I like anime and find them to be good stories that have a lot of details. I appreciate the artwork and facial expressions of the big-eyed characters. The biggest difference between anime and children’s cartoons is the smart storyline and dialogue.
Today I watched the anime Nichijou (Japanese for “My Normal Life”). Nichijou is a series about a High School surrounding a group of friends where very strange things happen. It reminded me of some non-animated stories about High Schools found on Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel (And just like those shows, this one also lies about how high school is really like). There is the smart girl who wears glasses, reads books, and rarely ever shows any emotion, the girl who is energetic but has no motivation to do her schoolwork, and the common sense girl who happens to have blue hair. The school has the nervous teacher who kids prank and a Principal that tells corny jokes. This story also has a robot that has a wind up key in her back but is trying to hide the fact that she is a robot. She lives with an eight-year-old girl who apparently built her and can invent other things, and a cat with a handkerchief that allows him to talk. In the first episode there are a few story lines happening. One is that the robot collides with a boy and an explosion occurs. In another scene the robot is seen trapped on a roof. The episodes all have a cliffhanger. All of these characters provide good story lines.
Many things struck me as I was watching this anime. First, I realized the importance of good characters for good plots, and second, the effectiveness of camera angles. In Nichijou the camera angles move from aerial views, to upward shots and to close ups. I particularly like the way the creator stresses emotion. I would like to use in my animation techniques like characters turning white or growing large when angry or the drop of sweat on the back of the characters’ heads when they are anxious.
In some ways Nichijou’s drawings reminded me of Pixar’s Toy Story’s drawings. They were simple and realistic looking. It also occurred to me that in Toy Story, characters like Woody and Andy share the same big eyed features as found in anime (except Woody has an excuse for that since he’s a toy). Mostly what Anime and Pixar have in common is their wide appeal to people of all ages.
Works Cited
Nichijou Part 1. animefuel. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. <http://animefuel.com>.
