Here’s the short, created so that Kyoto Animation could show off its familiarity both with the cinematic language of anime and the sorts of character designs that would draw viewers to a show.Īnd Kyoto Animation does a good job: without any context, this clip could easily be mistaken for a promo for an actual anime. It was only a matter of time before KyoAni magnanimously decided to do a commercial featuring gorgeous guys instead, if only to give the world a taste of what it’d be like if they pandered to yaoi fangirls-that is, fans of manga showcasing boy-on-boy action.īut they probably didn’t anticipate the result of unleashing a 30-second spot featuring a team of virile young swimmers upon Tumblr. KyoAni often does short animated commercials, not promoting any particular anime series, but the studio itself. Kyoto Animation, or KyoAni for short, is an anime studio known for its gorgeous animation style and soft-featured female characters, designed to appeal to straight male viewers. The Daily Dot describes it about as well as I could:
It consists entirely of one quick short by Kyoto Animation that was never intended to be a full series. So lets get to the “canon” of Swimming Anime.