Forum - View topicWhat Makes Kyoto Animation So Special?
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Usagi-kun
 Posts: 877 Location: Nashville, TN |
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One of my favorite sequences in all of the anime I have watched over the years happened in Haruhi Suzumiya, the first season somewhere in the beginning when Haruhi and Asahina are completely off-screen changing into those bunny costumes. The camera appears to be placed in a corner of the foreground, with Nagato sitting in a chair off to the side reading a book. It is an extended sequence of Haruhi talking loudly and Asahina protesting, but at the same time Nagato sits alone in the room reading leisurely, turning pages softly as she finishes each one. The cinematic quality and the timing of that sequence revealed to me in an instant; such a realistic and artistically self-aware depiction signified I was watching something very special. And I have been watching KyoAni closely ever since. |
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VORTIA
 SubscriberPosts: 943 |
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I don't care much for Kyoto Animation. I find most of their work after Nichijou to be rather dull, and they and their fans somewhat irritatingly pretentious, but there's no questioning their artistic talent and attention to fine detail. Perhaps if they weren't so self-limiting in the subjects they choose to animate and the methods of storytelling they usually use I could more fully appreciate their craftsmanship. At least Amagi Brilliant Park was a step in the right direction!
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Manwards
 Posts: 194 Location: Leicester, England |
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This is a really well-written piece, and puts into words things I've thought myself for years. I've been a massive KyoAni fan for almost a decade now, and have seen everything they've done, save for Full Metal Panic and the original Munto OVAs.
The little moments of body language and the attention to detail they put into musical performances, dancing or other kinetic movements have really spoiled me. A friend recommended Hanayamata, a show about dancing, and it really bothered me that you never really see the girls dance. There'd be the occasional still frame of them posing, or a shot of the crowd going "Wow!", but actual dancing? None of note until the end of the last episode, and even then, they just reused the five-second clip from the opening credits, which itself was done in obvious CG. Obviously, not all budgets and styles are the same, but it struck me as a clear point where a lack of animation took away from the premise, where KyoAni's animation would have enhanced a merely serviceable script. My friend, on the other hand, didn't notice the lack of animation at all, but she probably wouldn't notice all the superfluous touches in a KyoAni production, either. There's nothing wrong with that; we all notice and enjoy different things, but it's obvious what makes me a fan of KyoAni, and her not. I had to watch the final concert in Hibike! Euphonium several times, just to take in the amount of detail, the way the movements matched the music, and the way they chose their shots to showcase the entire band both as a unit and as individual players. I know very little about the technical side of animation or direction, but I know quality and effort when I see it. My all-time favourite KyoAni moment is in Clannad: After Story. I won't spoil it, but essentially, the main character is sitting on a train and telling someone about an important moment in his life. He's smiling as he begins the anecdote, but halfway through he suddenly pauses, his smile froze on his face, and without changing expression, his eyes fill with tears for a moment, until he wipes them away; and all the while, a background of yellow flowers and blue sky flashes by the train window. It's a genuinely beautiful moment, sad and sweet and subtle and very, very human, and it's moments like that that elevate KyoAni productions. People might say they're dull or slow or moe (because apparently that's a bad thing), but they excel at execution. Plus, I'm a big wimp and prefer drama or slice-of-life shows over action, much to my friends' chagrin. I found Kill La Kill obnoxious and only made it past a couple of episodes, but I can watch endless episodes of slow-paced drama. Each to their own, eh? |
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checarlos87
 Posts: 31 |
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I remember watching KyoAni's version of The Sigh of Suzumiya Haruhi (half of the Suzumiya anime's second season). The climactic moment in that story is spoiler[when Kyon suddenly raises his hand as if to hit Haruhi but stops short, realizing the severity of what he was about to do]. In KyoAni's interpretation of the scene, I remember the deep emotional impact that the storyboarding, the animation, the lighting, and the character's expressions had on me. It felt every bit as real, tense, and powerful as I had imagined it would feel when I first read the novel. To me that sums up the amazing skills of KyoAni that Nick highlights here.
I will go down a contentious route here and say that I loved KyoAni's interpretation of Suzumiya Haruhi's Endless Eight short story. So many people hated it because they felt everything that happened was the same thing over and over. But that is not true. Using the repetitive events to their advantage, KyoAni instead focus on making every cycle in the Endless Eight feel unique through different storyboarding, different animation, tiny changes in events, and different delivery of the same lines. One of the final iterations features a gag for viewers that have seen all the previous iterations by way of having the characters do humorous, outrageous, overdramatic poses while delivering the lines that viewers already know. In that iteration Miku even babbles incoherently through her final lines, again a gag to play with viewers expectations from the cycle. The iterations also slowly but powerfully develop Nagato Yuki's character and, more importantly, her relationship with Kyon (which is brought to a boiling point in KyoAni's masterful The Disappearance Suzumiya Haruhi feature film). I love how KyoAni treated Suzumiya Haruhi and what they do in general in various of their shows. Thank you for this great read, Nick. Last edited by checarlos87 on Wed Dec 02, 2015 2:58 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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7jaws7
 Posts: 704 Location: New York State |
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KyoAni and SHAFT are the two studios that do it for me the most when it comes to visual storytelling.
This was a good article; I can definitely appreciate Chuunibyou a lot more now 
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BassKuroi
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KyoAni is the best studio, and Hyouka is their masterpiece.
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Marzan
 Posts: 518 |
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My thoughts exactly. I knew what I wanted to write after I read Nick Creamer's fanboy piece but you've already explained it much better than I could. I admire the art/animation/technical side of KyoAni. They make some of the most beatiful shows out there. But their stories are always so safe. I wish they would take more chances and tried their hand at other genres. |
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king 47
 Posts: 264 |
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I love hyouka. It's their best work. It saddens me that it never came out west. |
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Alabaster Spectrum
Posts: 528 |
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I think have good character animation, i think they are committed, but I also think theyre way overcelebrated overdiscussed and overchampioned when there's other studios that are committed that barely get this sort of enduring praise and just omnipresent discussion. Its like when it comes to studios all anybody has wanted to talk about for years has been Kyoani and Shaft and i have to wonder don't people ever get tired of praising the same damn studio over and over again? Why not literally anyone else just for once?
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Random 21
 Posts: 198 Location: Nottingham, United Kingdom |
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I'm very mixed on KyoAni, while they've made some of my favorite shows (Haruhi, Free!, FMP), they also made some of my least favorite (BtB, K-On honestly, BtB, Lucky Star, did I mention BtB?). I can never fault them on their animation front at least, because damn all their shows are pretty.
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WingKing
Posts: 617 |
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I’m someone who tends to focus more on story and characters than on visuals. I’m a writer, so that’s just naturally where my attention goes. So I tend to be more forgiving of “bad” animation, but also slower to notice good animation. KyoAni are one of the exceptions to that rule, though, as they tell so much of their story through the animation and most of it is so visually appealing that I can’t help but pay attention to it. So in a sense, I watch KyoAni shows almost in a totally different way from how I’ll watch most other anime, aside from low/no dialogue films like Pale Cocoon or Angel's Egg, or some of the more experimental shows like Gankutsuou.
These are three of my favorite scenes from Kyoto Animation that really heightened my awareness of their visual storytelling skills. 1. The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina, Episode 00, from Haruhi Suzumiya. This is a student film right down to its bones, and the attention to detail KyoAni pays to all the technical errors in this film is astounding, from the scenes where Itsuki’s holding the reflector board in the wrong place and throwing off the lighting to Kyon’s inability to focus the camera properly and his total lack of any sense of shot framing. As others have said, it takes a lot of skill to do such an amazingly good job of deliberately making something look so bad. They’d re-visit this territory again for the student film in Hyouka, and it’s just as effective there too. 2. The conversation between Yuichi and Sayuri in Kanon. There's a moment where spoiler[Sayuri finishes telling him about her history with her little brother, and how torn up she was after his death, she talks about meeting Mai and how her friendship with Mai “saved” her. As she mentions this, she turns her wrist slightly and for just a fleeting second you can see a scar visible on her wrist under the sleeve, before she covers it up again.] Talk about speaking volumes without saying a word, that gave me a chill the first time I saw it. 3. The receipt scene from K-On season 2. This is another great example of the juxtaposition between realism and cartooniness that Nick talks about, as it uses more realistic animation to build the scene up in the first and third parts, while the exaggerated cartoony style of the second and fourth parts highlights both the desperate foolishness of Ritsu’s plan and the hilarity of the way Sawako shuts her down. You can see this scene on YouTube – it’s only about 30 seconds. The audio in this particular clip has a line from Death Note spliced into it that wasn’t in K-On (though it does make it even funnier IMO), but the animation is all there. And yes, KyoAni is my favorite animation studio. The only other ones that even come close are Bones and Madhouse, and both of them have put out their share of clunkers. Of the eight KyoAni franchises I've seen so far (Kanon, K-On, Haruhi, Amagi, Air, Eupho, Hyouka, and Chunibyo), the only one I've been disappointed with is Air, and they were still honing their craft when that came out. Even that show still has some strong individual scenes, though, it's just the whole of it together that doesn't quite work. |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5484 Location: Iscandar |
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I have been a regular at ANN.com for about 4 years, and in here I have seen more praise toward Bones and Madhouse. To a lesser extent Production I.G, P.A. Works and Shaft are also celebrated. KyoAni is also celebrated for good reasons, but perhaps you think more people are in love with it because its fans tend to be more vocal in my experience. |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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YES! What I consider my personal favorite studio changes from time to time, as most have ups and downs, but as far as consistent and objectively top-notch animation, KyoAni is the best. And Hyouka definitely is their masterpiece. |
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endallchaos
 Posts: 213 Location: Sin City |
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So, it's sort of the way '5 Centimeters per Second' and 'Garden of Words' work? Those films tell a story (or add to it) with the animation. I feel like Mushishi does a good job with this, as well.
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Alabaster Spectrum
Posts: 528 |
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It seems like these days virtually everyone has the same list of favorites up and down the board. Just not a lot of variety in opinions or discussion points. Its really boring.
Anyway funny the person above me should mention Mushishi, that's not by Kyoani yet it haw great visual storytelling and art. Artland....other studios do it too why not write an article about them? |
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