Animation quality is one of the aspects of Anime that viewers tend to judge first hand when determining how good the production values are for a show. The sad fact is that animation mistakes regardless of the studio are bound to happen. Animation studios work on a very tight schedule and because of that, they might not have enough time to check every key frame before having to give the finished episode to the station to air. As a result, these errors usually get fixed later on, namely for the Blu-ray/DVD release.
To me, I think it is always in the best interest for the animation studio to make them not too noticeable and then fix it while enhancing some scenes in the final release. However, what implications will arise if studios decide to take advantage of this fact and air a half-finished product to entice people to buy the physical releases? Let’s find out.
So, why does animation mistakes tend to happen? I think there are many factors that can affect the animation quality. If you are watching Shirobako, you probably know that making anime is not an easy task. Not only it takes proper project management to keep track the progress for each task, constraints, budget, etc., which plays a big role in the success of the production, but also the talent at the company. The problem is that animators are paid very little for their work and work very long hours, which in turn causes some to lose motivation or try to cut corners just to get the job done.
If you factor in the time constraints due to short deadlines and limited budgets for most productions, animation mistakes most likely than not are going to happen. As a result, there will be some animation errors will slip through the crack due to time constraints. As a result, these animation errors will end up getting fixed after the episode’s airing such as a stream or in most cases, a DVD or Blu-ray release.
If animation studios can’t meet the deadline, what should they do to help mitigate this? The first obvious thing is to not make them noticeable and try not to cut corners. From experience, studios like PA Works and Kyoto Animation usually maintains a high level of quality with their works. While they make animation mistakes once in a while, they are hardly noticeable and therefore leave a good impression on the viewer who might want to buy the release. On the other hand, there are studios like Toei and Production IMS who do not care what the viewers think and only the bottom line. They will air a half-finished product while make the mistakes too noticeable and frequent to entice viewers to buy the fixed release.
I think the latter is harmful for the fact not only it can deter viewers from potentially buying the actual releases, but this also gives viewers a bad impression of the type of work the studio puts out. As stated many times, Ore Twintail ni Narimasu episode 10 probably has the worst animation I saw in years since it looked unfinished. Moreover, there are many people on the Internet complaining about the animation quality of Sailor Moon Crystal since the show has a bigger budget. Because of this, the viewers eventually are going to give a backlash against the studio. Shirobako gives a good glimpse into this issue with viewers complaining about how bad the animation for Boing Boing Paradise with episode 9’s animation becoming horribly deformed. This episode resulted in bad publicity for the studio with some going so far by vandalizing one of the staff’s rice cookers. I think it’s better for them to try to make as few mistakes as possible even if they have to push back the initial airing or do a split-season so that these flaws won’t be noticeable. Having few to no apparent mistakes will leave a good impression on the viewers not only for the show they are watching, but also for the studio as a whole.
On the other hand, by studios saying that we’ll fix it in the actual release and don’t take any pride in their work only shows that they only care about the bottom line and not what the fans think who are potentially buying the product. Something like this can be harmful for the industry as a whole as people will think that all studios make mediocre or poor quality productions. We are seeing the same trend with the video game industry trying to rush games to release so that they can make as much money as possible even if they are filled with game breaking bugs. This kind of thing not only enrages the consumers who buy them, but also reduces the developer’s reputation and the faith in the industry as a whole. Regardless of the industry, negative publicity from intentionally releasing half-finished, poor quality productions not only hurts the studio that worked on it, but also the industry as a whole. As a result, people might become hesitant to buy DVD/Blu-ray releases from studios that had a bad track record when it comes to production quality.
While animation mistakes is a fact of life since we are human after all, animation studios should not get a free ride and use this as an excuse for poor animation quality and turn around and say, “Buy our improved release on Blu-ray!” By saying that, it just shows that they do not take pride in their work. Instead, studios should try to conceal these mistakes and not cut corners for the initial release. Afterwards, they can go back and fix them while enhancing it for the actual release. If they do this, not only it would improve the studio’s reputation, but it will also benefit the industry as a whole since more people will be enticed to buy merchandise and DVDs/Blu-ray of shows he/she enjoys since it would have good production values.
What do you think? Is it justified for studios to produce poorly animated episodes and then turn around and say we’ll improve it in the Blu-ray release? Or, do you think that this kind of trend is harmful to animation studios and the industry and they should try to put more pride into their work? Feel free to share your thoughts about shows/scenes that are poorly animated.
Hmmm… I am not actually very keen to those animation errors. Or to be precise, I just noticed them when someone points out the difference in quality between the anime release and the Blu-ray. But I totally understand that every work is a hard thing to do, including animation. But of course, the animators also need pay a lot of attention to their production if they don’t want to lose a lot of consumers.
One has to realize that mistakes are bound to happen once in a while and I think you understand that already. I do agree that studios do not necessarily want too many mistakes for the fact that the animation quality is one of the easiest thing to judge a work or studio on and it’s always in their best interest to try avoiding making animation errors on obvious things like humans. To me, making a mistake on something minor like the scenery is better since it’s easy to hide than with something noticeable.
You bring up some good points. I remember while watching Darker Than Black: Ryusei No Gemini. In 2009. When it first aired there were quite a few people on a forum I frequented back then who were ripping into how horrible the animation was in this one episode where it had a scene where, Hei, one of the main characters of the series looked noticeably weird-looking in proportion.
While it was true and they were somewhat right in questioning BONES and their deterioration in animation quality. I also felt the [BONES staff at that time] would not do such things without reasons. Sometimes people need to learn to lighten up when it comes to judging animation quality. I am pretty sure no one wants to willingly put out bad animation for viewers. Since I sincerely hope animators have pride in their work. I know I have tons of pride in their work and I am not even an animator. Though you are right, in some, respects that they should aim to give their best efforts, if possible. I mean they do have an eager audience watching.
I think that animation studios tend not to want to put out bad quality. Surely, the viewers might be overreacting, but I do feel that most of the animation deterioration besides the budget and deadline issue is for the fact that studios nowadays work on more than one project at the same, which of course can impact animation quality due to varying deadlines. Outsourcing can be another issue (something I forgot to cover) as more studios tend to have an in-between to do some of the work instead of doing it in-house. Of course, this will ultimately lead to inconsistent quality as not all animation studios will adhere to. This is becoming an issue in regards to quality since studios want to cut costs due to the budget being small, which in turn the animation quality will suffer.
Oh, yeah. They do have multiple projects going on. That is also another thing that is true. You don’t say about outsourcing. I knew they practiced it but wasn’t aware that sometimes those they outsourced might have a big impact on the animation but there you have something to think about. Still for the most part this kind of thing-bad animation degradation only happens occasionally but when it does it is quite noticeable.
As mentioned in one of the later replies, I forgot to mention outsourcing, but from what I have heard, it’s becoming a trend, especially with studios having overseas studio work on some of the keyframe. I feel that the latter especially will have an impact since those animators won’t have the same talent and skill set compared to if it was done by another Japanese animation studio.
Good article, but there are a few points to consider:
1) Studios are required to deliver an episode on time, come hell or high water. Except in rare instances (i.e. mitigating circumstances such as natural disasters, usually fabulous DVD pre-order numbers, etc.), the sponsors who pay for timeslots don’t accept delay, so failure to produce is a good way to kiss your business goodbye. There’s a saying that a delivered product is “better late than crap”, but in the case of anime, it’s “better crap than late”.
2) Because of point 1, a screwed schedule means that it may be impossible to hide serious defects. They’ve outsourced animation to random overseas studios (because anyone of repute is either already booked or unwilling to do the job on such short notice) and literally finish just hours before broadcast.
3) Toei makes children’s anime, so they aren’t targeting the Blu-Ray market (which we can think of as modern “OVA consumers”). Their pipeline is geared toward multiple long-running series produced in parallel (which is a valuable asset; Pierrot is probably the only other company that can deliver these on a constant basis), and quality standards are typical for morning/prime-time TV. From the 70s until now, polished, consistent work has never been expected for that segment.
4) The competition for talent is intense due to the large numbers of shows being produced. While output is growing, the skilled workforce isn’t.
5) KyoAni is immune from the competition for talent. They’re isolated in Kyoto (which also means that the pay scale for top talent doesn’t have to be competitive with Tokyo studios. Those who want more money need to move – and in this case, a significant lifestyle change comes with relocation) with an army of permanent, full-time employees.
6) P.A. Works dolls everything up with outstanding backgrounds and polished digital effects, both of which are handled by outside companies. However, their shows are loaded with questionable animation (which has significantly increased ever since they took on more shows and outsourced work to less experienced studios), with Glasslip being a particularly bad offender. The studio has a “quota over correctness” policy to enforce discipline, and it shows. I’m quite fond of their work overall, but they’re by no means close to achieving a consistent high quality.
7) Production IMS has solid pedigree (they’re the people who made AIC relevant again – first at A.S.T.A. and then at AIC as a whole. Bamboo Blade, Sunred, Sora no Otoshimono, Oreimo, and Haganai are examples of their hits), but they’re in a new situation with an experimental work structure. It could be overconfidence or an experiment gone wrong, but it’s unlikely that they’re producing poor animation on purpose.
8) “Animation fixed in the Blu-Ray” is a big myth. I like to think of it as a new paint job – things look right on the surface (i.e. still screen shots), but any underlying structural problems remain. Quality might change from “bad” to “less bad”, but from experience, it’s never “bad” to “good”. The latter requires a redo, but where’s the money for that? The budget has been eaten, so they’re polishing a turd.
Thanks for the additional insight. Of course, every animation studio will do things differently due to various reasons such as demographics, culture and such. However, you bring up a good point about outsourcing, something I forgot to touch on since that will obviously have an impact. Considering that each studio is packed since they are usually working on more than one project, studios are bound to have another studio finish up the work. Of course, cost cutting is another reason. Regardless, depending on the studio, I think outsourcing will obviously have a profound impact on the animation quality in regards to consistency.
As for the Blu-ray issue, of course studios tend to improve the animation because DVD/Blu-ray releases costs more in Japan and are treated like collector items. But as you say, I do agree that studios will in most cases won’t redo keyframes, but just polish them up so that they look decent. But in general, the actual DVD/Blu-ray releases don’t really ensure a better release since some studios might not care at all and just fix a few things and then release it in it’s current form. By then, the damage is already done since the viewers know that the animation is poor quality and won’t buy the release besides the dedicated fans.
I don’t think it’s really right of them to do that when it shouldn’t have to be that way at all. If we have to buy Blu-Rays just to see a DECENT animated series, it reeks of nothing more than forcing fans to fork over money. In a lot of ways, it is understandable though (more money will go to the animators/budget hopefully?) and I wish there could have been an easier system for them to work around it so they don’t mess up and we watch less than decent animations and they get treated better.
But only in a perfect world.
As stated before, Blu-ray releases obviously don’t ensure a quality release, but I do feel that by releasing only a marginally better release does not really look that good on the studio as a whole. I realize that they need to make money, but I have a feeling that studios and the animators are being overworked, meaning that the quality will eventually suffer due to animators taking shortcuts and of course, outsourcing. Eventually, the industry is going to have to address this issue (and more that many don’t know about), even if this means that there will be slightly less shows that will air each season.
Right, but what else can studios release that’ll ensure money will come back to them? It’s a catch-22 for both animators and fans. They’re on a tight budget/schedule and fans may or may not have that disposable income. Of course, I’ve read in your other comments above it seems that more companies are outsourcing thereby not just making the animation itself cheaper, but more room for budgets and consequently the company can possibly take more objects.
However, the downside to that is the job rate for animators in Japan is going to get worse and it’s just a grim outlook if we look at it at this angle.
Given the declining birth-rate (unless it gets addressed all the sudden), I feel that the industry is going to have an even tougher time trying to get new talent. At some point, I feel that the industry will be forced to scale things back instead of taking on more projects. Of course, there may be other problems in the industry that nobody knows about besides what Shirobako is showing, which already revealed a great deal of challenges that already exists, although it has a slightly positive outlook despite the troubles the characters face in the story.
Whoops, I meant projects not objects! Sorry!
Agreed – they need to seriously either not take on projects or put them for a much later date. Unfortunately, it’s going to be hard to really determine what’s successful and what’s not (considering a lot of different factors) but we’ll probably have to see what happens and talk about it when it does.