robo. That was a big factor in the delays of Vol. 6 and 7 IIRC.
Consider, also, that reused footage in Shin Mazinger just might be on purpose, in homage to the original show. Yeah, I think Imagawa would do that. :)
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LOL, good one. I had just finished re-watching Giant Robo a few hours ago and I bawwwed ;_; so much more than the first time around.
I want Imagawa to direct “RahXephon: The Day the Music Died” and mash up a whole bunch of BONES shows. This would be a dream come true for me.
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I am loving how he is making everyone appear a bit more awesome than they seems in Mazinger. Even though everything is already awesome. still though, I wish they’d give him a bit more budget to play with or at the least a proper intro.
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>I want Imagawa to direct “RahXephon: The Day the Music Died” and mash up a whole bunch of BONES shows.
YOU AND I, WE MUST FUND IT.
Also, that legendary eagle quip brought tears to my eyes.
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Very educational post. God, this show is rocking!
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Indeed Imagawa is a genius director. Master of the poetic flashback in verse as if every character that does one is like a bard singing a tale of an epic hero, as well as of dramatic lighting and musical enhancement of a scene. He knows how turn the mundane into an attention grabbing moment like few others who are still in the business. Case in point the recent flashback to the birth of Baron Ashura. That scene could have easily been some generic paragraph long explanation to get it over with, but he took it and turned into a masterpiece of both pathos and imagery
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The trouble with your final analogy, and thus this post, is that it suggests that the presence of money causes Imagawa to make something that is offensively terrible a la Brain Power[e]d and Earth Girl Arjuna. In fact, Imagawa + Money = Super King Awesome Hundred Percent…provided you’re willing to wait.
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I can’t disagree there.
The difference between Imagawa expertly using flashbacks with little money and with tons of money is that for the latter he would probably make his animators animate the same scene only from a different angle.
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I met Imagawa at Anime Expo some years back. He gave me his business card, which I should just laminate in gold because it’d be worth it.
A thin card made of some type of balsa wood, the name in kanji, and below that, in english, the words “Don’t dream it, be it.” I believe the quote is from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, his favorite film.
Imagawa is like his animation: dynamic and full of life.
Thank you for the post!!
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