Fans and Artists: Anime Art is a Crutch

I suppose I used to be the same way, but now it really bothers me when people react so indignantly towards people who regard their anime-styled art negatively. I don't think the debate should really be centered around creativity though. Creativity is too subjective of an adjective and just inherently not worth the grief that a debate on its definition or application would cause. It isn't about anime having just one distinct style that people copy because I'll be the first to agree that there are hundreds of completely different styles within anime and manga and that it isn't just defined by big eyes, little noses, and weird hair. It isn't even just anime, but any pre-existing style, be it that Western superhero look, the Disney style, or the Jhonen Vasquez style.

Instead, I think the issue should be more about how so many people use these styles as a crutch and how and why it hinders their development as artists. If you're only drawing as an unimportant hobby, and if you have no real desire to improve, then I guess it doesn't really matter. But if drawing means something to you, and if you really want to get better, then it's really imperative that you work on the fundamentals: it's imperative that you draw real things, that you draw what you actually see.

Most professionals are able to draw in a realistic manner, regardless of what their actual commercial work is like. Mickey Mouse doesn't really look anything like a mouse, but I'm sure Walt Disney drew plenty of real mice in his sketchbooks. Sometimes, I'm really not sure what the hell CLAMP is thinking in terms of anatomy, but I'd like to think that they are actually perfectly capable of drawing realistic humans and that their anatomical exaggerations are done completely on purpose. Honestly, I think it's embarrassing otherwise. Take Rob Liefeld for example; the man is notoriously inept at rendering believable anatomy, especially in women, and even though his style sold comic books in the 90's, there has been rampant criticism of his obvious weaknesses. I get the feeling this is because all he did growing up was copy comic books without understanding any of the hows and whys; thus, because he never studied real anatomy or real people, everything he draws is wildly off. The sad thing is that he still doesn't seem to have realized this, and much of his recent work is still filled with inconsistent flaws.

It's fine if you start off copying anime you like, styles you like. My first foray into drawing humans was basically copying and fanarting Sailor Moon (before that, I mostly drew animals). Ridiculously long legs and big eyes galore! I got more "serious" about drawing humans when I got into Dragonball Z. Hello spikey hair and gigantic muscles! You have to realize after a while though; Akira Toriyama draws eyebrows attached to eyeballs and it's kind of creepy... and also, half of those muscles probably don't exist. But I also believe that Toriyama has done drawing studies of real people with real anatomy, and that he could draw a realistic person if he wanted. Drawing off of someone else's style is okay for a start, but eventually, you need to stop taking their word for it. The world isn't actually how so and so draws them.

Take a look at the real world. (Highest definition graphics! No lag!) Take a look at real people. Draw it. Draw them. Look at real fingers and real faces and real arms and muscles and body structures. You shouldn't be able to break the rules without knowing what they are first. You can't draw a highly-stylized caricature without first knowing what the person actually looks like. It's easier to make things up when you know how they actually are. You can't make up convincing folds in imaginary clothing without having first drawn dozens of real folds from observation.

"When I was in college my art teacher yelled at me for drawing anime facial features instead of realistic ones…but I was like sorry I can’t suddenly draw realism when I’ve been drawing anime style for 4 years."

Quotes like that really strike me. It's true -- you can't suddenly draw realistically if all you've been doing for years after years is focus on someone else's style. Or even if you've cobbled together several other people's styles and have forged something for yourself out of the chaos, if you don't understand why you draw things the way you draw them, then you own nothing. Why are arms shaped this way? What are all of the subtle curves and bumps in the contour? If you mimic a style, but don't understand the underlying structures, it's hard to fabricate different poses and pictures for which you don't have a reference. If you don't understand what's under the drawing, you can't do as much on your own -- at least not convincingly.

But if you understand realism, then you can make anything out of it. If you know that ears are the same height as the distance from your brow to your nose, you won't have proportion issues no matter what angle your head is turned to, no matter why style you're drawing in. If you know that the distance between your eyes is one eye length, you can apply that knowledge to any style and it won't look weird. If you know that your foot is roughly the same length as the distance between your elbow and your wrist, you can exaggerate accordingly if you want someone to have bigger-than-normal feet or smaller-than normal feet. If you understand the real structure of the face, then you can exaggerate certain portions of it to your desired effect. Bigger eyes and mouths portray more emotion, and smaller noses are a side effect of that. If you don't know any of these things, and if you're only drawing based on someone else's drawing, then what are you going to do when things don't look right? Will you realize what you've done wrong? And if you don't, how can you improve?

Like I said, if you have no real desire to improve, then that's your own business, but especially for those that entertain the idea of doing art for a living -- drawing your own comic, among other fantasies popular in the community -- drawing from life and studying realism is an invaluable fundamental. This is not to discourage you from drawing in a style -- I mean, come on, my art is predominantly "anime-styled" -- but your stylized drawings look so much better when you actually have a grasp of what's real. So I can definitely understand why art teachers and professors across the planet are inclined to frown when all you want to draw is anime. It isn't that anime is uncreative or unoriginal so much as the style becomes a crutch. If you don't want to draw realism, then you won't improve.

Don't be so indignant. It's for your own good. Once you prove you can draw for realz, I'm sure they will have no problem letting you draw your silly animu and mango. Read the rest of this entry...

TV Cuts VS Full Versions

A few weeks ago, "trust you" by Yuna Ito debuted as Gundam 00 S2's second ending theme. I've always considered Yuna Ito to be a good artist -- her voice is very pretty and most of her melodies are nice to listen to. I liked the work she did for the two live action NANA movies, but I had yet to hear a song of hers that really struck me as being amazing. "trust you" was definitely a first love kind of thing, though I do think that the context of 00's ending animation, as well as the themes of the series itself, helped a lot with that. It's a very thoughtful package; both the song and the animation have a nostalgic, peaceful, and contemplative feel to them. It's the best kind of ending theme: one that makes you reflect on the series in a serious kind of way. It's especially appropriate for Gundam, even if I don't really think 00 specifically deserves something so appropriate.

I found myself listening to the song pretty often and counting the days until the single's release. That's the wonderful marketing ploy of it all. Anime themes are always singles, and they always debut on air a month or two before the single's due to release. That's a month or two that you have to sit around with a minute to minute and a half teaser of a beautiful song. It drove me nuts. I actually really love the TV cut version of "trust you" though; it's easy to tell where things are abbreviated, but I thought it was pieced together very well. It's obvious that the intro is probably longer and it feels like the first verse extends directly into final chorus.

Well, the single's still not due out until March 4th, but the PV released a day or two ago, so I got ahold of a PV rip. Finally! A full length version of the song! ...Why doesn't it sound as nearly good as the TV Cut?

The piano intro is pretty, but I felt like it was too long now. The vocals start around :30, but they really could have started around :20. The first verse and chorus are pretty much the same right down to the "hanasanaide." It then eases into the same piano melody and begins the second verse, which just doesn't sound as polished as the first. There are more phrases were it seems like she's trying to fit too many syllables into a short space. It's particular noticable right before the second chorus: "tsunagatteru to, Im always by your side" just doesn't sound as elegant to me as "mata aeru to, I'm waiting for your love."

The bridge comes after that, and I really don't like the bridge. The melody of the vocals don't really seem to fit at all for one reason or another. Following the bridge, chorus is repeated again, but as we get to the fourth "I love you, I trust you," she changes the pitch of the "you" in both lines and it sounds very awkward, like it's incomplete, like there should be something else that comes with that note. The final lines of the chorus are then sung, and it's really not so bad, but in contrast to the intro, I almost felt like there should have been more piano at the end. It's still a decent song, but the full length version really disappointed me.

This isn't the first time this has happened. I had similar feelings towards the full version of T.M. Revolution's "resonance," the first opening of SOUL EATER, where, again, the second verse just didn't feel nearly as cohesive as the first and the bridge felt kind of awkward, though I don't think it was as disappoint as "trust you."

Sometimes the opposite happens: I'll love the full version and the TV cut seems like an unskillfully chopped up version of a wonderful song. This was the case for me regarding "Life is like a boat," by Rie fu, Bleach's first ending, as well as "READY STEADY GO" by L'Arc~en~Ciel, Fullmetal Alchemist's second opening. For both those cases though, I heard the full version before I heard the TV cut because I got into the series later. So is it just because I like the version I heard first better?

But for the vast majority of songs, both the TV cut and the full version sound fine to me regardless of which I heard first. I don't have a problem with any of the TV cuts of Death Note's themes, and I love the full versions just as much. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei's themes are all brilliant, TV cut, full version, or otherwise. I didn't have a problem with the TV cuts of "Daybreak's bell" or "Ash Like Snow" by L'Arc~en~Ciel and the brilliant green respectively, the first and second openings of Gundam 00's first season, even though I heard (and loved) both full versions before I started the series.

So what is it with these few songs? Just random chance that for a few songs, I'll just stick to the version I heard first? It makes more sense for the full versions that sound better because I realize that the people responsible for mixing the TV cuts can't be expected to create a perfect representation of the original song each and every time, but what's up with the full versions that just aren't as awesome? I guess in those cases, the TV cut creators should get a pat on the back for making an okay song better. Or does animation play a bigger factor than I realize? I love the accompanying animation for both "trust you" and "resonance" so maybe that's a reason? But even listening to the song without the animation, I feel like the TV cuts are better than the full versions. And besides, I love the animations that accompany a lot of other themes too.

What do you guys think? Are you usually more drawn to TV cuts or full versions? Which happens more often? Why do you think that is?

I still look forward to the "trust you" single's official release on the 4th because it'll gain me a new karaoke track, but this isn't the first time I've wished for a karaoke track for the TV cut version as well. (Well, okay, the first time I've wished this wasn't because I liked the TV cut better; it was because the full version of Aya Hirano's "Hare Hare Yukai" is just too damn long to sing and dance to simultaneously.) Read the rest of this entry...

Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?

On Wednesday, a friend of mine picked up the first of the two-issue release of Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, written by Neil Gaiman, penciled by Andy Kubert, and inked by Scott Williams. I love Batman, but I have a terrible time keeping up with recent releases because some storylines suck more than others, and the good ones tend to have multiple tie-ins across various series and titles. (Organizing and keeping up with both Final Crisis and Marvel's Civil War sucked; I gave up.) Usually, I will just wait for compilation releases like The Long Halloween or pick up the superspecialawesome oneshots like Arkham Asylum. This is probably why I end up reading more manga than Western comics, or at least, mainstream Western comics.

But since my friend had it handy, I read the issue. It was fantastic: beautiful, well-drawn, and well-written. It was nostalgic. And sad. And it made me think about how different superhero comics are from all the manga I read because there isn't just one creator. There are hundreds of people involved in the creative process and there are generations of stories because the titles last so long. People of different ages have different perceptions of Batman because different medias are popular at different times, but just about everyone knows who Batman is. The character is immortal in that way.

So how can they write character deaths like this? How can Batman die?

Of course, it's easy to say that Batman won't really die or stay dead. I believe DC has a reputation for retconning deaths anyway. (Or otherwise making a plot out of it, ala The Many Deaths of Batman in Batman 433-435.) But Marvel killed Captain America for realz, so why not? The way Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? is playing out at the moment doesn't seem to lend itself to someone taking up the mantle like Bucky did for Steve Rogers, but the planned hiatuses (cancellations?) of Nightwing, Robin, and Birds of Prey, and the upcoming Battle for the Cowl three-part story seems to suggest as much. Will someone replace Bruce Wayne as Batman? Is Batman really Batman if it isn't Bruce Wayne?

Assuming he remains dead, the decision to kill Bruce Wayne will impact the series for the rest of forever. Will there eventually be a generation of fans who will have never known him? Will they only know Dick Grayson or Jason Todd to be Batman? Or someone else entirely? Terry McGinus? That thought is bewildering to me. It's so different from manga, which pretty much lives and dies with its original creator(s). Even though new Astro Boys are being produced after Osamu Tezuka's death, there is still the original to trace back to.

What is the original Batman? A comic credited to Bob Kane when in reality, Kane contributed very little beyond the name "Batman" and Bill Finger did everything else. Bob Kane's Batman originally had red in his costume, wings, and no gloves. Is this original relevant anymore? The debut Batman was really quite campy and had no problem with using firearms. The modern Batman has become a psychological wonder with his refusal to use firearms a core part of his character. While I'm sure most people will appreciate the original as part of the history, very few will herald it as the best as I'm sure most would with Tezuka's Astro Boy.

So if Bruce Wayne is dead, even if he will forever remain Batman to my generation and those before me, will he be nothing more than a detail of history for kids fifty years from now? It's a depressing thought, but the same could be said of Captain America. (And I wonder, what does Steve Rogers' death say about our country in recent years?) It's such a strange idea.

It's too bad business won't allow for the name Batman to die with Mr. Wayne. That would be ideal to me. It isn't like they couldn't just sell repackaged copies of No Man's Land or Cataclysm or Arkham Asylum: Living Hell forever. It isn't like they'd have to stop making movies. I mean, it's working well enough for Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion and Dragonball, right? Read the rest of this entry...

Dropped: Kurokami

Maybe it's just because today was a pretty shitty day, but I couldn't sit through all of episode 5 of Kurokami, so I'm dropping it. I suppose it was only a matter of time. I hated the first episode. It was boring and predictable; all I really wanted to do was punch the protagonist in the face, and I get the feeling I shouldn't have been laughing my head off when that little girl got flattened by a bus. I considered dropping it then, but figured it wouldn't hurt to at least watch a few more. The second episode was markedly better, but the third episode tanked again. By the fourth episode, I was quite ready to drop it again, and the beginning of the fifth episode sealed the deal.


It's a shame, I guess, because the animation is pretty damn slick and the music is interesting. The fight scenes are pretty from a distance, but they're painfully boring to me. It's because I feel utterly detatched from all of the characters involved so I don't care about the outcomes. I don't care about Keita because he's whiny and generic and I just couldn't bring myself to feel sorry for his sobstory. It's just too convenient. I don't care about Kuro because she tries too hard to be cute and there's nothing about her personality that's interesting at all. I don't care about her desire to kill her brother, and I don't even care enough to want to find out more about whatever the hell she is.

The premise was all right enough. The idea of dopplegangers sounded neat enough, but the series has been moving too slow on that front for me to care. The cleverly disguised (or not) antagonists are sneaking around in the background with those snatches of plot, but it isn't prominent enough to be meaningful. It's a damn shame. I might continue with the manga since it's so vastly different from the anime -- I don't doubt that I would have had an easier time sympathizing with Keita if he had been a good-natured computer programmer instead of an emo high school student, and being able to sympathize with the protagonist is pretty key for me. Unfortunately, it's harder for me to sit down and read manga than it is for me to pop in an episode of an anime.

It's further disappointing because Kurokami was the only new series I picked up this season. Now that I'm dropping it, the only current series I'm following are Soul Eater and Gundam 00 S2, both of which will be ending soon (well, for the latter, I guess it's kind of a relief). I have no idea how well the Kurokami dub's been doing on IATV, but it seems to me that they could have picked a much better series to be groundbreaking with. Then again, they never did announce any kind of official online stream, so maybe it was all irrelevant after all. Not enough people get IATV for it to matter.

Man, today's been quite the lame day. :\ Read the rest of this entry...

Review: Darker than BLACK

Finally. I finished watching Darker than BLACK (and its OAV) over the weekend, so here's the review for the series. I'm still rather surprised with how much I ended up liking the series, but I'm not sure I explained that very well in the review. I never feel like I adequately explain anything in my reviews, haha; maybe that's why they always end up excruciatingly long.

I'd really like to see a sequel to DtB though. If that BONES document leak last summer was right about the Fullmetal Alchemist sequel, then here's to hoping that DtB part was true too, eh? As much as I'd love to have some answers to the five billion questions I have though, I have to wonder if having a sequel explain it all would take away from the huge mystery that is this series. I watched the last two episodes again while writing the review, but I still can't be confident in making any kind of solid conclusion about the ending. It's nice in a way, probably because it's such a big change from the usual fare.

Side note: I can't decide if I should bother reviewing the OAV. It's really not that important to anything, but it was entertaining all the same -- probably as close to DtB will ever get to crack.
Read the rest of this entry...

"The Fans Ruined it For Me."

I hear this a lot: "I used to like such and such, but the fans ruined it for me." And it bugs me every time I hear it; after all, why should the fans have anything to do with the actual series or game or whatever else? If you like it, then you will like it -- I don't understand why so many people give power to the masses by letting them affect their opinion of something. A series is not its fans, and the fans do not make the series. Sure, sometimes it might be annoying hearing fangirls and boys fawn over the various bishounen and moeblobs from your series of choice, if the only reason you decide to dislike those bishounen and moeblobs is because of the fans, then you're not thinking for yourself anymore.

Case in point, I love Kingdom Hearts -- okay, it's not an anime or manga, but I think it's a good example because the fans are notoriously obnoxious. I think the first three games were excellent (I am sad that so many people forget about Chain of Memories), and I love the ending to KH2. I like almost all of the characters and enjoy what we do see of their in-game relationships. Does it annoy me that fangirls seem to like slashing every single male character in the entire fandom? (Regardless of whether they ever actually officially interact? lol@AxelxDemyx?) It used to a little, but really, I am a huge proponent of the "to each his own" ideal. I may not like what you like, but I will support to the death your right to like it. And since I'm active on deviantART and people like to bitch about various fandoms always getting frontpage attention: I may not like what you draw, but I will support to the death your right to draw it. And if it's popular? Good for you!

I don't really understand when people get disappointed that "overhyped" series aren't as good as one may come to expect. It's more of that giving power to the masses, which is kind of hilarious when you consider that most people would say that they don't trust the masses. And it's true -- don't trust them. Put your trust in people you actually know, then you can be legitimately disappointed when things aren't as good as they've been described to you. I didn't watch Haruhi Suzumiya because of its popularity; I watched it because several people whose opinions I care about recommended it to me. I was disappointed for those same reasons. Similarly, I didn't start Naruto until two years after its debut and only because several bothersome friends kept suggesting it. I didn't stop reading it last summer as any consequence of annoying fans; I stopped because I was tired of waiting for something to happen.

I also refuse to stop liking something because it's popular or to be ashamed of getting into something because it got popular first. It annoys me to no end when people rag on Naruto for being popular or for its general fanbase being young and silly. Getting offended at kids being kids is stupid. Saying that they're bringing down the image of anime in general is blaming them for the ignorance of the rest of the population (regardless of what is in the mainstream, people will use what's popular as a stereotype for the rest of the community; I don't really think anyone would be happier if the populace's general impression of anime was crazy kids fighting giant robots in other giant robots or bounty hunters in space).

The moral of this post is to think for yourself! Who cares what everyone else thinks and does? If you like it, then like it. No shame, kids. No shame. Read the rest of this entry...

Sorry, No Catgirls For You

Well, first off, after two months or so of bumming the Anime Nano feeds, I've finally come up with a short list of blogs that I seem to click through regularly, so I've updated my blogroll to the side to reflect this. But considering Nano itself is on the list, I end up reading a lot more blogs than that since I'll generally at least skim anything with an interesting title.

Anyway. I found this strange and slightly disturbing article via Slashdot today. There are people trying to combine human with animal DNA. Seriously, what the hell? Okay, okay, so despite what Slashdot implied, they weren't actually trying to make crazy mutant hybrids -- they were trying to see if mixing the DNA would enable them with a more reliable way to grow stem cells. I still find that goal kind of questionable though; even if the experiment had resulted in living stem cells, would they have been able to grow into anything useful? If you've suffered third degree burns, would you want a skin graft with skin grown from human-cow hybrid cells? o_o

I'm not really sure anymore what made the catgirl (and catboy, and various other hybrids) attractive in the first place. I find it especially puzzling when so much of the anime community seems to look down at the furry subculture. I don't think many people ever considered the fantasy any more than just a fantasy with no scientific plausibility whatsoever, but it's still kind of a relief to know that it's now proven not to work. I still never thought anyone would be crazy enough to try it for real though.

If catpeople ever came to be, I'm pretty sure they would take over the world. Read the rest of this entry...