Forum - View topicThe Secret of One-Punch Man's Success
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Rivailloli
 Posts: 562 Location: Virginia |
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Oh my, I'm so delighted to once again being able to read an article by Yuyucow on here! I thoroughly enjoyed the last one about animation in general. I found it very informative! But about this article in particular I was really happy reading through it! I love seeing information about the animators that work on my favorite projects and OPM is easily one of my top shows this season. Heck, maybe even this year. After episodes air I check out Yuyucow's twitter to see what awesome people were in charge of particular scenes for that episode. I just love learning about it.
To sum it up, awesome post. I hope to see more articles from Yuyucow in the future! |
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gustave154
Posts: 89 |
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Great article the best I have read on ANN this year. I feel blessed that we even got an anime like One Punch Man
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Galap
Moderator
 Posts: 2354 |
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I gotta say, I'm enjoying OPM quite a bit, and the reasons for such really have nothing to do with'the story'. It's really all that incredible animation, storyboarding, and general timing that's selling its message to me.
I'm someone who really cares a lot about the specifics of the motion in animation. I've been known to watch the same clip of animation literally a hundred times in awe of everything about it. And in my own animation what I find myself focusing on. Of course, it all does become more meaningful when it's in service of "the story" or the other overall thematic elements of the work, and the things I like the most excel on all fronts, but it's not necessary for something to have a good story for me to like something or have a strong response to it. Some of my absolute favorites are incredible from an animation and storyboarding perspective, but completely empty narratively (Redline), and others are narrative and thematic genius but visually hideous and uninspired as all hell (Soukou no Strain). Of course, the things I REALLY like the most excel at everything (Birdy Decode, From the New World, Noein). And I do think that this is improving, but we really could use a lot more criticism of film that delves into the specifics of the visual aspects of it, rather than just the acting and writing. In animation, the animators perform the charactres as much as, if not more than, the voices do. I'm uncertain as to what extent it's fair to criticize a work for its story (or visuals) where that's not the focus and it excels elsewhere. On the one hand, I really do think that the story of OPM is pretty stupid and its execution in no way elevates it. On the other hand, the story really isn't trying to be anything that's to be taken seriously, so it seems a bit off to slam it specifically for that. Ultimately, I guess my main concern is that lately a lot of the really visually spectacular anime have been narratively vacuous (OPM, Yozakura Quartet, Space Dandy). It may be just a probability conjunction thing (ceteris paribus, it's going to be less likely for something to excel at both story and visual than either alone), but I'd like to see more that try for both. To me the issue isn't that they're somehow falling flat of having good stories: rather the afforementioned weren't even attempting it. It may sound as if I've contradicted myself, but in one case I'm talking about criticism of an individual work after it's already been made, and in the other case I'm talking more about the more macroscopic forces that influence what kinds of things artists choose to make in general. And to end with, just to be clear, I don't think visuals and story are the only factors in film. |
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Usagi-kun
 Posts: 877 Location: Nashville, TN |
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I really like that you have used this analogy because it touches upon something that is also important in the discussion of our consumption; namely, it is our perception of something that grants it the power to influence our emotions, love or apathy. Human beings, as a species, are amazing in the way we process information; for every pattern that emerges, we are able to process it into categories, place it into compartments, and use definitions that suit our individual purposes. What we do not create independently by ourselves, we borrow and build upon the information gathered to propel our identities forward. This is the concept of freedom of expression, an incredible advantage and tool to create meaning behind our perceived identity, and how we perceive others. Animation grants incredible freedom as a medium where each unique identity, or 'person' has a title 'director, animator' that is specialized. If the chemistry and experiences are right, we are granted a beautiful form of entertainment. As consumers with our own limitations present views, levels of taste, monetary constraints, or other contradictory elements, but not so specialized or skilled; to translate what we are seeing, we use our own vocabularies, or rely on symbols and different languages to display our understanding. A Christmas tree is such a perfect symbol to convey this, in both words and literal image, to analyze how we have processed the information we have been given. It is important to understand that writing, visuals, music, or any other aspects of the anime art form are not made up of singular elements that create something like One Punch Man. Other popular shows have created success and captivated our attention over the years, and I think we can agree as a group when we see something that is truly 'special'. But it is a cohesive collective that grants it the staying power and the fervor that markes the experience as one we want to share, and inspiring all of us to participate in this discussion with our own unique interpretations. Every once in a while, we get a show like this that simply works, and each of us are trying to figure out why. Which is fun. I don't believe that individually, any of these elements hold sovereign if compared to the ultimate web of human experiences, and our love of anime as a creative form. Really, possibilities are endless in anime, if we know how to communicate and correlate our individual skills or perceptions. I personally do not like sakuga, only because when I watch a show, I don't want to break down the blocks so thoroughly. I guess that makes me a more cursory viewer, but I have a hell of a lot more fun just enjoying the impact a whole. I have a lot of fun watching this show, and I get the sense the creative staff does in making it. If you like something like sakuga to catch a glimpse of someone special in particular, it is also exhilarating, I'm sure. I tend to be more reckless in my viewing, but that is the way I process information. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11348 |
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Crap, now that you highlighted it, it's bugging me that I omitted the s in Cliffs Notes. But thanks.
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reanimator
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While I'm not going to argue which aspect of anime is better, but I think it's natural to talk about animation aspect because it is anime's default medium no matter how you cut it.
Even though writing may sit highest on production totem pole, I think it is not the absolute core of all animation productions. Certain directors such as Hayao Miyazaki is known for drawing storyboard and concept sketches first even before writing a single line of dialogue. Pixar animation is known for having several storyboard artists whipping out storyboard for scenes before coming up with finalized screenplay. Animation is simply storytelling element which writing can't express with a thousand words and screenwriting isn't like prose we see in novels. Animation (along with other aspects) fills the nitty gritty details which cannot fit in screenwriting. The same goes to live action performance and VFX in films and TV. I understand that Sakuga fandom focuses on animation aspect, but it's beyond enjoying good action sequences. Sakuga fans do care about how well animation tells certain part of story which screenwriting can't express it directly. They do look at how well animation reflects a character's inner state and mood of the scene. For example, would you like to watch animation of elated girl jumping with joy or would you like to hear spoken dialogue that directly says to audience "Haruka is jumping up and down because she is elated"? Latter would work on prose, but not on animation or live-action. Anyway, direction, writings, visuals, music, and acting are pretty much in equal in animation. I'd like to see fans of music and voice acting analyze how this music score fits that scene or how good or bad is the voice acting performance of certain actor. |
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FireballDragon
 Posts: 683 |
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No one's gonna even mention ONE's genius comedic writing?
An invincible superhero who hates being invincible sounds like a concept that'd get old REALLY fast, and yet this guy took it and made into an ongoing manga series that's received near-global critical praise. It's just so freakin' funny and awesome at the same time. How do you even DO something like that? HOW? That's brilliance at its finest right there. |
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Valhern
 Posts: 916 |
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To me the sum of the parts is not the whole of it, meaning, I don't think that summing up different aspects of the anime and prioritizing some over others help defining it , because whatever the case you will always leave things aside and missing a lot, therefore making the discent between opinions even bigger.
Certainly, some aspects stand out over others, but at base, it still has the same structure than any other animated media, and the removal of any of it's basic characteristics (call it production, direction, animation, backgrounds, voice acting, whatever you want it) would make it lose whatever defines it. The difference will be on how the work on different aspects will be done. It's not a thing of "the good animation covers for the bad writing", it's clear that one aspect can be perceived as stronger than the other, but both are still consistently part of the same thing. When you work on something, you obviously also prioritize what you like the most first, and what you don't like so much it will likely be target of critics, but even so you can't forget it because it's "not the main point", it might not be, but it's still part of the work. In the case of One Punch Man, it's interesting. Considering that the webcomic doesn't have a real outstanding art, it's almost as if the art is its own joke, it seems that it's premise and writing is what catched enough attention. Murata adapted the story with complete accuracy for more than half of it, did it become better because now it had amazing art? Not necessarily, but it indeed bring a lot more of attention, it improved what was done, but it didn't erase it, so to speak. The same could be said about the anime, it added even more improvements as the voices, the movement, the color, with it's own problems that you can criticize as much as you want, but those are still part of the 'success'. The anime, the manga and the webcomic are three diferent ways to enjoy essentialy the same thing, but each one has a different strenght to it, even if I say the the first two improved the third, they didn't do it by erasing what it was already done in the first place. Point being, no aspect outweighs the other, it might be only appreciated more than other. |
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purplepolecat
 Posts: 130 |
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This. The animation may be gorgeous, but the comedy is what keeps me coming back to this show. Unfortunately, while animation quality is something that most people can agree on, comedy is very subjective. It's clear that a lot of this show's best gags fell flat with some people, which I think accounts for the number of "it's OK, but not that great" posts ITT. |
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Go Mifune
 Posts: 63 |
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First, I would like to say I would like to see more articles such as this. Although I think they should have included a little bit about the writers, especially the comedic aspects. Overall, I think that much of the aspects elaborated in this article are not discussed enough here. Though I do sense somewhat of a change in that recently with some "highlight" articles discussing in more detail certain individuals in the industry.
I agree with Jacob in much of what they say. But this quote hits it pretty square and I think it is even more relevant to animation than live action. I mean there are terms that have been developed for these differences "off model" (the bad kind), "lazy animation", etc. Also, similar to what Jacob discusses, is the complete joke that the Academy Awards Best Feature Animation is... let alone the shorts. Look into the reasoning behind some of their votes, Google "Proof the Oscar voters are clueless about animation" (not sure if linking is allowed.) |
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DeSpawn
Posts: 82 Location: Boston, MA |
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This is the type of article i love to see and read, thanks for pulling it together.
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DeSpawn
Posts: 82 Location: Boston, MA |
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This is the type of article i love to see and read, thanks for pulling it together.
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bastek66
Posts: 118 |
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GIFS are past, use WEBMS
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#847571
Posts: 5 |
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Not many people knew that One Punch Man original creator is a Internet Japanese Manga artist, pen name ONE. created since Feb 2009.
and this is the original manga. 
http://goboiano.com/original/3063-two-superhero-series-from-japan-that-might-be-more-fun-than-marvel-and-dc |
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sayian
Posts: 1 |
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OPM villains just suck. means nothing. if villains are so much weaker than the protagonist then the more insane the feats are. take this gif for example
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Jd6VGA_xEcU/VkP4DHI4E6I/AAAAAAAABTY/GF1bDqxhg40/w426-h240/DBZ_Goku_Vs_Jeice_Burter_Part_1_2_720p_HD.gif |
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