Souichi MASUI

This guy doesn't direct the smartest or most famous shows... But he knows how to make them fun and interesting to watch.

Likely a significant force in taking Rascal from being unwatchable LN rubbish (I tried reading the manga version once and it was AWFUL), to an actually interesting show about it's characters and their psyche. ALL from direction btw.

The general content from the manga and anime may as well as be 1:1 for the 1st arc (where I had read up to), but the presentation and small differences in things like character expressions and how they act had so much impact on the final product.

And there's Chaika & Akiba Maid War. Trash shows from a glance especially considering the associated genres and tropes, but entertaining in their own right still. Goes to show it's never about the template you're given, but about the execution. Everyone knows about the Hero's Journey and yet every now and then a really good one comes out and everyone loves it despite it's tropes because execution is just that important.