BBC: Exploring Animation in Professional Practice

Jamie Denham, one of the founders of Sliced Bread Animation, presents his key processes in developing animation.

Watch the video by clicking here

R: Anime Phenomenon

Japanimation, or anime, has been introducing itself to western audiences over the past few decades. In the '70s it really began to grow in popularity due to adapted television and movie versions. The anime cultural phenomenon has recently flourishing in many countries with different cultures and shows no signs of slowing down. Anime series and characters have inspired video games industries as well as many entertainment companies launch a 24-hour cable channel devoted to Japanese animation. Even Disney bought the rights to distribute anime films from Studio Ghibli, Japan's most legendary anime studio. The comic-like books and movies have fired up the interest of many children and teens.The popularity of Pokmon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball was representing a new kind of adventures that attracted western culture. 

Since then, anime has changed from children to adults, anime art style, dynamics and concepts have influenced the market. Because of its rapidly growing cultural influence specially among youth,it has fans that are spreading the new culture and wider the fan-bases globally through the internet. This great phenomenon is continually growing and  thriving through the years to represent beautiful pieces of artwork and display great talents and abilities.  
It is important that those interested in the lives of youth to be aware of what anime influences made in their lifestyle. The next entries will cover some collected notes and views on this topic, also, I'll explain why is this important for my work project and my academic research. 

Sources:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4472410
http://www.examiner.com/anime-in-gainesville/east-meets-west-the-phenomenon-of-anime-america
http://www.animedvdstore.com/2011/09/18/the-rise-of-anime-in-western-culture/
http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~jleek/anime/culture.html
http://www.cpyu.org/Page_p.aspx?id=77153

Modern Anime style

The Modern Anime:
The Anime art style has been developed through the last years, the classic anime was hand-drawn work and look far more detailed, while the modern computer generated anime work looks bland and less detailed. The characters have lost most of the distinctive detail of the eyes, mouth and hair.
The image bellow is a screenshot of MD Geist - Demon-Garbed  (1986) and you notice clearly how detailed is the face drawn (the lines, the shadows, face expression, the mouth and eyes details...)





















Here is a screenshot of a modern anime (Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: Good bye Mr. Despair) 2009-2010: you can tell the difference between the two art styles, This, again, can be measured physically. There are less lines in modern anime, no shading, less detail, less line work, and minimalist flair.

Also the modern anime is different by:

• Music videos - Credits 
• OSTS/Tracks 
• Character style and development
• Quality - computer generated
• Content and plot/story-lines 
• Stylishness, artwork, realism 

Another example is (Igano Kabamaru - 1982) opening:

The music is somehow simple for kids or teenagers, the themes are lovely, colorful,fun,..etc ,comparing to Ergo Proxy opening:

Ergo proxy opening has rich visual contents, and some scenes composed with a real footages,but it is not as simple as classic anime, it has a lot of illustrations and animated elements..gloomy themes that maybe are not suitable for all audience. After all, anime is an art, the music and themes are strongly related to the story, but what the modern anime has missed is the hand enchanting art.
Here is another inspiring and creative opening/ending credits of modern anime: