Having watched just the first episode of the classic anime Ace o Nerae!, my love affair with 70s-era classic shoujo has been rekindled. Not that it really died down in the first place.
However, this isn’t really about the content of the story but rather just the visuals, and not even in regards to the characters. Shoujo anime of that era, including Ace o Nerae!, have incredibly gorgeous backgrounds and just artwork in general, though they suffer quite a bit in the animation department. I think it’s a fair trade-off though, as the action and fluidity of animation or lack thereof are minor losses when we get shots this incredible.
Repeating the flower pattern seen in her night gown into the plaid background unifies the entire image.
This image almost borders on abstraction, but not in the confusing way. I love this style.
Particularly strong use of color here, as the building and trees blend together.
And I can’t say enough about this background. It looks like it was created with water colors, and it works far better than any approach I’ve seen for indicating melodramatic shock.
Shows like Zetsubou-sensei kind of have a similar effect as far as modern shows go, and Nana and Honey and Clover for example also have excellent cinematography, but they simply lack the rough yet gentle edge of classic shoujo.
It’s not very shoujo, but have you watched any of the original Cutey Honey TV series? Wonderful use of color throughout: makes me think of Hanna Barbera shows.
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I should watch this. It seems right up my alley.
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I am going to have to watch this, it looks awesome!!
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I presume you’re familiar with Aim for the Top, Gunbuster, right? That whole series is one big long remake of this show. I’d love to see it myself but I can only find copies in Spanish.
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I believe Gunbuster started as a _parody_ of Ace wo Nerae then Anno was like “ok lets make it an epic space opera” so they did.
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Thanks for posting those pics. To quote Sue:
“This is Awesome! Really Hardcore!”
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Whoa, what’s this about the original Aim for the Ace animated series having good art? Yeah, it’s got a cool art style and a well-done color scheme, but… are we talking about the same Aim for the Ace? The one with O-Ran the enormous girl with no underwear and eye colors that change every few frames and making a person look like he’s walking away by flipping a cutout of a silhouette back and forth a few times?
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The show very obviously suffers from having little budget which results in numerous animation mistakes and shortcuts, but the show’s artwork also has a level of intensity to it that not even the later adaptations have. While I’m glad that the sequels have improved animation, I do think they lost a little something by just not being as loose aesthetically as the original.
Take a look at another post I made, comparing openings from each series:
https://ogiuemaniax.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/aim-for-the-ace-anime-adaptations-analysis/
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