Major Spoilers ahead obviously

Most people who see this won’t have watched this movie, but after this blog, I really hope you do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1QSs8WHaZE

If you’re really cool, you’ll follow along with my timestamps to find the scenes. Are you that cool?

Introduction

Koe no Katachi is a 2016 anime movie made by Kyoto Animation (KyoAni) and directed by Naoko Yamada, an excellent director that has been a part of many KyoAni works. The synopsis:

As a wild youth, elementary school student Shouya Ishida sought to beat boredom in the cruelest ways. When the deaf Shouko Nishimiya transfers into his class, Shouya and the rest of his class thoughtlessly bully her for fun. However, when her mother notifies the school, he is singled out and blamed for everything done to her. With Shouko transferring out of the school, Shouya is left at the mercy of his classmates. He is heartlessly ostracized all throughout elementary and middle school, while teachers turn a blind eye.

Now in his third year of high school, Shouya is still plagued by his wrongdoings as a young boy. Sincerely regretting his past actions, he sets out on a journey of redemption: to meet Shouko once more and make amends.

Koe no Katachi tells the heartwarming tale of Shouya’s reunion with Shouko and his honest attempts to redeem himself, all while being continually haunted by the shadows of his past.

It’s a story of redemption, forgiveness, and learning to love yourself, themes that should be handled carefully. Yamada does a great job of directing not just how the characters should be portrayed visually, but aurally as well, using Kensuke Ushio’s soundtrack to the fullest extent. For this blog post we will focus almost solely on Shouya Ishida (the bully) and Shouko Nishimiya (the victim), as it is what this movie really revolves around. It really digs deep into the effects of school bullying on the victim and the bully, years down the line. It’s the first blog post where I’ll put my balls on the line and actually analyze the movie for myself. Let’s go.

Sight – the shot composition

The Walk

There are three long scenes in A Silent Voice where Shouya walks down a hallway. A very mundane thing. But how he walks down the hallway, and the way his stride is pictured, tells the entire story, and shows his entire arc of character development throughout the story.

The first walk comes in a flashback to Shouya’s elementary school days, before Shouko entered the school. At around 0:03:00, we see Shouya striding through the elementary school like a cocky little bitch. He is a cocky little bitch. He swings his arms confidently, always slightly in front of his two friends, indicating that he’s probably the leader. He is, by the way.

The shot in question shows Shouya’s bust, focusing directly on his smiling face in a sea of other faces – a sea of faces that can still be identified, a fact that will become very relevant in the next hallway walk.

A few seconds later we see Shouya waving to all of his friends – Kawai, Ueno, Shimada, Hirose (left to right). Again, it’s the same exact style of shot, and this time we can see that everyone’s eyes are on him, indicating that he is pretty much the alpha male dude. The song played during this scene is “My Generation” by The Who, which I’ll talk about later.

The next scene is one of the more powerful scenes in the movie in my opinion. It takes place at around 0:29:56. It starts off from Ishida’s POV, as if you the viewer are him – more importantly, the sightline is downwards, as Shouya is looking down at the ground. You can see the legs of other students, with Shouya following around another guy so that you can only see his butt down – the camera also flashes towards Shouya’s eyes and then back to the ground, indicating that Shouya still can’t keep his head up. The camera is still focused on Shouya, but now everyone around him is blurry and impossible to make out.

And at the end of the sequence, blue X’s appear on other people’s faces, and Shouya puts his hands over his ears, blocking the entirety of the world out as he refuses to even consider interacting with his classmates. At the end there’s a relatively wide shot that shows all of the X’s on the faces, compounding the idea that Shouya is truly alone. No eye contact, no listening. Extremely coincidentally, the soundtrack played during this scene is somber, a muffled version of “Black and White”.

Now, with all of this in mind, through his interactions with other characters and Shouko, he changes, caught in parallel with the other scenes. Watch for yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMB1HZhxv7A

And last we have the ending scene of this entire 130 minute movie. It’s perhaps a scene that’s controversial. Some consider this ending “too easy” for Shouya, but I disagree – Shouya doesn’t gain redemption nor an immediate group of friends, but instead the ability to look people in the face and listen to their voices.

At the beginning of the scene at the festival, you can only hear the soft piano music, but as soon as he lifts his hands from his ears, he can finally hear the world around him. Additionally, none of the “look downward” shots were used in this scene – instead it focuses on his wonder as he finally takes in the worlds of other people. Again at the end, there is an even wider shot than the previous “walk” scene, where the viewer can now take in all of the movement and conversations around Shouya.

At the very end, you can see the screen go dark save for a very bright spot in the center, Shouya’s light at the end of the tunnel. He sees the group of people he has come to accept, and the screen then does a vignette-like fade to a pastel, calming blue.

Body Language

For a deaf person, their body literally forms their language. But for many others, body language still forms most of the communicative cues during a conversation. It’s pretty common as far as I know in KyoAni anime for a conversation to change shots to the character’s legs, showing how they move around each other as an alternative to flapping lips. Not only does it save money by omitting the face, it also shows that there are other things that the characters need to pay attention to – for example, the way that Ueno moves around Shouya is pretty indicative of her crush. By centering a shot around body language, it can focus the viewer on the intended scene.

In fact, there’s a whole entire scene that does not include the two talking characters – instead, it’s directed only at their lower bodies – but it manages to convey what needs to be said between the two.

Fireworks and Falls

Fireworks are used twice in Koe no Katachi in relation to suicide, once just before Shouya is considering committing suicide, and another just before Shouko attempts suicide.

 

Fireworks are a reminder of how ephemeral things can be – the brilliant spark and then the subsequent darkness is a visual reminder of the Japanese idea of mono no aware, which I’ve talked about previously with regards to sakura blossoms. Here, the imagery is used just before two suicide attempts, signalling their despair towards life. But just as the firework might die out, its spark should be appreciated and everyone hopes that the firework show never ends.

Left and Right

What is the same about all of these shots? Shouya is depicted on the left of the screen, even though the person he is talking to is off screen further to the left. A typical director might place both of the characters on screen, with Shouya more logically being on the right, but instead Yamada cuts out the other person and places Shouya on the left. It’s an uncomfortable sort of scene – the empty space on Shouya’s left is unsettling on a fundamental level for the viewer.

Now where do these sorts of shots appear? In the first two, Shouya is hanging out with Nagatsuka, a kid who has suddenly proclaimed Shouya to be his one and only friend. Shouya, who hasn’t had a friend in years, is clearly unsure of first, what friendship even means and if he can call Nagatsuka his friend (a huge theme throughout the manga especially), and second, what he’s supposed to be doing during his time with him. It’s an amazing depiction of social anxiety that’s pretty subtle and doesn’t distract from the scene. In the third, his mom has just asked him why he attempted suicide, which would make any teenager uncomfortable.

Framing

This is a pretty well known shot in Koe no Katachi, and just shows off Yamada’s intense focus on her shot composition. Just look at how many goddamn red bars Shouko is trapped in, as if she’s in a prison. If that wasn’t enough, a thin tree in the foreground separates her and Ueno as they talk. It’s a common technique utilized by many directors, but I thought I’d just point out this shot. It’s great.

Flower Language

I’ve talked about flower language before, but this person did it better.

The Flower Language of A Silent Voice, Part 1: Fireworks and Daisies

The Flower Language of A Silent Voice Part 2: Marigolds and Miscellany

The Flower Language of A Silent Voice Part 3: Cherry blossoms and the transient nature of all things

It’s super well written and gives you even more insight on how Naoko Yamada directed this movie so well.

Auditory

My Generation – The Who

The opening scene, The song “My Generation” by “The Who”, which funnily enough, is said to “capture the angst of a teenager”.  It is the essence of youthful rebellion , notably featuring the lyrics “I hope I die before I get old.” Additionally the upbeat music really fits the scenes shown, with everything feeling happy. Not coincidentally, the happy music ends as soon as Shouko enters the room, signalling the beginning of trouble. The director Naoko Yamada specifically picked this song out, saying in an interview with Picturehouse Cinemas:

We just wanted to have one song that everyone could relate to. The music has to be evergreen and we wanted everyone to recognise it. This is the story of Shoya and when he was at junior school he felt he was invincible but he was bored and frustrated. What better song to show both what he is and who he is?

The Song in the Piano

Kensuke Ushio considered both musical and non-musical parts very important, as sound has crucial meaning in this show. This song, lvs,  plays while Shouko is being isolated by the rest of her classmates. The trick? It was recorded literally inside of a piano – Ushio disassembled a piano and set up a microphone inside – giving the impression that the listener is surrounded completely by sound – which if you think about it, is exactly Shouko’s situation – she knows that people are talking around her, but she can’t speak properly herself, and all of the sounds are muffled and unintelligible. She can feel the vibrations of the noises around her, just as we can hear the vibrations of the piano working its magic.

In the soundtrack inv, which I will talk about next, Kensuke Ushio used all of the ambient sound surrounding the piano – the hammers that make the note, the dampers that cease the vibration, and even the practice pedal of the piano.

The Sound of Silence

Koe no Katachi is about communication and the absence of communication. Shouko, being deaf and essentially mute, cannot communicate properly, which creates much of the conflict in the show. In fact, the manga it was adapted from actually benefited from the lack of sound in the manga medium, because it helped the reader empathize with the inability to hear anything. The frustration with not being able to get your feelings across is evident and the soundtrack supplements this well by using periods of silence. Well, I say silence, but it’s not exactly that. The movie uses silence, with the occasional single piano note.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QioI-lBRSJE

It’s played multiple times throughout the movie – the uncomfortable space between each note is absolutely vital to the presentation of Shouko’s deafness, and helps compound the fact that, yes, no one can speak properly to each other. It appears when Shouko introduces herself in grade school, just before Shouko and Shouya have a catfight, and several other scenes.

It’s most prevalent in the bullying scenes, which if your stomach is feeling up to it, can be found here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC1zQ-VgIcs

Conclusion

I will go back to add more things I notice in this film, I’m only ending it here cause it’s late. I hope for the people who have watched it that this enhanced your experience and for the people who didn’t that it encourages you to watch it, even with the massive spoilers. There’s so many more facets of the movie that I neglected to explore, and even more things if you read the manga.

Thanks for reading my blog for the past semester!

More Material

Wow ur cool and u want to learn more? Well there’s more well spoken people than me out there.

 

 

 

Introduction

Over the course of the semester I’ve praised a lot of anime studios for the work that that they do. I’ve also talked about some of the systemic issues within the industry, but I’ve never really talked about the absolute production flops. So I will today talk about a case where this flowchart

goes boom.

The Tragedy of Märchen Mädchen

Marchen Madchen is a Winter 2018 anime produced Marchen Madchen’s synopsis goes as follows:

When the two girls meet, magic begins. Hazuki Kagimura loves stories, an orthodox girl who is overly imaginative. Because her relationship with her new family does not go well, the environment sends her toward the stories in which she spends her days. One day after school, Hazuki gets lost among the bookcases of the library, leading her to a mysterious school where meets Shizuka Tsuchimikado. It is a magic school where girls (called “mädchen”) are selected by the magical texts from which the world’s stories are born. Hazuki herself is said to be chosen by the book of Cinderella. In order to become a true magician, Hazuki becomes friends with Shizuka and begins her new life at the school.

It’s quite the generic magical girl premise, one probably not even worth reading. Context aside, the real issue with the show was how it was managed. The disaster led to clips like these appearing frequently throughout the show:

Not only did the production itself have many issues, but the end credits ended up leaving out some of the animators.

Understaffed and inexperienced, the production was probably doomed to fail from the start.

Episode 6 changed production three times before its eventual broadcast, while the production assistant for Episode 9 was not determined until the airing of Episode 7, two weeks before the supposed airdate of Episode 9. None of the production assistants — possibly the most stressful job in production — save one had experience with TV anime.

By episodes 6 and 7, the series director was so stressed that he stepped down, and by episode 8 they had lost contact with the production desk. Even though the production crew was given a two week break between episodes 8 and 9, it still wasn’t enough to keep up.

To save some time, I will list out even more problems that the show had

• first episode key animation required many retakes
• third episode drawings were so poor that it had to be redone
• third episode storyboards were late due to illness
• seventh episode broadcast without consulting production about the credits
• seventh episode had only twenty cuts corrected by a director— everything else was done by the animators themselves or ended up uncorrected
• it was cut down from the originally planned twelve episodes to ten

Additionally, the Hoods Entertainment CEO was reported to poorly handle the situation — it was a apparently a regular occurrence for him to scream at staff, according to an outsider.

Many of Marchen Madchen’s problems was obvious to viewers — it was clear that there was mismanagement that showed up in the show itself, but many of the actual problems were hushed up, and only revealed when a person working on the anime anonymously reported the actual mess to sakugabooru.

The fact that this sort of thing had to be revealed anonymously is another problem — because animators and staff don’t want to burn bridges, most of them end up not speaking out. Another issue is that production problems similar to Marchen Madchen’s (although not on the same scale) are quite common. Many studios have to rush production, finishing the episode on the day of broadcast. The anime Shirobako (an anime about making anime) does a great job giving insight into just how rushed and messy production can be. It’s insane that this kind of thing has almost become the norm in many production — a norm perpetuated by systemic issues and also individual failures.

More Info

Märchen Mädchen: A Production Postmortem

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-03-01/marchen-madchen-next-new-episode-delayed-until-march-22/.128422

 

Introduction

Tropes are ubiquitous in any form of entertainment – new works are constantly created off the ideas of old. Just as how the Hunger Games brought forth a massive wave of dystopian fiction, character tropes in anime that have proven successful will be brought up again and again to appeal to viewers. While this sort of trend can apply to any facet of the creative process, it is quite interesting to see what sort of tropes last for decades on end – some are rooted in cultural norms, while others have been popularized by the most famous works in the medium.

Character tropes in particular are long-lasting and ubiquitous, because while something like writing style can vary greatly over time (look at Shakespeare’s way of writing versus a modern style like Erin Hunter’s Warrior Cats series), a story always needs characters and thus both Romeo and Juliet and the Warrior Cats series include the idea of star-crossed lovers. A pretty good example of how trendy, say, settings can be, is the shift in seasonal anime from high school battle harems to isekai (alternate fantasy reality world). There used to be one or two per cour (quarter year) of the former and now the same goes for the latter.

So let’s get into some character tropes in anime that have lasted throughout the years, tropes that you’ll be able to see in pretty much any form of media.

Tsundere

The tsundere is a term widely popularized by anime that derives from the combination of the words tsun tsun (irritable, disgust), and dere dere (lovestruck). The character’s mood and behavior can move up and down this spectrum based on what situation they’re in and especially if their crush is present. The character trope is quite common in romantic comedies (such as Nisekoi, above), because both sides of a tsundere can be used to create funny skits or cause romantic tension.

Why is this trait so attractive to viewers? Well a few studies cited by tofugu.com might explain why (you can skip to the end if you’re lazy. It’s not like I spent time researching this or anything just for you, idiot).

The first was conducted by Elliot Aronson and Darwyn Linder at the University of Minnesota in 1964. They had subjects meet with a confederate (someone secretly in on the experiment). The subjects and confederates interacted for a period of time. After the interaction, the subjects were allowed to listen in on a conversation between the researchers and their confederate partners. With the subject listening in, the confederate would talk about and evaluate the subject in 1 of 4 ways:

1. They would evaluate the subject positively
2. They would evaluate the subject negatively
3. They would initially evaluate the subject negatively but eventually evaluate them positively
4. They would initially evaluate the subject positively then eventually evaluate them negatively

The subjects were then asked to evaluate their partners after hearing their opinions of them. Surprisingly, option number three was evaluated best. The subjects liked their partners best when they started out bad-mouthing them, but ended with kindness.

Over 10 years later, in 1975, Gerald Clore conducted a similar experiment at the University of Illinois. Clore showed video tapes to 180 female and 158 male college students. The tapes featured a woman (A) and a man (B) conversing without sound. The conversation played out four times, each time the woman (A) performing different non-verbal behaviors:

1. A is kind to be B
2. A is kind to B but then becomes cold
3. A is cold to B but then becomes kind
4. A is cold to B

The students were then asked, of the four scenarios they witnessed, in which was the male (B) most attracted to the female? The overwhelming response was scenario 3, where the woman was initially cold, but warmed up over time.

These studies confirm our suspicions. Tsundere behavior is attractive! But why? The answer is the gain-loss principle.

The principle was first put forth by Aronson and Linder in their 1964 experiment. It states that a person feels more or less toward someone depending on their baseline expectations. If the baseline expectation is “this person hates me,” there will be more attraction when the normally ornery person gives a compliment. That’s because there’s been a “gain” in baseline expectation. And this gain feels psychologically rewarding. It’s as if the grumpy person has been “won over.”

TL;DR: if you feel like someone was irritable or grumpy towards you at first, but then they change to be more kind and attracted towards you, it gives more satisfaction than if they were attracted to you off the bat.

Visually a tsundere can be identified pretty often by reddish, more fiery hair and might sport tsurime eyes (eyes where the outer corners slant upwards more sharply). They often have a more confident look on their face, especially when the viewer first sees them.

Yamato Nadeshiko

While definitely not as common as the tsundere, the Yamato Nadeshiko character trope is especially interesting because of its cultural roots. It’s a multi-faceted concept of a woman whose character traits were deemed desirable in 19th century neo-Confucian Japan.

Yamato is a old and fancier name for Japanese people, while Nadeshiko means “wildflower”. It’s traditionally given to noble women with traditional upbringings and desire, and characterizes maturity, humility and loyalty. While some may be called too submissive, most have a pretty strong will when it actually matters. The trope is interesting to analyze because of the cultural history that it has.

Visually a Yamato Nadeshiko can be easily determined from a number of physical traits. Generally they’ll have pale skin and medium height, good-looking and of relatively mature physical appearance. Additionally their hair is often long and dark, with the iconic “hime cut” (straight bangs and long side bangs). They dress in traditional feminine fashion – dresses and blouses, etc. In anime it’s even more common for them to wear kimonos if they come from that sort of upbringing.

Boke and Tsukkomi

This trope is a kind of comedy routine that is common in Japan (especially Osaka), and therefore bleeds into animation. It’s basically a straight man and dumbass routine where one guy (boke) says something really stupid and the other (tsukkomi) tries to correct him. It usually spirals into the boke doing something unbelievably retarded and the tsukkomi getting fed up and slapping them. Note that this sort of thing happens all the time in other media (like Shrek for example).

Called manzai in Japanese, this sort of duo is very common in live comedy routines. It takes a bit of finesse, as both halves of the duo need to be funny and complement each other in their dialogue.

Conclusion

There are a lot more tropes, but what’s more interesting is how these tropes came about and why they’re long lasting compared to other trends.

Sources

I used mainly tvtropes to figure out what I wanted as examples but there’s more info below.

 

Introduction

Flower symbolism is present in every sort of media, dating back to the writing of the Hebrew Bible, to Victorian-era Shakespearean works such as Hamlet, to more modern popular works such as the Hunger Games and Beauty in the Beast. Many cultures have some form of flower language, and Japan is no different.  It is called Hanakotoba, and in animation it is often used to represent characters, foreshadow events, and add a complete feel. Because flowers are pretty. So I’ll take a look at some notable examples of flower language in anime, uses which can be seen in movies, books, and TV.

School Sakura

Cherry blossoms are deeply revered in Japan for their beauty and symbolism. They have been depicted countless times in Japanese media and they represent spring, rebirth, and the beauty yet ephemeral nature of life. As high school is generally considered the peak of youth in Japan, cherry blossoms are often depicted outside the school or near the walk to school. It also works when the themes of the show include making the most of your high school life, but are often shown just because they’re common and beautiful in Japan. The blooming of the sakura trees are depicted with the beginning of school in Japan (even though the peak season is off by maybe a week or two). The beautiful pink and white colors often take over the animation as well.

Cherry blossoms can also be used as symbolism of character change. For example, in Hyouka, the main character’s Oreki progression in his mentality and his relationships conclude with the beauty of his scenery being magnified tenfold.

Anohana’s Forget-me-not

In Anohana, a story about a dead girl and the five friends that have split off  after her premature death, the flower forget-me-not (genus Mysotis) is everpresent in the show’s themes and visuals. Not only does Anohana’s full title literally translate to “We Still Don’t Know the Name of the Flower We Saw That Day”, but the titular flower is constantly shown to the viewer. A forget-me-not represents true and undying love, remembrance after death,  reminders of memories, and a connection that lasts throughout time. Fitting for a show that quite literally brings the dead back as a ghost to give final closure to the relationships that have deteriorated over the years.

In the anime’s opening scene, a gray forget-me-not replaces the dead girl as the other five grow up and turn to gray as well, symbolizing her death. In the ending, forget-me-nots are literally snowing from the sky as possibly the most emotional song in the anime is played. Additionally, one of the characters wears a floral patterned shirt that resembles a forget-me-not.

Kiznaiver Ending Flowers

Kiznaiver is an anime about seven teenagers connected by a social experiment to share all their pain, both emotional and physical. It’s an anime about very different people and the ending depicts the four main girls holding different flowers that reflect their personality.

Sonozaki’s (blue hair) bouquet is a combination of white, green, and yellow roses. They are formally and neatly arranged, which reflects her austere and serious personality. The white represents purity and innocence, the yellow friendship, and the green renewal of spirit. Together it shows how Sonozaki has a new start with this Kiznaiver experiment.

Chidori’s flowers are purple and white daisies, which represent innocence, purity, and true love, but most of all a return to childhood, a character trait that defines her entire arc throughout the story as she is desperately in love with her childhood friend.

Nico’s flowers are scottish bluebells, which are associated with fairies, which definitely lines up with the show’s depiction of her as an eccentric character. She is also the most honest out of all of the characters, on many occasions speaking her mind in awkward situations. Guess what the bluebells also represent?

Maki’s flower is a singular marigold, which is associated with the death of a loved one, sometimes even the ill treatment of a loved one. Similarly Maki’s life has been defined by guilt over the death of her friend. The single flower represents the only person in her life that she has loved.

Conclusion

There are many other shows that feature flowers (for example, the divisions in Bleach are represented by flower insignias that symbolize the character of the division). I chose to show some cool ways that flowers come up, subtle or not. Hope you enjoyed!

 

Credits

Hyouka Analysis

The Flower Language of the Kiznaiver Women

 

 

 

Introduction

As you may have noticed from previous blogs, I am a big fan of shows that use a defined color palette in order to change the meaning or atmosphere of a shot. Now where colors become even more apparent in animation is the way characters are designed to become memorable in the eyes of the audience. There’s a lot that goes into the design of a character – the design needs to be simple enough so that the animators have enough time to draw the frames, but also interesting enough that the viewer’s eyes are focused towards them.

Characters, essentially, are just a collection of personality traits placed in a certain setting, and we want the design to reflect that. For example, the character Yona from Akatsuki no Yona changes from a naive princess to a  fiery girl bent on reclaiming the throne from a usurper. Her bright red hair shows off the intensity that she can have, her earrings give off a royal impression, and her eyes are large, indicating that she is still very much a girl. Her design also includes a green cloak that hides her distinctive hair as she travels in exile (and also complements the color red). So there is quite a lot to consider when looking at a character!

Ensemble Cast

One of the most obvious ways that animation in general utilizes color is when they have to balance multiple colors. You might have noticed how in shows like Teen Titans, Beast Boy is green, Raven is purple, and Starfire is orange. Well it becomes even more apparent with larger casts when each character is essentially represented by their color. A good example of this is Mekakucity Actors:

It’s basically a rainbow over here, with each character having their unique color (although some of their hair colors have been changed to fit the scheme) and type of clothing. Coupled with the different expressions they have it’s easy to quickly assess what these characters might be like in the show. It’s even easier to identify the characters and recognize them in the show.

Color Tropes – Red and Blue Oni

As more and more anime are created, like any other medium, tropes will often pop up and different meanings will be associated with visual imagery. One good example of this is the Red Oni/Blue Oni trope that associates two closely related characters with vastly different personalities. The red symbolizes passion and defiance while blue might symbolize calmness or an intellectual person. A pretty striking visual example comes from Neon Genesis Evangelion, a show where one could say many personality tropes were popularized.

The personalities of Rei and Asuka from NGE can be pretty easily determined from their hair, one of the most prominent parts of a character’s design.

Framing

Differences of warm and cool colors can also effectively change how you look at a character. For example, Spike from Cowboy Bebop wears a dark jacket with a yellow shirt underneath that protrudes out around his face.

This effectively draws the viewer’s eyes towards his face, ensuring that they pay attention to him while he talks, for example.

Another example of good color framing in character design is in Houseki no Kuni. In real life, one major way that geologists determine a gem’s identity is from their color. It’s similar in this anime about anthropomorphic gems.

Each character wears essentially the same black and white funeral uniform scheme, deflecting the viewer’s attention from their bodies and towards their hair, which forms the majority of the gem’s identities. If instead the character’s clothing were to be shiny and flamboyant it would distract from what is really important to their character (additionally this design shows that the gems are relatively disciplined, the funeral uniform adds to the graveness of their day-to-day fighting, and it’s easier for both the manga artist and the animators to draw.

Credits:

The Role of Colour in Character and Scene Design

 

Introduction

When characters are designed to specifically stand out and catch the viewer’s eye, it’s often that they happen to take priority over the setting’s art. For example, the reason why an anime protagonist might sit in the back is often so that the animators don’t have to draw other students in the background when the camera is focused on the main character.

Other times, however, the background art is allowed to shine and takes over the entire show with its beauty. Shots of characters walking past seashores, through bustling cities, or even just a pan over a beautiful countryside house can all contribute to the overall atmosphere of the show. Think of how the original Blade Runner used slow shots of the city to invoke that sort of atmosphere.

Shows that excel in displaying their setting often draw in their viewers by immersing them in the surroundings of the show. It takes a lot of effort, however to not skimp out on the details. Take a look at this process drawing video by members of Studio 4C.

I’m back to doing normal art/animation stuff. I’ve already done a blog about Makoto Shinkai’s background art, so today I will highlight three different series that excel in different ways. I’ll also talk about how the background art of these shows emphasize the themes and style of the show’s plot.

Made in Abyss

OST: Hanzeve Caradhina

One recent anime that has taken the anime community by storm is Made in Abyss, a story about Riko, a young girl, and Reg, a mysterious robot found in the first layer of the Abyss, a gigantic hole in the middle of civilization that has never been fully explored because of the costs of descending.

Once an explorer descends one layer down into the Abyss, they cannot ascend without suffering light dizziness or nausea. By the fourth layer of the Abyss, if they dare to ascend they will bleed from every orifice of their body. By the seventh layer, they are guaranteed to die if they go upwards. Despite this knowing that the journey will end in death, Riko and Reg go on a one-way trip to find Riko’s mother who disappeared years ago in the seventh layer. The show captures the urge to discover and the thrill of exploration, and it could not have done that without its use of beautiful shots to convey the vastness of the Abyss.

Even in action scenes, Made in Abyss’s background art complements the events perfectly, creating a world of wonder from many paintings.

Immense credit has to be given to Osamu Masuyama, a background director/artist who formerly worked on Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, and Up on Poppy Hill.

Nagi no Asukara

OST: Fonte

Nagi no Asukara is a masterpiece of the color blue. Set partially under the sea, the romantic drama revolves around five teenagers who are part of a tribe that can breathe underwater.

A lot of themes and the character’s way of life connect back to the idea of the ocean and water, so it’s important that the background art lives and reflects that. Additionally, background art serves as a great focus for the viewer’s eyes if the characters are changing location, and helps make slower scenes more interesting.

The full album of gorgeous art can be found here. It’s an album of 337 images taken over the 26 episode show.

Kazuki Higashiji can be credited for his amazing art direction in Nagi no Asukara, and he has worked on many other shows at P.A. Works.

Hyouka

OST: Sicilienne

Hyouka is a “slice of life” anime that centers around Oreki, a boy who “priortizes energy conservation above all else”. It’s about his transformation from a passive and apathetic person to someone who takes more interest in his surroundings. Thus, it makes sense for the show to display earthly colors to show the atmosphere of the show. Browns, olive, and grass green abound in the scenery, with the occasional cherry orchard poking out to signal his transformation towards a “rose-colored life”.

To add onto this, I found a graphic displaying the color palette of Kyoto Animation shows such as Hyouka, and it’s really cool to see how the art directors match the colors to the atmosphere of the shows.

Art director Shuuhei Okude can be applauded for his beautiful country backgrounds and depiction of everyday scenery. Art becomes so much better when it connects back to the story, and Hyouka pulled it off here.

Credits:

sakugabooru.com yet again.

/u/akanyan on reddit for compiling giant image albums of these shows.

A Look Into The Worldbuilding of: Made in Abyss

Introduction

In America, becoming an animator is a pretty decent job. According to Payscale, the median salary for an animator is around $50,000. For more prestigious jobs like at Disney, they can make $116,000-$125,000 a year, according to their official job site. This puts skilled animators in a well-off place, with most being able to live comfortably.

On the other side of the Pacific, the average Japanese key animator makes $26,271, according to an 2015 anonymous survey by the Japanese Animators Creation Association. Keep in mind that key animators are generally considered to be more experienced, with a few years of work already under the belts. New animators are even more likely to be underpaid, with the average inbetweener (the person that makes the key frames flow together) making around $10,000 a year, less than $900 a month. This is far lower than Japan’s minimum wage, which pays out at around $17,500 a year as of 2015.

Now, considering that 2D animation takes considerable skill and training, and that animators are always under deadline and are forced into unpaid overtime to complete a project, it becomes quickly apparent that animating in Japan is a ridiculous affair. Imagine getting out of animation school through a large amount of effort, getting paid below minimum wage, working 10-11 hours a day six days a week, and being forced to live with your parents just because you dared to have the passion to draw some anime. People are overworked to the breaking point. Your life expectancy is legitimately shorter, often due to karoshi, the Japanese term for “death from overwork, which usually takes the form of stress-induced heart attacks or strokes.

Pathetic, really.

Overtime, Overwork, LifeOver

One of the biggest reasons that I would never want to work in Japan, even as a fan of Japanese media, is because of the work culture. It’s well known that Asia in general, but especially Japan, has a gigantic problem with overwork, with workers constantly expected to work overtime that can in some cases go up to 80 or even 100 hours in a week. According to the survey by the Japanese Animation Creators Association, over half of its respondents reported that they had four or fewer days off per month, including weekends. This can become even worse when an animation studio is under a looming deadline, with employees just staying at the studio to work and sleep and never going home. They can be called on to show up when the studio needs them. Sometimes animators end up committing suicide.

Here’s a quote from Thomas Romain, a French animator living in Tokyo, on the working conditions he saw firsthand during his time in the industry.

The problem is that in the traditional Japanese way to behave in society, people tend to say yes when they are asked to work under impossible conditions. For the sake of the studio and the project team, they will do the impossible, even stay several days at the studio in a row, and therefore put their own health at risk. I’ve seen people going home only once per week, or working 35 hours in a row. I’ve even met an animation director who was going home only once per year to their parents—she wasn’t renting an apartment. She was living at the studio, using the public bath and manga cafes to rest a little bit from time to time. A married couple, a director and his wife character designer, were camping in a corner of the studio, sleeping in sleeping bags until the production was finished. Some people also don’t allow themselves to take a break even if they are sick, because they don’t want to spend their small wage on health care.

Every Frame A Dollar

The main reason that a low-level animator’s salary is so low is because they don’t actually receive an hourly salary. Most studios pay out per frame, so that the pay is dependent on how much the animator is able to get done and also on how complicated the frame might be. Almost all of your income is determined by how many sketches you can do, and new animators often struggle to catch up.

In a Reddit AMA, American animator Henry Thurlow commented on his pay during his stint with Nakamura Pro and Studio Pierrot.

The amount of money you earn from day to day changes … since it’s based on how many frame you draw. On Monday I might draw simple corrections on a whole bunch of frame (adding effects that were forgotten by other animators, or “Kii energy” or something like that) resulting in me being able to draw 40 drawings in one day and make over $150 depending on the series. Tuesday-Thursday however, I might have to do the trace-back and inbetweens for a super detailed shot from Tokyo Ghoul (which is really fun btw)…but results in me only drawing 5 frames per day each of those days ($12 a day or so). Each month at Pierrot I earn about $1000. Each month at my previous “slave-labor” studio, I earned about $300 a month.

Still, he says that the experience of working on high-quality films has been worth it. There’s a video of him talking about his experiences in the credits.

Trickle Down Animation

Anime has seen a giant surge of success and popularity in the past decade, but this has not resulted in the actual increase of money for anime studios or animators. Studios are struggling to pay their animators because anime isn’t actually that profitable, and other auxiliary revenue streams make the most. According to Gobiano, the highest revenue streams are merchandising, international licensing, and anime pachinko machines (pinball gambling). The lowest moneymakers come from Japanese home video, Japanese digital distribution, and anime music sales. So we can see that the nature of anime itself makes it so that both studio and animators are poor. The production costs and the number of animators required to make an anime are quite big, with this year’s Ancient Magus Bride being contracted out to 27 other animation studios other than the main one, Wit Studio. The money doesn’t go to the studio, but to the production committee that planned it out, which will then redistribute the money accordingly. The number of anime is going up and up, while the number of staff is not changing because of the barriers for training staff and the fact that many people are becoming turned off from the brutality of the industry. Here is a chart showing how anime has grown even as the studios can lose money on their productions.

No Way Out

The culture of Japan and the nature of the anime industry makes the plight of an animator a very difficult problem to solve. Even though they’re treated unfairly and underpaid for the trials they have to go through, they survive on their passion for their work. Often they’ll end up accepting the conditions that they’re in “just because that’s how it is”. There isn’t really a union that animators could rally with and strike against anime companies, and even if animators did strike, they would quickly suffer because of their marked poverty.

A lot of production committees also outsource their project to Korea and China, with Korean animators in particular often completely animating whole episodes of many series. Additionally studios outsource work to other companies in Japan, with studios often placed next to each other so that they can collaborate (I believe I saw once that 96% of anime studios are based in Tokyo). So it’s a possibility that even if there was a large strike, that other animators could be found elsewhere. Regardless, the animators don’t want to quit, because well… this is their thing. It’s not as if I had a shitty software development job and I could quit and get another job on software development elsewhere. Almost every studio is like this.

There have been attempts to improve the working conditions of animators. One of the more respected studios, Kyoto Animation, pays its animators a yearly salary and trains all of them in house, and generally refrains from outsourcing. There is an animator dormitory set up by industry animators so that start ups can get into the anime industry successfully, but it’s only for the skilled and up and coming and … still only houses 8 animators as of 2017. Makes sense, considering that its a project just based off donations, but still unfortunate. I have no idea what the future of these animators holds, but I hope it gets better. They’re creating shows I love by trudging through countless hours of drawing, yet still getting paid chump change that they can’t live off of.

There’s a lot of misconceptions that come with this subject, and I could’ve gotten something wrong here, but I hope that this serves as some interesting insight into the dark side of the anime industry.

Credits

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2017/04/16/make-40000-yen-per-month-as-a-studio-khara-animator

https://www.animationcareerreview.com/articles/walt-disney-animation-studios-career-profile

Here are the Average Anime Industry Salaries from the Past Year

https://kotaku.com/being-an-animator-in-japan-is-brutal-1690248803

Anime Industry Faces Animator Shortage Crisis that Could Damage Future Productions

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-39981997

Here is How Anime Studios Make Their Money

Introduction

I’ve temporarily run out of ideas for talking about kinds of animation and cinematography, so I guess I’ll start this mini-series on how anime is produced. One of the interesting elements of anime is the way producers are forced to cut costs in order to make ends meet. In fact, almost all anime TV series end up in the red during their broadcast, and are only able to make a profit off of blu-rays and merchandise that come out alongside the series.

To put into perspective how cheap TV anime can be, we can compare the cost of an entire one cour(or 11-13 episodes) of 20 minute anime episodes to one singular episode of Family Guy. While an anime series might cost $2 million to $4 million USD to make in total, Family Guy costs $2 million dollars PER EPISODE to produce. There are big reasons why Family Guy costs so much. At one point each voice actor on the show was making $300,000 an episode, which is absolutely ludicrous.

On the other hand, look at how an average anime episode is budgeted, courtesy of the Media Development Research Institute in 2010.

• Original work – 50,000 yen ($660)
• Script – 200,000 yen ($2,640)
• Episode Direction – 500,000 yen ($6,600)
• Production – 2 million yen ($26,402)
• Key Animation Supervision – 250,000 yen ($3,300)
• Key Animation – 1.5 million yen ($19,801)
• In-betweening – 1.1 million yen ($14,521)
• Finishing – 1.2 million yen ($15,841)
• Art (backgrounds) – 1.2 million yen ($15,841)
• Photography – 700,000 yen ($9,240)
• Sound – 1.2 million yen ($15,841)
• Materials – 400,000 yen ($5,280)
• Editing – 200,000 yen ($2,640)
• Printing – 500,000 yen ($6,600)

This comes out to 11 million yen, or $145,000 per episode. The reason that the costs are so low is because the returns are similarly small – late night anime is marketed towards an extremely niche demographic. The shows are shown in the very early hours of the morning because viewership will be low, but some interested will watch. That demographic is relied upon to buy merchandise and shell out big money – these people are called whales who love the show so much that they buy… everything.

In this way, seasonal anime can often serve as literally just an advertisement for its source material (whether it be a light novel, a manga, or a video game), and can often end with an original ending or literally no ending at all. Many anime aren’t made explicitly for the anime, but to show off the manga.

An example of this is the anime Rokka no Yuusha (Braves of the Six Flowers), which adapted the first light novel of the source material. Unfortunately the sales for the light novels after the fact were so abysmal some gave it the nickname “Braves of the Six Sales”), when it made barely over 600 sales on its first volume. It won’t likely be seeing a second season.

Ones, Twos, Threes

What do the terms ones, twos, and threes, mean for animation? It represents the number of frames that an animator is “skipping”. Ones means that each frame is drawn. Twos means every other frame is drawn. Threes mean every third frame is drawn. When the standard anime is rendered to be at 24 frames per second(fps), this means that ones, twos, and threes are drawn at 24, 12, and 8 fps respectively. The video in the credits gives a visual example of this idea.

This scene from Neon Genesis Evangelion shows how the frames are created and then transferred into its final form. The way that anime can jump from frame to frame smoothly results from the work of inbetweeners, who draw intermediate frames between the “key frames” that are drawn at ones, twos, and threes, to give anime the illusion of motion. Generally you’ll see most motion in anime animated in twos and threes, and when the production team really wants to go all out and please the viewer’s eyes, you’ll see it animated in ones.

Here’s a trailer for the movie Redline, a movie of such production value that it took seven years to make and 100,000 hand made drawings to create an overload of the visual senses.

Still Frames and Flapping Lips

Still frames are extremely common in anime. They save money because they can just draw one image and then pan over the image with the camera in order to create some semblance of movement for several seconds without the need to actually draw more frames. This is known as the Ken Burns effect in western television, and is a pretty standard technique overall. Here we can see it used in the ending song of Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash. It’s literally one image throughout the 1 minute 30 second runtime (and fuck is it a really pretty painting, just like the rest of the show), but it’s a lot cheaper than having six characters being animated and running around.

Another technique that is used in animation in general is flapping lips when characters talk. A show can end up just focusing on a single shot of characters talking, with the only movement being the up and down movement of their lips. The animators don’t even need to draw more than a few flips for that sort of motion, because they can reuse the same lip flapping over and over again during the scene. Here’s an example from my favorite series, Kara no Kyoukai.

There are several instances of lip flapping and panning shots – but hey, you can’t fault the animators – they have to save time and money somewhere in places nobody will really notice to produce stuff later on in the same movie like THIS.

CGI Usage

I’ve talked in previous blogs about CGI and how it can be done well, but the main reason for CGI in anime is to conserve budget. For large crowds of people, city movement with cars and people, etc. CGI is often used so the animators don’t have to hand draw it, which would be extremely time-consuming. Here’s an example from the anime The Asterisk War.

You can see that the background characters look really awkward and stilted, but during the show you probably won’t notice because you’re focused on the main characters, so they use it to cut costs here.

CGI in anime can also be used for creative camera movement, as in normal 2D animation it’s generally more difficult to get a rotating camera shot or something similar. Here’s two examples from Arslan Senki and Kara no Kyoukai.

Both of these scenes experiment with 3D backgrounds, and I know the second scene in particular used 3D modelling to get the action right. It can be really awesome to add this CGI into the show, but another important reason is that scenes would also be very time and money consuming in 2D animation.

Literal Slavery

The working conditions of animators is atrocious!!!! This was clickbait, check out my blog next week for more 13 reasons why slavery exists in Japan!!! Number 6 will SHOCK YOU and RENDER YOU SPEECHLESS.

Ahem.

Conclusion

So those are just a few more obvious ways that the anime industry saves money and time on their product. Hope this was interesting and stuff like that!

Credits/More Info:

Sakugabooru again.

How much an episode of anime costs

How studios make money in anime

Rokka no Yuusha sales source

Introduction

OST 1

There are a number of different animation styles available to animators, and one of the more unique animation styles is one of rough lines and constant movement. Animation is all about squashing and stretching body proportions in order to express motion and emotion, and animators can often take it to the extreme. In this blog post I wanted to showcase some excellent examples of how animators can go against conventional techniques to create some pretty cool stuff.

Each anime will have their specific style of animation, but often they stick to already used types of character design, character animation, and linework. For example, this well done clip from the anime Hyouka might be an example of a well done scene, with movement suggesting the character’s emotions and such. Nice.

But other anime take more risks. Here director Shinichiro Watanabe, renowned for his work on famous anime such as Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, harnessed the talents of animator Shinya Ohira in order to create a visceral scene in Blade Runner Blackout 2022. Here Iggy, a replicant, describes his war experiences on the fields of Calantha.

If you watch these clips you’ll notice how fluid the lines are and how much the background and characters move during the shot. The way that the dust is portrayed with the outlines of the soldiers running through is really cool. This is just one part of Blade Runner 2022 that greatly deviates from the style of the rest of the short. (It’s a 15 min short that I would recommend watching if you’ve seen Blade Runner at all).

Some Ugly Stuff, or maybe not

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On the farthest end of the spectrum there’s shows that incorporate this sort of animation for all their episodes, choosing to use such rough lines at all times. One director that uses a lot of this unique animation is Masaaki Yuasa, creator of Ping Pong the Animation, Devilman Crybaby, and The Tatami Galaxy. He’s well known for his wild, free art direction as you can see in this clip from Ping Pong.

Yuasa’s style also allows for tons of symbolism (which would make no sense from just showing a clip) but I think just the “style” oozes from the opening. The loose animation lets the characters move freely and express facial emotions more uniquely than anything else I’ve seen.

Yuasa also isn’t afraid at all to exaggerate, which gives the story and characters a lot more weight when the drama is being put out there.

His style also extends to his other works, even though those take on a different style entirely. Tatami Galaxy’s direction is a surreal one as the main character desperately tries to find a “rose-colored life” at his college. It’s a show where everything seems to border on complete insanity and the style reflects that perfectly.

Another example of his colorful and insane animation is the trailer for his film “The Night is Short, Walk on Girl”, an experience that can’t be described, only felt. The trailer for the film perfectly shows what the rest of the film is like (and in fact it’s probably crazier).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp1L1vBidnA

Porque

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So Andy, you might say, you’ve given me all this weird ass weeb shit, why should I care at all? Well I’ll let you in on my trigger, when people think of anime and they think:

or

So I guess what I’m saying is that there’s a lot of stuff out there that you and I haven’t experienced, and to have an open mind towards different forms of Chinese cartoons and such. Animation is a medium that is able to express a variety of topics and themes. Anyways, I’ll get off my soapbox now and I hope my blog post has been relatively interesting and maybe entertaining.

Credits/More Stuff:

Sakugabooru.com

 

 

The State of CGI

For those who haven’t seen this blog before, I provide music links that are from the anime in question, because it’s nice. hell yea.

OST 1

CGI has historically been looked down upon in Japanese animation, an animation style usually dominated by 2-D animation. While most anime nowadays will use CGI in the anime-making process, not many can pull off using all or even mostly CGI. It’s associated with cutting costs on background crowds, stiff and jerky animation. Just look at Berserk 2016’s horrid animation:

i can't believe this is real pic.twitter.com/DM68EI9WDf

— pahchi (@dodonpahchi) June 1, 2017

On the other hand, CGI can be incorporated quite well if done correctly, as can be seen in ufotable’s Fate stay/night: Unlimited Blade Works:

This scene uses a lot of CGI in order to make it work, but with proper color usage and direction it looks amazing.

Purely CGI works are few and far between in Japan, and ones that make a splash in the pool of seasonal anime are even rarer indeed. Polygon Pictures is one studio that has received some praise for its total CGI animation, working on anime such as Blame!, Knights of Sidonia, and Ajin. However, even for a studio greatly experienced with CG, the facial expressions and animations can still look stiff or off in many ways.

Netflix’s Blame! Trailer:

Land of the Lustrous – mixing 3D and 2D

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Land of the Lustrous, or Houseki no Kuni, is a Fall 2017 anime by Studio Orange about anthropomorphic gems living on an island where they are regularly attacked by Lunarians, seemingly hivemind beings that destroy the gems and kidnap them to the Moon. These gems, dressed perpetually in black mourning clothes, can only be identified physically by their facial structure and hair design.

A lot of thought went into the CG of this anime, with hand drawn components leading the proper creation of the CG. 2D animation was used in the instances where CG could not be effectively used to portray nuance and feeling, such as in most closeup shots. However normal movement was predominantly CG, as was the all-important hair lighting and motion.

The combination of 2D and 3D worked extremely well to show the character’s emotions and feelings, often heightening the sense of drama or comedy in the scene.

Additionally 2D was used in order to guarantee that the show’s most important moments were done correctly, with some of the industry’s best called in to make the initial 2D animation that the 3D CGI was then based upon.

In my opinion the most impressive parts in Land of the Lustrous is its cinematography, constantly putting the characters in dynamic scenarios and using the camera to the show’s advantage. This is where I feel like the use of CGI shined through and made the animation really special. I’ve taken a few moments from the show as an example.

What it could have been

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A trailer for Land of the Lustrous was released long before the actual anime and it gives us some insight into what it could have looked like.

Some interesting notes are how the hair is animated in 2D vs. 3D – in 2D the gem’s hair is much mor simplistic, with the simple white highlights defining the light. Additionally, the 2D animation feels the need to constantly add sparkling accents on their hair – they are gems after all. Also, the way that the gems look when they are damaged (when the powder that they use wears off or their arm breaks off or the like) looks incredibly different from the CGI version. Sakugabooru took the most interesting clips from the full trailer which can be found here.

Other Art Stuff

The color usage in Land of the Lustrous is additionally really on point, with the colors of the halls changing as the characters pass by.

(Heliodor to Phosphophyllite to Diamond)

The background art of Houseki no Kuni is also excellent, showcasing the different landscapes of the island and the “school” that they live in. This can be seen most in the endcards that appear at the end of each episode.

All endcards: https://imgur.com/gallery/nYAX2

Land of the Lustrous can be legally streamed with Amazon Prime.

Credits/More Stuff:

Sakugabooru is an amazing resource for those interested in animation – there are cuts for every anime and animation production posts as well.

More on the production of the anime and the directors behind it:

How Land of the Lustrous made its characters: