[Higurashi Gou] Passione’s master class in storyboarding

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Gou just finished airing and the story it told was very… different, to say the least.
I’ve read multiple entries of the WTCverse through the years and, honestly, Ryukishi07 sucks at pacing. Gou is a structural mess and I’m unwillingly happy that it apparently had the sequel “Higurashi Sotsu” planned from the start, otherwise it would be very difficult to justify (and close) all these loose ends from Gou.

Anyway, regardless of all that, this post is about the animation studio which brought this black swan of a sequel to life.
Passione (Rail Wars, Citrus, Ishuzoku Reviewers) founded in 2011, is still a relatively small company in the big leagues. They aren’t really well known by the mainstream folks but are clearly improving in quality with every new franchise.
While lacking in plot, budget and action, Higurashi Gou was a joy to watch thanks to some ingenious, yet simple, beautiful storyboards.
Bellow is a compilation of selected scenes that left me in awe.

The underrated craft of designing anime openings.

It’s also Art. Why shouldn’t it be?
Anime openings, or rather TV openings in general, are usually neglected by both viewers and producers.
What’s the point of an opening? Some people will just use it as extra time to quickly grab a snack before the episode starts or check their Facebook and Twitter feeds. If you’re fast enough, maybe you can even try your luck with the bathroom.
It’s always the same thing, with the same names, same faces, same scenes. You’ve seen one, you’ve seen it all.

From production to launch date, OPs will sometimes stay on the bottom of the “to do list” or even get outsourced to a different staff since everyone from the main crew would be busy polishing up the premier/pilot episode and checking series continuity/composition. There’s no need to make it awesome, you won’t be telling your story through it anyway. It’s just an eye-catch and obligatory “see, this person made this” credit list.
On top of that, it’s a tricky business.
Do you hire a good musician to perform or just add some synthesized “music” and call it a day? Maybe you could try something more deviant? …but then the audience backslash could be troublesome.
Either way, if your OP turns out to be shit, you can always remove it from the pilot episode or simply delay it, adding a nice and exciting intro/prologue before.

There’s no point wasting money and energy on something like this.
Hm.
r-right?