Samurai Flamenco and a history of Takahiro Omori

Written by A. H. on 05 Oct 2013

Having cut their teeth with theatrical and physical releases, and dabbled with digital distribution of 009 Re: Cyborg, new distributor to the UK anime industry Anime Limited are now ready to enter the hotbed that is online streaming - and they have every intention of starting with a bang by snapping up one of the more exciting series coming to Japan this autumn.

The series in question is Samurai Flamenco, one of the season's two offerings to arrive as part of Fuji Television's noitaminA programming block, and an original series produced by Manglobe starring a wannabe superhero who is, for the most part, neither super nor heroic.

Of particular interest in terms of the staff attached to the series is its director, Takahiro Omori - thus, to celebrate Anime Limited's big reveal we've prepared this brief article to clue you up on some of the more impressive aspects of Mr. Omori's resume to whet your appetite for what we can look forward to over the next six months.

Haibane Renmei

Although Takahiro Omori has been active within the anime industry since the mid-1980s with roles including key animation work on the final episodes of Gunbuster, his first notable directorial role (for western anime fans at least, following a number of turns as director in the late 1990s) came in 2002 via his work on the much-lauded Yoshitoshi ABe series Haibane Renmei, where he worked as assistant director for the entire series as well as working on storyboards and serving as the episode director on one occasion.

With its quiet but dramatic character-driven focus, this series is arguably an experience that has defined some of Omori's later works, which seem to enjoy the same kind of focus upon character and substance over pure style while delivering its story with a simple effectiveness that doesn't rely on flashy visuals or heavy narrative twists and turns.

Koi Kaze / Gakuen Alice

That focus on the dramatic and personal continued in a pair of manga adaptations which put Omori at their helm in 2004. The first of these is Koi Kaze, a controversial but nonetheless heartfelt tale of a growing (and of course forbidden) love between two siblings who first meet before they even know they're related, and a series that takes a far more mature and reasoned track than the stereotypical anime adaptations that have incest as a key element in their plot.

On the flip side of this we have Gakuen Alice, an adaptation of a manga surrounding a school for students with special, supernatural powers. This series is perhaps notable for its stripping back of some of the darker elements and themes of its source material to cater towards a younger audience, while still retaining its character-driven and romantic storylines in a series where Omori also worked on some of the scripts and storyboards as well as serving as director.

Baccano

After directing Hell Girl late in 2005 and returning for its second season towards the end of 2006, 2007 saw another landmark moment in Omori's directorial career as he took on Brain's Base's adaptation of Ryohgo Narita's light novel series, Baccano! Taking a vast cast of disparate characters and bringing the complex story into which they are all woven to the small screen is no mean feat, but Baccano's anime outing achieved it with aplomb to create a memorable and much-loved series, while also setting the scene for Omori to return to the director's chair for another Narita light novel adaptation a few years later.

Also of note here is that Takahiro Omori was also responsible for creating the storyboards for the series' opening credit sequence - a joyously slick and inventive introduction to the show's cast and setting that has understandably become iconic in its own right.

The series is available on DVD in the UK from Manga Entertainment.