Japanimation

Part 1: https://youtu.be/CMHmT7hB-J4
Part 2: https://youtu.be/NAf250IVzVY

I didn't know, though suspected, how many anime in the 2000s were visual novel adaptations. A lot of those were unpopular and sub-par adaptations of similar sex & tragedy VNs though, from what I can tell. Some were as short as 2-3 episodes and many weren't even a full 12-episode cour.

I guess we're gettin' a Karl Marx anime sequel.

Description: The 15-second preview of "Qia Classmate Boy" animation is released, and the full version of the work preview is officially announced at the B station Guochuang Animation Conference. Stay tuned~

Essentially cross-posting from: https://www.chapo.chat/post/52765

Mostly '80s and '90s stuff.

The playlist description: 個人的に好きなもの、気に入ったものを集めています。ゲームのものやfull、MADなんかも含みます。

Translated: I collect what I personally like and what I like. Includes game stuff, full and MAD.

I'll post a Google-translated version hosted on Pastebin here in the comments since the original's in English. Ryusuke Hikawa's one of the biggest anime critics in Japan, I've seen his work published in academic journals and so forth. Akira is an obvious watershed moment for anime (or Japanimation as he calls it) and he has some good insights on it. And the translation quality isn't that bad either via Google Translate.

English version: https://pastebin.com/Q0UXim2F

Edit: had to repost his new upload since the last got copyright-striked.

To begin the talk, Fujitsu explained the history of anime background art. Originally, it was drawn on paper with painting brushes. Towards the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, there was a shift to digital coloring and compositing. The techniques were also affected by the greater exposure of digital cameras and Photoshop in Japanese households, allowing background artists to more precisely capture real-life landscapes. This in turn influenced anime fans to visit the real-life locales, causing the anime pilgrimage boom. Fujitsu highlighted Makoto Shinkai's works, from Voices of a Distant Star to your name., as tremendously influential in shaping background art techniques due to his strong familiarity with digital processes.

On the other hand, Fujitsu also noted some conflicting ideas about background art from artists he spoke to throughout the years. In 2004, an artist told him of their concerns that digitization would make the textures look too similar to other works, but by 2013, he was hearing that artists were being instructed to make their backgrounds look more photo-like, indicating a shift in artistic tastes and sensibilities. On the other hand, as time has gone on, backgrounds that have a hand-drawn feel to them are becoming more appreciated, perhaps because of their increasing rarity. Now, in the present day, there is a great deal of flexibility in terms of what style can be pursued.

Each film director represented at the talk chose a different form of expression for the background art, which inspired Fujitsu to bring them together for a talk about their approaches

Incredibly unfunny, but it was kinda' interesting seeing how the exact process and design decisions on this tiny aspect of anime localization work out.

Analyzes the YKK anime (usually called Yokohama Shopping Trip in English) and the nature of episodic structure in anime, which is generally ignored by anime fans in favour of looking at either narrative themes or the animation itself (as sakuga).

One of the aspects I love being captivated by while I watch anime is without question the episodes’ structure, a fundamental piece in the general direction.

Are Opening and Ending always included? What kind of framing closes the episodes? Are there insert songs? When talking about adaptations, is the narrative pace of the original material kept? How are treated captions?

These are some of the questions I ask myself and, more realistically, these are the problems the storyboarder (Ekonte, 絵コンテ in the credits) must face. He is in a certain way the true Master of the episode. If his style is appreciated by the director and understood by the other staff members, we viewers end up enjoying something really similar to this position’s imagination. It’s him who puts the OST inside an episode, who decides if there’s need to get rid of a song, who gives indications to the Art Director and the Animation Directors. Usually who works on the ekonte is limited by the staff at disposal, by schedules and budget but the product I want to talk about today doesn’t have any of these possible problems. Not only that, but director and storyboarder are the same person, so that any possible mistake made by different autorships regarding the stylistic choices are avoided. In this article I’ll show you some of the original direction elements that I loved the most in this animation series.^___^