| |
You may like it or not, but the computer is increasingly present in animation. Personnally, I think it is a change for the good. It is making the production of an animation easier and allows some effects that were impossible before. For several years now, Walt Disney Company has been using computerized coloring in their animations. It makes it a lot quicker and ensures that there will be no variation in the colors. Computer art was used in anime as early as in LENSMAN (1984) and has only been used after that to add special effects. It was the case with AKIRA or in PATLABOR II, just to name but a few. It was the same thing in North America until just recently. Computer animation was considered just a tool to make cool effects, such as those in CAPTAIN POWER or, for a better example, BABYLON 5. Everything changed with REBOOT, the first TV show to be entirely animated by computer. Faster computer technology now allows us to be able to produce an animation in a reasonable time.
Lately, computer animation has been more present in anime. It was used a lot in MACROSS PLUS and in GHOST IN THE SHELL. Those two are very well animated, with compelling stories, but still, computer animation was only used as a support technique to the traditional animation, to give a computer "feel" to the drawings. However, the breakthrough was made by Disney with the first movie feature to be entirely computer animated: TOY STORY. I must admit that this animation is a real masterpiece. The movie is a little short (80 min.), but the story is excellent. Woody, the talking comboy, is the favorite toy of little Andy. Unfortunately, the young boy receives a Buzz Lightyear action figure, a Space Ranger with plenty of gadgets. The two toys compete for Andy's attention at first, then for survival. The animation is extraordinary (it took 800,000 hours of rendering -- four years of work). The human characters are not perfect (close enough), but the toys and other objets (like cars) look almost real. Go see the movie. I highly recommand it. You will then understand that computer animation is a good thing. It will never replace (I hope) the traditional techniques, but it is a nice change.
I have been asked several time by readers to talk a little more about the anime that were available in North America and not just about the stuff available only in Japan. I still think that it is very important to talk about the anime that are not translated yet so that people can understand their stories. Anyway, all good anime are being translated faster and faster these days. Nevertheless, anime is becoming quite important in North America and many people don't really care what is available in Japan. They want to know what is available here. Some people were requesting episode guides for the anime now showing on TV: RONIN WARRIORS, SAILOR MOON, DRAGONBALL, and TEKNOMAN. We have decided to comply. We did RONIN WARRIORS last issue, and we will do TEKNOMAN in next issue. The issue your are now holding is offering you an episode guide for DRAGONBALL and the first part of the episode guide for SAILOR MOON. Along with our usual chronicles, we are also covering GHOST IN THE SHELL and Anime East. Last issue, we published a review of CPM Comics & Studio Go! production. Since we are an independent magazine, I always tell my reviewer (in this case, not a staff member) to write what they really think. I must admit that Sylvain Durand was a little harsh. I should have taken the time (and the space) to temper his comments a little by giving a second opinion (as I usually do in such occasions). I did not, so I gave to Studio Go! the opportunity the reply. Tim Eldred gladly took it.
I hope you will enjoy this issue,
Claude J. Pelletier