"Traditional" anime style?
I recently had a client who wanted me to do animation for a game he's producing. I figured, no problem, I'll follow the character designs and get paid. YAY!
Naturally it wasn't that simple. First off, the pay was terrible. Given the scope if the project, it worked out to abou five dollars a day. Second, the guy kept claiming that my style wasn't "anime" enough, and that it was too "Americanized." Um, excuse me buddy, but I'm following YOUR character designs. Then things got fun. He started talking about how he wanted "Asian authenticity" in the artwork. He couldn't give me a real explanation for that, but kept saying that my art style is too Americanized. Nevermind the fact that I'm American. Anyway, this devolved rather quickly, and I dumped the job, mostly because of the shitty pay. To top it all off, he sent me back an angry email about it, when I'd been nothing but diplomatic.
Dickhead.
So, I was looking around the job boards on the site where I'd first said client and I saw that he'd posted over there again looking for a new animator. There was also another job posting by someone else who was looking for "traditional anime style," so in the discussion board I felt the need to post something, because these two aren't the first and thy won't be the last.
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Ok, I've seen posts in the job forums saying that they are looking for art or animation in the "traditional" anime style; i've also dealt with a client who constantly talked about having "Asian authenticity" in the artwork.
What IS that???
First off, what qualifies as "traditional" anime style? There are so many published Japanese comic artists, character designers and animators who all draw in different styles from each other, so how can anyone say what the "traditional" style is? I can understand if someone says that they're looking for a "classic" anime style; that, to me, says Osamu Tezuka, Leiji Matsumoto, early or pre-eighties era. Of course, a person would have to be specific about which classic artist they're referring to, because there is a wide range of styles that are all considered to be "classic."
Among contemporary Japanese artists, there is an even wider range of styles; Masamune Shirow, Ken Akamatsu, Rumiko Takahashi, Akira Toriyama, Yasuhiro Nightow, the artists of CLAMP, Studio 4C, and Madhouse, all have widely varied styles, yet are all "anime" style. Which one is an artist who is asked for "anime style" supposed to emulate when the request isn't any more specific?
Furthermore, when some requests the even more amorphous "Asian authenticity," what then? Chinese Kung Fu comic style (varied, but seemingly less so)? Manhwa style (also varied)? How are we supposed to narrow that down, other than to follow given character designs (if we're not the ones generating them)?
Honestly, I think what it comes down to is that when people say "traditional" anime style without being specific about an artist whose style they like, or when they harp on and on about not wanting an "Americanized" but Japanese looking style, what they actually mean is that they want a STEREOTYPICAL "anime" style.
They want art that matches their preconcieved notions of what they THINK anime is. Considering anime's history, and the fact that early artists like Osamu Tezuka and later artists like Yoshitaka Amano at first emulated the Disney artists and Jack Kirby respectively, those preconcieved notions reflect a great deal of cultural and artistic myopia. Granted, usually the people making requests like this are not artists themselves. We can only hope that for all of their ignorance, they can at least pay well. Sadly, in my experience anyway, they haven't even had that going for them.
Okay, rant over.
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I'm not sure what kind of response this will get over there, but we'll see. What do you think?
Naturally it wasn't that simple. First off, the pay was terrible. Given the scope if the project, it worked out to abou five dollars a day. Second, the guy kept claiming that my style wasn't "anime" enough, and that it was too "Americanized." Um, excuse me buddy, but I'm following YOUR character designs. Then things got fun. He started talking about how he wanted "Asian authenticity" in the artwork. He couldn't give me a real explanation for that, but kept saying that my art style is too Americanized. Nevermind the fact that I'm American. Anyway, this devolved rather quickly, and I dumped the job, mostly because of the shitty pay. To top it all off, he sent me back an angry email about it, when I'd been nothing but diplomatic.
Dickhead.
So, I was looking around the job boards on the site where I'd first said client and I saw that he'd posted over there again looking for a new animator. There was also another job posting by someone else who was looking for "traditional anime style," so in the discussion board I felt the need to post something, because these two aren't the first and thy won't be the last.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ok, I've seen posts in the job forums saying that they are looking for art or animation in the "traditional" anime style; i've also dealt with a client who constantly talked about having "Asian authenticity" in the artwork.
What IS that???
First off, what qualifies as "traditional" anime style? There are so many published Japanese comic artists, character designers and animators who all draw in different styles from each other, so how can anyone say what the "traditional" style is? I can understand if someone says that they're looking for a "classic" anime style; that, to me, says Osamu Tezuka, Leiji Matsumoto, early or pre-eighties era. Of course, a person would have to be specific about which classic artist they're referring to, because there is a wide range of styles that are all considered to be "classic."
Among contemporary Japanese artists, there is an even wider range of styles; Masamune Shirow, Ken Akamatsu, Rumiko Takahashi, Akira Toriyama, Yasuhiro Nightow, the artists of CLAMP, Studio 4C, and Madhouse, all have widely varied styles, yet are all "anime" style. Which one is an artist who is asked for "anime style" supposed to emulate when the request isn't any more specific?
Furthermore, when some requests the even more amorphous "Asian authenticity," what then? Chinese Kung Fu comic style (varied, but seemingly less so)? Manhwa style (also varied)? How are we supposed to narrow that down, other than to follow given character designs (if we're not the ones generating them)?
Honestly, I think what it comes down to is that when people say "traditional" anime style without being specific about an artist whose style they like, or when they harp on and on about not wanting an "Americanized" but Japanese looking style, what they actually mean is that they want a STEREOTYPICAL "anime" style.
They want art that matches their preconcieved notions of what they THINK anime is. Considering anime's history, and the fact that early artists like Osamu Tezuka and later artists like Yoshitaka Amano at first emulated the Disney artists and Jack Kirby respectively, those preconcieved notions reflect a great deal of cultural and artistic myopia. Granted, usually the people making requests like this are not artists themselves. We can only hope that for all of their ignorance, they can at least pay well. Sadly, in my experience anyway, they haven't even had that going for them.
Okay, rant over.
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I'm not sure what kind of response this will get over there, but we'll see. What do you think?