I think it's obvious that the western community is at its strongest right now because there's a higher focus on these matters by critics and writers, and that means more casual interest. That's the metric I care the most about. There's always going to be hardcore fans, it's not like we recently invented a new lens with which to look at anime. But these discussions were usually buried and inaccessible, not something your average fan could approach. The way things are now makes it way easier for people to start paying attention to anime craft; they'll probably never go deep behind the scenes, but they might be interested in reading about creators they enjoy, draftsmanship that impressed them, or industry trends they care about. Cattering to those needs while writing stuff we feel is worthwile even if you're already really into Japanese animation is why we launched the blog.

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I have to say though, it's not all good. For starters there's no such thing as a "sakuga community", there are plenty of small subgroups that don't really interact. And I have no intention to hide that there are some complete assholes. I've banned people from the IRC channel and the booru simply for being unpleasant to other users (especially newbies), but I can't - and don't want to - police the whole internet. Don't force yourself to interact with people just because you share an interest in Japanese animation. And the same goes to the group of brats who are very upset that a way to interact with anime different than theirs is getting attention. If you see people complain about "sakuga discussion" anytime a staff member or technique is brought up (which I've seen happen even in cases where it had little to do with the animation itself), feel free to look for better internet pals.

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Just contact me on twitter/IRC if you would rather contribute through Paypal.

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The only reason we didn't push for that was because Patreon fit our needs better. We're all very motivated with the project but it takes away time from Actual Work, so a bit of money to justify that helps a lot. In the case of Dis he's doing his literal job for the Sakuga Blog, he's a pro translator currently working on some JP interviews to publish on the site. If the situation ever gets ugly and moving everything to an independent server stops being a cool goal we have to become a necessity we'd start advertising Paypal donations like crazy, but so far this seems like a better approach. We'd *really* like to hit that goal though, and even have plans for even more kinds of content if there's support beyond that.

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(The only way I see ask questions anymore is when they randomly send me a notification email, I just caught this one by chance since it was right above that.)

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Aniplex gets a lot of hate for being the most obviously corporate face of anime - and I won't say it's not well deserved. Their reckless practices hurt both their own companies like A-1 and collaborators like SHAFT, who have profited a lot from their deals but also greatly compromised their output for years. They boast about funding original series, but even their big projects often feel like a production committee's baby rather than genuine passion projects. Aniplex makes for a very easy villain.

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That said, they're not actual demons. They're one of the biggest players in an industry that can always do with more investors, and have made possible some fantastic projects. Bandai's notorious for rushing out projects when they have multimedia crosspromotion campaigns, but they also fund cool yet hopeless original anime at BONES all the time. These companies do terrible things, but they're not thoroughly terrible.

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The answer is no, not so much as a guess but as a statement. But not in a way that will crush your dreams. Spoiler warning I suppose?

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This series isn't something "KyoAni" is coming up with. Euphonium is an adaptation. Not a conservative one with no freedom for the anime's staff, but one that by all means sticks to the novel as a framework. They're not even the ones who turned their relationship into something that could (should?) be constructed as yuri, that's how the author wrote it to begin with. The anime arguably takes it to another level because building characters and relationships through nuanced animation is what many KyoAni members excel at, but that's besides the point. Either way, that faithfulness isn't surprising, since the show exists because enough people at the studio enjoyed the books and went to ask the publisher for the rights. The series will stick to all the major plot events of the novel, and that includes whoever the protagonist ends up (or doesn't, rather) with. If you think that Kumiko ending up in a romantic relationship with Reina would be very doable and shouldn't even be considered a big deal to begin with then... yes, I agree. You can easily switch Reina's ULTIMATELY INCONSEQUENTIAL (that's important) crush for Taki with admiration, and keep escalating her intimate relationship with Kumiko to make them an official couple. Sadly we're still at the point where that would be considered a huge deviation from the source material, since homosexual relationships haven't really been accepted as natural and mundane. It sucks.

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Buuuuuut that said, people are treating this as a binary issue where the only options are the rightful yuri ship or HET HELL, when in reality she'll end up with no one. People maliciously kept bringing up a Kumiko x Shuichi scene with no context, not mentioning how that was part of the final collection of shorts and not actually part of the main story. Very few westerners have read the novels so the misinformation is rampant, but my good friend megax (who read what was available even before the anime) has told me a lot about this in private. He strongly felt that the infamous final short might have been an editorial demand, since it really felt /off/. Eupho's a series about adolescence yet it had no romantic conclusion of any sort, even though that's what the broader audiences want (hence why these debates and questions exist to begin with). The "safe" and "normal" closure was getting her together with the male childhood friend, even though the series didn't build up to that. This also sucks.

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What does this mean in regards to the anime? Probably nothing. There are 3 novels + that collection of shorts, and we don't even know if the second season of the anime will get to the third volume. And even if it eventually does, it'd still end at a point where Kumiko has no romantic partner. If you want to headcanon that she goes and marries Kumiko 5 minutes after the show ends, go ahead. I will.

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Oh, this one's interesting! Here's what we know:

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KyoAni is leading the Koe no Katachi's production committee, the movie is by all means their project. They teased the reveal in the studio's event, handled the announcement themselves, host the site and manage the account, basically everything they do with their own series. In this regard it's exactly the same as Eupho, an 'acquired' external property (so expect an absurd amount of KyoAni-produced merch). We don't know if they were also the ones who approached Kodansha about it like in that case though, that's yet to be revealed. There was that article someone reported as "they were chosen because their skill at nuanced character animation fits the sign language", but it was more along the lines of "they're really good at that, so expect them to deliver in that regard".
Either way, Kodansha is taking advantage of the situation. We've known Ooima had a fantasy series coming up for quite a lot of time, yet it's been held up until the movie finally premieres. If it performs well they might benefit a lot from cross-promotion, so if the author's happy with the result too... why not again?

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