COP3: Final Reflection

Overall i feel i have portrayed anime well. While personal issues and disorganisation lead to my final animations to be much much more limited than intended i still feel that i portrayed anime well despite being a western animator.

I also felt that my dissertation goes over most of the subjects i intended to clearly, and i am very happy with the result. There were more subjects i would have liked to approach, the dub vs sub argument and translation errors from works that aren't inherently english for example, and more examples of discussions of manga iconography were subjects in particular.

It is a hard subject to approach. While the anime tropes i portrayed are tropes, this does not represent all of the animation coming out of japan. None of the tropes i portray are in ghibli works, and there are examples of completely different stylistic tropes, pantry and stocking doesnt follow anatomical conventions in their character designs despite being anime.

I am happy with my research as a brief introduction to anime, and would like to adapt my research into a video that would be portrayed as a brief introduction.

CO3: Interview and Questionaire Reflection

The interview i had with Henry Thurlow was incredibly enlightening, while most of what he said either confirmed what i already knew about anime some elements where enlightening. For example the personal insight into female animators feelings towards sexualisation was interesting. I thought that they would be more vocal about sexualisation. I was also very interested to discover that everyone in Japan reads manga, while i knew anime would not be received by everyone the fact most read manga was interesting, particularly that many tropes in anime are a result of the adaption of manga. It makes it more obvious how engrained these tropes are.


The questionnaire was also very interesting, i didn't think that people would actually have the bias towards anime that i thought they had. 50% of people believing anime was the best form of animation was very surprising, and i was expecting for my expectation of anime fans to be wrong. I was also expecting more anime fans to be mentally ill as there are many studies that suggest that people with autism react to anime better because emotions are portrayed clearer with the iconography that originated from Manga.

COP3: Comedy Animation

I decided that the best course of action to illustrate more tropes in anime would be to approach a more comedic animation. This would be able to be produced quick as anime often draws in more a chibi style (cuter style) using more simple shapes and animation. I wanted to show that anime often personifies objects in a cute way, so i decided to make the poop whistle and look cute, and further become a ghost. Furthermore western shows the mess and grossness of the situation whereas anime shows the reaction more. I found the western animation much easier to produce and also funnier. This may be because i am more familiar with the western form of comedy, with a focus on putting gross characters in gross situations. I found the tropes in anime made emotions that the character is having much clearer however.

COP3: Dramatic Animation

These are my final dramatic animations. I feel that they both do justice as an example for animation from both sides of the planet, while still being quite limited animation. Compared together, anime feels much more over the top and exaggerated, particularly when compared to the western animation. The effects to add drama feel quite cheesy. However, the scene in which Hester runs at the camera before turning away i feel would have impressive animation potential and if fully animated would look impressive and dynamic. I did however also noticed that the effects that went in to the anime animation were incredibly easy to produce and do have the effect of speed. Overall i prefer the western animation as it feels less cheesy and more clearly tells a story, which is surprising as i pay particular attention to having a variety of different shot types in my animation. However i also feel that this animation doesn't display all of the tropes that anime has. I will consider creating another animation to illustrate for effects.

COP3: dramatic animation Storyboards

when storyboarding both animations i tried to pay extra attention to the way things are framed and the differences between the two. I noticed that anime often uses more static panning shots with more dynamic camera angles, often using close ups with slow zooms to show drama so i tried to incorporate this into the anime animation. Furthermore i wanted to show a bit more dynamic action with Hester running at the camera before turning back, to contrast with the more still static shots. I also wanted to incorporate a close up of Hester running in order to illustrate the use of speed lines to add extra effects.

I then storyboarded the western animation. Another key feature i noticed was that the camera direction doesnt change much, furthermore there are rarely completely 90 degree shots of characters, they are nearly always showing their whole face to the camera whereas anime often goes for a full profile view so i tried to incorperate that. I also noticed that often anime shows more of the characters reacting to things happening whereas western cartoons show more of the actual action taking place so i tried to show this with Tom grabbing the back of hesters coat. I also noticed there isnt as much shot variation, with it mostly being mid shots and full body shots, with the exception for the wide shot as an introduction. I also wanted to incorperate more background characters as there are often much more noticable background characters. Adventuretime for example has a huge range of recognisable characters that often only show up a few times in the entire season.

COP 3 Life Dawing and Anime Character Design cont.

In order to make my Anime character designs for effective, and to test the hypothesis that anime character designs have a more anatomical focus than western animation i decided to do some life drawing a see if this improved my character designs.

Got some lifedrawing done at the usher this evening! #lifedrawing #drawing #sketch #sketchbook #usher #artgallery #thecollection #lincoln #reference #art #model #female

A photo posted by OlliE (@tale_technician) on Dec 21, 2016 at 2:58pm PST

i found that doing this life drawing really did help with my anatomical scales. And after paying particular attention to real life reference i ended up with some more character designs that i was happy with. While it isn't quite up to the standard that i feel Japanese character designers would have it serves the purpose of looking like authentic anime for this project.

COP 3 Anime Character Design

 For anime character design reference i used reference from FLCL, Kill La Kill, Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. I chose these because i wanted to use particular characters with similar characteristics to those in the books, for example Ryuko from Kill La Kill, for valentine i wanted to reference Jin from Samurai Champloo and Spike from Cowboy Bebop as they both have an adventurous but mysterious character. As for Thomas i wanted to reference Naota from FLCL who also has a very close resemblance to Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion, both of whom have an air of naivety.

Character design seems much more detailed in anime, actually... perhaps not more detailed as there are more anatomically accurate, with characters often having a clear muscle and bone structure, if a little exaggerated. This is unlike a lot of western designs, with Finn from adventure time having noodle arms, whereas characters such as Naota maintain life drawing elements such as tapered forearms shaped calves.

I really really struggled to design character that looked anime, they often looked extremely flat, or just didn't resemble true anime rather knock off fan art. I was happy with the two sketches i did of Thomas though, and will use these as final character designs. i do however need to work on body anatomy, while Thomas' anime face looks authentic, his body still needs work.

COP3: Western Character Design

 For western Character design i decided to use reference from the shows Rick and Morty, Adventure Time and Steven Universe. I chose these three in particular because i felt that the represented an almost cross section view of the more generic western style.

 I noticed that characters often followed more geometric shape, or a combination of geometric shapes rather than a focus on accurate human anatomy, furthermore these characters are very simplistic so they can be animated or drawn easier.

I found it incredibly easy to design characters that look like western cartoon characters, i tried incorporating shape theory as much as i could as well, with Thomas being incredibly innocent i tried to keep his face circular, Hester is slightly more angular but i wanted to keep her with a similar chin to Thomas as they are connected through the story. For Valentine i wanted to keep him quite square but with a sharp point in his hairline to show how he would turn on Tom at the end.

I also did a sketch of them all as fast as i could in order to further determine shapes and was surprisingly happy despite how rushed and loose the three look.

COP3: The Narrative

In order to create a narrative that wouldn't require an excessive amount of planning or time i've decided that it would be better to adapt a work rather than come up with one from scratch. 

I felt that Mortal Engines would be a good book to adapt for multiple reasons. Smaller reasons include my familiarity with the subject matter, it's a book i've read through multiple times. More importantly it fits the demographic that anime also mainly aims at. While anime does have a very large audience the most popular form of anime is shonen, aimed at teenage males, which is also the demographic that Mortal Engines is aimed at. Furthermore there are story elements that would fit well into anime, being incredibly action packed with a lot of dramatic story elements and self reflection from Thomas, giving the ability to have scenes of self reflection for the sake of drama that is all too prevalent in anime.

I chose chapter 3, a sequence where Thomas is taken around the the gut of London before he witnesses someone attempt to stab his idol before giving chase and getting pushed down a disposal chute. This would give me the chance to anime action and more static scenes to illustrate key differences in both of these elements.

COP3: Practical Plan

For the practical element of COP3 i want to illustrate some key features and tropes of Anime by constructing a narrative and then using tropes from both western Animation and Anime.

These would include things such as screaming the name of an attack, very little character animation but a moving background, and slow zoom on characters faces to show admiration,  a still image to be on screen while a character monologues, or the use of obvious characteristics to show emotions.

with simple marks and shapes this shows characters anger or rage instead of relying entirely on facial expression.

Another key element i need to focus on is character design, as there are plenty of examples online of people attempting to replicate the anime style but often fall incredibly short, and particularly as replicating the anime style isn't something i have done before.

The characteristics of anime are there but miss the mark by a mile.

COP 3 Triangluation of Theories

It seems that anime often has an extremely polar following, with anime fans believing Japanese animation is superior to animation from other countries usually with very limited argument other than “its better”. This differs to those who are vocal about their dislike for anime, often having a very wide range of reasons behind them. These include disliking tropes in anime, such as the main character screaming their final attack, only for the fight to somehow take a dramatic turn, either this final attacks does no damage and the audience has to witness the main character saying an overused like such as “it can’t be…” with a dramatic gasp. On the other end of the scale, the attack is so powerful that it has ridiculously destructive properties. Further arguments can be made against the sexualisation of women, often with very little written character but a lot of animation. particular effort is put into character design and animation so that characters breasts are both shapely and bounce as much as possible for the titillation of the viewer. It is understandable them that tropes like these could cause annoyance, however it seems that the focus is less around genuine dislike for anime and more a distain for anime fans themselves, evidence by the numerous internet memes stating that “Anime is trash” that are regularly posted anywhere anyone claims to be a fan of anime. It is important to note however that anime does often excel when it comes to narrative, with works such as Ghost In The Shell and Paprika Clearly influencing films like The Matrix and Inception respectively. It is also important to note that these original works are both animated whereas the western counterparts are both live action. This is likely because the Japanese animation industry is not only more widespread but also much cheaper than animation in the west, using scenes of much more limited animation when more animation is unnecessary, such as when characters are talking. Or using other techniques to save on the amount of animation, such as the use of close ups and slow zooms to make anime feel more dynamic with next to no actual animation in that scene. This leads back to the previous question however, why do anime fans feel that anime is superior to other forms of animation. Perhaps the issue is with the fans themselves, as there is a similar attitude to those who are large fans in Japan. These people who sit at home all day and watch anime all day are know as Otaku, and are often criticized for not contributing to society. The fact that this is prevalent in a society where anime is much more wide spread implies that there is a link between the two. Furthermore, anime’s main demographic is teenagers, and many anime tropes can be seen to have more of a resonance with teenagers, for example the over the top nature with epic adventures and epic fight scenes may seem over the top to a more adult audience, but to adolescents who still retain an element of wonder from childhood, this would come across as slightly more tasteful and entertaining. Furthermore the sexual nature would appeal to the newfound sexuality that begins to develop in puberty. It may be said then that perhaps anime fans are those that wish to retain an element of adolescence, while maintaining the want for no responsibilities as evidenced by the Otaku culture of being a shut in.

COP3: Summer Research

Over the summer i did some reading in order to see what animation is like in the rest of the world, for this i got some books out about soviet animation, Chinese animation, a book on Disney, a book on european animation and a book on the history of anime in order to form a better understanding to compare animation from the UK to the rest of the world. However after doing said reading i've realised that i would sooner research a more specific country as opposed to my dissertation being "UK vs Rest of the world", as this would not only add more pressure on me to research a very large body of work to compare UK animation against.

I have instead decided to focus my research into anime as it is a form of animation that i enjoy, and feel as though the methodology behind anime could teach animation studios around the world positive things such as creating dynamic animation while maintaining a low budget, particularly with my interest in narrative animation.

So far my research has mostly been around the history of anime, and i have discovered that initially animation in japan was used for propaganda and resembled very early Disney and Betty Boop cartoons, and that the first "Anime" is considered to be astroboy.

COP3: Questionnaire results

COP3: Interview with Henry Thurlow

In order to get more of an insight into the current state of anime from a more personal perspective i reached out to an american animator currently working on animation in japan, below is the email log between us both.

Some Questions for you

Ollie Simons <os256056@students.leeds-art.ac.uk>	22 Nov
to HenryThurlow

Hello there Henry!

My name is Ollie Simons and i am a 3rd year student, studying animation at Leeds College of Art.

I'm currently writing my dissertation on Anime, Its history,Its themes, Its spread to the west, and its modern reception.

Being an animator that has experience with both the animation industry in America, and the animation industry in Japan i feel like you would likely have some insight into some of these topics and was wondering if you would be up to answer some questions?

Cheers!

henrythurlow@htanimation.com	28 Nov (11 days ago)
to me

Hi Ollie,

Sorry for the late reply.

I`ve been super busy with multiple projects over these last couple months and haven`t been able to properly reply to e-mails not related to work.

It might be too late at this point, but if you`re still writing your paper, send me over whatever questions you have. I can`T spend too long answering each one but I will try to help out as much as possible.

Ollie Simons <os256056@students.leeds-art.ac.uk>	28 Nov (11 days ago)
to Henry

Hey Henry

Not to worry, we're both animators i can empathise with being constantly busy with projects.

They're quite long winded questions i'm afraid but i appreciate any input you have for me.

Having worked on both American animation and Japanese animation, are there any key differences between the way animation is produced? And what professional practices were difficult to get used to when you began working in Japan?

Anime isn’t just a genre, but is often treated like one when it’s raised in cultural discussion, predominantly because of most anime having a large similarity in style, would you agree or disagree with this statement and why?

The sexualisation of Women is a large talking point Online from western sources, how is it received locally in Japan?

The opinion of Anime in the west is quite polar, either hated or loved, however what western audiences receive is a lot different, ie a lot of less of the Anime style in advertisements, how does the japanese audience respond to Anime?

Furthermore, do Japanese audiences have a similar reaction to western animation, ie is there a "weeaboo" equivalent for Japanese fans of american animation?

Thank you for your time and i look forward to hearing back from you!

Cheers

henrythurlow@htanimation.com	29 Nov (10 days ago)
to me

Hey Ollie,

Here are your questions followed by my answers. Good luck with your paper, hope this helps.

Having worked on both American animation and Japanese animation, are there any key differences between the way animputation is produced? And what professional practices were difficult to get used to when you began working in Japan?

It`s totally different. There`s almost no part of the production process that`s the same. In the west (at least from my experience working in New York) there are background artists, layout artists, key-frame animators, and in-between animators. They all do very different work and then when everything’s put together the scene is finished. Also, everything is done on the computer. In Japan everything is done on paper with pencils until you get to the final scanning/coloring part of the process. Here they have gengaman, 2-gengaman, dougaman, and sakuga-kantoku …. So basically one person draws everything (the background, the characters, decides the motion, etc) and then a super artist (the “animation director”) goes over each frame and adjusts them, then someone else puts all the corrections together before it`s shipped off for in-between animation.

The attitude of the studio`s and workers (everyone talking and throwing around idea`s in the west, vs everyone sitting silently working in Japan) as well as the pay (Work is hard to find but pays ok in the west, vs almost no pay in Japan) is also very different.

Anime isn’t just a genre, but is often treated like one when it’s raised in cultural discussion, predominantly because of most anime having a large similarity in style, would you agree or disagree with this statement and why?

I think the line between “Japanese animation” and “animation” in general has been blurred recently thanks to globalization. I recently made a blog post about this which goes into a lot of details about my feelings on the matter. I think animation is a medium (same as film) and not a genre though … and I think Japanese people would agree. In Japan no one thinks Miyazaki films, 80`s horror OVA`s, hentai, and Anpanman are the same thing. They recognize that they`re made by different people for totally different reasons.

The sexualisation of Women is a large talking point Online from western sources, how is it received locally in Japan?

Sexualization of women in Anime or just in general. Japan is a few decades behind as far as that stuff goes. (And culturally is just kind of different to be honest. The kind of sexualization of pre-teens that`s found all-over the place in Japan is, and never has been found in America as far as I`m aware.

I know Japanese girls who hate it and roll their eyes at that stuff, though they`re not even a fraction as vocal about it as western girls would be. (And frankly speaking, I also know Japanese girls in the anime industry that kind of like it … that think the over-sexualized anime girls are “cute” and enjoy drawing them.)

The opinion of Anime in the west is quite polar, either hated or loved, however what western audiences receive is a lot different, ie a lot of less of the Anime style in advertisements, how does the japanese audience respond to Anime?

That`s hard to answer because it depends on the individual. I`ve heard the claim “everyone in Japan watches anime” by western anime fans. That`s not entirely true. “Anime Otaku” are still “anime toka” here. That might not have the same meaning exactly … but it`s still not totally normal. On the other hand, *everyone* does, or has at some point in their life read, and been a fan of Manga. Manga is incredibly integrated into the culture. So being familiar with Naruto, or Dragonball, Sailor moon, or Hokuto no Ken, is not something out of the ordinary. Most (even “normal” people) are familiar with Jojo`s bizarre adventure and a few of the catch phrases that have come from it for example. …….. So while not everyone “loves it” I don`t think as many people “hate it” here. That part (the “people who hate it” part) of the equation isn`t really a thing here.

Furthermore, do Japanese audiences have a similar reaction to western animation, ie is there a "weeaboo" equivalent for Japanese fans of american animation?

No. Western animation is just called “anime” here just like Dragonball is called “anime” here. Kids here grow up with Disney films just like they do in America, so everyone`s familiar with a bit of “western animation” and thinks nothing of it. And if there was a Japanese person who was a big fan of Adventure time, or something like that, people would probably just call them an “anime otaku” … they wouldn`t have a special name for it.

Ollie Simons <os256056@students.leeds-art.ac.uk>	30 Nov (9 days ago)
to Henry

Hey Henry

Thanks so much for your insight! I will put it to good use :)

I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions, please let me know if there is anything i can do for you :)

All the best

Cheers