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Yamakan Tweets Separation From New Wake Up, Girls! Anime
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Anime director Yutaka Yamamoto (Wake Up, Girls!, Kannagi), also known as "Yamakan," is known for being vocal and critical. Fellow creators and even the anime industry itself have become targets of his criticism. In his characteristic style, Yamakan did not hesitate to voice disapproval after the "Wonderful Hobby Life for You!! 26" event announced on Friday the guests for a cast and staff announcement event for the new Wake Up, Girls! anime.
In addition to new cast members that the event will announce, the event staff revealed that new Wake Up, Girls! director Shin Itagaki and monaca staff members Satoru Kousaki, Hidekazu Tanaka, and Keiichi Hirokawa will attend the event on July 30. Yamakan had directed the original Wake Up, Girls! film and television anime projects with Kousaki, who composed the music. Itagaki also worked on storyboards for the television anime's 10th episode.
Yamakan retweeted the news of the upcoming event's Wake Up, Girls! guest announcement and said, "This is the end of the relationship." His next tweet said, "I'm breaking it off." In an apparently related tweet, Yamakan later said, "Isn't there a way to block emails?" Yamakan is already known for blocking certain followers on Twitter.
The anime director then added, "It's no wonder the manager didn't meet my eyes at that vigil then..." In addition, he said, "This month was one month since my complete separation from 'the person related to wind music.'" That tweet may be referencing Kousaki, but Yamakan did not elaborate.
It seems that Yamakan is angry that the staff of the new Wake Up, Girls! anime is going ahead with the production without him. If that is the case, that may be the reason he is deciding to completely separate himself from the new production.
The news of Yamakan's angry tweets spread online, and he took notice of the buzz. In deleted tweets, Yamakan used threatening language towards the website Otakomu. The website apparently posted content related to Yamakan's tweets that was also deleted.
The "Wake Up, Girls! Festa 2016 Super Live" event announced in December that a new Wake Up, Girls! television anime had been green-lit for this year. However, the event revealed that Itagaki is replacing Yamakan as director. Kousaki and monaca are returning to compose the music at DIVE II Entertainment, and the original story and scripts are credited to "Green Leaves."
In addition to replacing Yamakan, Miyuki Sugawara is replacing Sunao Chikaoka as the character designer in the new anime, although Chikaoka is still credited for the original character designs. Similarly, Millepensee is replacing Ordet as the main animation studio. Yamamoto founded his studio Ordet in 2008 after leaving Kyoto Animation in 2007. He left Ordet in March 2016.
Yamakan announced his Hakubo (Twilight) anime project (pictured right) this past February. He is credited with the original work, script, direction and sound direction. Yamakan is planning the anime as the last of his self-described "Tōhoku trilogy" set in Japan's Tōhoku region in the northeast.
