The Prime Video anthology tells eight of the ‘Chainsaw Man’ creator’s earliest short stories, animated by six different studios.
With rare exceptions like Star Wars: Visions and Love Death + Robots, anthologies have become a dying breed in anime. Gone are the days when studios—seemingly already at the height of their powers—banded together to make once-in-a-generation pastiches like Robot Carnival and Memories, showcasing their flair, artistry, and the magic of anime’s unique visual language.
These projects launched directors like Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell), Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira), and Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Wicked City, Ninja Scroll, and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust) as visionaries whose influence still shapes animation today. These relics offer viewers a kaleidoscopic portal into wildly varied tales, each with distinct tones, styles, and moods, affirming animation not as a blueprint for live-action but as a standalone art form worth marveling at.
And now that lost form is seeing a revival, spotlighting the humble beginnings and abstractive range of one of manga’s most unpredictable auteurs, Tatsuki Fujimoto.
In 2025, few creators are more visibly beloved in the anime industry than Fujiimoto. Over just two years, the Chainsaw Man legend (and unabashed cinephile) has seen his one-shot manga, Look Back, adapted into a stirring Studio Durian feature rivaling the work of Studio Ghibli, and Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc explode into a box-office hit via Mappa. Both films showcase his flair for sentimentality, whimsy, romance, and bombast. Hell, even Chainsaw Man’s first season had the unprecedented distinction of unique outros in every episode, and its openings referenced Hollywood films before the title became one itself. The dude has motion.
As if winding back the arms of a grandfather clock, Prime Video capped Fujimoto’s banner year with Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26, a vivid anthology of his pre-fame works.
Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 sees the unified effort of studios P.A. Works, Zexcs, Lapin Track, Studio Kafka, 100studio, and Studio Graph77 adapting eight short stories Fujimoto wrote from ages 17-26, before he became a household name with his first published series, Fire Punch.
Despite the conceit of the anime anthology being short stories from the same author, none of them feel like the kind of fast-food smattering of the same ingredients dressed up as a different meal.
