Category Archives: philosophy

The Anime Character in 3D Animation

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Anime characters come from a 2d world. They are not only part of the world of animation but also for many characters the world of manga. Perspective is relatively fluid, and characters no matter what the angle will often look as good as possible or have the features and parts positioned in such a way that everything comes out okay.

Japanese animation has made many advances in integrating 3dcg backgrounds, vehicles (both humanoid and otherwise), and just environments with characters, but what happens when anime characters become 3d? Many of the various techniques which go into portraying characters in 2d animation simply do not work in 3d. Case in point, the standard money-saving open-close mouth animation used in so may shows looks about 10x worse when done in 3d. As advanced as 3d can become, it will always have its limitations, just like any other medium.

Actually, the more important question I should be asking is, how much of tradition are creators willing to discard in making 3d characters for a 3d environment?

There are certain qualities of character design which will be fairly universal, but when taking the example of Pixar, and comparing them to not just traditional 2d animation but their own design sketches, something changes in the addition of that extra dimension. They maintain it fairly closely, of course, but that’s I think partially due to the sheer power of Pixar. They have the money and talent to do it.

Japanese animation, of course, has never been known for its big budgets. I think various stylistic aspects of Japanese animation were born partially out of economic needs, and have been fostered in such a way that they’ve transcended their very pragmatic origins. However, 2d animation and 3d animation are fairly different beasts as I’ve pointed already, and what may have been traditionally a money saver in 2d may cost more to replicate it in 3d. I have no specific examples in mind, but just the sheer work required in creating character models, let alone everything else, means that even still 1-minute shots may take a hefty toll.

Even if a studio is willing to do all this however, I have to wonder what the fan reaction would be. I imagine it would be on a fairly case by case basis, but then I ask myself, how willing would I be to accept drastically, drastically different character designs into what I call Japanese animation? Even if I am well aware that a true 1:1 conversion from 2d to 3d may not be as simple as expanding across the Z-axis, but that various invisible elements may manifest themselves in strikingly different ways, will I be able to recognize it? Early on in this blog’s life, I talked about the possibility of an anime without characters whatsoever. It was meant to ask, to what extent do character designs and characters in general have an effect on how we define anime? I’m asking a similar question here.

Sadly, I don’t really have the answer. All I know is that the worst thing that could happen is for a studio that wanted to produce a fully 3d work to abandon it for these reasons.

On confidence in being an anime fan

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Many times, I see people, particularly on the internet, who are simply afraid to admit that they’re anime fans in real life. They’re afraid that it’ll alienate their friends, or that people will think less of them.

I have issues of confidence as well in certain areas, but being an anime fan isn’t one of them, and I think it’s important for an anime fan to be able to tell others that he or she is a fan. It’s not a deep dark secret. There’s no downside to being an anime fan unless you let there be one. If you truly are an anime fan, if something is a part of your very being, or if it’s even just a simple time waster of a hobby, to be unable to express who you really are to others is a far worse fate than some people thinking that you’re a loser because you watch cartoons.

At the same time, this does not mean that anime fans have a free pass to push their hobby onto others. As with any good relationship among people, there has to be listening and understanding. Barging through your friends’ conversations to talk about something they may not have interest in in order to fulfill your own desires is just plain rude.

In short, don’t be afraid to tell people that you’re an anime fan, but don’t advertise it either like it’s your only defining character trait.

Because it never is.

Persepolis and Japanese Animation

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I saw the french animated film Persepolis today. Based off a comic book of the same name, Persepolis is the tale of a young girl named Marjane living in war-torn Iran and its religious transformation during the 1980s. We as the audience get to see Marjane grow from girl into woman, making mistakes along the way, and constantly re-evaluating what’s important in her life. It’s a really powerful film and I recommend anyone who has the opportunity to watch it to do so.

I came out of Persepolis with one prominent thought in my mind: It’s been a long long time since I’ve seen a Japanese animation like it.

Stylistically, there’s no anime like Persepolis, but that’s not what I’m focusing on (though I might in a later time. It’s really quite powerful visually). What I’m talking about is how Persepolis addresses the small scale issues regarding relationships and emotions, as well the large scale issues with the backdrop of warfare. Recent anime, when it’s good, tends to be very good at one or the other, but not both. On the occasions that it does manage to address both, it tends to add a certain fantastic element to it which pushes the whole animation slightly to the left of reality, as in the case of Gundam 00.

Now this is hardly the case for the history of anime. Japanese animation and manga rose out of World War II, and many people have tackled and re-tackled the setting. Grave of the Fireflies, Barefoot Gen, even more romantic series such as Rose of Versailles all manage to portray the large and small stuff with a great deal of poignancy.

So what’s happened? Has anime become too much of a comfort zone, perhaps?

Now, I realize that I’m comparing a ton of Japanese animation to just one French animation, and that Persepolis may very well be an exception to the rule even in French animation, but this is the feeling I got from seeing this movie as it pertains to the thing I love called anime.

Different shows for different mindsets

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I’ve found that my mood and mental state affect how well I receive an anime.  I don’t just mean that I like certain shows when I’m happy, and other shows more when I’m sad.  What I mean is that I will sometimes notice flaws in animation or design that wouldn’t bother me at other times, or I will feel like something is terribly off about a show, like the pieces (characters, backgrounds, writing, music, etc) just aren’t fitting together properly.  But then I will rewatch them, and the visuals will bother me less, and something may or may not click.  For me, the most prominent example is Godannar, where upon watching the first episode for the first time, something about the animation was bothering me.  It’s as if somehow I was unconsciously focusing on all the moments used to save money instead of concentrating on the high quality action parts.  Thankfully, I watched it again and it’s become one of my favorite series.

If only I could figure out what conditions are best for which anime, I could devise some way to get the most of watching.  Or I could do the opposite and purposely sabotage myself so I would hate anime forever.

Oh, and no matter the mood, I still think Rosario + Vampire is a bad show.  But don’t let me stop you from enjoying it.

The plight of the anime fan, for I am a fan of anime

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I’ve occasionally been asked (as well as asking myself) why I call myself an anime fan, when being a fan of only one form of animation is so limiting. I’ve talked a little about this before, but I feel like elaborating.

A lot of people may only watch what is best from every category of animation, to skim the cream of the crop until you get a wide variety of good animation from around the world. However, while my love of animation and comics is not confined to only that which comes out of Japan, the reason why I label myself as an anime fan is that I like the bad as well as the good. I’m not here just to see the envelope being pushed, seeing the medium progress beyond its current limits. I mean, I still certainly hope anime does that, but if you’re only seeing the best of the best, you’re not actually seeing everything anime has to offer. It’s the difference between ignoring your friend’s flaws and accepting them.

That said, I don’t really bother with bad cartoons from other cultures, and for that it may just be a matter of not having enough time to watch every cartoon and read every comic ever. This is also why I don’t necessarily fault people for being very selective with their anime, let alone with cartoons in general. Only if they’re being jerks about it.

I guess I’ll end on asking people if they have any favorite non-anime/manga animations, cartoons, comics, etc. that they’re willing to share. As for me, I quite enjoy the works of Norm McLaren, such as Synchromy.

The Generation Gaps in Taste in Anime Fandom

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While anime fandom in the United States is old enough that a literal generation gap is possible, though that is not quite what I mean by the term. When I say generation gap, I mean the difference between waves of fans that have appeared since anime first gained popularity back in the 70s. The biggest indicators of these gaps, I believe, are the statements that will give away how they feel about themselves relative to anime fandom, such as “all these new shows are terrible compared to older ones” and “I won’t watch any show if it looks too old.” But why is it that the fandom resorts to such statements about their interests and how they compare to different times in the life of this hobby?

Speak to an anime fan of any age, and ask them why and how they got into anime. Most likely, you will get an explanation of how the anime they first watched differed from whatever else was on tv. I will give you my own example. While I watched Voltron and other such shows as a kid, I first discovered anime as coming from Japan in the form of bootleg Dragon Ball Z tapes a few years prior to it airing on American television. What stood out to me about DBZ relative to other cartoons I had been watching at the time was first the fighting, second the serial nature of the show, and third the idea actions had consequences. Characters could DIE (and then run around and have dead adventures and come back to life later, but they were still officially dead). In a time of only “cartoon” violence, I got something I wouldn’t call realistic, but rather much more weighty. The universe hung in the balance, after all.

Now, the reason I’m giving this example is to begin to show that I believe that this generation gap in anime fandom has not only to do with physical age, but also that anime hits us hardest during periods when we are most emotionally and mentally receptive to it. It is during these times that I believe people have a hunger for entertainment which satisfies them, and this is the basis of peoples’ nostalgia for certain times. Anime fandom in the 70s grew out of science fiction and fantasy fan scenes, out of Star Trek and Star Wars, and the first big shows were things like Battle of the Planets and Star Blazers. These fans were receptive to it because it was similar to the types of shows they enjoyed beforehand, but it also flipped their worlds upside down with stories and themes that went beyond other forms of fiction they had been exposed to at that point. When Dragon Ball Z rose in popularity in the 90s, I strongly believe that kids had a reaction to it similar to my own. It affected their world, introduced them to new ideas. Same thing goes for people discovering Sailor Moon around the same time. And Pokemon. And even Love Hina.

The conflict occurs because the values which affect people have changed, and why anime fans of one generation can have difficulty with fans in another. While the values may have changed, the strong feelings towards the anime which they fell in love with means that each generation feels strongly about the shows which got them into it, and where feelings are concerned, misunderstandings arise, because when you attack someone’s favorite anime you are essentially attacking what they believe in, what makes them feel good about life. It’s easy to joke about not taking anime so seriously, that chill out it’s just a cartoon, but it is also easy to see why and how people can be affected by not just anime but any form of fiction or storytelling. And because these feelings are so strong, it makes other periods of anime pale by comparison because they are not easy to relate to on an emotional level. To give an example which is not necessarily generational, take a look at the Robotech and Macross fandoms. Robotech’s appeal is that it presents three series as a single cohesive universe with a unified theme. Macross’s appeal is that very different stories take place within the same universe, giving a variety of themes and subjects. Different values, different fanbases (though of course there’s plenty of crossover).

Older anime isn’t good precisely because it looks old, and seemingly exists in a time far gone and surely these shows could not possibly be better than the ones that have influenced a fan’s thoughts. New anime can’t possibly be good because it fails to tackle the themes which a fan finds most important. Those are the essential feelings.

Now, one thing I should point out is that it’s certainly possible to have multiple periods of increased receptiveness towards anime. By my count I’ve had at least 3 or 4 (the most recent being the era of Genshiken and Eureka Seven). Perhaps the people who say every show they watch is the best show ever do so because they are in a current renewed state of fandom, instead of simply being standard internet-style exaggeration.

Seeing why people become anime fans, I think, will result in a lot less misunderstanding.

Why hasn’t there been another Evangelion?

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Evangelion is an anime which resonated with the Japanese population because it accurately captured what they were feeling at the time of its broadcast. Probably for similar reasons, this is also why it resonated with fans around the world. It materialized feelings.

Now, I think the reasons why there has not been another Evangelion, in the sense of a title which transcends the normal/otaku divide and causes a lasting emotional influence on the public at large are many. I feel that the otaku community may have gotten more insular. I feel that the animators respond to this by trying to cash in easily on things like moe. When the shows DO try to resonate with their audience, there is resistance and backlash. Perhaps a show has the power to reach fans far and wide and affirm their feelings has been shown, but it was put in a bad time slot. I do not fault anyone for doing any of these things, and it may be a sign that there is simply too big a diversity of opinion among people now for a show to hit on the level Evangelion did. Blame everyone and blame no one.

So what’s the answer to my question? Perhaps that for an anime to affect people on such a large scale again, there has to be large scale events affecting Japan in the real world that the normal person and the reclusive otaku can feel in their daily lives.

Getting at the Origin of Manga vs American Comics

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I was having a conversation with OGT about what is it in the standard American comics-style that makes people either attracted to it or not.  We talked about how the characters in American comics tend to look much more posed, like a figure occupying space, while in manga, the characters are much more a part of the image.

I’m aware that there are plenty of exceptions on either side and many of them are outstanding such as Wil Eisner, Art Spiegelman, and Ryoichi Ikegami.  I’m also aware that manga derives its appearance from Tezuka who loved American cartoons and French films.  Still, I believe that these strong respective art histories play a significant role in just how these styles evolved.  While Wil Eisner commanded the flow of each page masterfully, he still placed great emphasis on how the figures occupied the space making sure to show exactly where each person is positioned.  Riyoko Ikeda, whose Rose of Versailles manga is itself set in France, shows the environment but focuses primarily on the emotions of each page.

That’s all well and good, but then I began to wonder about why this is the case, and I realized that the reason why these styles are so different is as simple as tracing the history of Eastern and Western Art.

I know that these days the barrier has lessened thanks to the internet and other forms of constant international communication, and I know that use of terms such as Eastern and Oriental may have an air of cultural bigotry, but let’s face it: Art between America and Japan have been interacting with each other heavily only for about the past 200 years or so, and of course comics even less than that, and for the longest time these two cultures WERE more or less independent of each other.   This is where the discussion stands.

Non-abstract human representation in the West derives its history from Ancient Greece and Rome, and the desire to portray the physical body perfectly, on to the Renaissance and beyond.  A careful study of anatomy, the invention of things such as the golden ratio, and the notion that empty space is a waste of space are all a part of the history of Western art.  The toned muscular bodies of super heroes can also be seen as the latest version of the pursuit of ideal physical beauty.  Meanwhile Eastern art, from China, Japan, and other locations, particularly that which represents the human figure, has never placed nearly as much emphasis on portraying the body realistically.  When Europe and Japan began interacting with each other on an artistic scale, one thing Europe took away from Japan was their strong use of negative space.  Not drawing, not painting in an area turned out to be able to have equal if not greater impact than what was the standard method of filling the canvas as much as possible.  Combine this with use of line widths to denote depth, as well as heavy use of flat colors, and I think it begins to become apparent just why and how these histories have influenced the art of comics in Japan and America.

Traditional Tsundere

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A traditional tsundere is a character who at first is cold towards the protagonist but eventually develops strong feelings for him. The appeal in this, I think, is that the protagonist may not succeed at first, but that he has the potential to win the girl over if only she would find out about his true self.

A guy who is rejected by a girl, but over a long period of time is able to gain her love and affection…

urkel and laura

Hmm.

If Moe is to Survive, Compromises Must be Made

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Moe is associated with lolicon largely because Moe is about weakness, and little helpless girls are about the easiest way of conveying moe.  We’ve seen this trend before in American comics, only it was about gruff manliness and it was called 90s EXTREEEEEEME.  What better way to show that someone is a real man’s man than giving him 8 guns and arms the size of a buick with veins everywhere?  What better way to show a girl has her weak side than by making her weak physically AND emotionally?

When you take a girl and make her defining traits just her weak points, that becomes her whole character.  It is easy, yes, but I would dare call it lazy.  Why bother actually creating character flaws when you can just make someone pure and perfect and helpless?   As with 90s extreme, I feel moe, as it continues to exaggerate certain specific features, as more try to take advantage of it with half-hearted attempts, will receive a backlash.  Some might welcome the backlash, that’s okay.  But for those of you who do like moe, you’re going to have to accept that certain changes have to take place.   Rather than the moe character, we must have the character with moe traits.

We already have these characters among us.  They are the ones who we CAN see as competent, but as with all humans they are not perfect.  They have emotional problems, doubts, and fears.  I believe people like moe in the first place because it allows us to relate to a character on a very emotional level, that our feelings are understood by others, and manifested in characters.  I believe it is a common fear among otaku and dorks in general that those in normal society are “perfect” and never have to deal with the same issues that they themselves face constantly.  Moe characters if they are too extreme are too far-removed from reality, and thus lose their significant impact.  If instead a moe anime uses more “normal” characters, but show that they have the same issues that otaku face, then we have more than just a marketing tool, we have something that can motivate otaku to move forward, to come to a greater understanding of others.