CGI in Anime

[Dusty Sinclair]

Anime. Everybody loves anime, right? I mean, with the exception of communists, of course. I like anime, and I've always looked at hand-drawn animation and thought, "Respect, yo." Then CGI got invited to the party. Let's not get into budgets and time constraints and Bushido and all that, though. I honestly don't know jack about anime production, apart from the basics. Let's keep it subjective, okay?

I don't like it when there's CGI in anime (and not because I'm some kind of purist). I'm talking cel-shaded 3D models in place of hand-drawn animation. I've noticed this done with mostly rigid objects, I guess if the animators don't want to up the perspective. An example of that would be the Dominators from Psycho-Pass. This makes sense, I suppose, but I can't help but notice how out of place it is. Even if the colors are flat and the lines blend in, the way it moves is a dead giveaway. I recently started watching a show called Saekano, which appears to use CGI for... hands. Hands typing on keyboards. Needless to say, it doesn't look good. The hallways on the Train in Baccano! look like PlayStation FMV. The Pokemon Anime (as much as I like Pokemon, I realize I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one) uses CGI for attacks now, and it looks absolutely atrocious. They didn't even try to make it fit in. In RWBY, well... RWBY is entirely CGI. But I just can't pass up a chance to hate on its incredible tiness.

And that's all I have to say about that, really. What do you think? Do you agree? Do you disagree? Do you think I should stop complaining and get used to it?

 

[Kats]

Personally, it depends.
Sometimes it's fine, sometimes it's too much (Aikatsu!, Gokujou!! Mecha Mote Iinchou)
Though I'm fine with it in Show By Rock!! and AKB0048.

Can also often be seen for stuff like cars and background characters in anime, which I'm also fine with.
Basically, to me, it depends how it's done.
Aikatsu it's just plain bad looking, same with Gokujou, Show by Rock is decent looking, the characters don't look too stiff, and it's also adapted from a mobile game so with kind of the same style so.

AKB0048 it's also fine, mostly because the rest of the anime is amazing so I'll let it slide, because animating the parts that are CGI would probably be a pain lol.

 

[Dusty Sinclair]

Yeah, I get the whole idea of it being a pain to animate certain things, but at least don't make the CGI thing the center of attention... this doesn't even look good. The lighting seems weird, and if you were to watch the show you'd see that the movements of the chain aren't very well animated, either.

 

[krawky398]

I can understand why it gets used, due to budget reasons. But it clashes so hard with anything 2D in the same scene and can generally look kinda awful.
It's especially bad in mecha anime, where CGI being used for the mechs is getting more and more prevalent these days and I usually have to flock to my local Gundam to get some good looking 2D robots. That said though, not all CGI robots look bad, like Rebuild of Evangelion's. Not every anime has Gundam or Eva's budgets, though, so I suppose I'm just gonna have to live with it...

I gotta say though, I never really mind all-CGI stuff. It doesn't clash with anything, so you can just watch it as if it were any old thing. Stand By Me Doraemon is one all-CGI thing I've seen that looks pretty stunning.

Edit: I gotta say though, CGI's one of those things that can look weird enough to just be hilarious, even if it doesn't intend to. My favorite example being this lovely pile of cops from Magic Kaito 1412.

 

[Kyouko Tsukino]

I only like it when it's done in parts where there's little to no 2D to clash with it - Sailor Moon Crystal's transformation scenes, for example, where it both makes the whole thing look nicer, and the 3D models of the girls look quite close to the 2D versions used everywhere else, which lets the viewer flow back into the action easily.

Or, even though I haven't seen many anime done that way, when the whole thing is made in CGI and done right. Zentrix, for example (don't worry if you don't know about it - it's an obscure anime.)

 

[Kats]

lawl, that pile of cops. xDD

Anyway, when it looks good and doesn't clash with anything, I'm perfectly fine with it.
Gokujou!! Mecha Mote Iinchou, now I never finished this one so not sure about later on but, 95% of the first and second episode are CGI, and extremely stiff.
And Aikatsu for example, every single concert is CGI, and it's extremely stiff.
Show By Rock, CGI concerts, not all that many of them, and it at least looks good, not too stiff and so.

 

[Kyouko Tsukino]

My first thought when seeing that was "The Matrix wants that scene back."

 

[MorningSTAR-αΩ]

I'd say that if you want at least one show where the CGI is good, I'd definitely recommend Show by Rock. However that show also brings up an interesting facet. The show was made by Sanrio, best known for Hello Kitty and a notable trait both franchises have in common is the chibi animals without mouths, which is interesting for this topic because it actually works for the CGI because mouths are a pain to animate and lip synch in CGI