Slashdot Mirror
A Glimpse Into the World of Japanese Animation
Pixelgroove writes "CGNetworks sports a story by Justin Leach (Softimage Special Projects Division), who had a unique chance to work at Production I.G in Japan on Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence and Kill Bill: Vol. 1. Prior to leaving Japan, he interviewed the Production I.G computer graphics animation team about their thoughts and perspectives on Japanese Animation (anime)."
I still wanna know why yahoo yanked broadcast.com's huge array of movies. Lots of good anime in there. check archive.org if you dont believe me.
Like Sweepstakes? Try out my service @ http://www.yourpowersweeps.com -- Free 21 day trial, no cc needed.
Now this is what I call front page material.
Any normal slashdot article would have about 50-100 comments by now. This one has 5 (4 of which are trolls).
Anime should be in its own section, IMHO. Its only here because of Taco's love of it. I really don't consider it a 'nerdy' thing. Sure, lotsa geeks are anime fanboys, and some actually enjoy the plots and stuff in the movies, but it really doesn't fit in with technology and science in my opinion.
So I say give it its own section so Taco can keep up with it, and it can avoid the frontpage... the other option would be to create a new site, I dunno, call it animefu, and have Taco put all his anime stuff on it....
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
I am so sorry, Michael-san, but I think that this interview is a load of crap. It may be about anime but as an interview and background about some decidedly good anime it just won't do. For instance: "This is a promiscuous story of a lonesome "ghost" of a man, who nevertheless seeks to retain humanity. Innocence... That's what life is." about Ghost in the shell:2. What the hell is a promiscuous story? One that screws around? What do you mean "that's what life is"? Life is not about being artificial and trying to retain humanity. This kind of pseudo-intellectualism really irritates me. It tells me nothing about the movie, its background or why it should be interesting. And this: "What are your goals for the future? My goal is to establish CG in a unique 'Production I.G' style, and introduce it to the world. Because of this, I like to learn about everything earnestly. I want to live and work with pride, respect people, treasure the nature and cherish my country." He definitely seems like a nice guy, respecting Nature and all that, but what does he want to do with CG? What's so unique about the style? Does he also want to learn about quantum mechanics earnestly then? Et cetera, et cetera. Vapid. Enough ranting, but please, let's have some more interesting stuff on slashdot, shall we?
----- One learns to itch where one can scratch.
Honestly. They went out of their way to get it across fast, what, with the September 17th theatrical release date for the US being only six months or so behind Japan. Why do you have to be a cock and violate the copyright on it like that?
Is 2D animation dead?
GREAT way to start an interview. "Hi, is your career worthless?"
"Uh, no. There are over 400 animation studios in Japan. That's why we own your animation market too."
"You don't need to learn how to draw to become a 3D creator, that's the biggest reason."
Genius. Spectacular insight, and it neatly wraps up the 3D vs 2D hype comparison.
Anime is doing to the animation market here exactly what import cars did to the automobile market in the 70s. Japanese studios are making enormous amounts of money in a market which has been abandoned by Disney, et al., because U.S. companies only believe "you get what you pay for" if they are setting the price. Disney just got through taking a giant shit on their own animation studios which had been drawing on some EIGHTY YEARS of expertise. These people had devoted their entire careers to their craft, but Disney just couldn't stop whining that they weren't getting a 40000% return on the sequel of the week.
Anime is probably just about to pass the $5 billion mark annually, and manga is now at $100 million, and we're early in the third inning. The competition is over. Anime is the animation market.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
I could understand the initial charm of Anime, back in the '80s. I remember when Akira first came out in the cinema and caused quite a stir with its futuristic, Blade Runner Neo-Tokyo setting, engrossing storyline and revolutionary computer graphics mixed in traditional cell animation. I could see then why Anime and Manga were popular - they were fresh and interesting and the Japanese perspective, the different cultural traditions, made for cartoons which could really surprise you, or make you laugh, thinking "What the hell was THAT all about?".
But they've only grown in popularity and I find it surprising that so many slashdotters seemed to have jumped on the bandwagon. There was an odd dichotomy the other day with a story article about outsourcing alongside one about a new anime which made me uneasy, and I tried to reason out why. Do you guys not realise that there are fantastic American cartoons out there, that you could spend your money on as well?
The thing that worries me is that a lot of kids cartoons are imported direct from Japan. And they're the future consumers so things will only get worse. They've got pretty shoddy animation, panning across one cell for example, but because they are the anime style, they're popular. It's the mindless following of a particular style that gets to me, and I see it a lot in the anime fans on Slashdot. *Anything* anime is news. How often do you see any other style of animation being publicised on the main page?
How is a slashbot mindlessly buying japanese anime regardless of the quality different from a CEO of a large company mindlessly outsourcing to India regardless of the quality? They're both going offshore without looking at other alternatives, because it's suddenly fashionable. But on slashdot, anime cheerleading (zealotry is too strong a word) is good, but outsourcing is hideously evil. There's a bit of hypocrisy going on here, in my opinion.
Look into the American alternatives.
Meine Schwester ist sehr, sehr reizvoll - Nietzsche
Grave of the Fireflies brought the horrors of war home even more than Saving Private Ryan
PlanetES showed a future both frightening and hopeful.
Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien showed that happiness and sadness are not distinct states but often show up together.
Full Moon wo Sagashite showed that friendship might end in tragedy, but also that friendship is the the only defense against tragedy that we have.
There are others, but the fact that I can see another culture with all of its bizarre but beautiful aspects is what keeps me watching it.
Well, first of all, I'd like to point out that the article isn't really about Japanese animation. It is about what people's attitudes are that work on Japanese animation, and how they are they perceive themselves as being different from Western animation.
One thing to note about Japanese animation itself is that they try very hard to maintain the traditional style while using new tools. Anybody that has watched anime the last couple years will note the marked improvement of visual quality (especially of TV shows) over those made 7 years ago. Interestingly, the CG style (works like Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Shrek) are not as popular in Japan as the are in America. People on the Production I.G. seem to blame that on character design issues (hard to create a look for characters that they feel is compelling).
Something that I wish would be incorporated in American animation is a wish that more of American animation said something about us. About who we are as a people, and how we view ourselves in the world. In short, say something about our culture. Production I.G. animators say they wish Japanese animation better reflected Japan. I share that wish only with respect to American animation relating to America.
What is interesting is how this matches up with outsourcing. Animation is a work of art. If we export animation to India or Korea, how do expect the animation to reflect our culture? (Of course, it might speak loads about our culture, but not in a good way). This isn't a unique thought, I was watching "The Otherside of Outsourcing" and they talked about Indians learning computer animation. They commentator noted how he thought that it was important that Indians did something about their own culture and not just pieces for other countries. Just something I thought I'd tie in.
The last suggestion for Western animation is to stop the "soft-biggotry of low expectations" towards our kids. Most CG films (like Shrek) are good at making a story that is reasonably complex and the characters seem real, with real conflicts and are not cardboard cut-outs. But, our TV shows really need some work. It might be because they are usually totally episodic, which curtails character development. But, I really think we need to show characters with depth and real conflict (emotional and otherwise). If we don't, we really aren't helping their development. So, in a sense, we are raising them quite literally on kiddie porn.
Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true! -Homer Simpson
Everyone is so enthralled with japanese culture and anime. Frankly, it's the same other way around.
Sounds like a troll don't it.
As Americans, you're accustomed to what western animaion can present to you, famliar plot lines, personalities, endings, etc. This is because this is American culture. The people creating it, have been raised in American culture. It's a famliarity we're used to, some of us are sick of it.
Ergo, why Japanese animation is so appealing. It's a different culture. Nothing's familiar, it has you thinking. You're no longer left with your mind going numb and being able to predict what comes next. To most Americans, Japanese culture is a complete mystery and what comes next in an anime scene is unique and refreshing.
Of course, it's well accepted since it's a cultural difference that's presenting this fresh perspective. Whereas, if an American tried to do something fresh and innovative, they can be drilled as a tool, or cop out, etc. It's harder to push boundaries from inside the box.
Japanese animation style is something that can offer American viewers that's nearly orthagonal to what they're sick of seeing in American animation.
Ironically, Japanese animation origin comes from American animation with a Japanese twist. Export enough culture and it comes back to us as another country's import? =D
Correct.
This keeps anime inexpensive to make, which is why there is so damn much of it. They _do_ cut corners, frequently. Its how the industry operates.
HOWEVER, this poor animation is not a constant. Usually, they save the budget for the action scenes. Check Evangelion for perfect example. shoddy animation (but great visual direction) through most of the show.. but during those actions scenes...
no
Because "information wants to be free." Because "the MPAA is evil." Because going to a theater is an "obsolete business model."
Insert your own piracy-apologist reason!
Seriously though, I don't see why length should be a factor when it comes to animated series (whatever the origin). There are some amazing, thought-provoking films out there that are only a few minutes long (check out the indie animation scene, which is full of them), and then you have long-winded series that are 13 to 26 episodes long and end up boring the socks off of you (Gundam Wing and Mahoromatic being two in my particular case).
Using length as a yardstick for quality doesn't quite measure up. At any rate, I'm guessing that the reason more American studios aren't going this route is because it's cheaper to import these types of series from Japan :P