Anime: New and Old

[Andromeda]

Anime has evolved and changed over the years. I am not refering so much to story, studios, or character, but to the actual visuals. All anime from 1990 and earlier was all hand drawn and painting or airbrush. But with the introduction of the computer on a wide scale and programs to go with them, the digital age began to reach anime. Even during most of the 90s most anime was all done by hand with some digital work here and there. But much of todays current anime is showing a very different appearance, in part to the digital age affecting the colors. I am not certain how much digital is used today, but I have noticed the difference in current titles as opposed to tens from ten years ago or later when cels were still used.

I think one part of the reason why the colors and appearance seem so different is that cels are not so widely used, they do a lot more of the work digitally at the end. Plus images are enhanced or possibly even colored digitally now. Just about anyone who looks at anime stills these days can see that nearly all of them are painted in photoshop or illustrator these days. It is still hand drawn, but then scanned into the computer and painted there instead.

I have seen this apparent in a current anime Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki, which is the third OVA in the Tenchi Muyo! series. The first two were done ten years ago when the technology was very different, simply looking at the colors show how different the they are now.

My question is how do you feel about the changing style that is becoming more used in anime, digital painting. And which do you prefer, the traditional hand drawn 100%, or digital painting?

Considering how much anime is all traditional hand drawn completely it is hard not enjoy it. The digital painting is new and probably will be the new method for going about things. But I prefer the old anime appearance over the new, you can still see a little bit of the cel sheet texture that comes through on the screen. There is just somethinga bout the cel sheet that makes the animation see more alive and real, the computer makes everything bright and shiny colors but it ends up looking too bright.

I might go into more detail later, but on a limited time to post this, that is all I can at the moment.

[postalblowfish7]

honestly i think both are valid and i love them both for different reasons. azumanga daioh, for example, was done completely digitally - and i think it gave the animators a sense of visual freedom that they take advantage of at every turn. not only is the look and feel of the show consistent from the first to last episode, digital effects (like chio-chan's 'father' glowing with psychedelic patterns) and character morphing adds a sparkling, sort of 'clean' element to the show. when characters go kawaii in azumanga, they REALLY go kawaii - and it happens at least once every 30 seconds or so.

at the same time, if you look at an anime like kareshi kanojo (his or her circumstances) you can tell that it was drawn and colored by hand. the colors are just... different. characters go kawaii about as often in this anime too, it's just a different sort of variety - not as overblown and over the top (even though the story telling of kareshi kanojo is completely over the top - they accomplish more in the first 3 episodes than most animes do in 10).

i personally think it's 'cooler' when something is done by hand - as it just seams like more of a work of humans... but azumanga is still a beautiful anime, and like you pointed out - it's done on a digital drawing pad, and still done by a human hand. i think, like anything, there will always be a demand for hand drawn anime. just like bands who still insist on recording their albums on analog equipment for its 'warmer sound', i believe we will continue to see hand drawn animes come out for their 'more natural' colors.

[Gorath Sodom]

I believe just like everything else, computers can only better things. It's made communication more efficient, brought us a whole world of interactive entertainment, and it will be no exeption with the next generation of Anime. Postal already pointed out Azumanga Daioh, which has spectacular visuals, another that comes to mind is Studio Gainax's first all-digitally produced OVA, FLCL. The computerized mastering couple with Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's character design made it the al'a mode of Anime visuals.

[Andromeda]

Technology/computers do not make everything better. Often it ends up looking a little out of place, anime does a pretty good job most times blending the two together, but it is often still that things just do not look right. Full one or the other works better more times than not.

But my mean issue is that things like Tenchi Muyo!, it was an old OVA from the 90's and now they finally get around to doing the rest of the story, and upgrade on the visuals. And the problem is that it just did not work nicely, it does not look like the anime you were used to watching, the character design remained true, but the digital art just ruined the look, the classic feel that it had. And it is fine to do on Tenchi Muyo Space Police, because it is a new show and really has no connections. But Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki is the third OVA in the series, following after the other in story, so besides being very late it feels strange.

Computers can work, but what I see in a lot of mecha anime is CG mechas with hand drawn characters, which ends up looking very strange. Now a lot of times the character are painted on the computer, but it is still just too strange to look it. The constrast of styles does not mix well most times. This mainly due to extra detail the mecha will contain or the colors being wrong to the palette.

But it really comes down to being too bright and shiny, I like my animation on cel sheets, it feels real. The same amount effort goes into the digital art, possibly, it is hard to say if it is faster or not. But the cel sheets have a quality to them that just make them feel richer, even in spite of the often duller colors compared to the digital.

[Gorath Sodom]

I have yet to watch the third season of the Tenchi OVA but I loved the first two. I think it's trivial though to let a slight change in appearence get to you, unless you mean to tell me it's Tenchi in Tokyo bad, which had really crappy visuals compared to the others.

I find nothing wrong with cel shaded characters in 3D environments. La Pucelle Tactics, Disgaea, and Dragon Quest VIII are like that and possess outstanding visuals, at least in my opinion.

[Grizzly]

You shouldn't care whether the animation is hand-drawn or computer-created. Both styles look good, even if "out of place", I don't care either way. The only styles of anime I don't like is the artist who do Yugioh or any of those kiddie shit, it's just too cartoonish for me. I like the realism they use in some anime's more of, like Cowboy Bebop. As a child I always found cartoons cool, but when I saw the first anime's I ever looked upon I just LOVED it. I've always been into more realistic things too, even if it's fantasy. Technically I like "believable" things. Naruto did a good job with that as well. Everything is just cooler with anime, no matter what age it was. And as shown I loved the stories too, they were more indepth than just a lesson they try to teach you.

The Digital art though I some times found pretty cool. Like in Samurai 7 they used a lot of 3D graphics. Sure it may not FIT as well, but trying to put a 3D figure on 2D planes is difficult without something looking weird. Course though I kind of get annoyed of why they can't just use regular hand-drawn stuff. Like Gundam, I love almost the entire series, but instead of CG graphics they kept to the hand-drawn art and stuff. I prefer art over 3D graphics myself, (unless it's final fantasy ), but it doesn't bother me as much as it would other people. Anime rules in all aspects.