Animation Quality in anime, is it getting better or worse?

antismurf

When I started watching anime back in the mid nineties, most of the series were cell drawings and for the most part were animated pretty well (Ranma 1/2, Flame of Recca,Nadesco). There were some series where the animation left a lot to be desired (Utena), but on the whole most of the series that came out were of at least a mediocre quality.

In a lot of the newer anime I have seen, the animation quality has become rather poor (Saiyuki, [Samurai Deeper]Kyo, Gankutsuou). To be fair it is possible that I have just become geezerfied and am pulling the old "Back in my day......" bit, but I would rather get some opinions before I sign up to go to the nursing home.

In order to figure out how badly I have geezered out I have this question:

Has the quality of animation in anime been getting worse or better in the last ten years? (i.e. animation of combat/action sequences, Quality of art in character design, detail of foreground/background art, etc....)
when you answer please give a reason, and preferably some examples.

Please do not give answers like "yea, it is teh suck now" or "dude, all the teh new stuff roxxorzz". It makes you sound like you have the intelligence of an idiot or a five year old.
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Ani_MaSTeR · Mr. Lolipedo-Fin Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 1830

that really depends on what production studio made the anime i guess.

Gonzo for example, send their work to korea.
infact, most animes now are made in korea. naruto, bleach, basilisk, higurashi etc.

some studios do very good work like JC staff. honey and clover, mahoraba, loveless.

most of the action animes that gather the most ratings are made in korea because of the schedule of the animes airing. simple put, they send it to korea to make it in a hurry.

the others like drama and romance are usually made with more detail and less sloppy because they can afford to take their time making it.
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Only_Anime · Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 10:51 pm Post subject:

There is really no control over that, its all about how the producers want to present their anime. I thought that the animation in Gankutsuou was pretty cool, it really brought out the qualities of that anime. Whether the animation is getting worse or better, only time will tell. I think that its getting better thou, but thats just me!!!
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xenocrisis0153

I'm surprised that you think the animation quality is going down. Gankatousou (or whatever it is) is definitely an unusual style, but it's also been acclaimed for being something new and different.

I can only speak for the many series I've seen, but I've been nothing but impressed with how beautiful the art is. Series like Last Exile, Voices of a Distant Star, Air, and GitS: SAC only impress me. Even the latest series I've finished, Magikano, has what I would consider "poor" quality by today's standards, but it still blows anything from pre-2000 out of the water.
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Raiden · Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 2:06 am Post subject:

from my Point of view, the animation quality depends on what the anime's mood is going to.

but even though the quality may be crappy, it's the story that hooks me up to that series. The big changes were the motion of the characters. they are now much smoother and much clearer and also features more "detail"(esp the female human body). Comparing the first Gundam and the 08th MS Team's same time line, you can clearly see how much progress and improvethat has been made(even though 08th MS team was released way too far from the first one).

But I really can't call any of them "poor" or "crappy" since there's just no way they really intended them to be that way. there has to be some reason why they were like that. (humor perhaps?)
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bunshun · Yari Ashigaru Joined: Aug 05, 2005 Posts: 237

For the most part I'd say that the animation for more modern anime have been getting a lot better. Although some animes over-replay certain clips such as in Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny, the overall graphics are pretty nice.

However, for the sword fighting genre, i believe the anime has only improved slightly. Most fight scenes nowadays are just flashy with exception to one anime that I've seen. Back when Rorouni Kenshin was released, that sword fighting was and probably still is considered the best sword fighting anime. However, a more recent samurai anime "Samurai Champloo" brings in a much more entertaining up to date sword fighting animation.

As for overall animation I'd say that it has been improving with modern times, especially with new and improved technology that continues to flourish.

Raizu · newbie! Joined: May 01, 2006 Posts: 23

I say its getting better... Just depends on the studio thats making them

anime-lite · Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 8:23 pm Post subject:

much better with it quality,in the late 1990's the colour of the anime was dull and the drawings were not really nice to look at.
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sakib · Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 12:17 am Post subject:

nowadays the animation is coupled with cg's and in case of samurai x, actual film. the cg's all depend on the animation company. some like ghost in the shell, and appleseed i thought are really well done, ah! my goddess was also well done. some are plain horrible such as vandread, it really didn't match with the background art at all and samurai x was, although the greatest kickass piece of anime ever release, could have done better. the animation in there were real life objects such as rocks and water but that was only in the intros so it was okay. also the beginning of desert punk was played out by actors and the bad parts in were that the opening did not fit the theme of desert punk and they didn't show the hot chicks face, she had nice hooters though. overall its not about the animation completely but the stuff they add to it as well.
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meganekko · Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 12:16 am Post subject:

We do have some anime NOW that we could BOAST to the past generations, don't you think?

I'm currently watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and just like what the others said, it still depends on the studio that makes them. And Haruhi Suzumiya is a testimony of what a great production studio like Kyoto Animation can do.

They may not have that much staff (just about 60+ I think...), but they sure can do something that can be enjoyed by thousands of fans... or maybe millions. You might notice how every episode feels nostalgic because of the misty-glowing look of the anime, and they sometimes use 60 frames per second on some of their 'special' scenes. Now that's hard work!

And CG'ing really helped a lot. Just like what KyoAni did for Fumoffu, with their opening sequence, and lots of others. Cell-colouring are sometimes done in computer nowadays. That's why you might not see/feel the traditional paint by hand of cell-by-cell animations...

But still, some are rushed and I think Ichigo 100% is an example. The characters look different in every scene, and it's not in a good way. So I guess I can say that SOME looks much greater than before, while SOME looks downright bad.
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trueline · Pure Hope Joined: Jun 13, 2006 Posts: 5134

I see you maybe get used to those old animes but still it is not that worse.
old animes to me were only white and black but nowdays it is coloerful honestly .it also depeneds on the studio and i might say these modern animes are not that perfect some of them are good like Preater, Gukodo, Air ...etc and some are bad in every think like Hunter Vampire D, Record Of Loddos War....etc.
well this is my opinion...

xenocrisis0153 · Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2006 2:25 am Post subject:

katsushiro · Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 7:35 am Post subject:

The animation quality really depends on the studio that makes the anime. The anime studios with the best animation so far are Kyoto Animation and Studio Pierrot. Kyoto Animation did a very good job in animating Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu and Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid. Studio Pierrot released some of the best drawn anime series out there. Flame of Recca, Yu Yu Hakusho, GTO and Fushigi Yuugi exhibits some of animation's best. SPE Visual Works did an amazing job for the Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuiokuhen. It has one of the best animation in an anime.

Gonzo, on the other hand, used Korean artists to animate for them. This came with mixed results. Samurai 7's animation is one of the best in 2004 but it sufferred glitches sometimes. Sunrise also has mixed results. Gundam Wing was the prime example of very good animation. Gundam SEED on the other hand, has lots of glitches in it. Aside from reused footage, animation quality is very bad due to flashy scenes.

Overall, animation quality is still good. It really depends on the studio that produces and animates.
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ultimasome · Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 11:31 pm Post subject:

It depends on the studio that makes the anime.........i think some of the studioes do better animation and others not(if they dont know how to draw then why making and releasing animes......they must stop and make their drawing get better)but most of the animes has a good story but worse animation like saint seiya(i hope i spell it right)and others i dont remember cause ive seen less.Now the animation gets better not worse.
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