Ever eaten brick oven pizza from Burger King? Or maybe a piping hot risotto from KFC (orrealchicken for that matter)? Of course you haven’t, and there’s a reason for that. That’s not their wheelhouse, or even ballpark. The same rules apply if you want quality anime. You wouldn’t ask Michael Bay to put something together, but youmaygo toScience Saru.
If that name doesn’t ring a bell, don’t feel bad. In the realm of Japanese animation, Studio Ghibli is most synonymous, and, at one point, held the monopoly on this particular genre. However, the demand in the west for more anime from overseas markets opened the door for more animation studios to make their mark. Case in point, the upcoming Scott Pilgrim anime has tapped Science Saru for the job and, judging by their CV, the project is in good hands.
Science Saru sounds like an after-school educational program for kids, which, funnily enough, isn’t too far off the mark. The story behind their name is inspired by the hope of being smarter than a monkey, withsaru(猿) meaning monkey in Japanese. The animation studio was established in 2013 and since that time they’ve had their fingers and toes in a lot of different pies. Their first high-profile project, directing an episode of Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time, is one that I actually fondly remember watchingmultipletimes.
Adventure Time dabbled in different styles throughout its run, outsourcing animation studios for fresh perspectives. To kick off Season 6, Science Saru was invited to direct the dreamlike yet poignant episode “Food Chain”, in which Finn and Jake learn about the life cycle of a bird. Thanks to some apropos magic from Magic Man, the heroes transform into birds in order to accurately experience the ups and inevitable downs of the food chain. Despite Mother Nature’s harsh realities, the episode leans less into the morbid and more into the surreal. Science Saru’s work was funny, informative, but moreover, mesmerizing. Helluva way to make a splash onto the scene.
Back on the Japanese home front, Saru lent their creative genius to projects ranging from award-winning series like Ping Pong The Animation, episodes for the campy sci-fi series Space Dandy, and assistance on feature films like Crayon Shin Chan and Yokai Watch: The Movie. This proximity to movies eventually resulted in Saru’s first film, Lulu Over The Wall, in 2017. While Lulu didn’t make a massive splash in Western markets, it showcased Masaaki Yuasa’s art style as something to behold and paved the way for something deliciously up his alley.
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I would heartily recommend Science Saru’s 2018 series Devilman Crybaby (available on Netflix) to just about anyone, except probably my mother and senior citizens. Based on the groundbreaking and beloved manga from 1970smanga-kaGo Nagai, the series chronicles the trials of high-school student Akira Fudo as he is forced to fuse himself to a demon, leading to all manner of ultraviolent, extremely sexual scenarios.
Now, in any other hands, the show would’ve descended into a cesspool of gratuitous gore and old-fashionedhentai, but through the innovative artistic lens of Science Saru, Devilman’s animation transcended the controversial elements, making it not only one of the most talked about anime of that year, but truly a work of beauty. The artwork is simultaneously reminiscent of the work of 1970s animation pioneer Ralph Bakshi, and a hybrid of Saru’s own hand-drawn innovation. Just check out the trailer.
The success ofDevilmanenabled the studio to expand, as well as attract more projects, including episodes of Disney’s Clone Wars and the completely original and leftfield 2022 seriesYurei Deco. With their justified street-cred at an all-time high, Science Saru was well primed for the next big thing. But, as Canada’s own Alanis Morissette reminds us, life is ironic.
It’s a wonderful thing when things come full circle. An acclaimed million-copy-selling comic that was given the live-action treatment at the hands of visionary director Edgar Wright now returns home to a medium that may be the best representation out of all three. After all, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Scott Pilgrim’s creator, was inspired by Japanese manga, which is obvious after perusing its six volumes. The movie version itself was as close to the comic as Wright could’ve gotten: clever, funny and portrayed in split-screen panels, just like a visual novel. However, there is a junction where reality and animation meet, and it’s the latter that manages to accomplish what the former simply can’t.
A beloved series so self-aware that it resides in a comic-based world deserves to be treated as such. Science Saru is just the studio to not only do the comic proud, but to take what the film did and ultimately one-up it. Not sinceDevilman Crybaby has the Saru crew had attention (and pressure) like this from the West , but they’ve nothing to fret about. Unlike Sex Bob-Omb, the studio isn’t here to “…make you think about death and get sad and stuff”, but to elevate the franchise to heights as epic as a fight against The League of Ramona’s Evil Exes.
