A Combination of Novelty and Nostalgia: CGI in Japanese Animation Production

Introduction

In October 2019, Lupin III: The First (Takashi Yamazaki, 2019), the first 3D-CGI feature anime of the long-run franchise Lupin the Third, was released. Created by Monkey Punch in 1967, the franchise has remained popular for over the fifty years with the publication of 35 volumes of manga, seven series of TV anime and several OVAs (original video animation), live-action and animated films, and video games. Working closely with Marza Animation Planet, the studio that had animated the 2D anime series, Yamazaki and the 3D animators from TMS Entertainment “depict the iconic 2D anime characters in the 3D/CG style that is more familiar to the international audiences” (Davis, “Lupin III: The First”). About one year later, Ghibli Studio, the anime studio renowned for hand-drawn animation, released its first 3D-CGI feature, Earwig and the Witch (Goro Miyazaki, 2020). In her article, critic Victoria Davis refers to Lupin III: The First, along with Earwig and the Witch, as one of the “earliest” examples of 3D/CG anime adaptation that “could be a bridge that connects 2D and 3D animation” (“Lupin III: The First”). However, there have been several examples of anime films produced in or incorperated with 3D-CG since the 2000, such as Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (Tetsuya Nomura, 2005), Stand by Me, Doraemon (Ryuichi Yagi and Takashi Yamazaki, 2014), and Your Name (Makoto Shinkai, 2016). Industry observers have failed to recognize the unique ways anime has integrated CG technology.

Such misconceptions about CGI and Japanese animation are common, in part because viewers only look for CG animation that exclusively uses 3D-CG technology in the production. Even academics believe that Japanese animation industry has been slow to adopt CGI technology (Wada-Marciano 75). The industry’s strong association with television and OVA has reinforced anime’s characteristics which are primarily modeled on 2D, or cel-animation style (75). By contrast, Pixar and many American animation studios mainly produced all-3D animated films as the technology became mature.

When tracing the history of the adoption of computer-generated imagery (CGI) and digital technology in Japanese animation production, however, one finds that beginning in 1981, with the founding of the Japan Computer Graphics Lab, Japan’s industry has often inserted CGI in production and used the technology to diversify its visual style. In fact, Japanese animators have long used digital tools to recreate their past styles, a trait that Chinese animation has also adopted (Whyke et al. 158). In this paper, I investigate the use of CGI and digital technology in the production process of Japanese animated films. I argue that, even though its integration seems slow, Japanese animation adopted the new technology quite extensively in feature films, but in a different way, or what I call a “nostalgic” way, from American animation studios. Though adopting CGI technology intensively in animated films, Japanese directors regularly adapt and minimize the 3D potential as they try to replicate the flat, cel-animation style. The studios embraced the new technology in production, while preserving an almost nostalgic connection with pre-CGI aesthetics.

While it is impossible to exhaust every method that the anime industry has utilized to infuse the new technology into the conventional anime-look, I will examine the visual aspects of 3D mise-en-scène, virtual cinematography, the editing style of mixing multiple visual media, and re-interpreted character performance. To do so, I will use Your Name (Makoto Shinkai, 2016), Mind Game (Masaaki Yuasa, 2004), and The Case of Hana and Alice (Shunji Iwai, 2015) as primary examples to explore the hybridity of CGI and the anime style.

Works Cited:

Davis, Victoria, ‘“Lupin III: The First” Bridges the 2D-3D Gap Between Eastern and Western Animation’, Animation World Network, 16 Dec. 2020, https://www.awn.com/animationworld/lupin-iii-first-bridges-2d-3d-gap-between-eastern-and-western-animation. Accessed 14 February 2022.

Wada-Marciano, Mitsuyo. Japanese Cinema in the Digital Age. University of Hawaii Press, 2012.

Whyke, Thomas William, et al. “Contemporizing the National Style in Chinese Animation: The Case of Nezha (2019).” Animation, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 157–74.

* This paper was originally presented at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference, Albuquerque, NM, February 2022. Now it was accepted by Encyclopedia of Animation Studies Vol. 2: Techniques, Processes, Environments. Ed. Franziska Bruckner and Alla Gadassik. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, forthcoming 2025.