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GLBThese 3D Anime Exceed Expectations And Rival Their 2D Cousins
0Article by Dave Cabrera
In the world of Japanese anime, 3D computer graphics are often looked at as a second-class medium when compared to the virtuosic work that animators conjure in two dimensions. (Watch episode 1072 of One Piece; no context is needed.) But the fact that CG and CG artists continue to make advances, and a new generation of CG anime is starting to win over even the pickiest of connoisseurs. Let's look at a few.
Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero
The most recent Dragon Ball movie was animated by the usual studio, Toei, but this time by the 3D folks. As the first full CG installment of arguably the most internationally famous and beloved anime series in the world and following up the 2D masterclass Broly movie Super Hero has a lot to live up to, and proves itself.
A fun comedy about the surrogate father/son relationship between Gohan and Piccolo rival heroes Goku and Vegeta are relegated to a cameo in the middle of the film Super Hero uses 3D animation to ape the traditional Dragon Ball art style so crisply that you'd be hard pressed to tell the average still frame from this film from hand-drawn art.
When the characters inevitably face off in battle, the animators really start showing off, with the kind of weight, impact, and physical contact that's especially hard to express in CG. The animators didn't have to go out of their way to get a bunch of pro wrestling moves in there nobody in Dragon Ball ever does that! but they did. Not just an animation exhibition and a delight for long-time fans, Super Hero is a laugh-out-loud farce about a bunch of idiots: the best kind of Dragon Ball.
Hi Score Girl
A nostalgic childhood daydream about early 90s arcade games, animated for TV by the tech that would usher in the end of the era. Kind of like The Wonder Years, but with Final Fight.
Dirtbag grade schooler Haruo is an arcade rat in middle-of-nowhere Japan in the early 90s. In an era when arcades had a bit of a shady reputation and being seen at one implies delinquency Haruo of course comes across the perfect, beloved idol of his class, Akira. She crushes him at Street Fighter II, and can beat Final Fight on one coin. The two kids awkwardly bond against the background of the 90s Japanese arcade golden age.
Something about original manga author Rensuke Oshikiri's artwork that grubby feeling, the "little shit" vibes characters like Haruo give off seems to have translated very smoothly to the 3D anime. The expressions throughout are fantastic; even the non-verbal Akira has a strong presence.
And above and beyond expectations, the video games of the era get an obsessive treatment pro players were brought in to play the in-game footage that blares in the arcade scenes, recorded directly off original arcade hardware by Japan's famous Mikado arcade.
Trigun Stampede
Studio Orange has long been at the forefront of using 3D to specifically imitate the kinds of mannerisms and techniques that make 2D anime so beloved, and they seem to take leaps and bounds forward with every new series they work on (see Beastars, Land of the Lustrous).
Thus far, Trigun Stampede a reboot of Yasuhiro's Nightow's sci-fi manga represents the peak of their form. The animation isn't trying to fool viewers into thinking they're looking at a hand-drawn frame: rather it embraces what can be done with CG while imitating the 2D style. Characters are so animated it's almost over-animated: Meryl Strife in particular emotes and moves like a Disney character. The direction has a cinematic eye that feels more like live-action film than animation, and battles take full advantage of the 3D format as the camera swings and flies wildly around the scene.
As for the series itself, you either love or hate it: swerving almost immediately from the comedy of the original, Stampede is a biography of Vash the Stampede's endless inner turmoil and self-loathing, his upbringing in a government project, and his toxic relationship with his brother Knives. If you came for a long, slow, deep dive into those characters, you'll be very pleased. But if you were looking for the kind of wacky action/comedy the show's poster implies, you'll be better served re-watching the original TV series.
BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!
Idol that is pop idol, in that particular Japanese style series were pretty quick to realize the benefits of 3D animation. After all, idols sing and dance, making concert scenes a natural fit for motion-captured 3D. Idols are big in Japan, and animation studios have been trying to get these scenes right for a really long time. It's only in the last decade or so that idol anime particularly the big one, Love Live have been turning out really convincing music videos with CG.
So something interesting about the Bang Dream series (Bang Dream fans have by this paragraph already thrown heavy rocks at me for associating the "band girls" anime with idols) is that the whole show is CG. This show quietly caught my eye recently with a truly messy group of girls, contrary to the stereotypical squeaky-clean pop star image. A couple of these girls are downright unlikable, and they have convincing drama.
Studio Sanzigen's CG is way past the point where anime fans could complain about the models looking weird: this is idol stuff, and they're obsessed with making sure the characters look their very best from every angle. The moment that really impressed me with this series a trick uniquely suited to 3D was the third episode, a full-length first-person flashback from the eyes of a character who I must assume is autistic. Showing us the way the character sees the world and others by making us live behind her eyes for half an hour was one of the most powerful expressions I've seen in anime this year.
The gdgd Fairies universe
Okay, with all of those out of the way, I get to talk about my favorite. Gdgd ("gdgd" is Japanese internet slang that roughly means "tedious" or "boring" or "tl;dr") Fairies was a chaotic half-scripted comedy done in very rudimentary CG about jeez, what was gdgd Fairies about? I don't think it knew either.
Rather than sticking too hard to any pre-determined storyline, gdgd Fairies was more of a format. The very start of an episode has the fairies weird little pastel-colored moppets sit around a table and talk about some ordinary subject. Pkpk, the pink one, is the straightforward one. Shrshr, the blonde, is free-spirited and lazy. Krkr, the one with the mushroom on her head, is a void of darkness. They bounce off each other really well, and take mundane subjects like how best to fall asleep into bizarre tangents.
In another common segment the faries talk over bizarre, nonsense CG clips: the first episode has them dub over a half-naked man flying through the air propelled by his own farts. It's pretty clear from their voices that the actresses are seeing this stuff for the first time and reacting accordingly, frequently dropping character from laughter.
It's from back in the 2010s, but gdgd Fairies reminds me of the best of early Adult Swim: a kawaii version of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. They've even got their own version of Carl. Later series by these creators would continue performing weird experiments, like an entire anime motion-captured on an Xbox Kinect. The gdgd Fairies even got a movie in Japan; sadly, I haven't seen it yet.
