So why is Japanese animation so popular this year while domestic animation is left out? I analyze and compare from the following aspects.
1. development overview
China Animation:
The production of new China fine arts films began at 1947, which opened the prelude to the development of new China fine arts films.
The early 1950s (1950- 1956) was its growth stage, and the increase of artists brought about the development of creation.
1957- 1966 is the heyday of art films, with various forms, giving full play to the artistic characteristics of art films, and the national style is more mature and perfect.
1958 added a new variety-newspaper clippings. 1960 Creation of ink and wash cartoons.
196 1 to 1964, the large-scale animated film "make trouble in heaven" (the first and second episodes) is one of the main works of this period and has a wide influence in the world.
During the ten-year catastrophe of the Cultural Revolution (1966- 1976), art films were severely damaged, which greatly affected the progress of this cause.
1977 resumed creative production.
1979 The Noisy Sea, filmed to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of New China, is a wide-screen animated feature film, which is known as "colorful, elegant and imaginative" and is very popular abroad.
Before 1980s, China's animation was only called "art film", and it was really called "animation" after 1980s.
There are various stages of exploration after that. 1988- 1990 can be regarded as the golden age of China animation, with the accumulation of Little Tadpole Looking for Mom and Three Monks, as well as innovative cartoons such as Sheriff Black Cat and Hulu Brothers. China's animation industry has a bright future.
However, after 1990s, China's animation experienced a great retrogression. "Animation" has obviously become a "children's film", but the genre without innovation has deliberately imitated foreign animation and lost a great market.
Japanese animation:
In the early period before the war-1917 ~1945. In the early stage, the theme was mainly world famous works, and in the later stage, due to the rampant Japanese militarism, the animation theme could not be separated from the route of publicizing and boasting Japanese militarism.
The post-war exploration period-1945 ~ 1974. During this period, many people have a common understanding of different animation themes, from very meaningful to very vulgar.
Subject matter determination period-1974 ~ 1982. It began with the performance of Space Battleship, which caused the first Japanese animation craze.
Breakthrough period of painting skills-1982 ~ 1987. At the beginning, it was the performance of "fortress of time and space" (this animation was also introduced and played in China). Due to people's pursuit of visual enjoyment in this period, painting skills have made great breakthroughs.
Route division period-1987 ~ 1993. Japanese animation has entered a mature stage.
Style innovation period-1993 till now. When painting techniques, production techniques and concepts are becoming more and more mature, the Japanese parliament tries to break through the original model and bring new sensory impact to the audience with perfect techniques and concepts. ②
New China animation and Japanese postwar animation started almost at the same time. China's animation has only changed in some basic technologies, while Japanese animation has undergone major reforms in conception, which shows where the gap between them comes from.
2. Consciousness and theme content
The biggest reason why China's animation can't make a breakthrough is that Chinese people's concept of animation only stays in the 1970s and 1980s, thinking that animation is only suitable for children under 65,438+00 years old, and classifying cartoons as "children's programs". Moreover, the fundamental purpose of China's animation is "education", so this year's animation has gradually become naive, unable to adapt to a larger audience.
Japanese animation has positioned the market at 12 ~ 20-year-old teenagers.
The distinct difference in consciousness leads to different styles of theme content. EVA is one of the most famous animations in Japan, and it can be said that it is completely aimed at older audiences, because its content is still difficult for teenagers under 15 to understand.
It seems that China's animation has never bypassed the circle of ancient myths and legends. The best example is the latest two books, Lotus Lantern and List of Gods with huge investment. There are also extremely boring and childish content, such as big-headed son and small-headed father. In fact, from Lotus Lantern, we can see the biggest drawback of China's animation: the fixed pattern of "good guys" beating "bad guys". Originally, it was understandable to preach that "evil can overcome right". But in Lotus Lantern, why don't you let Aquilaria and his mother go? What's his inner world like? What's good for him? Why do you say he is a "bad guy"? The whole animation has no explanation.
However, Japanese animation is also constantly innovating in theme and content. Because we are facing teenagers, the content must meet the changing tastes of young people, so new content emerges one after another and has far-reaching significance. Behind the surface story, the hidden animation theme is thought-provoking. And there are many animations suitable for students' psychology. Slam dunks are the best example. The sensation caused by "irrigation" in all parts of China is absolutely obvious. It can be seen that there is no market for comics in China, but it depends on what kind of market it is facing.
3. Education, business and arts.
China animation is completely educational, and it is mostly produced by XXX art studio or XXX art department of TV station. Because it is funded by the state, social effects naturally precede economic effects and become "children's public service advertisements", so it is difficult to win young audiences.
Compared with China's "educational", Japan pays more attention to "commercial". Japanese animation is basically produced by various animation production companies themselves, so the first thing is of course the economic effect. Therefore, it is necessary to grasp the audience's psychology and improve the ratings, which inevitably requires innovation in their own animation. As a result, Japanese animation produced its artistry.
Animation is also an art, and as an animator, the first thing you should have is the consciousness of being an art creator. Education is not equal to preaching truth or instilling common sense. Isn't it more educational to let children experience the truth by themselves through art?
The famous Japanese cartoonist Osaki was moved to tears when he watched the animation adapted from his painting Desperate Love. So did Rumiko Takahashi when he watched the theatrical version of Lucky Boy. As long as the animation you do touches yourself first, you can touch others.
An excellent animation can make a strong boy cry, a melancholy girl laugh, and a frustrated person get out of the sink and regain confidence. However, is there such an animation in China so far? At least I haven't had the chance to see it.
4. Production technology and role design
China has made a great breakthrough in production technology, which can be said to be almost the same as Japan (of course, it is still much worse than Disney's dinosaur 3D technology), but there is a big gap in character design.
The characters in China's cartoons don't have their own distinct personalities, especially their eyes. Many times, the expression, eyes, personality and plot of the characters are completely out of touch, while the two characters on the same screen have no communication at all and seem to exist independently. This undoubtedly greatly reduces the visual effect of the audience.
Japanese animation is extremely special in the handling of characters' expressions. Although you can't show every muscle in the face like Dinosaur, you can show the character's personality and feelings incisively and vividly through the subtle changes of eyebrows, corners of the eyes and corners of the mouth. Moreover, Japanese animation emphasizes the bright contrast between light and shade in character design, forming its own unique style.
Of course, China animation should have its own character style, and in the process of drawing lessons from foreign cartoons, it should also gradually form its own style.
5. Early dubbing and late publicity
The dubbing of China's animation is really not so good. Sometimes the voice doesn't match the age of the characters at all, and there are few dubbing that can well reflect the characters' personality. But Japan has a special "seiyuu" (that is, animated dubbing). Although many people are much older than the characters, they can completely match the characters in comics in personality and voice, and many voice actors are famous for matching a certain character.
Voice can be said to be the soul of characters in cartoons, and how to improve the quality of dubbing is a big problem.
China's animation can hardly see the post-publicity. Only "Lotus Lantern" has publicized an investment of ×××10 million after its production, and at most some notebooks and story books have appeared. CD and VCD are considered as major breakthroughs. However, the promotion of Japanese animation is varied. First, the preview of new movies on TV is usually a short film of about 45 seconds, with music and introduction, followed by street posters. If the animation is a little famous, there will be a lot of peripheral products: dolls, models, lunch boxes, photo frames, phone cards, calendars, towels, handkerchiefs, key chains, music clocks, photo albums, shirts, handbags, badges, envelopes, stationery and postcards.
From the above five aspects, the gap between China animation and Japanese animation still exists, but China animation needs to prosper, and China animation will certainly prosper.
As long as we create our own style after absorbing some foreign animation experience, China animation will catch up with and surpass Japanese animation one day, and there will be more people waiting for the domestic animation broadcast in front of the TV!