Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am utterly thrilled to be returning to Sherlock Hound, that shimmering jewel of ‘80s anime elevated by a rogue’s gallery of all-time artists and animators, including both Hayao Miyazaki and many of his eventual Ghibli compatriots. The show has so far provided a buffet of riches on both the aesthetic and narrative front, marrying playful animation and sumptuous background art to capers that jump-start Arthur Conan Doyle’s original material with a healthy dash of Lupinism, alongside an abiding love for convoluted mechanical contraptions. The adventures of Sherlock, Watson, and the perpetually amused Mrs. Hudson have been a delight so far, while simultaneously filling out one of the key gaps in my post-Toei, pre-Ghibli education on the scions of animation. Let’s see what madness this marvelous production team cook up next!
Tag Archives: Sherlock Hound
Sherlock Hound – Episode 5
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m positively bouncing in my seat in excitement over our return to Sherlock Hound, that delightful fusion of Doyle’s ingenious stories and the best animation staff the ‘80s could muster. In spite of not quite offering the same outrageous overall quantity of animation as its predecessor, episode four might have been Sherlock Hound’s most inherently fun episode yet, taking the rich premise of “Moriarty abducts Mrs. Hudson only to fall in love with her” and executing it with impeccable flair.
Episode five maintains Sherlock Hound’s staggering roster of post-Lupin and pre-Ghibli luminaries, once again pairing Miyazaki up with long-time collaborators Yoshifumi Kondo (animation direction) and Hirokata Takahashi (director of photography). Basically any key staff position you could think of is here helmed by someone who’d go on to be a Ghibli mainstay; art director Nizo Yamamoto would subsequently handle background art or art direction on a slew of Ghibli and Hosoda features, background artists Mutsuo Koseki, Yuuko Matsura, and Katsu Hisamura would each contribute background art to future Ghibli films, etcetera. In Sherlock Hound, we see the team that would eventually help anime break through on a world stage already in full command of their talents, offering tiny masterpieces of mystery, adventure, and slapstick goodness. Let’s see what their next episode has in store!
Sherlock Hound – Episode 4
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am eager to return to Sherlock Hound, which most recently obliterated my expectations via its first Hayao Miyazaki-directed episode. Sherlock Hound has been a gripping and visually splendiferous experience from the start, but with Miyazaki and a great number of his future Ghibli associates attached, the show bloomed into film-tier aesthetic brilliance, offering countless sequences of vivid action and character acting.
Nearly all of the episode’s key positions were filled by long-time Miyazaki associates, from animation director Yoshifumi Kondo (Whisper of the Heart) to director of photography Hirokata Takahashi (Castle in the Sky). And of course, Miyazaki’s own storyboards served as an ideal venue for all these artists, bringing Sherlock’s world to life with more energy and cinematographic allure than ever before. In the escapades of Moriarty and his associates, we saw shades of classic Lupin III, as well as Miyazaki’s abiding love of great and clamorous machines. In the gestures of Sherlock’s tiny employer, we glimpsed the carefully observed body language of My Neighbor Totoro’s heroines. Miyazaki is globally renowned for his film work, but through Sherlock Hound we see that he and his team could spin gold even amidst the mercenary conditions of television animation.
Of course, a great work of anime is more than just a list of famous names. Collectively, this team feels perfectly at home in Sherlock Hound’s whimsical reality, elevating the often dry elaboration of Doyle’s stories into rip-roaring adventures. Doyle’s mysteries are here adorned in clackety-clacking machinery and feverish chase scenes, bedecked in all the passions of their adaptors, but still emanating the fundamental narrative pull of his own imagination. It’s a marvelous fusion of talents, and I’ve surely raved about it to the point of tedium by now, so let’s not waste another moment. Onward, into the continuing adventures of Sherlock Hound!
Sherlock Hound – Episode 3
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I thought we’d take in a fresh episode of Sherlock Hound, largely because I am having a delightful time with it, and am eager to see more. But don’t worry, I’ve also got a more technical excuse for diving back in: we have arrived at last at the first episode actually directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and will be enjoying his directorship for two more straight episodes to come.
Even without Miyazaki actively directing, it feels like the show already bears a great number of his signatures. He was the show’s initial chosen director, and only left the project when rights issues sent it into development hell, meaning he was likely responsible for establishing a great deal of the show’s aesthetic, narrative style, and tone. The results of this seem clear in its every aspect: the slightly steampunk, ramshackle technology, the celebration of turn-of-century European urban spaces, the Lupin-derivative physical comedy, the design and personality of our heroine Barbara. Only Holmes’ personality seems to push against the general Miyazaki tone, though you could perhaps draw a line from him to Miyazaki’s curmudgeonly Porco Rosso.
Given we’re already seeing so much of Miyazaki in Holmes’ design philosophy, I’m eager to see how the show executes in his hands. Episode three was not just directed, but also storyboarded and even written by Miyazaki, so if any episode might give us an indication of his vision, it would be this one. Let’s see what the master has in store for us, as we explore another vivid episode of Sherlock Hound!
Sherlock Hound – Episode 2
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I thought we’d continue our journey through Sherlock Hound, that beautiful collaboration between TMS Entertainment and the Italian public broadcasting corporation RAI. So far, Sherlock Hound’s inviting aesthetic and measured storytelling have felt akin to the legendary World Masterpiece Theater productions, and with good reason – many of Sherlock Hound’s key staff members also worked on WMT productions, including scriptwriter Yoshihisa Araki, storyboarder Seiji Okuda, and of course, director Hayao Miyazaki. The late ‘70s and early ‘80s were an incredibly fertile time period in anime production, as a new generation of master artists brought to life a diverse selection of world literature.
So far, Sherlock Hound seems a tad more fantastical than its WMT contemporaries, embracing elements of science fiction and action-adventure that seem more specifically up Miyazaki’s alley. That’s all fine by me; I’m happy to season my Arthur Conan Doyle with a hearty dash of Lupin the Third, and perhaps even a garnish of Future Boy Conan. Speaking of which, episode two was actually directed by Keiji Hayakawa, who served as assistant director under Miyazaki on the Conan film, so I imagine we’ve got more high-flying adventures in short order. Let’s get to it!
Sherlock Hound – Episode 1
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I thought we’d do some exploring of another classic anime production, as we check out the first episode of Sherlock Hound. From what I understand, the show is acclaimed as one of the highlights of TMS Entertainment’s early years, combining the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with a light steampunk garnish borrowed from the works of Jules Verne. Given this particular blend of aesthetics, as well as the fact that he’d just finished directing his first film Castle of Cagliostro at the studio, it should come as little surprise that Hayao Miyazaki directed some of this show – unfortunately, rights issues stymied the production, and so he was ultimately only in charge of six episodes.
We won’t be hitting the Miyazaki material until episode three, but I’m nonetheless eager to see how this production tackles the material. I read a great number of the Sherlock Holmes stories as a teenager, and warmly remember Holmes himself as an eminently unlikable magician with a nasty opium habit. I can’t imagine those qualities will translate to his family-friendly animated identity, so let’s see precisely what sort of Holmes we’re dealing with, as we check out the first episode of Sherlock Hound!