Forum - View topicKyoto Animation...what is it?
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Vortextk
 Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
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I've been wondering about this studio for a bit as far as production values go. It took me maybe a year or so of watching anime to start to look at the animation a bit more critically. Panning, characters facing away from the character so no lips are shown, stock footage, etc; the cheap stuff. Now anime is constantly coming out, obviously, and studios can have good or bad reputions when it comes to animation. Of course, even the better studios have some large misses from time to time.
Then I come to settle on Kyoto Animation. Haruhi, FMP Fumoffu/TSR, Air, Lucky Star, and both Kanon/Clannad which I haven't seen but share the equally high rated animation as I've read. These are the titles I am most familiar with and I have to say that as far as television goes, most anime can hardly compare. (Of course, they could have something else without such a good track record, but recently it seems they're doing A+ work) Now, a budget is obviously a large issue. More money will often mean better animation. I don't know the specifics but I imagine more people working, or better people, gets the results. Maybe software/hardware for better effects as well? Not sure. Which brings me back to the beginning. Does this studio have insane budgets? Extremely well talented people? Both? What else could it be? I don't really know the business well enough to have any other guesses. |
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abunai
Old Regular
 Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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I wouldn't know about the budgets, but it is obvious that they have talented people. But more than that, they have focus. They have the determination to do a top-of-the-line job, whatever they're doing. That's what makes all the difference.
Few other studios would actually animate hand movements of a person playing an instrument to match the sounds being played -- it's far too much work for ordinary animation studios (offhand, I can only think of the scene in Nodame Cantabile, where Nodame's hand, obviously motion-captured CGI, is shown playing a melodica). BTW, if you want to see what the studio looks like, there's a scene in Lucky Star where the girls visit Kyoto and Konata drags them out to see the KyoAni studio. Very amusing self-referential scene. - abunai |
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selenta
 Subscriber Posts: 1774 Location: Seattle, WA |
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I've never actually looked at the staff of KyoAni before, but there's a certain amount of it that you can just tell from the animation. Not everyone can animate some of the stuff they do, so it's pretty clear that they have at least a few really talented animators, but it's their writing that is absolutely top notch, best in the industry by quite a large margin if you ask me. I've seen quite a large number of nakige and other dating sims that were turned into anime recently, and I think most people can agree that KyoAni's shows are on a whole different tier of quality than the rest in the genre.
As for a huge budget though? I don't think so. Above average, almost certainly, but nothing extraordinary. The studio does use a lot of corner cutting, but unlike some studios, they can do it unobtrusively and/or make it look natural. If I had to guess (and I don't, but I will anyway  ) I'd guess that the group that works for KyoAni is a typical group with a few really talented people, and they're all perfectionists so they put in a lot of unpaid overtime. 
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Vortextk
Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
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Well how "good" each anime might be is a bit past where I'm looking at. I agree that pretty much all of it is A+, others can disagree, but the animation is amazing no matter how you like the anime.
abunai, did you watch all of Nodame Cantibile? They use that technique pretty often through out the series. And also, I'm assuming that reference was to something KyoAni did, where have they animated someone playing an instrument? It might've even been something I've seen, can't quite remember. I want to have a look though. |
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abunai
Old Regular
Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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Yes, I did -- I just pointed that out as the most memorable scene using the technique, since it's a close-up, and the melodica is such a straighforward use of it.
It was a reference to the concert sequence in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, episode 12. For me, though, the really "big wow" moment in KyoAni's work so far has to be spoiler[the kiss] in Kanon. If you've seen it, you know what I mean. - abunai |
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Vortextk
Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
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Aha, the concert. Yeah I've seen it three times so I'm just dense and dumb. I even thought about Haruhi.
And no, haven't had the pleasure of seeing Kanon yet. Friend did, told me some spoilers(I imagine they were, don't want to find out if he was lying or not till I watch it), and I've stayed from it for a little while. |
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Animastryfe
 Posts: 152 Location: Vancouver |
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Does anyone know how much influence KyoAni has on the plot, characters, basically everything non-animation of an anime? I'm specifically referring to their recent (last few years) work.
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Nom_Anor
 Posts: 246 |
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They are VERY faithful to the original works. If it think about Haruhi, for example, I have a difficult time thinking of more than 2 or 3 changes, any of which were minor. (I mean, they even remembered to put Nagato's name on the back of her shoes. That is detail.) There are of course things they can't include because of the time constraints, especially in the short stories, but anything they do cut isn't horribly important. With the dating sims they have to journey a bit further off topic, because of the multiple plotlines, but they seem to be quite close to the original games. Lucky Star I think tended to get off the manga a bit more, but I don't know enough about it to say for sure. FMP was also similar to the novels. I'm not sure about Fumoffu!'s accuracy, but the Second Raid was a beautiful adaptation. (they changed a few things, like the twins and the psyco whose name I can never remember, but again, nothing major). All in all, KyoAni is one of the more faithful studios out there(although I don't know about Munto or Munto II. The first was mediocre, but I'm not sure about it's source material). |
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ryokoalways
Posts: 562 |
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That's a hell of a way to end and begin an episode. The whole sequence was great. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6867 Location: Kazune City |
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qtipbrit92
 Posts: 37 Location: San Diego |
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I believe Munto and Munto II were original works by KyoAni, so there's likely no source. I doubt that budget has such a large impact on Kyoto's quality, though I'm sure it's a factor. Notice how studios like Toei and Sunrise release multiple anime series each year, some of them simultaneously, so their production quality is likely affected. This also shows that time is a factor in Kyoto's works, as their group focuses on one series at any given time, while animators at Sunrise are split into multiple groups to work on seperate animes. Few groups can come close to KyoAni's animation quality, and recently, all I can think of are Makoto Shinkai's 5 Centimeters per Second, though it spanned only one hour as opposed to 13/24 20-minute episodes, and ef - A Tale of Memories, which was not quite in the same tier as Kyoto's visual novel adaptations, stilll had stunning animation, though its style was intentionally unique in that the sky was meant to be seen two-dimensionally at times due to spoiler[Chihiro's lack of a second eye], and many other details. |
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Porcupine
 Posts: 1033 |
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I've also been interested to know how is it that Kyoto Animation seems to put out such superior quality works (in terms of animation quality) to most other studios. There are numerous extras, especially on the FMP:TSR DVDs, that have very lengthy in-depth tours and explanations of Kyoto Animation's studios. I've studied these carefully but as far as I can tell they don't reveal any sort of golden information as to why their animation quality is so superior.
Here are my guesses, though. 1) They probably have skilled leaders who have the ability to organize and teach the artists skillfully, so that animation style and drawing style remain more consistent than within most other animation studios, therefore allowing them to employ possibly more workers without losing consistency in the drawings. However, I did not say that they have good directors and writers necessarily. I just mean that they may be well-organized when it comes to training the staff. If they are responsible for it, then the directors would be skilled at that, but not necessarily be good or bad directors otherwise. 2) Kyoto Animation is exactly what its name implies. It's a very large animation studio located in Kyoto. Kyoto is a different city from Tokyo, where almost all the other animation studios are. So you have like 100 animation studios in various areas of Tokyo...yet just 1 animation studio which is far away in Kyoto. Therefore, talent can concentrate all in one place, and perhaps Kyoto Animation is also larger than the average animation studio in Tokyo. 3) Maybe economics is different in Kyoto than in Tokyo. Like, cost of living and such. Maybe for the same budget, you can hire slightly cheaper labor and such in Kyoto than in Tokyo. At the same time, talent is more concentrated making it all the easier to really get your money's worth, and maybe the effects add up astoundingly. 4) Maybe Kyoto Animation works have a slightly higher budget than what other studios put out. Anyway, I dunno which if any of the above are true but those are just some theories I had.
I don't think Kyoto Animation works are written well or directed particularly well. I would only call them average in both these regards. I haven't seen Air/Clannad/Kanon though. But I doubt they are written or directed any differently since I think (didn't double-check) they use the same directors/writers as the other shows. I also disagree that Kyoto Ani uses a lot of corner cutting. I think they use FAR less corner cutting than any other animation studio. In fact I would go so far as to say that lack of corner cutting is their single greatest strength animation-wise. But not the only strength of course. But again I haven't seen any of the KEY dating-sim works or Lucky Star so maybe those works are as you say. I did think that the Lucky Star domestic trailer was slightly cheap-looking compared to Haruhi and FMP. The KEY trailers I've seen have looked superb and expensive though. |
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Veoryn87
 Posts: 808 |
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Which episode is that? I'd say the fact that KyoAni only works on one show at a time is a large factor in their quality since they can concentrate all their resources on just that one thing. Other reasons have already been stated. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16935 |
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What strikes me the most about KyoAni and their animation is the depth their animation seems to has. Everything seems so full, bright, and crisp. Characters look full and backgrounds look lush and real. Their backgrounds look like they took a real place and simply turned it digital. They pay attention to small details, like how hair blows in the wind, how water moves and how it washes onto a beach, or how tree branches move in the wind and the shadows the leaves and branches can cast. They don't seem to half ass anything but give their full attention to whatever the task is. I particularly like how colors stand out. Red's look deep and bright, Blues are soft and relaxing, etc. Each color stands out and looks sharp and lush.
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qtipbrit92
Posts: 37 Location: San Diego |
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I wouldn't say the lack of corner cutting is their greatest strength, though they do use much less corner cutting in their works. You should spend a bit of time to at least watch an excerpt of Air, as it has set the bar for animation quality since its release; the skies, the scenery, and even the details on the waves rolling in are amazing, especially since there was absolutely no corner cutting, with each wave unique. I do agree that the Lucky Star teaser preview was a bit unoutstanding (If we are both referring to thirty seconds of Konata's infamous face). My guess is that it was likely put together quickly while Kyoto was just finishing up Kanon, and they decided that it would be the most prudent and humourous choice in such a short allotment of time. |
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