I’ve spoken before about the slow but steady increase of CGI anime films and I noted that the 2004 Appleseed film was generally viewed as a dramatic improvement with regards to the visual quality of CGI anime. Having watched the film, I was always quite surprised at this statement as the movement was stiff and awkward, the cel shading was too minor for my liking and some character designs suffered in 3D. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the strange CGI anime films that were made prior to Appleseed and how their animation compares.
As far as I can tell, the earliest anime film to be produced entirely in 3D CGI animation was the 1998 TV film Visitor. Airing on WOWOW, the film was produced as a collaborative effort between GAGA Communications and Creek and River and directed by Atsushi Tokuda. The story is set in 2099 CE and follows characters who encounter an alien lifeform similar to a black hole. As you can see from below, it’s a pretty crude attempt at producing a CGI anime film with a severe lack of detail, awful lighting and awkward movement and I’m not even sure if it’s ever been released outside of Japan.
In 2000, another CGI anime film called A.LI.CE was released which was, again, produced by GAGA Communications. We are immediately thrown into a chase sequence across tundra as Alice, the main character, must figure out what has happened to the world during the 30 years she missed. While certainly still crude compared to the CG animated films, whether they be anime or otherwise, that we’re familiar with, it is a noticeable improvement compared to Visitor with a greater level of detail in the characters and environment as well as much improved lighting. I can also confirm that A.LI.CE did receive a release in several countries outside of Japan.
While not a film, I still think it’s worth taking a look at the three episode OVA series Malice@Doll which was released in 2001. Again produced by GAGA Communications, I’m noticing a pattern here, Malice@Doll is set in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has been wiped out and only robots remain. A sex worker robot called Malice wakes up the morning after she’s attacked by a creature to find out that she has become human. Perhaps it’s a tad unfair to compare the animation of this OVA to the previous films but there’s still some interesting aspects to take note of. The detail and character design seem quite commendable to me but the animation quality has taken a sharp nosedive with awkward movement and physics, take a look at how she’s thrown in the GIF below, and also features a distractingly low framerate which, as far as I’m concerned, was a sign of a problem amongst many future CGI anime.
In 2001, GAGA Communications released a CGI anime film called Blue Remains which is set in a post-apocalyptic world where most of humanity has been wiped out and are under attack by a brain called Glyptofane Sex. Comparing Blue Remains to the previous titles, the CGI is a mixed bag. On one hand, the machines are smoothly animated and look pretty decent but the human characters look surprisingly poor with less detail and awful lighting.
The final CGI anime that I’m aware of that was produced before the release of the 2004 Appleseed film is Bonobono: Kumomo no Ki no Koto. In a shock of shock in this article, this film wasn’t produced by GAGA Communications but was instead created by Amuse Pictures and released in 2002. The film is based on the manga series Bonobono and follows a sea otter named Bonobono and his friends. I would argue that, of all of the anime in this article, this is easily the best looking. While the animation remains a little stiff, the art direction looks decidedly more anime and I even noticed the use of some anime techniques that were not present in previous CGI anime.
Say what you will about CGI anime but there’s certainly no denying the progress that it has made when it comes to visual quality and, while I hope we’re never in a situation where the majority of anime are rendered in 3D CGI, the development of CGI anime is quite fascinating. Let me know your thoughts on these strange CGI anime films that were released prior to Appleseed, whether you’ve seen any of them and, if you have, what you thought about them, what you think of CGI anime in general and any additional information you might have on the topic.
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!