The Lost Magic of Traditional Anime Production
The Lost Magic of Traditional Anime Production
Some loose thoughts on the drawbacks of digital animation, however minor, looking at old-school anime like Escaflowne and Cowboy Bebop, and new throwbacks like Megalo Box.
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In the depths of his Mother’s Basement, Geoff Thew creates videos analyzing the storytelling techniques of anime and video games. He has been named the number one Worst YouTube Anime Reviewer by The Top Tens.
September 20, 2018 @ 1:15 pm
Megalobox was great but it needed 2 or 3 more episodes, it was a bit rushed, still a solid 8 for me tho
September 20, 2018 @ 1:17 pm
well things always changing, and sometimes you just cant have it anymore. also many of these old animation artists are dead or retired.
my personal example is evangelion. the new movies are great, but it can never surpass the horror you feel when eva-01 devoured the angel near the end of the series. the animation simply feels different.
September 20, 2018 @ 1:17 pm
90’s anime are the best.
September 20, 2018 @ 1:17 pm
where have u been all my life
September 20, 2018 @ 1:18 pm
I really love your videos man. Thanks for doing what you do
September 20, 2018 @ 1:19 pm
My passion goes to traditional animation, it feels more organic, the process had more passion (and hardship) creating a feature film or show. Digital is cool for some polishing, but traditional animation has more value to it.
September 20, 2018 @ 1:20 pm
I also really miss older animation styles, the shading, the feel, the character design too but that last one may be bias.
September 20, 2018 @ 1:22 pm
I’m not even a massive anime-head. I used to watch Naruto when I was younger and have recently started watching Meglabox, Black Clover and Bakuman. Still really noticed the old looking style Meglabox -it saught of seems like a mixture between the old and new- P.S Samurai Champloo rules.
September 20, 2018 @ 1:23 pm
Blood and souls for my Lord Arioch!
September 20, 2018 @ 1:23 pm
I’ve always wondered why older anime tend to look better than many modern anime. I think it has to with 1) the texture of the colors and 2) the lack of cgi. A lot of digital anime tend to look too clean and flat like I can see that the image isn’t physically there. And cgi is often distracting.
September 20, 2018 @ 1:23 pm
YOU KNOW ? ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS? MACHINE LEARNING THEY ARE ALREADY FOOLING US ANIME WILL BE NOTHING FOR THEM
September 20, 2018 @ 1:23 pm
Finally someone that talks about Escaflowne, so underrated anime, but is one of my favorites.
September 20, 2018 @ 1:25 pm
ooh, I’d forgotten about escaflowne. I remember watching a few episodes and not being able to catch it afterwards. read the manga and realized it was super short compared to the anime. gonna be watching it soon 😀
September 20, 2018 @ 1:28 pm
Maybe this is just because, as a sci-fi fan and advocate of futurism/transhumanism, I’ve gotten *really* tired of arguing with people who dismiss digital simulations because they perceive them as lacking the imperfections and shitty performance issues that somehow “make us human”, but I find it hard to justify the idea of clinging to a flawed process that produces patently inferior results just for the sake of nostalgia. It works as a gimmick, as Megalobox has clearly demonstrated, but the time for hand-drawn animation as an industry mainstay has come and gone with the ever-accelerating march of technological progress.
September 20, 2018 @ 1:28 pm
what do you think about violet evergarden animation?
September 20, 2018 @ 1:29 pm
Yes I defiantly miss it. Btw have you watched Darkside Blues.
September 20, 2018 @ 1:29 pm
Escaflowne, great anime that wasn’t loved in its home country and had a niche following in the english speaking world.
Great video, indeed once everything went digital, anime started looking more same-y. Like most anime are cookie cutters now, let’s not even mention the stories. But the same can be said for older anime, there was a certain style that everyone during that time copied. Now that’s it’s rare, people are now looking for it. Maybe it’s nostalgia glasses, maybe that when a really well done classic style is made, people appreciate the process of how they were done before.
Btw, anybody know what anime that is at 9:35?
September 20, 2018 @ 1:30 pm
but at least maho romatic is the better Ditama Bow anime adaptation, looking at you KissXsis
September 20, 2018 @ 1:31 pm
God I love Megalobox. Can’t wait for Megalobox soundtrack to drop too!
September 20, 2018 @ 1:31 pm
”there’s a lot of more good anime every season” Wow, just no. the average on recent years have been 1 or 0 good anime per season. That’s way less than in the 80’s and 90’s, even if now there is two or three times the number of shows. Also, the average quality now compared to then makes me bring a tear to an eye.
September 20, 2018 @ 1:32 pm
the older style is different not better
September 20, 2018 @ 1:32 pm
Oh GOD do I miss the older style of anime. It’s what I was raised on. "Japanime" (as many called back then) was a staple in my time when I lived in Okinawa and all I had to watch was Japanese animation in the late 80s and early 90s. Bubblegum Crisis had to be one of my favorites in fact of that time period but my god was it breathtaking to watch on the screen. Then you had in the mid 90s things like Iria Zeiram the Animation and my personal favorite, Shadow Skill which had FANTASTIC artwork mixed in with compelling story telling. GOD do I miss things like that. Megalo box actually captured all of it just like that and I am damn proud to say I’m a massive fan of that show. I hope they come out with more like it because god it was gorgeous to watch.
September 20, 2018 @ 1:32 pm
THIS, THIS, THIS! Exactly my thoughts.
September 20, 2018 @ 1:33 pm
Wow dude. I fking loved megalo boxing. And I could not put my finger on the art. Excellent!
September 20, 2018 @ 1:34 pm
the type of music is also pretty different now to.
September 20, 2018 @ 1:34 pm
omg was that a spike spiegel figure Ad just now, oh my fucking god that What I call an AD
September 20, 2018 @ 1:36 pm
I think a large difference for me is that pre-digital anime has almost a polaroid filter on top of it. Like it’s a slight blur on everything. I love most of the time, and I definitely agree some modern anime would just… feel. like something more if it had this effect on it
September 20, 2018 @ 1:37 pm
No. 1 reason im scared to watch old animes
I might love it so much but get brokenhearted knowing there’s not much of those stuffs and people aren’t gonna do more cause it’ll be hard.
September 20, 2018 @ 1:44 pm
I’m definitely with you on this one. I love older anime and in fact, i re-watch classics that love on a regular basis. True new animation techniques open up a whole new world of possibilities, but it will never have the charm of the more traditional technics. I just hope that cell animation won’t due off, but will coexist with digital and 3d animation. ?❤️☺️
September 20, 2018 @ 1:46 pm
Yo can someone tell me what anime that one with the motorcycle guy was in??? My dude gotta put some text at the bottom telling people the anime the clips be showing.
Edit: NVM, found it.
September 20, 2018 @ 1:47 pm
I think, we can emulate ALL of ink and paper imperfections.
Noone didn’t tried very hard.
Old anime is charming but those "10 frames per second moments" just irritating!
September 20, 2018 @ 1:49 pm
I love anime and how it has evolved its animation over the years. But, I must admit that I honesly miss the 90s animes great history, animation, soundtrack and characters. Specially those with the mood of Yoko Kanno OSTs. Cowboy Bebop and Escaflowne ????.
September 20, 2018 @ 1:52 pm
Wicked city screams 90s anime at its finest , any movies you can recommend like wicked city? Please no kite thats too much sex
September 20, 2018 @ 1:54 pm
hey was that best boy Ano right there 5:02
September 20, 2018 @ 1:55 pm
Anyone with two eyes can see the cheap, horrible and annoying new anime are CGI shit nothing else. Old anime are just the real anime
September 20, 2018 @ 1:56 pm
You have Ghost in the shell 95 that aged very well, and is still a very good and beautiful anime movie still today.
And then you have series like Ergo Proxy, most likely were done by digital means, is one of the most beautiful anime, not only graphic wise, but the story wise, at least for me.
September 20, 2018 @ 1:59 pm
a trick to get the same visual
print the image and use lighting under a colored glass filter
you can even add pen strokes by making thin digital lines and then thicken those lines with your pen
why not to do this; it’s an unnecessary pain in the ass and under appreciated
todays world is more into digital media so real talented artists will never be seen or noticed
September 20, 2018 @ 2:00 pm
For me it was the writing of 90s anime that drew me in harder than the writing nowadays
September 20, 2018 @ 2:03 pm
I found the hand painted watercolor backgrounds in Grimgar to be one of the best features of an otherwise great story. Even if it is a LN adaptation. Surprised it wasn’t mentioned here as a side note, but then again you could have included a bunch of other stuff and nobody would have sat through the 40 minute rant.
September 20, 2018 @ 2:03 pm
U should put a list of all the anime u used in the show
September 20, 2018 @ 2:04 pm
the secret to good anime is money and production time…
and of course industry veterans that got the skills
September 20, 2018 @ 2:06 pm
Old animes’s animation feel more fluid. The art quality is also better
September 20, 2018 @ 2:06 pm
as a retro-anime fan, i completely agree with your point. i’ve really loved HxH 1999 series, but when it appears with its new version in 2011 i didn’t feel the same feelings for this show as before.
the new CGI animation is not bad at all, but it’s not good enough compared with the old 90s animation style.
September 20, 2018 @ 2:06 pm
Cowboy Bebop…
Golden Boy (They had an entire episode on this subject)
and the GOAT, Lupin the 3rd.
September 20, 2018 @ 2:08 pm
I was studying abroad in Akita, Japan when my professor had suggested I go see this exhibition. It was by an artist who was from Akita and worked on some famous movies. At first I declined, but then I decided to go. The artist’s name was Kazuo Oga. If you see Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle or Spirited Away, you have seen this guy’s works. His backgrounds are absolutely breathtaking. Seeing it in person as a painting was one of the greatest memories of my life, and I will never let go of the artbook from that exhibition. As anime switches to digital art, I think of Kazuo Oga, and his work. I hope that there can be a balance of both.
September 20, 2018 @ 2:08 pm
ehh personally I’m a massive fan of both digital and traditional art. You seem like you’re selling digital art as all computer made when in reality the artists do nearly everything. both take so much effort
September 20, 2018 @ 2:09 pm
a whole gotdamn movie?? lol that killed me
September 20, 2018 @ 2:09 pm
Line weight, flatness of color and simplicity and closed shapes make modern anime look dead to me. If you take your average 2010s anime like SAO and compare it to Slayers you can see the line weight and simplicity have both become more and more uniform. Also something like the tapering at the end of lines is not done in digital animation.
The new show about boxing had real variance in all of the things mentioned and even has some of the organic strokes that make it look less flat and, well, dead.
September 20, 2018 @ 2:11 pm
Hey man, you are not alone, I feel the same way, not only about animation but about comics too. You get a Marvel or DC comic that was made previous to computer drawing, and one that is made on a computer, and it just isn’t the same, not that its inferior but you got the point perfectly on your essay.
September 20, 2018 @ 2:13 pm
a bit of a pointless video lol