Today, I am going to write about Japanese Anime. My favourite anime series are Zero No Tsukaima and Bleach. The slight element of romance made the Anime seem more colourful or else the Anime would just be hack and slash. The Bleach anime series started in 2004 and ended recently in march 2012. It has been very popular despite the fact that the animation used is not very advanced. In fact the animation is quite limited. In many scenes, only one feature such as the eyes or mouth of the character will move while the rest of the scene will be stagnant. This use of limited animation is a process of making animated cartoons that does not redraw entire frames but reuse, common parts between frames. The Bosko cartoons in the 1930s made use of this technique in order to save time and money. Keep your eyes on the video below. Watch out for the looping background when Bosko starts moving on his cart. From 1.45mins onwards,  even though Bosko is moving forward, the background is reused over and over again.

Osama Tezuka also used this technique for Astro Boy. However, I think that the fans of the anime series don't mind because I think it adds to the style of the Anime which makes it comical at times. There are some hallmarks of Japanese Animation that Bleach utilises such as the use of question marks when the characters are confused, or fixed funny faces which each character has a repertoire of. In this way it is very different from animation such as Spirited Away or Paprika which have characters which behave in a more realistic manner. The animation for Bleach is less detailed than the Hayao Miyazaki or Satoshi Kon productions.  This is probably because the television series has less budget and the  standard of animation in-terms of  detail is lower, so  to keep the look consistent and the budget low the movie also has a lot of sequences where the main characters are moving but the extras are stagnant looking like they are still in a comic book.

The picture below shows the crowd as faceless people. They are drawn very simply and when Senna is moving while walking on the tight rope, they are motionless. Note also how the background is blurry and all the focus is on Senna who is a new character introduced in the movie.

In the close up below, you can see how simply drawn she is but yet we can associate with her because her emotions are written on her face. Her amber coloured eyes also make her stand out from the other characters and made her appear more mysterious. This is appropriate because in the plot she is a Shinenju which is composed of the memeories of dead souls and  is the weapon that the antagonists want to use to destroy the world. ( Which by them way is a lame plot. Why do villains keep wanting the destroy the world?)

 Bleach is successful because by focusing on the facial expressions and the special moves of the main characters, the audience feels more attracted to the character. The picture below is a scene from the ending just before Senna is about to disappear. And the main character Ichigo is carrying her and he lied to her that the name on the grave is hers whereas it actually belongs to someone whose memories Senna has retained. Even though the background elements are not well defined, the dull colours help to evoke the sadness of the scene. The characters are also placed at the center of the frame so that the focus is on them. The

I also like Bleach because of the effects of the attacks each character does.

This Video below shows the bankai of each different character. Each character has their own unique bankai which is very popular with the audience because it adds to their distinctive personalities. Each of them has a sword which can change once their users unleash their 2nd stance of their sword. Only the higher ranking officials in the Bleach can unleash their bankai. It is usually animated in a very exaggerated manner with lots of glowing lights and makes the character appear very powerful.

Japanese Anime is popular all over the world due to the characters being able to connect emotionally with the audience.  The characters have inspired countless cosplayers who want to someone else. This shows that animation does not need to be realistic or very detailed to capture the imagination, plot and characterisation are what draws and enthralls the audience.

A Cosplayer dressing up as Grimmjow.