Characteristics of Japanese Anime

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Characteristics of Japanese Anime

• Lauren Malis
• David Jacobs

2
Topics

• Characteristics of the Art, Animation Methods and
  Techniques
• Focus on Toei Animation

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Start of Animation in Japan

• Began around 1960
• Osamu Tezuka
• Father of manga
• Astro Boy!
• Creates Mushi Pro
• Reason?
• Turn manga stories into Animation

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Astro Boy Sets the Stage for Anime

• Tezukas art is highly influenced by Disney
• Well rounded character designs
• Large eyes
• Similar to Bambi and Mickey Mouse

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Boys Manga

• Became very popular in the 1950s
• Examples include Shukan shonen sande and Shukan
  shonen magajin
• With these publications, manga became more
  popular with children than ever before

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Boys Manga contd

• Some of the most popular boys manga revolve
  around sports heroes
• Some of the most popular about include Ashita no
  Jo (Tomorrows Joe) which is an adolescent boxer
  and Kyojin no hoshi (Star of the Giants) is
  described the story of a baseball pitcher.
• The typical themes included a character who,
  trained very hard, displayed unyielding
  tenacity, and defeated even the toughest rivals,
  (http//www.tjf.or.jp/).

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Keep the Animation Simple!

• As a manga, it already had a vast number of
  stories
• Needed to adapt them quickly for T.V.
• Inexperienced staff and low budget

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Time and Money Saving

• Cut the number of drawings or holding drawings
  for longer periods of time
• Reuse pieces of animation
• Done also to place more focus on the dramatic
  sense and appeal of the original story

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More techniques later on

• Scrolling or repeating backgrounds
• Still shots of characters in action poses sliding
  across screen
• Dialogue where only the lips move
• In 1960, 60 of all anime were based on character
  driven stories from manga

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1970s Shift

• Mostly Original Stories
• Studios began taking ideas from one another
• Began Giant Robot stories
• More complicated stories
• Youthful Emotion
• Philosophical Themes

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Shifts Influence on the Art

• Deeper story plots
• Need for deeper more believable characters
• Studios favor more realistic drawing style
• More Details
• But to keep budget, less animation
• If viewer is hooked by the story no problem if
  only the characters mouth is moving
• Characters stay rigid, no volumetric changes
• No need to invent, just follow character model
  sheets

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Stylized Character Emotion

• Again less time less money
• Comedic anime face fault
• Extremely exaggerated expression to show Shock!

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Stylized Character Emotion

• Female characters pull out weapons like hammers
  out of nowhere to bludgeon a nearby friend in
  anger
• Guy getting bloody nose around an attractive girl

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Love and Comedy

• Popular in the 1970s through 1980s
• in the love-comedy manga stories, romance is
  invariably set against the backdrop of
  often-slapstick events involving the protagonists
  and other characters, and priority is given to a
  balance between the elements of serious drama and
  comedy, (http//www.tjf.or.jp/).
• Some popular romance mangas include Urusei
  yatsura (Noisy People), Miyuki, Mezon Ikkoku
  (Maison Ikkoku), and Tatchi (Touch)

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Its the 1980s and Manga Returns!

• Manga has branched out to different groups
  girls, boys, teenagers, adults
• Anime follows suit
• Manga released in weekly installments
• Form larger overarching stories
• Characters grow and develop

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Its the 1980s and Manga Returns!

• Manga already has fan base
• Studios want to offer same story/experience
• To achieve same level of emotion from the still
  images..
• More Effort put in backgrounds and character
  drawings versus movement

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Importance of Character

• Unless viewers have been watching since beginning
• All the nuances of the character might not be
  understood
• But, creates more engaging stories to hook the
  audience and bring them back

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Shinji Shimizu on Character

• Producer of GeGeGe no Kitarou
• (Quote not on slides)

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Different Perspective

• Mamoru Oshii
• Director of Ghost in the Shell
• the visuals are the most important aspect, then
  the story, and the characters come last

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Current Trends

• Stories and topics are much more teenager and
  adult themed
• Many visibly show characters drinking and smoking
  such as in Naturo and One Piece

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Violence, violence, violence

• The content of popular animes today are filled
  with gratuitous violence
• Todays society is consumed with the fight
  fight mentality

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Recent Ratings, Sept. 2008

• 1. Sazae-san
• 24-year old daughter living with her family in
  Tokyo
• Started as newspaper comics in 1946
• Turned to animation in 1969, currently running
  and longest running animation in history

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Recent Ratings, Sept. 2008

• 2. Chibi Maruko-chan
• Little girl named Maruko and her family in
  suburban late-seventies Japan
• Aimed at young girls

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Recent Ratings, Sept. 2008

• 3. Crayon Shin-chan
• Young trouble making boy
• 4. Doraemon
• Magical cat that pulls items out of his pouch
• Helps friend, Nobita, young school boy

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Top Four Shows

• Very similar art style
• Simplified and child-like drawings
• Comedic driven anime
• Source material manga
• Number 5 also manga, but different style.

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Number Five

• One Piece
• More serious (comedic at times) adventure driven
  story
• About Pirates
• Aimed at adolescent boys
• Much more detailed artwork
• Still stylized, yet much more realistic characters

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General Format of Anime

• Theme song from commercial music artist (usually
  not written specifically for show)
• First half of show
• One commercial break!
• Second half
• Ending Theme
• Scenes from Next Weeks episode

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Focus on Toei Animation

• Around 440 anime production companies in Japan
• 80 in Tokyo
• More than half in the Suginami Ward of west
  central Tokyo
• Rest in Nerima Ward

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Focus on Toei Animation

• One of the largest in Japan
• Established in 1956 (before Mushi Pro)
• Located in Tokyos Higashi Oizumi district
• Production began in 1957
• One year later released first feature length,
  White Snake

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Toei Animation Today

• Produces five to six 30 min. T.V. shows a week
• One full length feature, every one to two years
• Producer Shinji Shimizu, started 1977
• Projects GeGeGe no Kitaro, Shoot!, The File of
  Young Kidaichi, Galaxy Express 999, Eternal
  Fantasy, among others

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Others from Toei Animation

• Hayao Miyazaki
• My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
• Howls Moving Castle(2004), and more
• Isao Takahata
• Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
• My Neighbors the Yamadas(1999), and more
• Directors/Producers at Ghibli Studios
• Started at Toei Animation

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Production Process

• One director takes responsibility for an episode
  from start to finish
• Director will at times draw storyboards
• Overviews process from start to final voice over
  and sound fx
• With weekly broadcasts, series will have six to
  eight directors
• Take turns in shifts

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Key Animation Change

• Note not necessarily true of Toei
• Productions run for long periods of time
• Studios work on multiple projects at once
• Sometimes key animators will change during a
  production
• Key animators draw all poses needed for any
  action to be understood by those who fill in or
  in-between the drawings

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Key Animation Change

• At times causes some anime episodes to have a
  fairly dramatic change in style
• Yet, not always noticed by viewers
• Characters still move and speak exactly the same
  way as previous and forthcoming episodes
• Usually only lasts an episode or two

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Key Animation Change

• Causes
• New key animators wanted to try out different
  style/just for fun
• They didnt pay enough attention to the character
  model sheets
• Ex Tweeny Witches and Naruto

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Back to the Process

• Company decides on project
• Scriptwriting
• Storyboards
• Animation divided into Keys and In-betweens
• Those who in-between clean up drawings so they
  are ready for scanning and digital compositing

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Back to Process continued

• One of the last steps Voice Recording
• Actors all perform at the same time in the same
  room

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Outsourcing

• South Korea and China
• Take care of process from usually from in-between
  phase on
• Some will do all drawing, including keys
• Storyboards are always done at home studio,
  Unless joint project

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Toei on outsourcing

• Philippines
• Of more than 400 employees, 150 are in
  Philippines or 38
• Art direction and key animation done in Japan
• Filipino animators work on coloring, background,
  and camera works

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Outsourcing and wages

• According to 2005 study of animators in Japan
• Average Work day 10.2 hours
• Estimated 250 hours per month
• 26.8 make less than 1million yen a year (approx.
  10,000)
• 38.2 make from 1million to 3 million (10,000 to
  30,000)

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More Stats

• 80 of in-between animators are paid by quantity
  with each drawing averaging 186.9 yen, close to
  2
• Wages currently being offered after much
  outsourcing

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Toei Developments

• 1996
• Introduction of Celsys RETAS, a digital ink and
  paint program
• All productions digitally inked and painted
• Currently is in the process of eliminating all
  paper and pencils from the studio

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In Contrast, Studio Ghibli

• Hayao Miyazaki insists on using traditional hand
  drawn techniques
• Exceptions Princess Mononoke
• Some digital animation for the movement of the
  creatures etc.
• For the first time some of the drawings painted
  digitally to keep with release deadlines

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Miyazaki

• Its very important for me to retain the right
  ratio between working by hand and computer. I
  have learned that balance now, how to use both
  and still be able to call my films 2D.

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More on Miyazaki

• Newest film Ponyo Cliff by the Sea, went back to
  all hand drawn, summer 2008
• All of his work has been in house production