“Ugly” Animation

Introduction

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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