Ever since all anime switched from cel animation to digital animation back in the early 2000s, there has been some debate among fans about whether story/character quality has decreased even though animation techniques have increased…
Although I became an anime fan around when cel animation was starting to phase out, I still saw many cel anime series during my early years as a fan; Cardcaptor Sakura, Evangelion, Utena, Tenchi, Slayers, Rayearth, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Fushigi Yuugi, and Record of Lodoss War just to name a few. Many fans feel that the storytelling quality of “classics” like these and other cel series is not being conveyed in the digital anime of today. While I understand why people feel this way, I think it all comes down to personal preference in the end. I also don’t agree that all or even most cel anime is superior to all or most digital anime, and vice versa; both have their share of good and bad shows, but it could seem like digital anime has more bad shows simply because the quantity of digital anime is higher (and is obviously always on the rise).
But first off, when it comes to a choice between the actual cel and digital animation (leaving story/character quality aside), for me personally I would choose digital animation. I just prefer higher quality animation that’s crisper, flows and blends with the scenery better, doesn’t have as many noticeable blemishes, and is basically just prettier, cleaner, and more detailed to my eyes. However, I would prefer digital animation over the amazing computer animation of studios like Pixar, just out of my personal preference for 2D animation. But I’ll always look at story, characters, and design over animation type. If the story, characters, and design are to my liking, I usually don’t care what type of animation is used. Even though I prefer digital animation, I will most certainly acknowledge the many classic cel series that are superior to much of the digital moe/harem/fantasy wish-fulfillment crap being churned out nowadays. And even though I prefer the old classic, 2D Disney movies over the new CG ones, I will still note that some of the CG movies are better than some of the old movies.
I think an important factor to take into account is, once digital animation became the norm, the actual number of anime shows being produced in a given year also greatly increased. Therefore, with so much more anime being made in recent years than in the cel animation days, in addition to all the new animation studios popping up, the ease of creating anime on a large scale with advanced technology, and the growing population of anime fans desiring specific genres of shows, there’s bound to be a lot more below average anime than in the old and less technologically advanced days, when anime and other media forms were more niche and less commodified. I don’t think the decrease in story/character quality lies so much with the transition from cel to digital as with anime becoming more popular as a medium and easier to create and market. The reason we’re seeing more cliche, fan-pandering, low-quality series in digital animation is simply because there’s much more digital anime in existence now, and being made all the time, so naturally it will be easier to find bad ones.
I have indeed noticed all the cliche, fanservic-y, harem, moe and other stereotypical low-quality shows coming out in recent years and sometimes I have wondered if anime really has been degrading. But I still choose to watch mediocre anime sometimes just because I’m an animation fan and that’s the entertainment I prefer. But when gems like Full Metal Alchemist, Death Note, Eureka 7, Ouran, Haruhi, Eden of the East, Kannagi, Code Geass, Kemono no Souja Erin, Mushishi, and other great digitally animated shows come out, I know that my love for anime and animation will not cease as long as there are still some creative, quality-acknowledging minds working in the anime and manga industry. It’s simply a little harder nowadays to find the good anime because it’s more of a quantity over quality system going on now with the vast number of digital series being mass produced. Because of this, you gotta put more effort into digging for the gems…but they’re still being made! =)
I agree with you, cel or digital shouldn’t be a factor for deciding wheter a show is good or bad, as a matter of fact, digital animation should deliver better quality/cost ratio (at least in theory). However, since 2000, i’ve notice the budget has decrease a lot in the animation studios, or shall i say, the deliver time for a given show, has decrease a lot beacuse of the competence, so quality has to be sacrifice.
As always, the “old school” was the best.
As an example, the first season of Ranma 1/2, wich date from 1989, has a superb quality.
Well, just my 2cents.
>there has been some debate among fans about whether story/character quality has decreased even though animation techniques have increased…
What do you mean with “among fans”? who are those so-called “fans”?
In my experience, people that rant and complain about that are merely people who cherry-pick 3 or 4 series and think they are either the representative of the thousands of anime of that era or truly believe those are the only series that existed. Anytime anybody spouts that nonsense I automatically know they have NO idea what they’re talking about.
I’m just old enough to remember watching a lot of anime (we still called it Japanimation :P) in the early-mid 90s when hand painted cels still made up the majority of it. I have fond memories of a lot of great shows, but sometimes it’s a case of looking back with rose tinted glasses. There were crap series being made then, just like there are crap series being made now.
The only difference is that the transition to digital tools has allowed an unprecedented increase in productivity at a much lower cost. In years past it was almost impossible for a tiny team with no money to produce a show and get it on the air. The cost of cels, paints, cameras and editing equipment was a formidable hurdle to overcome. When the switch started to happen in the late 90s you could almost replace all of that with a handful of computers.
This is the real reason why we have some much cookie cutter crap now. It’s not that storytelling or art has gotten worse, but that there is a much wider variety of shows being made because almost anyone can do it. It means we end up with a lot of pandering moe stuff but also a lot of genuinely thoughtful shows and genres we just didn’t really have back then (think Mushishi).
I’m also not convinced in the slightest that digital tools are responsible for the animation looking “worse”, which is an entirely subjective claim anyway. In fact I would argue that even a lot of the cheaper shows now look better than ever. It’s simple to add tons of background detail and intricate shading that would’ve taken hours to paint by hand the old way.
But there have always been a variety of styles. And I *do* tend to think that there has been a shift toward simpler, more stylized shows in the past decade and a half. I think this holds true for a lot of American animation as well. For every Lucky Star there is someone like Makoto Shinkai out there doing something wonderful. Ultimately, it’s easy to cherry pick a few beautiful 80s or 90s titles like Macross or the Ghibli films and claim them as representative of the era, but the truth is that there were tons of low budget ones as well.