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Anime Midterm

Terms in this set (56)

The first example of motion pictures. Depicted motion in a group of deer and horses. They were discovered in France and are tens of thousands of years old.
Lascaux Cave Drawings
A show that displayed images on a screen through the use of shadows. It is where the principle of projection came from. It was developed in the 18th-19th century.
Phantasmagoria
The thaumatrope is an example of a 19th century motion picture toy. It was a spinning disk that coneveyed motion in the mages that were printed on it. A mimeograph is another example of one. It is a flip book and is the first official moving picture from the 19th century.
19th century motion picture toys
The humorous phases of funny phases was a film made in 1906. It is the first use of stop motion. It was made through the use of cutouts on a chalkboard that moved around to depict a clown performing tricks.
Humorous phases of funny faces
It is known as the precursor to 2d animation. It was a scroll that depicted a story from right to left. They were very popular in Japan from the 11th-16th centuries.
E-makimono
It is the European adoption of Japanese art in European art. Vincent Van Gogh is a famous practitioner of Japonisme.
Japonisme
The government started to fund Japanese animators and animation technology. There were more large scale productions that could compete with Disney. Most of the productions during WW2 were propaganda films.
How did WW2 change the Japanese animation industry?
Japan went from a futile system, to an empire, to a democracy within 60 years. Animation now had to reflect Japanese culture to the rest of the world rather than act as propaganda and it had to reflect this great change the country had underwent.
How did Japanese animation change after WW2?
Founded by Hiroshi Okawa after WW2. It made animation specifically for export. It followed the Hollywood Disney system of animation. It produced the tale of he white serpent as its first film.
Toei Animation
Disney movies were banned in Japan during WW2 but became available after the war. They became extremely popular and led Toei animation to make similar films.
What studio's animation became very popular after WW2?
TV started coming to Japanese households in the 1950's. The 1964 Tokyo olympics led to many Japanese people to get a TV. By 1963 90% of Japanese households had a TV set.
Japanese TV trends
There was a demand for kids programming, and more specifically animation.
What was the demand for during the rise in popularity of the TV in Japan?
A well known manga artist who wanted to go into animation. Approached a network to adapt his manga Astro Boy for TV. Was given a very low budget and had to save time and money through several techniques like limited animation and cell banking.
Osamu Tezuka
Shows usually have a strong protagonist with supporting characters and the title is usually the protagonists name. The main character has marketable traits.
Character based animation
Juvenile characters have rounded heads, small mouths, and large eyes. Adult characters have longer faces and limbs, are flexible and have unreal curves and proportions. In groups of characters there is generally a formulaic assortment of styles and looks. Different hair colors and clothing are associated with specific characters which harkens back to the days of differentiating characters in black and white manga.
Character appearances and groups
Characters groups and how each character has a different style that is specific to them. They all have the generalized appearances of adults like long faces and limbs while they also have identifiable styles. Lupin always wears a green suit jacket, one of the group members has a distinguishable beard, and another always wears a Japanese robe.
What is Lupin III a good example of?
Codified aesthetics as each character has a specific style. It is obviously a Japanese show however, the way the characters and setting are codified you are able to see that it takes place in Europe. Lady Oscar has her distinguishable blonde hair where Andre has brown. Lady Oscar also dresses more like a man which signifies the kind of character she is.
What is The Rose of Versailles a good example of?
While anime took forward steps like coming into the everyday home and providing employment opportunity for animators, Tezuka also made it extremely formulaic and therefore less sophisticated. There was less creative freedom under the Tezuka way of limited animation as you had to work within specific guidelines, limiting what anime could do in general.
What is the curse of Tezuka?
The VCR grew in popularity in the 80's and had earlier household penetration in Japan than it did in the U.S. By 1991, 90% of households had on in Japan. They died off in the 90's and early 2000's with the invention of the DVD.
VCR statistics
You didn't have to watch commercial and you could record shows. You could also playback, re-play, rewind, and fast forward through shows. Fans were also more easily able to share a show with each other which meant new fans could find shows that they wouldn't have before.
How did the VCR change viewing practices?
A large group of people connected by a strong interest in a work or product. The VCR greatly aided in fandom as people could more easily share their favorite shows and therefore increase the fanbase of a piece of work. This led to the creation of anime fan groups at schools and online later on in the 90's.
What is fandom?
Video stores allowed producers to make whatever the fans wanted versus having to listen to exhibitor guidelines or TV network guidelines. Fans could tell video stores what they wanted to see and through this distribution network of stores, producers could make exactly what a chain of video stores customers wanted to see. This created a new direct sale market for anime with no need for movie theaters or TV broadcasters.
How did video stores change how anime were made?
Video stores acted as both distribution outlets and community centers. Anime producers could produce whatever the fans wanted them and the video stores would sell them directly to fans. Fans could also gather at video stores to talk to each other and to the employees about what they've been seeing and what they want to see.
What did video stores act as?
OVA's are original video animations where an anime was made for direct to consumer purchase. They were cheaper than films and TV but were still high quality. This led to more experimental anime as producers could make more offbeat context due to the lack of financial demand from a TV network or film studio. They could also guarantee a certain amount of profit as long as they had the video store distribution. This also led to anime becoming an international export as the US could now consume these videos. It started at military bases as they could send these videos back to the U.S. for cheap.
What are OVA's and what did their rise in popularity lead to?
Angel's Egg is a good example of an OVA. It was an experimental work made by a director who had been working under the constraints of TV broadcasters before the advent of the OVA. It contains a very experimental narrative and shows how producers could now experiment more due to the lack of financial demands.
What is Angel's Egg a good example of?
Bobby's girl is a good example of an OVA. It contained a lot of experimental and hand drawn animation that would've been impossible to do under the financial and time constraints of a TV broadcaster. Many saw this OVA as more of an animation show case rather than an actual anime because of how experimental it got, especially towards the end in the last 5 minutes.
What is Bobby's Girl a good example of?
The OVA created a new "mature" audience as producers could be more experimental with what they were making and could target specific groups. There was a demand for anime that wasn't for kids but rather more for adults. These kinds of OVA's didn't sell as well but rented more.
What kind of new audience did the OVA create?
Wicked city is an example of the OVA's that were being made for a mature audience. It was a dark fantasy made by an auteurist animator. There were graphic depictions of violence and more mature scenes of semi-nudity which would have been impossible to put in an Anime made for TV.
What is Wicked City an example of?
Dragon's heaven is a good example of an OVA that was made for a more mature audience. It is the original robot/mecha anime. It included extremely intricate designs of ships and cities that show how detailed an artist can get without the time constraints of a TV broadcaster.
What is Dragon's heaven a good example of?
Fansubbing is the practice of fan made non-japanese subtitles for Animes that weren't made for export. This is technically illegal and is a debated on topic. There are two groups within fansubbing, the subbers and leeches. Subbers work in organized groups to subtitle the works while leechers simply watch the subbed works.
What is fansubbing
Bubblegum crisis is a good example of a legitimately exported anime. It was one of the first anime titles released in the U.S. and contained subtitles that were made by the studio. It established the female led mecha action subgenera. It also experimented with a music video format in the first episode where it borrowed a scene from an American film that was popular in Japan, streets of fire.
What is Bubblegum crisis a good example of?
Anime producers began combining OVA production with TV distribution in the 1990's and 2000's. This happened because cable and satellite cable services created new specific channels that could support the OVA style of production. This led to the creation of the Shin'ya anime which is episodic "late-night" anime for a teenager/ adult audience.
What change occurred in OVA production and what led to this?
You could play back in higher definition and rewind/fast forward faster. There was also smoother freeze faming and you could copy files with no loss of picture/sound quality. Hardware was often bundled with other media giving wider access to fans and you could also view shows in multiple languages.
What were the new viewing practices under the digital revolution?
The video cassette peaked in the 80's then dropped off. DVD's rose in popularity as the video cassettes died off in the 90's with the DVD peaking in the 2000's.
Digital revolution statistics
Production practices, distribution systems, consumption, aesthetics, and anime identity. Digital animation software saved time and money just like limited animation. It also created new employment opportunities like animation in games. It also created new markets like the advent of video but also accelerated the outsourcing of anime labor.
What did computerization impact?
It is a good example of the early use of digital animation software in an Anime. Large and complex pieces of scenes were laid under actual 2d animation to save time as drawing those large ships by hand would be extremely tedious.
What is Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack a good example of?
Visible 3d animation is when you are trying to make an animation look 3d. A good example of this would be the 2009 adaptation of Astro Boy. They purposefully make the 3d animation visible as they are making a CGI adaptation of the original 2d animation. Invisible 2d animation is when you try to make a digital animation look hand drawn. You use 3d to mark out a scene and then use filters and some 2d animation techniques overlaid on the 3d aspects to give that handrawn look.
What is the difference between visible and invisible digital animation?
A 2d digital animation software that has become standardized in the industry. You use a tablet to draw with it. It is used by many large animation studios including Toei animation.
Celsy's RETAS system
Maya is a motion capture software used for 3d software. You can record the motion of an actor and the software will convert it to be used in a 3d animation. The 3d final fantasy film used this kind of motion capture software.
Maya
Brush combines 2d table animation with 3d animation. It converts 2d drawings into 3d. You can also overlay 2d animation on top of 3d animation to create that hand drawn look.
Zbrush
It is an example of a visible 3d digital animation. It showed the potential of motion capture technology however, it was barely successful and very expensive to make. Many viewers experienced the uncanny valley effect when watching it as the animation is almost life like but something isn't quite right.
What is Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within a good example of?
Cel shading is the process of shading a 3d animation to make it look like a 2d hand drawn animation. It is the process that most anime produced today use. It fixes the problem of finding the 2d-3d balance. It gives a 2d look to 3d models.
What is cel shading?
It is a good example of cel shaded motion capture. This was during the period of digital 3d animation where producers were trying to find the balance between 2d and 3d animation. Through this film it is clear that motion capture is not a good idea for cell shading.
What is Appleseed a good example of?
It is a good example of an anime that uses a 2d style with 3d cgi. It used hand drawn motion rather than motion capture as well as cel shading to give a very clean, natural look to 3d animation. It achieved the balance of 2d and 3d animation. It explores the fear of technological dependence.
What is Summer Wars a good example of?
It is an alternate history anchored by real events. It also shows the triple timing dilemma in that it was made in the 1970's, set in the 1700's, while we viewed it in 2022. Somethings are pertinent to the 70's that make it tricky to watch in 2022.
What is the Rose of Versaille a good example of in terms of historical memory in Anime?
It brings themes from the futile period into the modern age. It shows a family that values the ways of the futile past. It contrasts the modern technology that the world relies on ad this family that uses the values of the past to defeat it.
What is Summer Wars a good example of in terms of historical memory in Anime?
It deals with the setting, making, and viewing of a piece of work. A period piece is set in one time period, produced in another, and viewed in another. This can create a disconnect in how the time period is portrayed in the time that it is produced vs. how it is viewed in the present day.
What is the triple timing dilemma?
The question a viewer may ask is, was this this piece made to be accurate to the past or it is made to connect with the audience of the present through its tone/attitude/emotion. The creators really want you to feel like you're in the past and therefore more want to connect with you. They have less of a. concern for authenticity than with connection with the audience.
How is authenticity balance with tone/attitude/emotion?
He cofounded studio Ghibli. Before this he was a historical scholar and argued that the e-makimono was the precursor to Japanese animation. He was also the writer/translator of books on animation. He translated the first animation textbook for Japan by Disney.
Isao Takahata
It is a good example of the triple timing dilemma. It dramatizes the firebombing of Kobe city in 194. It was made in the late 1980s when Japan was a global superpower and there was a discourses on the postwar responsibility of Japan. There was a belief that they needed to acknowledge their past more. It was created with more of this in mind than the authenticity of the story. It was based on an autobiography by Nosaka Akiuki and focuses on victimized female youth.
What is Grave of the Fireflies a good example of?
It is a good example of a victims history which brings about questions of who is suffering and how, who is to blame, and how do we move on. It is based on a manga that was created by a man who was born after the fact but interviewed those who had experience the war.
What is In This Corner of the World a good example of?
It talked about Anime as a form of cross-cultural communication. It goes over the identity of Anime in terms of its stylistic traits, audience, "Japaneseness", and use of fantasy. She then goes over how Anime made its way to the U.S. through network adaptations, abroad programs, and military bases. She talks about how American adaptations removed much fo the "Japaneseness" from these shows while it seems that western audiences still prefer the authentic, but subbed, material.
What was the main point of the Price reading?
It talks about Osamu Tezuka and his journey through the world of manga and eventually television.Most importantly Power illustrates many of Tezukas money saving techniques like using the same drawing for three frams, using still shots during close ups, physically sliding cels under the camera to show movement, and creating a bank system of images that could be used over and over. She ends with saying that Tezuka's influence is sometimes looked at negatively rather than positively because he made it very formulaic and less artistic.
What was the main point of the Power reading?
Talks about the advent of fansubbing and how serious contributors are in their organization and production of subbed versions. She points out that this is technically an illegal practice since these works weren't made by the studio to be exported. She talks about the things that contributors get out of fansubbing since they aren't rewarded financially like skills, relationships, and the sense of accomplishment. She also talks about contributors versus what are called leechers or those who simply consume the subbed works.
Ichikohji Reading - Talks about how IT has influenced different production systems like art production and painting. It also looks at the relationship between outsourcing and in house production and the advantages and disadvantages of introducing IT systems into the production process.
What was the main point of the Ito reading?
Talks about how IT has influenced different production systems like art production and painting. It also looks at the relationship between outsourcing and in house production and the advantages and disadvantages of introducing IT systems into the production process.
What was the main point of the Ichikohji reading?
Talks about the post war discussion of how to remember and learn from the war and how this discussion was often focused on the male perspective as women were remembered more as victims who were liberated at the expense of national defeat. It talks about the inclusion of women in the democratic process post war but how the tropes of motherhood and maternatiy prevailed which again made women be associated with innocence and victimhood during the war. She then talks about the rewriting of history and how wartime Japanese women should learn and remember their role in the nationalistic system that was in place.
What was the main point of the Yoneyama reading?
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