I was perusing my email lately when I noticed Anime Ltd (All the Anime) advertising a 4K UHD (Ultra-High-Definition) release of Weathering With You, the latest (as of this article) Makoto Shinkai film. This got me thinking about whether a 4K resolution release for anime is truly important or not.
To discuss this topic, I should first explain how animating anime digitally affected resolution. It has been traditionally much easier to create HD masters for media produced on film and media produced digitally in HD. However, the late 1990s/early 2000s saw anime created digitally in standard definition and the problem with digital is that, once you have created the master, you cannot create a native resolution higher than the original. A good example of this is Cowboy Bebop which saw the 2D elements animated on film and the 3D elements animated digitally. When the blu-ray was released, it became quite clear that, while the 2D art and animation looked very sharp and clean, the 3D elements had a less graceful appearance.
For digital media produced at standard definition, unless you have access to the original assets, the only option to create a HD release is a process called “Upscaling”. This process is well explained by Justin Sevakis and can potentially create a better looking release than the original. However, these upscales will never look as good as a native HD release and it is interesting to note that, when it came time to release Gundam Seed on Blu-Ray, Bandai and Sunrise decided to remaster the entire series rather than release an upscaled version.
Returning to the topic of 4K resolution and anime, it is important to remember that modern anime TV series are digitally animated at a native resolution of 1920×1080 and any UHD release would involve the process of upscaling unless a studio decided to create a new remaster (something which is quite unlikely). What this results in is that few to no anime TV series would benefit from a UHD release.
However, that is not to say that 4K resolution has no importance for anime as a whole. Many cinema screens these day use 4K digital projectors and many films are produced at these resolutions. This means that various anime films are capable of being released on UHD blu-ray with recent Makoto Shinkai films and the new 4K remaster of Akira being perfect examples of this.
It is also worth mentioning that the sales of UHD blu-ray players haven’t exactly set the world on fire. It is estimated that UHD players are selling about a sixth as much as Blu-Ray players in the US in 2020. Why release a 4K disc when so few people own a player? However, it is noteworthy that the upcoming release of both the Xbox series X and the PlayStation 5 have UHD players already installed which might result in an increase in the UHD blu-ray market share.
The answer as to how important 4K resolution is for anime can be summed up as thus. While 4K is unlikely to be of any importance to TV anime in the near future, many anime films can make use of this resolution to create a more visually pleasing experience for home viewers. Let me know what your thoughts are on 4K anime, if there are other examples that I have not mentioned and whether you agree or disagree with any of the points made in this article.
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 and amazon.com for all of your needs!