Forum - View topicChicks on Anime [2008-09-16]
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ilkz
 Posts: 58 |
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bla...bla...bla... I am going to sleep...
{MODERATION NOTICE: This post is rude, pointless and stupid. You seriously want to think about developing some elementary social skills, starting with basic politeness. - abunai} |
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Jozoiscute
 Posts: 252 |
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I agree 100%.
I study ALL forms of Animation in my spare time. I do (normally) like the fact that American animation (for movies) is animated on 24ths while most mainstream Anime is only animated on 8ths (most anime movies are animated on 16ths). However, while the Americans definitely have their animation movement down pact, the Japanese have been (more recently) coming up with much better stories for their film....and even TV shows. Unfortunately this isn't the writer's fault, but the fact that corporations have kind of "sucked" the artistic life out of our own animation companies. It's all about politics, and money. I loved many of the American films and TV shows that came out more in the 90's when the creative juice was still allowed to flow in the studios. You get some amazing gems from time to time (Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Lilo and Stitch, or Horton Hears a Who) but unfortunately, there are now too few and far apart in number. It's a very sad situation. 
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Ai no Kareshi
 Posts: 561 Location: South Africa |
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"Whatchu wastin' my time with Steam for?"
That was an interesting read. Personally, I don't like Ke's tone when talking about Japanese animation – I know they use a lot of money-saving techniques and I can understand how that can bother one as a Western artist, but I find that many anime productions incorporate these shortcuts quite imaginatively. As Ke said, though, it's about pretty drawings, not movement. And boy are they pretty! |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4788 |
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I do understand where Ke's coming from with that, though. I tend to be a very visual person, and there have been times when the stutter-step of a certain low-framerate anime sequence has seemed rather jarring to me. Likewise, it's those anime sequences that are (for anime) incredibly smoothly animated that tend to stick out to me and make me say, "Wow!" I do appreciate the refinement of character/object designs present in a lot of anime series, but as Ke said, there are times when it feels like you're watching a set of moving comic panels...and as someone who's not a big comics fan, that tends to stick out like a sore thumb to me. I also very much agree with the point that Western animation could learn a lot about subtlety and silence from its Japanese counterpart; it's sometimes those quiet moments in an episode that have the most impact. And all of the panel members were dead-on about storytelling, too; it was those glimpses of almost novel-like narration in the first few anime series I came across that first drew me to the medium. I am curious as to what Ke would think of Avatar had he ever seen it; while it does take the limited-animation route (sometimes a bit too heavily for my tastes), it also manages to borrow that more subtle sense of storytelling and pacing that are present in some of the better examples of anime.
Great column this week. 
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GATSU
Posts: 15550 |
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Wasn't he supposed to bring hope, by ending those crappy DTV sequels to Disney classics? 
No comment on that Frog Princess thing? 
Not really, but he knew how to hit home runs every now and then.
You gotta be careful bringin' up TK, as Mike can hear you. |
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TheTheory
 Posts: 1029 Location: Central PA |
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I am a big Disney fan, so this was an interesting article. I tend to lean toward the Robin Hood and Great Mouse Detective era, but last year's Meet The Robinsons is a step in the right direction. Also a big fan of John Lasseter (or however his name is spelled).
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skaly
 Posts: 148 |
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I completely agree about the music.
Disney films (and those recent Star Wars films) seem to think that it is the music that tells the story. As if I'm not going to feel sad unless someone is playing some sad music. As if I'm not going to laugh unless the music is whimsical. I like music, but only when it enhances a story--not when it is picking up the slack of subpar storytelling or performances. One of the first things I noticed when comparing anime to Disney features was the use of quiet moments. A Disney feature almost never allows enough time for a moment to sink in unless they are going for an emotional extreme. |
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Takeyo
 Posts: 736 |
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While I found the topic fairly interesting, I can't say that I cared for the format of this installment. It felt more like a tag team interview than a round table discussion. Guests participating in regular features are nice, but I prefer them to be a participant in a discussion rather than the focus.
As a side note, I was also left wondering just how strict Disney is about employees publicly criticizing the studio. Ke didn't seem to have any problems pointing out Disney's faults, and some companies can come down pretty hard on folks for that. |
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Kimiko_0
 Posts: 1796 Location: Leiden, NL, EU |
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Wow, lots of technical stuff discussed here. I see I'm going to have to read up on animation and all that goes into it to really follow the discussion. Watching the Macross anime recently I can certainly see how reused animation is annoying, as well as how music should fit a scene to add to it instead of detract from it.
*goes to look up Animation on Wikipedia and start learning* But let's go back to anime next week, okay? Comparison to Disney isn't very interesting if your audience doesn't watch Disney. |
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ikky
Posts: 76 |
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really enjoyable column this week. I liked an actual animator's opinion on all the shortcutes in anime and how a lot of anime series are just "a collection of pretty still pictures"... I actually find it hard to get into new series lately as so very few series focus on using animation as a medium for storytelling (or when it tries to do, it is often in your face. Modern Gainax is guilty of this, at least from my view).
Props for Mind Game shout-out. |
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_Earthwyrm_
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Oh, I don't know. Comparing and contrasting techniques between the two different cultures of animation is fairly interesting; besides, since when were Anime watchers and Disney watchers mutually exclusive?
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irishninja
 Posts: 344 Location: Seattle-ish |
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Er, yeah... I hope he still has a job in a month...
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Finngall
Posts: 4 |
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As Harlan Ellison said, from personal experience,
"Don't f*** with the mouse." |
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ArthurFrDent
 Posts: 466 |
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Interesting take on stuffs, thanks for dropping by Ke.
personally I'd like to see an integrated discussion on how the business end of things influences the artistic end, and vice-versa... because that is always the risk in anything in life with a big budget. You HAVE to hit a home run, so you figure out the safest way to do so. If you screw up, there is no tomorrow. This is probably true of Dis, Anime or something like Nik's Avatar. One curiosity I have for Ke, is there an obsession you are working on late in the evening that is all you? Are you making a short that'll blow us out of the water? I'm thinkin' like Voices of a Distant Star... reputed to have been done by some guy all alone on a Mac Quadra. In asking, I wonder how well a creative jack of all trades gets by when forced into the large and hungry assembly line of a large studio... Here's a question for the peoples... If you get into one of those boring steam rising beautifully scenes, do you edit with your remote control? For example Someday in the Rain from melancholy of suzumiya... is 15 mins. too long. The other 15 mins. are one of my favorite eps, but I need my remote to make it work. and... how much do you forgive the director if they go astray, as long as you can make it work for yourself? Essentially how much do you cusomize your own experience, your own take of an Anime, or any animation? Or do you grit your teeth and sit through everything? |
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kadian1364
 Posts: 60 Location: Indiana |
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I just have to say, that was a highly engaging and hugely entertaining article for me to read. Not that the previous installments were overly biased, but a group of women discussing women's issues in anime can be somewhat insular. Mix in a guy in there once in a while! (I know today's guest was male, but the discussion wasn't about females-in-anime) But that's just my quibbling.
About this article in particular, I love to see the perspective a professional American animator has on popular Japanese animation. Of especial interest was how American animation techniques emphasize realism and flow of the pictures themselves, and how American animators take particular exception to anime's common shortcut techniques. Then there's the flip-side, where Japanese animators generally utilize more imaginative stories and a greater variation of pacing, with or without music, than their western counterparts. Ideally, you'd want the best of both worlds, great animation and artistic stories, but in an either-or situation, I'd prefer creative stories. Animation can be "good enough", as in the pictures are able enough to portray what it needs to, but the real meat is the story, and people don't compromise on this point. Until American studios can make their own Evangelion-class narrative (though I think Pixar films and Avatar take huge steps in the right direction), anime will continue to grow in popularity at the cost homemade efforts. |
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