I’m sure that as many of you began watching anime, you noticed how different it was from western animation. The content and art style are certainly two notable aspects that differentiate this medium from western animation. However, these are not necessarily unique to anime with a lot of western animation now embracing the content and art style. Instead, I want to focus on the differences in animation techniques and how they give anime a distinct feel.
In order to explain how the animation techniques of anime are so unique, I first have to explain the techniques of western animation. Looking at many of the earliest works of American animation such as “Gertie the Dinosaur“, “Fantasmagorie” and many other shorts of the era, we can see that characters moved oddly compared to today, more floaty with a lack of weight and realism. In the 1930s, Disney developed the “12 Principles of Animation” which sought to introduce the realism and weight that had been lacking in much of previous animation. These principles were quickly adopted by other animations studios and the vast majority of theatrical animation would end up following these rules.
By the late 1950s, with the rise of television, animation began to be produced exclusively for TV networks. It quickly became apparent that TV animation would not be able to match the level of quality of theatrical animation for both budgetary and time constraints. Hanna-Barbera thus created a form of limited animation that halved the frame-rate from 24 to 12. They also simplified the backgrounds of scenes and had characters broken into several layers so that parts of the body could be moved without moving the rest of the character. As you might imagine, these shortcuts drastically reduced the cost of producing television animation but also severely impacted the quality of the animation with Chuck Jones of Looney Tunes fame calling their works “illustrated radio” due to their lack of movement.
It was in this era that the rules of Japanese animation began to be set. At this time, TV animation from America would recoup its costs on American television and then be sold to broadcasters around the world cheaply. In order to get his animation onto Japanese television, visionary Osamu Tezuka had to undercut the competition. To do this, he further reduced the frame rate to 8 frames per second and built an extensive catalog of stock backgrounds and animations. Despite all of this cost-cutting, he was still selling Astro Boy, the first anime he produced for television, for a loss and relied on merchandising to make a profit.
While anime has changed since the 1960s, many of the same principles still apply. Anime is still often animated around 8 frames per second with some scenes going even lower. Alongside this, we are all familiar with shots where only the character’s mouth moves, looping animation in the background and moving the camera across a still image to create ersatz movement. All of this has led the animation of anime to be dramatically different to animation done in the west.
Of course, this very different style of animation has led to criticism from many western animators who point out the lack of a sense of weight and awkward movement in anime compared to western animation. In contrast, John Lasseter, one of the founders of Pixar and former chief creative officer of Walt Disney Feature Animation, points to the Castle of Cagliostro, a Lupin the 3rd film, as one of the most influential films on his work.
I do believe it’s fair to say that the difference between the animation of anime and western productions is far bigger than most people are aware of. It certainly explains why so much of anime inspired western animation still feels very different to “genuine” anime. As a fan of animation, however, I love the fact that these two art-forms are so different and unique.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!