inside animation art
inside animation art
Production I.G. holds Luffy's first smile.
On July 26, 1998, two years before Toei launched the long-running series, the Jump Super Anime Tour screened Defeat the Pirate Ganzack, a thirty-minute OVA produced by Production I.G. under the direction of Goro Taniguchi. Eiichiro Oda personally designed the characters created for the OVA, Ganzack first among them, along with the marine creature. The designs of Luffy, Zoro and Nami, already established in the manga, were adapted for cel animation by character designer Hisashi Kagawa. It was on that day that Monkey D. Luffy first moved on cel.
Luffy is the title character of one of the most widely circulated shonen series in the world. This cel does not capture him in a narrative climax, but in his signature gesture: open smile, arms spread in welcome. Production I.G. was the first studio to animate the character, and that precedence found its continuation in 2024 when WIT Studio, a subsidiary of IG Port, was awarded The One Piece, the series reboot.
Wide medium shot, Luffy facing front. The straw hat covers the upper half of the face and its shadow falls on the forehead down to the eyebrows, leaving the eyes in shadow while the wide-open mouth receives all the light. The arms spread symmetrically, palms downward, in a gesture more welcoming than threatening. The proportions of the face and body bear the signature of character designer Hisashi Kagawa: a more tapered head, more articulated limbs than in Oda's manga, ears set higher. The shadow of the hat erases the eyes, the spread of the arms frames the smile: the entire reading of the cel converges on the laughing mouth.
Cel in acrylic paint on celluloid, dimensions 229 by 267 mm. Handwritten annotation upper right, reference A27 (character layer number). Presented on a printed background with no documented connection to the production. JAMAC Certificate of Registration issued on September 10, 2021.
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The Cs Score exists only on this page. Any mention without this link is not valid.
Production I.G. holds Luffy's first smile.
On July 26, 1998, two years before Toei launched the long-running series, the Jump Super Anime Tour screened Defeat the Pirate Ganzack, a thirty-minute OVA produced by Production I.G. under the direction of Goro Taniguchi. Eiichiro Oda personally designed the characters created for the OVA, Ganzack first among them, along with the marine creature. The designs of Luffy, Zoro and Nami, already established in the manga, were adapted for cel animation by character designer Hisashi Kagawa. It was on that day that Monkey D. Luffy first moved on cel.
Luffy is the title character of one of the most widely circulated shonen series in the world. This cel does not capture him in a narrative climax, but in his signature gesture: open smile, arms spread in welcome. Production I.G. was the first studio to animate the character, and that precedence found its continuation in 2024 when WIT Studio, a subsidiary of IG Port, was awarded The One Piece, the series reboot.
Wide medium shot, Luffy facing front. The straw hat covers the upper half of the face and its shadow falls on the forehead down to the eyebrows, leaving the eyes in shadow while the wide-open mouth receives all the light. The arms spread symmetrically, palms downward, in a gesture more welcoming than threatening. The proportions of the face and body bear the signature of character designer Hisashi Kagawa: a more tapered head, more articulated limbs than in Oda's manga, ears set higher. The shadow of the hat erases the eyes, the spread of the arms frames the smile: the entire reading of the cel converges on the laughing mouth.
Cel in acrylic paint on celluloid, dimensions 229 by 267 mm. Handwritten annotation upper right, reference A27 (character layer number). Presented on a printed background with no documented connection to the production. JAMAC Certificate of Registration issued on September 10, 2021.
