In the first half of "Age of Hinobi", we were slowly immersed into the world of Hinobi and Glitch Techs through super dynamic, action-packed animation courtesy of Studio 100 and Ian Graham, varied and well-integrated character introductions, an incredibly strong atmosphere embracing gaming culture, and a general intrigue into this mysterious phenomenon.
So with all that settling in, it's time to get our two heroes Miko and Five involved in all this action. It's not as multi-faceted as the first half in my opinion, but it manages to be really empowering, befitting of the show's escapist tone, and serves as highly natural setup to the rest of the series.
The animation is considerably more mixed here in my opinion. There are many fluid and attractive bits still, but there are other portions like BITT's expressions that fall a little flat. But that's what I host these screenshots for.
The characters get bizarrely pastel-looking for the first couple minutes of this half, and I can’t say I’m a big fan of this style compared to the others. That being said, there's a lot of on-point expressions that flow into each other quite well, with really attractive color work (which I believe we can attribute to Top Draw). Also - as a reminder that the man behind Fanboy and Chum-Chum helped create this show - there’s a Frosty-Mart behind Miko.
Miko standing up for Five when Mitch tries to erase his memory is definitely one of her strongest character moments in the pilot, and one of the biggest sources of immediate likability on her end.
These poses on Five are particularly angular-looking, even for this show, but they manage to look really snappy in motion and it's a good example on how you should use pose work to spice up dialogue-heavy scenes like this one.
And now we get introduced to BITT, voiced by co-creator Dan Milano. He doesn’t have a particularly wide range of expressions, and the ones he does have here can get uncanny (especially in the latter arcade sequence), but the voicework and mannerisms are enough to make me see why Miko is hugging him.
The “transformation sequence” here, which lasts about 12 seconds, is just pure eye candy. The frame rate drops considerably here, but it really allows the audience to capture everything that’s happening to suit up the two, and the effects and color work are simply suburb. This legitimately wouldn’t seem out of place in a Studio Trigger anime.
I’m just going to leave you guys to fill in the context for this one. You’re welcome…
Nice little imprint on Chomp Kitty, almost clay-like in a weird way. That being said, how can a design this demented-looking be a classic gaming mascot?
Mitch getting eaten by Chomp Kitty is played bizarrely casually for something so inherently morbid. Maybe it’s because Kitty isn’t a fully sentient entity, especially since we still hear from Mitch in the subsequent sequence, but still. It gets even more disturbing later when some kids get swallowed with *smiles on their faces*.
If you recognize these poses and background, that’s because this bit of animation was reshot for the Nick bumper seen at the beginning of every episode. BITT was taken out, and with that horrifying look on his face, I don’t blame whoever made that decision.
Man, just look at how beautiful and clean these impact images are. This pilot is full of poster shots, I love it.
So… did the kids think getting eaten by Chomp Kitty was a ride or something? You’d think they would be a little less giggly and a little more… traumatized. Still, the image of Mitch getting suffocated is pretty funny.
Screencaps really can't do Chomp Kitty's buildup and explosion justice. It's quite deranged but very creative and confident in execution. You'll practically have to go frame-by-frame to fully appreciate this.
This scene where Five and Miko confront Mitch has nothing particularly out of the ordinary in terms of visuals, but it does do its job at hitting the right emotional beats with camera angles like this one. It’s also their first bonding bit with Mitch and the first time he shows some genuine pathos, making this a genuinely satisfying resolution as far as starting points go.
Followed immediately by another scene that delivers on the feels, as well as providing one of my personal favorite Miko shots.
This portal that Phil opens up for the two new-hires upon orientation just screams otherworldly intrigue just by how detailed and almost tranquil it appears as animated. That, along with the music track that plays here, makes it impossible not to be excited about what lies beyond. And sure enough...
...We close the pilot on a plethora of really well-executed establishing shots of the Glitch Techs headquarters, hyping the audience on the adventures and exploration to come. Plus Mitch getting somewhat of a punishment is pretty satisfying to see. Though, curiously enough, I don’t think most of these techs ever appear in the series again. I guess the Bailey crew was originally going to be much larger and the series crew chose to downplay it after this point?
And thus begins a really imaginative show that really does deserve more fans in my opinion. To say the very least, I highly recommend checking out this show on Netflix if you haven't.
As for this blog, I'll definitely look at more episodes of this show in the future, but there's simply so much more different animations I want to cover like this and I'm happy to be able to share my insights and thoughts with all of you. Thanks for reading up to this point and I'm sure you're just as excited as I am over what else I'll be discussing going forward.
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