Sparks of Tomorrow Review

Kyoto Animation gave a debut director a novel from its own imprint and a global streaming slot, and the result is the studio's most adventurous work in years. The setting is a Kyoto where steam won, drawn with watercolor texture and visible brush edges that make the streets feel handmade rather than rendered, and the direction keeps changing register, dropping into impressionist smears when a machine fires or a memory intrudes.

Inako believes everything and Kihachi has stopped believing anything, and the series builds its argument about invention out of that gap rather than lecturing about it. The ensemble is written with unusual care for a thirteen episode run, and the antagonist has a position instead of a scheme. The seams show where the computer generated elements meet the painted grounds, and the character art sits a little too glossily on top of them. The swings between quiet melancholy and broad comedy will not suit everyone. It is a gorgeous and generous piece of television.