Hi everyone,
We know many of you were waiting for this one - our documentary around Katsura Hashino, Shoji Meguro and Shigenori Soejima and their approach on the journey towards Metaphor: ReFantazio is out now.
You can expect a followup update in the next few days about our future projects, meanwhile we hope you'll enjoy!
Thank for your support,
-the Archipel team
2024-11-11 12:51:49 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
We recently released on the channel a teaser for our upcoming content on Metaphor: ReFantazio, as we dug deeper in the game with creator trio Shigenori Soejima, Shoji Meguro & Katsura Hashino. As players are discovering the game through the playable demo, we looked more at the each creator's approach, on character design, music, writing & overall direction.
As we slowly emerge back from Tokyo Game Show, we're finishing up our roadmap for content, as much more ...
2024-09-30 01:57:39 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
As previously shared in our last update, we are launching Archipel Log, our first editorial project, an original guidebook introducing places behind the inspiration and memories of Japanese artists. It channels years of following creators in the video medium, this time in editorial form.
For this first edition, we’ll discover locations in Tokyo and its direct vicinity though the lens of animation artists Mai Yoneyama and Ryu Okubo, from a sand beach on th...
2024-07-02 13:02:02 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
We're excited to share a couple updates on what we've been working on.
Content updates:
We're finally seeing progress on our documentary about the animation legend Mahiro Maeda, who has been recently featured for his early conceptualization work on Mad Max: Furiosa and an upcoming art book. The documentary will be coming later this year.
We've finished shooting with the Katsura Hashino, Shigenori S...
2024-06-26 08:23:51 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
A new video is now online on the channel - following the final steps of a collaboration between horror manga legend Junji Ito and modeler Yoshiki Fujimoto.
For the creation of another look at Ito’s iconic “Tomie”, we learn more about the mutual respect they share for one another as we visit their work.
As a side note, our process of renewing the channel is progressing well, multiple new portraits are confirmed for later this year, more...
2024-04-21 13:00:54 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
New portrait out on the channel today, shedding light on manga artist Toryumon Takeda, whose stories show flawed, yet endearing characters embarked together on an adventurous journey.
We discussed her influences, her thoughts put in character creation and her posture towards manga creation, as we learn more about two of her series: "BADDUCKS" and the upcoming "DOGA".
We hope you'll enjoy and as always, thank you for your support!
- the Archipel team<...
2024-03-15 13:00:46 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
With a small delay to what we had announced, we just released our portrait on animator and illustrator Mai Yoneyama, where over a day spent at her atelier she took us through her career path leading up to her evolution as a broad artist.
So without going too much further into an extended description, we hope you'll enjoy and continue supporting us! Feel free to share over your thoughts here or on the Discord.
Thank you!
- the Archipel team
2024-02-13 13:01:31 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
After a long wait, our Kenji Eno documentary is finally here.
Commemorating the 10th anniversary since his sudden passing, we look back at a brilliant mind of the game industry, through testimonials from his family, friends and colleagues.
Behind unique titles such as "D", "Enemy Zero" or "Real Sound", Kenji Eno was disruptive in his titles, also making bold moves in his media appearances and promotional methods.
We hope you'll enjoy, and wish everyone hap...
2023-12-23 01:02:30 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
It's been a while since we haven't posted anything new on the channel, but please be assured that we have a few projects in the works set to be released in the following weeks.
Today we're sharing a glimpse of a portrait we are making of animator & illustrator Mai Yoneyama. After starting her career at Gainax as an animator, her talent now ranges between animation, illustration, character design and art. We'll look at her creative mindset, her mesmerizing style sh...
2023-12-04 13:24:17 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
We know it's been a while since we haven't posted, so first we would like to give a big thanks to everyone who is still supporting us on Patreon. Here's what we've been up to.
First, we will be releasing our Kenji Eno documentary this December. We will hold three screening sessions in a theater in Tokyo, before releasing it on the channel. Which leads us to our second announcement...
2023-11-01 06:29:45 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone,
As announced in our end-of-year update, we've been working on a long documentary to commemorate the brilliant mind of Kenji Eno, a unique creator of Japan's game industry with works including D, Enemy Zero or Real Sound, through a series of testimonials with some of his friends, colleagues and family.
Today, for the 10th anniversary since his sudden passing, we are posting a first peek: a teaser for the documentary we will be releasing later this year.
Cast (...
2023-02-20 13:05:01 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone,
It's that time of the year. 2022 has been slightly different than usual as we've spent a lot of time planning and producing new projects, that we're looking forward to sharing more about.
Nevertheless, we've been happy to release our longer feature on alternative paths to manga, our portrait of illustrator Acky Bright or on anima...
2022-12-28 07:12:25 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
This post is slightly different than usual as we're not announcing nor releasing any new video.
For quite some time, we have seen many requests on our videos to add Japanese subtitles for people learning Japanese. We did so for a selection of videos, but this got us thinking that there could be something more that we could do, especially as we are fully aware that learning Japanese can be quite daunting.
We kept the idea in our minds, then a few years ago we pos...
2022-10-31 09:27:26 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone,
We've mentioned it in our last Patreon post - here is our new portrait of animation film director Hiroyasu Ishida.
As a prolific creator of a new generation in animation, we looked back together at his career, ranging from his student debut, the early days of Studio Colorido, to his first feature-length film "Penguin Highway" and his latest film: Drifting Home.
We hope you'll enjoy!
Thank you for your support,
- the Archipel team
2022-09-13 02:33:06 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
We're back with a status update on some of our ongoing projects. Our documentary on Mahiro Maeda is still in the works, we're taking a bit more time to let it breathe a bit and can come back to it to polish it some more. There are some additional logistics involved as well considering the large number of studios that Maeda has worked with throughout his career, but please be assured that it's a work in progress.
Meanwhile, we've had the opportunity to film with Pengui...
2022-09-06 02:09:40 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
We know it's been a while since we shared any news - but please be assured there's been a few projects in the works. Our documentary on animation director Mahiro Maeda is set to be a long one, probably the longest portrait we have ever done so far, we hope to be able to share more soon (still juggling with work projects as well to maintain everything).
Meanwhile, we keep discussing about a renewal for the channel - with the launch of a new...
2022-06-30 04:41:36 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone,
Today we’re launching the pilot to one of our new series projects: Layout, focusing on Japanese drawing artists, their inspirations and their work.
For this first episode, we’ve met Acky Bright, a multi-talented illustrator navigating between various techniques, whose works are inspired by many artists and pop culture titles, with a strong influence from Akira Toriyama and Katsuya Terada (the latter who makes a brief appearance in the video.)
This is a tr...
2022-03-31 14:01:07 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
To patrons on the $5 tier and above, we thought we'd share a small bonus content from our last video on alternative manga artists Yuriko Akase and Junichiro Saito, where we asked two additional questions to their editor that we were curious about, namely:
- At which point does Torch consider a publication to be a success?
- How much is Torch paying its authors?
Unlisted Video URL: https://you...
2022-02-21 13:22:16 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone,
We just launched our documentary on alternative manga artists that we had teased about a few months back. Through a day spent with authors Yuriko Akase and Junichiro Saito, discover their diametrically different styles, ranging from watercolor to hard-boiled noir, as we learned more about their backgrounds and motivations behind their respective titles Sazan & Comet Girl and Shit Chofu.
This documentary marks the end of a content cycle for us - we would like to...
2022-01-31 14:01:38 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
First of all we would like to wish everyone a happy new year 2022 and all the best for this year.
We've been thinking, adjusting, then readjusting again on the direction we will be taking with our content for this year. Last year, we've posted 8 videos (including our long interview with Hideki Kamiya, which we ultimately split over 7 parts), most of which you saw on our Cutscenes secondary channel, but we've been working on new content for Archipel as well, some...
2022-01-12 07:23:56 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
Our series on game creator Hideki Kamiya comes to completion as we just released its last chapter, out now on Cutscenes.
We went over to BitSummit, Japan's top indie game festival, opening for an offline edition over in Kyoto, under strict sanitary restrictions. PlatinumGames was showing Sol Cresta, a shoot 'em up opening up the company's Neo Classic Arcade series.
Kamiya tells us more about his motivations behind the development of this title, before concluding...
2021-12-06 13:02:01 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
We're hoping all things are well for everyone. We wanted to share a quick update on some of the content we are planning or that is currently in the works.
- Non-mainstream manga artist documentary: we're aware we're taking more time than expected, but please stay assured that this is still in the works. We have taken all the shots we needed, but still have a significant chunk of editing ahead of us.
- Illustrator Portrait | Acky Bright
2021-11-30 02:45:13 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
For the 6th part of the Kamiya Chronicles series, we looked back at two titles: The Wonderful 101 and... Scalebound.
The former started quite differently from what we might think, while the latter's development led to an unfortunate ending. This chapter is next to last, as our following video will bring the series to a close, scheduled to come out on December 6th.
Thanks for following the series and for your support. We hope you'll enjoy.
- the Archipel te...
2021-11-19 13:02:01 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
The Kamiya Chronicles continues, as we now dive in our 5th chapter, during the very beginnings of PlatinumGames and the making of one of the studio's flagship titles: Bayonetta.
We hope you'll enjoy.
Thank you for your support.
- the Archipel team
2021-11-12 13:03:00 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
As briefly shared yesterday, we just posted a new video on the Archipel channel. While we were in Wajima, located in Ishikawa prefecture for a project, we met with Shigeru Kancho, a 5th-generation artisan specialized in wan-kiji, a bowl cutting technique which initiates the process of the traditional Wajima lacquerware creation.
With an accelerated population decrease in rural regions and less interest from younger generations to pursue Japanese traditional crafts, ar...
2021-11-09 13:02:01 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
Friday means it’s time for a new part of Kamiya Chronicles, this time focusing on the development of Okami, a critically acclaimed title of the end of the PlayStation 2 era. Director Hideki Kamiya looks back at how the game’s development started, with its share of twists mid-development in order to achieve the game’s unique art touch and gameplay mechanics.
We hope you’ll keep following the series and that you’ll enjoy this part. Please let us know your thou...
2021-11-05 13:01:35 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone,
The Kamiya Chronicles series keeps going.
This latest video goes back to the making of Viewtiful Joe and how the game came to life, starting from a spark of Shinji Mikami's looking to make a series similar to Mega Man.
We hope you'll like it.
Cheers,
- the Archipel team
2021-10-29 13:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
Our "Kamiya Chronicles" series continues, this time focusing on the development of Devil May Cry, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.
Hideki Kamiya looks back to what was originally meant to be a sequel in the Resident Evil series, while also discussing the legacy it has left, becoming one of Japan's most renown action game series.
We hope you'll enjoy and follow the series for its next part, named "No Average Joe", to be released on October 29th.
...
2021-10-22 13:01:12 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
We are launching today the "Kamiya Chronicles", a long interview of Hideki Kamiya, one of Japan's most prolific game creators who directed Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, Okami, Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101, as he goes back on his career spanning over 25 years.
The first part of this interview is out now on Cutscenes, our secondary channel. Kamiya told us about his beginnings in the industry at Capcom, working alongside Shinji Mikami on the Resident ...
2021-10-15 01:01:59 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
We just launched a new video on Cutscenes; an interview with the CEO & Founder of the Koei Tecmo group Yoichi Erikawa, celebrating this year his 40th anniversary as game creator under the alias Ko Shibusawa.
As a pioneer of the simulation game genre, he reminisced on the three titles that layered his path as a game creator, starting with a title unknown in Japan, Kawanakajima no Kassen, released in 1981.
Up next on Cutscenes, a series based on our long inter...
2021-09-29 09:35:20 +0000 UTC
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