Ask John: Why Are Japanese Otaku More Conscious of Animation Quality than Americans?

Question:
I’ve noticed that many of the otaku characters in anime are depicted as sakuga otaku who have a keen eye for animation and animators, rather than commenting on other staff like the writer and director. Does this portrayal match the reality of Japanese anime fans on 2ch and whatnot? If so, can you hypothesize about why Japanese fans might be more conscious of animation than Western fans?

Answer:
Particularly Japanese otaku seem to take special notice of two types of animation quality: especially detailed, complex, and fluid animation that’s referred to as “sakuga” anime, and especially choppy, poorly drawn, and simply bad animation that’s referred to as “yashigani” anime. Both of these extremes of animation quality may be especially noticeable and memorable because they’re typically much more impactful than more subtle aspects of anime production like screenwriting and direction. It takes a conscious and trained observer to notice especially good writing or direction. But especially impressive or terrible visual design and animation quality are immediately perceptible to any viewer.

I think that the extremes are particularly noticeable by Japanese observers for a number of reasons. Anime has always been a medium created with limited animation. Furthermore, the creation of anime has long been a public activity in Japan, so a greater number of Japanese fans are consciously aware of the technical construction of anime. America is a bit different. While Japanese animation typically uses lower frame rates and greater detail in visual design, American animation has traditionally concentrated on higher frame rates, resulting in more fluid movement, but less photo realistic detail and backgrounds, especially in television animation. Animation production in the US has also always been isolated primarily to professional artists while, in Japan, independent, amateur animators have been creating high profile and exceptional quality short animated works since the early 1980s: productions like the Daicon IV, Uracon, and Fanroad openings, and more recently Nosferatu’s Non-chan shorts, Ankama Japan’s Koutetsu no Vendetta, and Junichi Yamamoto’s Kobe & I. In effect, American animation viewers are typically strictly passive consumers and viewers. Typical American viewers watch animation but don’t think much about how it’s made. Japanese viewers, on the other hand, are more conscious of the construction of animation and therefore more likely to consciously look for and notice especially good and especially bad animation. Consider that Japanese otaku respect animators including Yoshinori Kanda, Ichiro Itano, and Tomonori Kogawa – artists not known for directing or writing but for literally drawing impressive key frames of animation. There are few American equivalents. Recognized animators including Ralph Bakshi, John Kricfalusi, Chuck Jones, and Bill Plympton are known to Americans as much or more for their directing and their
stylistic sensibilities as for the literal quality of the animation they drew by hand.

Just like in America, directors certainly get a lot of deserving credit. Names like Hayao Miyazaki, Mamoru Oshii, Hideaki Anno, Gisaburo Suugi, Osamu Dezaki, and Satoshi Kon are as well known to otaku as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, and Woody Allen. But screenwriters tend to get overlooked. Galge writer Maeda Jun is quite well recognized and discussed, but he’s largely an exception. Anime characters in shows including Otaku no Video and Genshiken most frequently point out exceptional animation quality because they probably are most typical of hardcore Japanese otaku. Anime is fundamentally a visual medium, so it’s natural for its devotees to first and foremost focus on its visual component. Japanese otaku appreciably notice and comment on animation quality – recall that viewer criticism from the 2channel message board regarding the premiere of Gurren Lagann quickly resulted in Gainax co-founder Takami Akai resigning from his work on the show and from the studio entirely. But no one remembers complaints about screenplay resulting in a writer being replaced because such complaints don’t surface in appreciable quantity or with particular vehemence. The connection between the animation production industry and its fans/viewers is much tighter, and the distinction between creator and consumer much smaller in Japan than in America, so Japanese otaku have naturally developed a more outspoken and critical eye for animation quality over the decades compared to American viewers watching American animation.

Check out the impressive animation on display in the fan created Uracon III convention opening animation from 1984: