This marks the triumphant return of Wakabayashi to Naruto after too long a wait. It is not quite as good as 133 due to Wakabayashi having to adapt a bit too much material from the manga that drags it all down, but it packs in tons of ambition and action that you don't see a lot these days that makes it all worth it. The fan response has been typical. So they think this kind of animation is bad? Does that mean they also think the rest of the show actually looks good? Don't get me wrong, Shippuden has its moments, But is the fanbases's idea of good animation a pan across a still background with characters opening and closing their mouths for half an episode? I don't know what to say that aside from "you're wrong". I know this might come across as condescending, but people need to realize that they're watching animation and that implies that for it to be good you need to have movement-- whatever that movement might be as long as it's interesting. And to create exciting movement, you also need to manipulate and work around character designs to properly convey whatever action you want to put on-screen.
All in all, though, I'm glad that Wakabayashi is back and it seems likely that he might be a regular again. And by regular, I mean one episode per year. This kind of quality takes time and money.
In less thrilling news in comparison, there's a new ED debuting in this episode. Director, animation director, storyboard, key animation: Yuu Yamashita. Koji Yabuno also did some KA for this one. He was an animator in over 20 episodes of the first series and he's a sub-character designer for Welcome to the Space Show and a character designer for Kshin Taisen Gigantic Formula. As you could tell from the latter's designs, his drawings are characterized by these big eyes which is akin to a realistic depiction of the stereotypical anime eye. My guess is that he did the shot of the wind blowing Sakura's hat away, among other other stuff.
2 comments:
Great post. I have to say I agree fully with you. In fact, I recently made a comment on another post dealing somewhat with this topic. I'll just repost the relevant portion here rather than having to rehash what I said there.
I think that the general fandom today has become out of touch with what makes anime, and animation in general, anime. And that is the actual animation itself, or in other words, movement. In the late-night TV anime world of ever decreasing budgets, outsourcing, and time constraints, actual animation has taken a backseat in it’s own medium. This is why things like seiyuu performances have taken on so much importance in anime. They help to distract the viewer from the cheap tricks of limited animation and the fact that there’s almost no movement or realistic character acting in your average TV anime these days.
A good recent example would be episode 167 of Naruto Shippuuden. That episode marked the return of famed storyboarder/key animator Atsushi Wakabayashi, known for his incredibly fluid animation and wild style of movement, to Naruto. Predictably, the episode was panned for it’s ‘QUALITY’, by the uninformed masses. It seems like much of the fandom prefers well-drawn stills to actual movement, which degrades anime into little more than moving manga.
It seems we share similar opinions on animation. Even my phrasing seems a bit similar to yours, haha.
Thank you for the kinds words and your comments, Bloo. Degrading anime into little more than moving manga is definitely a harmful way of thinking that's prevalent in the fandom. The general fandom appreciates some of the more higher quality works (Ghibli movies, Gainax's shows), but it's hard to get them to break them out of that box.
Look at how Yuasa's latest show did. Yuasa was essentially forced to do adapt a light novel and tone down his usually eccentric designs and fans still didn't watch.
One of the reasons that I think that fans don't appreciate animation as much is because of how young fans are, and another is because of how hard it is to become informed on animators and animation in general.
It's a lot easier to look at the credits, see the character a seiyuu played, and appreciate their work. People have been watching actors act all of their lives. It's a lot more harder to appreciate an animator's work, especially when R1 companies don't even translate the staff credits.
An animator's individuality is welcomed in anime, in contrast to American animation when the hand of the animator is usually shunned and discouraged. This is arguably the biggest difference between the two and one of the biggest things that audiences have to get used to when watching a show. In Naruto ep. 133, one minute it's Norio Matsumoto animating, in another it's Tokuyuki Matsutake, then Atsushi Wakabayashi, etc. You can pick out their styles if you pay attention and appreciate the spectacle, but to the uninitiated it might feel weird.
Nowadays, it's a bit easier to be a sakuga fan, but you'll still find yourself scouring through a Japanese web site to find more info. There are a number of animation blogs in English out there where people can get informed, though-- all they need to have is the interest to learn.
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