Postmodernism in Anime
The following is a paper I wrote for my Art 311 Animation class.
Postmodernism in Anime
Defining postmodernism is like trying to define love. You can realize that it is present, but it is basically indefinable. Unlike with love, you can divide postmodernism into different genres to better explain what it is all about. For example: Postmodernism in Japanese Animation (Anime) could be explained by the use of 3D programs rather than traditional drawing to created Anime films.
With the invention of 3D programs such as Maya and 3D Studio Max, it has become easier and easier to create anime style 3D animations using cell shaders. According to the cinema and anime article by Lamarre, “one often reads that cel animation has become old hat, that the future of animation lies in digital animation.” While, I believe this to be true for the most part; I believe that cell animation will still be a large part of anime in the future. Anime has been a big part of Japanese culture from the first part of the 20th century and I don’t believe that will change anytime soon.
While Hyperrealism (or the art of simulating something realistically) is a new and awesome concept; everything has it’s own style. There is no doubt that realistic art and animation will continue to be popular. With fluid, physics, shading, and reflection effects coming more and more advanced, sometimes it is hard to decipher CG from real life. This is especially useful when dealing with special effects in live-action movies. However, like there are different genres of music; there are different genres of art. Anime is just simply one of those genres that people will continue to love. Not only by the Japanese, but by Americans and other cultures as well. Since the 1960s, Americans have been watching animes such as Speed Racer and Cowboy Bebop to name a few popular ones.
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The whole process behind anime is a smart one. When creating anime, the Japanese have always been efficient at it. Before the assistance of computers, anime artists always kept the frames per second at a low number to cut down on the time it takes to produce the animation. Now, with the assistance of computers, they are basically doing the same thing. They can have a higher frame rate, but being that it is rendered in a toon-style (cell shaded) it cuts way down on rendering time. For example, rendering a 5 minute scene involving Sulley in Monsters Inc.
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would take significantly longer than rendering a 5 minute scene from IGPX. This is do the real-like fur that has to be rendered on Sulley compared to the “solid-color with reflection” rendering on IGPX.
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Some anime artists are reluctant to make the switch to 3D because anime is traditionally a drawn art even though 3D animes are always originally sketched out. However, I believe that using the power of computers can only help make anime better. The frame rate will be much smoother, render times will be low, and effects can be created that drawn art simply can’t do.
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You know, there’s a lot of personalisation in here for an essay, are you supposed to say “I feel” and I’think”?
I have seen a great deal of anime which utilises the technique of combining cel animation with newer 3D techniques. Appleseed used such methods as did Metropolis. In the earlier, simpler days, even Digimon involved regular jaunts into 3D animation.
The contrasts were so huge that it should not have worked, and yet it did so.
As an animation student who hasn’t even touched a 3D design program yet, I can’t speak from the experience of using the programs but, taking programming into account, I can understand where it’s methods are simpler to use and create than in 2D. I can also understand where it’s more difficult. I understand the need we have to maintain the older techniques. We have to appreciate both, just as you said. But I’m not certain that I agree that style is everything. If the story’s good I am likely to be as amazed by a powerful scene in entirely 2D animation as I am a spectacular 3D scenario.
We are also, I notice (sorry I always remember these things too late) approaching the idea of post modernism in anime from exact opposite directions. I’m currently doing my own theory in design essay on Post Modernism in Eastern animation and am taking a more metaphorical approach than you are. Since post modernism is, as you say, difficult if not impossible to define (I hear next year they’re going to start teaching us about how it doesn’t exist at all… oh, joy) you can approach it from many angles and I choose to approach it from the angle of parody, pastiche and the idea of harsh reality as so few animations (which all seem to come with added morl messages and hope for humanity that may often seem absent from the real world)