Last week, I talked about my history with anime. This week I’m going to talk about why I love it. In order to talk about this, I will be including out of context spoilers for My Hero Academia: Season 4, Attack on Titan Season 3, GaoGaiGar: Final and Ping Pong the Animation. Turn back now if you have any interest in these shows.
Animation: Art in Motion
This is the name of my blog and it stands true; animation is art in motion. Every single frame is meticulously slaved over until it’s perfect. Every single decision is deliberate. Everything matters, and to me that is far prettier than anything I can find in real life. To me, animation is the perfect form of media because you can do SO MUCH MORE with the format than any other. To prove my point, I have handpicked four separate scenes from four different anime. I’m going to focus on three aspects that make animation the superior viewing experience. (Side note while animation covers all forms of animation, I’m specifically using anime because Japan does so much more with the medium than other country in my opinion.)
Detail: Beauty in the small things
When it comes to art, details matter. It should show details like the wind blowing, the sun’s shadows facing away from the light, or whether the subjects are focusing on something in the distance. Detail and diligence often lead to beautiful art. First up we have GaoGaiGar: Final and its beautiful combination sequence.
Every single mechanical detail is polished, and every single action has weight attached to it. There is no moving part without a purpose. The combination feels realistic and looks beautiful thanks to the level of detail lovingly poured into the scene. The vents don’t just rotate, they blow air out of them. Parts don’t just slide together; they interlock and get set in place by several other pieces. However, this is just one aspect of detail. The other side to this coin is the lack thereof. This is prevalent in Ping Pong the Animation. Its lack of detail puts a lot more emphasis on the actual actions themselves, proving that even through a lack of detail you can still be deliberate with every action you take.
Once you strip away the distraction you can focus on what’s in front of you, luckily for you, you happen to be in front of something one would consider beautiful. Ping Pong the Animation excels in less is more, through the simplistic art style more focus is thrown at the actions of the characters and it is more translatable the hyper detailed combination sequence of GaoGaiGar.
Speed: How a Dynamic Camera sells a scene
Since everything in anime is deliberately chosen, it only makes sense that camera control is meticulously chosen as well. Back in high school, I took four years of Television and Video Production. I worked with high grade cameras and equipment, so I have a basic understanding of cameras and the limitations on what shots can be produced. That, my dear readers, is where Attack on Titan comes in.
This scene is pure unadulterated speed. No camera that I know of would be able to recreate this scene perfectly due to how high speed everything is. There really are no other words to explain this scene, it really just explains itself.
Impact: being able to feel the animation
Over the weekend, the last episode of My Hero Academia: Season 4 aired and that alone reminded me why I love anime. It was the inspiration I needed to write this blog. This episode was otherworldly and carried so much weight that my laptop felt heavier. All of this build up lead to this scene.
Everything about this scene just works and that’s because of the weight that the animation carries. When Endeavor uses Prominence Burn and the highly detailed lines start fading away and converting into simplistic sketches only to then fade away into nothing. That right there is the beauty of animation. That can’t just be replicated in real life. Something could get close through using CGI, but at that point we’re back to square one with animation.
Conclusion
All in all, I respect animation so much more than anything else because it can do so much more. But then again, I’m just a guy with opinions. But I dare you to change my mind.
Animation: Art in Motion 