Anime - brif overview

Before reading this post, I recommend you to take a look at the post about manga. Manga and anime have many similarities like drawing styles, genres categories, etc. So in order to prevent repetition, this post will include references to the manga post.

 

 

Anime - the best Japanese invention of the 20th century. Well, it's strictly my opinion and I won't blame anyone who is not agrees with me. My passion for anime was one of the reasons I have started to learn Japanese. I had a strong desire to understand first hand what the characters are saying, and to catch the implications and nuances which inevitably get lost in translation. The challenge became an obsession, but in the end I think it will be worth it.  

 

Welcome to anime world

Like any other video media, the anime has a genre, story-line, age restriction, visual effects, "camera angles" and detectors work. But contrary to filming, anime has no problems with poor actor performing or dangerous tricks execution. You can say that every Disney and Pixar movie has the same characteristics. Yes and no.

While in Disney the drawn animations have recognizable and trivial drawing, anime drawing style plays a crucial part at the decision making. Poorly drawn anime can drive away potential audience. But very detailed one can cost a fortune to produce. Therefor, most of the art studios trading between the two options, while trying to preserve a unique style.

There is also the target audience. While Disney an Pixar targeting mainly children, anime have productions for all age types and tastes.

 

The short history of anime

To make it short, I won't go into detail about development of Japanese animation in general. But I have to mention the most critical milestones.

 

1907 - The year of the oldest animation filmstrip. It called "Katsudo shashin" translated as "moving picture", and its creator is unknown. The filmstrip containing 50 frames and its duration is 3 sec.

1917 - Can be marked as a start year of animation development in Japan. The animations gradually became longer, their duration extended from a couple of minutes to half an hour.

1933 - Still in black and white, but now for the first time with voice-overs "Chikara to onna no yo no naka" or "The world of power and women" was released.

1945 - The first feature-length film was released. "Momotaro: Umi no shinpei" translated as "Momotaro: sacred sailors" was a propaganda film for the world war II.

1958 -  The first colored animation film in Japan was released. "Hakujaden" known as "The tale of the white serpent" was a major project, involving 13,590 staff members. It also one of the first Japanese animated films to be released in America and became known as "Disney of the east".

1961 - The first animated TV series was released. "Instant history" and "Otogi manga calendar" are two seasons of this series. Each season contains 321 episodes of about 3 minutes length for episode

1963 - It's an important milestone for the anime we know today. "Tetsuwan atomu" in English adapted as "Astro boy" depicted big eyes, crazy hair style, and many other embodied aesthetic that later became familiar worldwide as anime.

1968 - Another major change in anime drawing style "Taiyou no ouji horusu no daibouken" translated as "The great adventure of Horus, prince of the sun". The change in detailed drawings was a "cost-cutting" method. The important senses were drawn in more detail then the others.

1968 - Was released the first adult-oriented animated film, named "Senya ichiya monogatary" or in English "A thousand and one night".

1970s-1980s - The popularity of anime worldwide grow and its different gainers are established.

1983 - Was the first time, computer graphics ware used in anime. And the pioneer anime was "Golgo 13".

1983 - First OVA was created.

1990s-2000s - The anime became rooted in the worlds media and it looks like it is not going to disappear any time soon. 

Types of anime format

• Featured films - Like regular featured films, have a plot development which usually culminates at the end and the story ends. Their duration is mostly between 60 to 120 minutes.
• Anime series - The story has been told continuously over a span of many episodes. The series has a strict episode length around 22 - 25 minutes. Usually one season lasts around 12 episodes.

If you'll watch anime series, you should know the term "Filler". It's an episode or a bunch of episodes (or even a season, like in the famous anime "Bleach") which go off the road of the main story line. They can tell a side story, or make fun of the main characters, but mainly they are just "filling" the space and annoying. They are created mainly for the purpose of delaying the mainline story because the corresponding manga is not ready yet.

If you want to avoid fillers, you can find "filler lists", which will include all the filler episodes for the anime you are currently watching, so you can skip them and save your time.

• OVA - An abbreviation of "Original Animation Video". A more flexible format for an anime. It can consist of one or more episodes. Its duration usually goes around 30 minutes, but can easily be 20-60 minutes length. 

 

Genres:

Like as previously said, Anime is strongly relying on manga and there are many similar aspects between the two. On such aspect is genres. And in order to prevent repetition, I recommend you to read the manga post.

 

Drawing style:

The the first thing that we should clarify, is the difference between Japanese anime drawing style and western drawing style. The main anime differences are:

• More detailed shadowing 
• Very expressive eyes
• Usually more carefully drawn clothes and hair
• More vivid coloring
• Exaggerated showing of emotions
  

For example, take a look at Mulan:

 

Other then this, anime has many drawing styles. Some of them more realistic, some skipping over the details. It depends on the drawing period, the production company and the budget.

 

The evolution of art in general influenced the anime drawing style dramatically over the years. New techniques, new equipment, new innovative minds. All this pushing the anime (and manga) to new levels. For example "Astro boy" and unrecognized character from nowadays:

Drawing styles are like fashion - changing with time. The drawing which was cool at 80s, now looks outdated and even boring.

 

Typically, the budget of the movies is larger then the TV series. You can see the difference by looking at the examples below. The rule of thumb is - the longer the series, the poorer the quality.

Garden of words (Movie - 46 minutes):

 

Compulsive Gambler (2 seasons - 12 episodes each):

 

Naruto (Part 1 - 220 episodes, Part 2 - 500 episodes):

 

Now for the drawing style itself. As I was saying, each studio has its own unique style. And you can  even recognize the studio by its style. The color palettes, the shading, the detalization, are only part of the factors. 

Many times the fans take a character (Itachi from Naruto for this example) and trying to style him as part of another anime. Then you clearly see the style difference.

That's it for now. I hope that this short introduction to the world of anime was fulfilling. Of course if now you want to try watching anime, you probably will become overwhelmed by the amount of released works. Therefore, I'm starting a new series of posts, making an overview on the best anime I have watched. Of course it will be strictly my opinion, so feel free to disagree.