The Japanese magazine VIDEO SALON, dedicated to video production techniques, puts Kenoh-gun Zako-tachi no Banka on the cover of its November 2026 issue. The Hokuto no Ken short spin-off opens a special feature on short-form animation, “Short anime is hot!” (ショートアニメが熱い！), and gets an in-depth making-of.
Animatica, an in-house method
The magazine is mostly interested in how the series is made. A new animation label, Animatica, was set up specifically to produce it. The approach builds on motion comics, which animate existing manga panels, and adds staging and image processing specific to animation. Hiroshi Kurao’s manga remains the foundation, but the aim is to bring across the characters’ emotions as well.
Two members of the team walk through the process with concrete examples: Daisuke Miura, animation director at Do-raku, and Makoto Nakamura, screenwriter and animation producer at Frontier Works.
The zako in the spotlight
The feature opens with a simple observation. On the creative side, independent animation driven by individuals or small teams is booming. On the audience side, the format is popular because an episode fits into a short break. Kenoh-gun Zako-tachi no Banka appears alongside Himitsu Kessha Taka no Tsume, whose creator FROGMAN looks back on twenty years of work, and the mini-series Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Kyūkei Jikan.
Seeing the nameless grunts of Raoh’s army on the cover of a technical magazine is bound to raise a smile. The series had already been screened at the Yubari festival in June, and its season 2 has since aired.
The full table of contents for the issue is available on the VIDEO SALON website.
