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The Joy of Sakuga


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SamTheNayru



Joined: 28 Jun 2011
Posts: 60
PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 11:03 am Reply with quote
Thank you so much for this article! I have seen the word sakuga thrown around on the internet frequently, but I never bothered to find out what it exactly meant.

I have been watching anime since spring 2009, but I've only been interested in finding out who animated my favorite scenes for the last two years. This article, especially the links to different websites, will be of great help.

It was also a very interesting read and the GIFs were also great.
Once again, thank you.
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daichi383



Joined: 16 Sep 2009
Posts: 313
Location: England
PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 11:05 am Reply with quote
KViN showing off why he's everyone's sakuga senpai. Wink

Seriously though, you're writing is always a great read. Perfectly articulating many important points on this subject. I wrote something marginally similar a couple years back but it's way inferior haha.

The growth of Sakuga fandom over the years is really great. More people keeping track of many different artists work and writing really well about them. Its way different to when i got into it in 2008 buts its nice to have so many people to talk to about something you enjoy.


Last edited by daichi383 on Wed Sep 30, 2015 11:12 am; edited 1 time in total
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JulieYBM



Joined: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 209
PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 11:12 am Reply with quote
Sakuga is no different than good dialogue, good music, good sound effects or good acting from an actor. It's strength is in how it can communicate everything one needs to know about the person creating it and everything one needs to know about why that creator loves a certain character or effect. The individual voice is what makes art interesting, not the strict interpretation of a figurehead's voice. This is a big part of the reason being so studio, director or writer centric when it comes to loving a series or film is so flawed a position, it ignores the beat-by-beat contributions that actually endear one to a work.
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Neko-sensei



Joined: 19 Jan 2007
Posts: 283
PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 11:17 am Reply with quote
I'm absolutely loving the inclusion of Joshiraku's satirical (or at least, self-referential) sakuga cut in this article.

What an excellent reminder of the true hobbyist's secret: what you get out of what you enjoy is proportionate to what you put into it. Really paying attention to the animator's art is extremely difficult for Western fans. Trained as we are to analyze our entertainment thematically and narratively, we often miss out on the pure joy of watching an artist revel in their craft, a joy Japanese fans seem more easily able to appreciate. I've had the toughest time getting even the closest members of my anime cohort to notice sakuga; recently, when episode 5 of Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso hit, I sent out a series of e-mail raves to some of my friends also watching the show... not a single one of whom had registered the technical excellent of what they'd just seen. (To be fair, two of them rewatched the episode and, with newly attentive eyes, experienced that wonderful "sakuga conversion.")

I think that my own "conversion epiphany" occurred on my first viewing of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, when my jaw dropped at Ryo-timo's superb depiction of Makoto's desperate dash to save her friends—I loved the way she lagged behind the steadily-moving "camera," dashed furiously to keep up, and got visibly more and more exhausted as the shot went on. (I later found out that Sawa had actually had a friend film himself running down the street as reference material for this shot.) That opened up to me the amazingly useful world of single-animator MAD videos on YouTube (that video contains the shot I mentioned) and of course later led to my thorough enjoyment of the new Yozakura Quartet series. (The old one had some pretty decent sakuga as well!)

Hopefully this excellent article will clue a few more people in to the value of practicing careful viewership, doing a little extra research, and developing an appreciation for the wilder side of art. Very Happy
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 7912
Location: Anime News Network Technodrome
PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 11:17 am Reply with quote
JacobYBM wrote:
This is a big part of the reason being so studio, director or writer centric when it comes to loving a series or film is so flawed a position, it ignores the beat-by-beat contributions that actually endear one to a work.


While I really admire sakuga fans and the depth of their knowledge, your assertion that it is a "better" way to love something is anathema to me. People can enjoy whatever they like however they like; turning this into "my fandom is better than yours" instead of "this is a wonderful way to enhance your appreciation; try it if you like it!" is going down a dark road when we really don't need to.
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uguu



Joined: 02 Oct 2010
Posts: 220
PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 11:48 am Reply with quote
JacobYBM wrote:
Sakuga is no different than good dialogue, good music, good sound effects or good acting from an actor. It's strength is in how it can communicate everything one needs to know about the person creating it and everything one needs to know about why that creator loves a certain character or effect. The individual voice is what makes art interesting, not the strict interpretation of a figurehead's voice. This is a big part of the reason being so studio, director or writer centric when it comes to loving a series or film is so flawed a position, it ignores the beat-by-beat contributions that actually endear one to a work.


"Acting" in animation is a mix of voice acting AND the character animation/art. People who claim that it's "shallow" to care about visuals and that good visuals in anime are the equivalent to special-effects in live-action film should take note of that.

It's neat that they let Kevin write an article but it's gonna take a ton of write-ups to make up for the years and years of Theron Martin reviews trying to talk about the "artistry" and "rendering" of anime from a place of zero knowledge and observational skill.
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H. Guderian



Joined: 29 Jan 2014
Posts: 1255
PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 11:53 am Reply with quote
>Was browsing Sakugabooru
->Slowed down so went to ANN to check news
--> Big Feature linking to Sakugabooru

I see what went on there...

I have been in the anime fandom since the 90s, but it wasn't really until I sat down and watched this panel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuPNSyztkHPqV-M4ePSmN_2BLhONu0WLg that I really understood how deep Sakuga appreciation went.

Like it isn't for everyone, but if you're the person who has for years grasped in the air why you liked certain nebulous bits of anime but couldn't figure it out, this might be the course for you.

my only regret about deepening my Sakuga understand is how further nebulous it can be to share the appreciation with others. Quite frankly there are too few folks, and the ones I know aware of Sakuga are in the grind of trying to watch too much of everything new.

Sakuga fans are...slower?
Not mentally slow, but I suspect a lot of us are the types that'll rewind videos to see the flow of animation. The very nature of appreciating cuts of animation goes against viewing in mass volume. It is hard to get a lot viewed sometimes. Might just be my own age getting to me now.
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whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 2240
PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 12:05 pm Reply with quote
H. Guderian wrote:

Sakuga fans are...slower?
Not mentally slow, but I suspect a lot of us are the types that'll rewind videos to see the flow of animation. The very nature of appreciating cuts of animation goes against viewing in mass volume. It is hard to get a lot viewed sometimes. Might just be my own age getting to me now.


Funny, I found myself doing that just recently with Yu Yu Hakusho. Might be an effect of actually already knowing where the plot is going, so I'm not as wrapped up in just the story itself. (It's also much more obvious when the art style changes hands; can't tell if that's a by-product of its age or just that I'm paying more attention now.)

I quite liked this article, though I'm still in the stage of identifying studios at this point. Not sure if I'm invested enough to go the extra step of reading translated credits (I always feel like I'm playing catch-up with my shows, which doesn't exactly endear me to slowing things down and digesting bits), but if Shirobako is anything to go by, that might be more worthwhile in the long run than just following studios.
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Kimiko_0



Joined: 31 Aug 2008
Posts: 1796
Location: Leiden, NL, EU
PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 12:16 pm Reply with quote
Might be a good idea to add alt tags to the images with their respective sources and animators? The last image is from Go! Princess Precure ep.30 @ 14:56.520-15:07.781. (Neat to see some Precure on ANN Smile)

What doesn't help in identifying artists who contributed to a particular episode is the fansub practice of cutting the OP and ED off and including them only once as a separate file. Which means you get to see the exact same credits for all episodes Anime hyper

I appreciate me some quality animation, but it is usually a sign that the story/plot isn't so great when I start to pay attention to how many corners the animation cuts..
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MajorZero



Joined: 29 Jul 2010
Posts: 359
PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 12:30 pm Reply with quote
It's great to see fantastic animation, but I wonder, would've sakuga been as noticeable if average quality of animation in anime have been a little bit higher?
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daichi383



Joined: 16 Sep 2009
Posts: 313
Location: England
PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 12:30 pm Reply with quote
H. Guderian wrote:
>Was browsing Sakugabooru
->Slowed down so went to ANN to check news
--> Big Feature linking to Sakugabooru

I see what went on there...

I have been in the anime fandom since the 90s, but it wasn't really until I sat down and watched this panel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuPNSyztkHPqV-M4ePSmN_2BLhONu0WLg that I really understood how deep Sakuga appreciation went.

Like it isn't for everyone, but if you're the person who has for years grasped in the air why you liked certain nebulous bits of anime but couldn't figure it out, this might be the course for you.

my only regret about deepening my Sakuga understand is how further nebulous it can be to share the appreciation with others. Quite frankly there are too few folks, and the ones I know aware of Sakuga are in the grind of trying to watch too much of everything new.

Sakuga fans are...slower?
Not mentally slow, but I suspect a lot of us are the types that'll rewind videos to see the flow of animation. The very nature of appreciating cuts of animation goes against viewing in mass volume. It is hard to get a lot viewed sometimes. Might just be my own age getting to me now.


I can understand that. Though one of the upsides of having more and more people into it is that you don't have to watch everything as you can be sure others will be watching the shows you aren't and writing about their appreciation of those moments.

I myself only watch 4 or 5 shows a season but don't really feel like i'm missing out.
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JulieYBM



Joined: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 209
PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 12:39 pm Reply with quote
Zac wrote:
JacobYBM wrote:
This is a big part of the reason being so studio, director or writer centric when it comes to loving a series or film is so flawed a position, it ignores the beat-by-beat contributions that actually endear one to a work.


While I really admire sakuga fans and the depth of their knowledge, your assertion that it is a "better" way to love something is anathema to me. People can enjoy whatever they like however they like; turning this into "my fandom is better than yours" instead of "this is a wonderful way to enhance your appreciation; try it if you like it!" is going down a dark road when we really don't need to.


I'm not particularly arguing "my fandom is better than yours". I'm arguing 'Sakuga' fans understand what endears them to a work better than [general] you and illustrating that in their part of the discussion. This isn't just about animation or knowing an animators' name, this can apply to a sound effect, a delivery of a line of dialogue or any other numerous things that go into describing why one likes a dramatized work.

Explaining oneself is what makes discussion a discussion. "I like [series name] because [director/studio/writer]" isn't an explanation, it's a sweeping generalization that doesn't dig deeper and pushes the notion that the entirety of a work is a 100% reflection of one person. That's harmful to learning, which is a natural outcome of discussion. If one wants to have a discussion about what endears them to a work they need to put more work into it than that. It makes for boring conversation when someone cannot even stop to think to themselves what exact moments actually endear a work to them and why those moments are endearing in the first place. 'Sakuga' is just one of those fandoms that is now trying--perhaps fruitlessly--to break past that surface-layer understanding and explanation.

whiskeyii wrote:
H. Guderian wrote:

Sakuga fans are...slower?
Not mentally slow, but I suspect a lot of us are the types that'll rewind videos to see the flow of animation. The very nature of appreciating cuts of animation goes against viewing in mass volume. It is hard to get a lot viewed sometimes. Might just be my own age getting to me now.


Funny, I found myself doing that just recently with Yu Yu Hakusho. Might be an effect of actually already knowing where the plot is going, so I'm not as wrapped up in just the story itself. (It's also much more obvious when the art style changes hands; can't tell if that's a by-product of its age or just that I'm paying more attention now.)


I too am currently re-watching Yuu Yuu Hakusho. Outside of the episodes in which Wakabayashi Atsushi is the animation supervisor I don't find there being too much in the way of differing styles, but I am still very impressed by how much ambition is displayed by the other episode directors and animation supervisors. The level of background animation employed in the series is mind-boggling. The scene where Kaito is in the lavatory fifteen minutes or so into Episode #69 is my favorite dialogue-centric scene in the series. The scene begins with a downward shot of Kaito that frames him in this tight, cramped room, then moves--there's no cutting--into an upward shot. It combines both a sense of "this is an actor on a set" with the freedom of the camera allowed only in animation.

I'm not sure if it was the idea of Episode Director Mizuno Kazunori or Storyboard Artist & Animation Supervisor Takahashi Motosuke, but the liberal use of background animation really added to the tension. It's such a shame modern series have such short schedules, I'd love to see more spur-of-the-moment background animation like that.

I think Yuu Yuu Hakusho is really one of those series that underscore just how important storytelling is to film and television. Most often criticism is focused too much in story and not enough on how that story is communicated. Even when the telling does receive focus it is on the dialogue, only one aspect of telling. What Shinbou Akiyuki, Yamaguchi Yorifusa and Matsui Hitoyuki managed to visually illustrate through their use of shadows, camera angles, lighting and colors in Yuu Yuu Hakusho is something that should not go unnoticed by young directors. One of these days I need to try and track down where the coloring staff of Yuu Yuu Hakusho went after the series ended and see if they tried to employ anything they learned elsewhere.


Last edited by JulieYBM on Wed Sep 30, 2015 1:13 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Touma



Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 2651
Location: Colorado, USA
PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 1:00 pm Reply with quote
Kimiko_0 wrote:
Might be a good idea to add alt tags to the images with their respective sources and animators?

That would be nice. I have not actually read the article yet, just scrolled down the page, so I do not know how much identifying information is given.

I am not an animation fan, I watch anime mostly for the characters and minimal animation does not bother or distract me, but I do enjoy nice animation so I will definitely be reading the article, eventually.
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Kougeru



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 5516
PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 1:10 pm Reply with quote
JacobYBM wrote:
"I like [series name] because [director/studio/writer]" isn't an explanation, it's a sweeping generalization that doesn't dig deeper and pushes the notion that the entirety of a work is a 100% reflection of one person.


I disagree with this. So many times a writer is the major reason for a shows love/success, as is a director. For example someone might only like SHAFT shows from Shinbo Akiyuki and dislike SHAFT shows from other directors. His style is very specific to him. The same can be applied to any position that holds any power in how the show is formed. This includes people in charge of animation and writing.

Another example, ignoring a show entirely because of the Script Writer is perfectly valid. If a person absolutely hates the writing style of that Script Writer (like so many seem to do for Mari Okada) then they probably won't enjoy anything she's writing scripts for no matter who else is involved.

Anyone that knows that particular writer/director/animator/ect that you say you love/hate well enough to even have a discussion, should know the basic reasons why you feel that way about that person.
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vonPeterhof



Joined: 10 Nov 2014
Posts: 729
PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 1:15 pm Reply with quote
Kevin Cirugeda wrote:
These last couple years I've seen works like Yozakura Quartet, Hana no Uta and Space Dandy pique people's interest in animation, and while the roads they take differ, we all end up in the same place.
A bit of a tangent, but is the original TV adaptation of Yozakura Quartet (which is what the link in the article leads to) actually noted for its animation quality? I've watched Hana no Uta and its associated OVAs and their good rap for sakuga is well-deserved, but AFAIK they were made by a completely different team. I haven't seen the older series, and I haven't heard anything good about it either.

Anyway, this was a very interesting and informative article. The level of involvement of the sakuga fandom is impressive. It's a shame that I can't really get into it, in spite of my Japanese skills and enjoyment of fluid animation. While I really love the really well done sequences that do catch my attention, most of the time I can't concentrate enough to fully notice them due to being a compulsive multitasker and always doing something else on the side of the screen. Whether it's working on a pro bono translation project or reviewing language learning flashcards, I need to be doing something while I watch anime (or any sort of video), or else I feel like I'm not using time efficiently. If the project is done but the episode isn't over yet I start proofreading it (and you just know there's tons on mistakes, because hello? watching anime here!). If I'm done reviewing the flashcards before the runtime is up I start making new flashcards or looking for ways to improve the old ones. Well, if I can't be a sakuga-ota I can always just stay a koebuta - HanaKana for life Wink
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