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NEWS: New Franco-Japanese Animation Studio Launches


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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14878
PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 12:43 am Reply with quote
GeorgeC wrote:
I believe the CG Garfield series shown on Cartoon Network is also produced by French animators. It actually debuted in France before the US.


The W.I.T.C.H. TV series was animated in Paris by SIP Animation Studio, which according to A.N.N. also co-produced Ningyo Hime Marina no Bōken (TV) (Adventures of the Little Mermaid).
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 2:02 am Reply with quote
The previews for that Ladybug series looked pretty cool, but the rest of the French animation I've seen is really just throwaway fare for tweens. Japan is still the only place in the world where something like Honneamise or Sky Crawlers could have been made. My feelings are that Bakshi and other animators should just move to Japan and form a Gaijin studio. It may not succeed, but they can at least get a chance to create, better than doing absolutely nothing in the west.
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tuxedocat



Joined: 14 Dec 2009
Posts: 2183
PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 2:49 am Reply with quote
^glad someone mentioned "The Ladybug"^

I'm hoping that will be made available streaming somewhere.
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CrowLia



Joined: 24 Feb 2012
Posts: 5528
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 4:26 am Reply with quote
This sounds like an interesting project, and some of the designs look cool and neat, and definitely like things I'd like to watch, here's hoping this project picks up and succeeds.

A question, though, would this series be dubbed in French or in Japanese?
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DomonX2



Joined: 14 Sep 2012
Posts: 232
Location: Neo Toronto, Neo Canada
PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 6:13 am Reply with quote
Quote:
I would probably point to the fact that they always lead more towards 'cartoon', than 'anime'.


Urgh. Why do people always think "anime" and "cartoons" are two different things? -_-
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Myaow



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 1068
PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 9:16 am Reply with quote
tuxedocat wrote:
^glad someone mentioned "The Ladybug"^

I'm hoping that will be made available streaming somewhere.


Me too!! So hype for that. The wait seems soooo long...

walw6pK4Alo wrote:
The previews for that Ladybug series looked pretty cool, but the rest of the French animation I've seen is really just throwaway fare for tweens. Japan is still the only place in the world where something like Honneamise or Sky Crawlers could have been made.


Hmmmm I get you're talking about TV animation, but even on TV France has a lot to offer in terms of lovely animation for all ages-- my favorite French animator, Michel Ocelot, used to do a bunch of television shows like "La Princesse insensible" and "Ciné si" which are beautiful to behold! And of course if you bring theatrical films into the conversation, you have people like Sylvain Chomet doing his thing for adults, and "A Cat In Paris" which was aimed towards kids but has a style that can enchant anybody! France is booming with talented animators; check out the Youtube page for the animation school Gobelins which hosts a lot of student films that have as much creativity and beauty as any professionally made animation in the USA or Japan. I don't want to discount your experience and there ARE a lot of poopy French cartoons out there, but those shouldn't be representative of the whole medium!

Sorry to blabber so long, I just.......... really..... love French cartoons..... a lot.... /A\
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dandelion_rose



Joined: 12 May 2012
Posts: 657
Location: Kuala Lumpur
PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 9:32 am Reply with quote
@Myaow

A Cat in Paris is fantastic. I had the good fortune of catching it in a cinema, and the visuals were stunning.
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 10:53 am Reply with quote
Satelight has a team of young French illustrators who have done some spectacular work in shows like Ikoku Meiro no Croisee and AKB0048. They bring an architectural sensibility that is rather uncommon in most anime I've seen. There's a lengthy "Chicks on Anime" interview with one of them here. You can see some of their designs on this (French) forum.

Boy, that girl in the video sure looked a lot like Yuno from Hidamari Sketch. Her seiyuu even sounded like Asumi Kana.
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DangerMouse



Joined: 25 Mar 2009
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 2:42 pm Reply with quote
Cool. It's always exciting seeing new studios get started.
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Stuart Smith



Joined: 13 Jan 2013
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 11:15 pm Reply with quote
dandelion_rose wrote:
Anyway, I'm more hopeful of good possibilities when the projects are feature films, rather than TV series, because I find that feature films tend to have higher quality (both when it comes to Japanese and French animation). Maybe because feature films are where animators go for impressing adult critics rather than targeting a market demographic to be entertained for say, half an hour a week.


That reasoning is precisely why I favor television animation as a means to judge a country's output. Movies can be incredibly auteur and not representative of the norm. With movies they can be produced on small budgets and as director's pet projects which are given limited runs or screened at film festivals. The best and most common outlook is those which are forced to work in the market. There are a lot of auteur French movies I can name, but those are indicative of their directors and not the country. All the shows I listed would fall in line just fine on Cartoon Nework, and indeed some already have. By comparison if you read any of those seasonal anime charts that get posted you most likely wouldn't associate them with Cartoon Network. I must echo walw6pK4Alo's statement and agree Japan is still probably the only place you can find shows that are like anime, at least in the countries I have seen a sizable amount of animation from. Perchance I have yet to find the right country.
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dandelion_rose



Joined: 12 May 2012
Posts: 657
Location: Kuala Lumpur
PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 1:49 am Reply with quote
@Stuart

You're right in the sense that Japanese animation has an audience of adult viewers and creates material for that audience -- something which the animation industries in other countries don't. However, this audience isn't 'adult' in the 'regular adult' sense of the word -- they are a niche of society with their own tropes, subculture, and preferences of taste. The bulk of 'anime for adults' are designed to cater and reflect their tastes. The audience of anime are a geek audience quite separate from the mainstream of Japan. There's a huge number of them no doubt, but an even larger number of adults in Japan who don't particularly care for the anime subculture.
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configspace



Joined: 16 Aug 2008
Posts: 3717
PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 4:10 am Reply with quote
It's true that there aren't as many regular TV anime viewers in the mainstream, but that's mostly because they air midnight and later for terrestrial broadcast. But at the same time, the anime aesthetics and culture are ubiquitous (see advertisements, illustrations; general sentiment) and accepted everywhere simply because the mass popularity of manga.
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maaya



Joined: 14 Oct 2007
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 4:30 am Reply with quote
this might just be what the anime industry needs to get new creativity and higher quality animation. The promo pictures for Plume and Happy Land both look great.
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dandelion_rose



Joined: 12 May 2012
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 6:37 am Reply with quote
configspace wrote:
It's true that there aren't as many regular TV anime viewers in the mainstream, but that's mostly because they air midnight and later for terrestrial broadcast. But at the same time, the anime aesthetics and culture are ubiquitous (see advertisements, illustrations; general sentiment) and accepted everywhere simply because the mass popularity of manga.


Oh, for sure, manga culture is big and covers a great extent of Japanese society. My point was to address Stuart Smith's statement about comparing the animation industries of Japan vs. Other countries based on how 'adult' the subject-matter of the animation is.

I think that the Japanese animation industry essentially got lucky when the otaku subculture emerged. This comes with its advantages and setbacks; but the basic thing is that they are just as constrained to market demands and the need to financially survive as much as the animation industry of other parts of the world. So while we can have Space Brothers, it'd be a while before that manga about raising an autistic child will ever get animated.

I think that some members of the forum may feel the need to 'prove' how Japanese animation is superior to the animation of other countries (edit: when it comes to news articles like these), which isn't too surprising in an anime forum.

Also:

maaya wrote:
this might just be what the anime industry needs to get new creativity and higher quality animation. The promo pictures for Plume and Happy Land both look great.


I don't think it's a lack of creative energy in Japan that has been affecting the industry (that some international fans complain about), I think it's just that the economy worldwide isn't doing so well, and this has affected the anime industry both in terms of producing what is profitable and producing what is culturally relevant to its audience.
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Soundmonkey44



Joined: 25 May 2010
Posts: 1243
PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 9:51 am Reply with quote
I find that in cases like Stuart, and I am just making a generalization, so please don't hate me too much. They for some reason or another find the term cartoon degrading, maybe due to the fact that stereotypically cartoons are viewed as something juvenile in general by most no matter where they are from. Akin to how some people like to call a comic book a "Graphic Novel" because it makes it sound more mature.

The sad thing is though, in all honesty a lot of "Mature" media of any kind is really anything but. Yes there are shows in all mediums that can handle the subjects of sex, murder, insert dark or taboo topic here, in a very well written, artsy, and tactful manner, but, well not a lot of shows, not even very many anime are super great at doing that. Arguably many television programs aimed at "Adults' are just as juvenile, if not at times more so then media aimed at children.

People however mistake these dark & gritty, or sex & ecchi filled shows for mature because they have a flawed view of maturity created by modern society.

Maturity isn't about the toilet humor you see in Family guy, or blood and boobs being everywhere in an anime, Maturity in its truest form is just about well, in a way, being the best you can be, being kind, open minded, open hearted, true to your code, all that cheesy stuff. In the realms of violence & sex pertaining to maturity, that would be knowing when such acts are and are not appropriate.

But yes as for the whole Cartoon VS Anime thing, it merely steems from the fact older viewers fear or loath the word cartoon, just because of how it is over all viewed, anime though being a foreign term in the stats doesn't have quite as much wait, and can sound "cooler" or "More Adult" But you see, the term adult itself is just a descriptor of what age group you are in, nothing more, nothing less, anyone who takes it as something more is in and of themselves childish, fearing childish things, as well as fearing to be labeled as childish, is itself a sign of immaturity.

Animation is a beautiful thing dear Stuart, be it an American or European CARTOON or A Japanese ANIME. They all have their place in the medium, and all have their fair share of gold stars & stinkers. But simply saying Japan is superior to anyone else that makes cartoons, now thats just overly biased silly-nannery!

Try opening up that narrow view of yours a bit, it can open up a whole new world of animated wonders!
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